Pumpkin Carving

This month has flown by, yesterday we realized we had not carved our pumpkins yet.

So the boys picked out their own pumpkin and what they wanted them carved as and we set to work.

Kolby is doing this "funny face" thing. Its pretty hard to take a picture without him doing it.

Look at both their faces.......slimy pumpkin insides....gross
All of our pumpkins came from...... drum roll please..... our very own little garden. Yep the very same garden that I was sure would not grow. We ended up with about 15 pumpkins of various sizes. I just had to take a picture of this one, I mean come on is it the perfect pumpkin or what?

We let the boys each choose what they wanted their pumpkin to be. Kolby picked a bunny rabbit. There was some discussion as to this even being possible but with a little creativity I think it turned out alright and he was thrilled.

Luke picked a "scary" vampire, He was equally happy and wanted to show off his own "scary" face.

Of course the real test of any good pumpkin carving is the candle light outside

Not to bad for a last minute effort :)

What a week.......

We assumed it would happen at some point. But we did not think it would be Kolby our three year old that would be the first one to do it.

Last week when I went to pick up the boys from preschool their wonderful teacher Jennie met me at the door. (from past experience I know this is never a good thing) "Let me tell you what happened today" If you can picture me with instant slumped shoulders and resigned look on my face. Apparently Kolby threw a dinosaur while playing with one of his friends. He did not want his friend to play with it and thought throwing it would be a good idea. It just so happened there was a window in the direct line of where he threw the dinosaur.

Not an actual picture the window he broke was much bigger. So we have the first of what I can only assume will be many broken windows. On the bright side I think Kolby has a real future in baseball, obviously the kid can throw.

On our way home every day we pass this beautiful little grove of trees. The colors are just beautiful this time of year. All last week I planned on stopping to take pictures of the boys. One thing after another came up (rain, late getting home etc.) and we were not able to too. By Fri I was not giving up. I'm not making this up when I say as we pulled up it started to rain. I looked around and saw blue sky's the clouds were just over us. I told the boys to get out of the car we are taking pictures. They looked at me like I was crazy even at 3 and 5 they understood the wisdom of staying dry. Never the less off we went through the mud to find the perfect tree.
And just as I'd hoped the rain stopped and we were able to get some great shots.

At one point Luke informed me that my shoes were getting muddy. (high heels completely sunk in the mud) Don't care not missing these colors.

These are my favorites, they both just started laughing. I think they realized how funny the situation really was.

And wonder of wonder I was able to get the shots with my fickle camera.

I printed both the above pics out to sit on my desk. They make me smile just looking at them.

How pretty is this sunset? This is looking out our front door. And we were sorta going with a yellow theme above so it fits :)

Tarzan

We have some wonderful friends that called us yesterday. They had two extra tickets to go to the sold out Tarzan production at the beautiful Tuacahn center in St. George.

We quickly decided Luke and I should make a night of it. A Mommy Luke night and Daddy Kolby night. The two of us got dressed up and jumped in the car. We had a very nice dinner at a favorite restaurant in St.George, then off to the play.

It was AMAZING!!!
Luke LOVED it. He sat of the edge of his seat the whole time. It really was a spectacular production, in a simply stunning outdoor setting.
Luke have fun with some photo props they had.

Doesn't he make a cute Turk?

Turk and the young Tarzan were Luke's favorite parts of the show.

I wish we would have had a chance to get more pics but it was dark when we left and my camera is not wanting to cooperate with me.

A wonderful night that I feel so lucky to have been able to share with Luke. I have always loved the song from Tarzan "You'll be in my heart". It means even more now hearing it live and sharing it with him.

Huge thanks to Todd and Robin.

Family Celebration!!

Big changes for me....... I am making the career move to a Mortgage loan officer.

To celebrate we had a fun family night last Fri. My three men took me out to a very nice dinner.

As a added surprise for the boys we went bowling. We have a Wii so the boy are familiar with the concept of bowling. They have been asking to go to a real bowling alley for awhile. Dewey and I had never actually been to the bowling alley in town. And neither of us have ever bowled enough to know how it works with littles. To our surprise they were very accommodating. They had little shoes and a ramp for the boys to use to roll the ball.

To say Luke loved it is an understatement
Both were very independent and told both Dew and I to "please stand back" when it was their turn. Kolby pulling a face.

With the bumpers up and the ramp it was a pretty close game.

I'm pretty sure nobody will be knocking on our door begging us to join a bowling league anytime soon, but we all had fun.

Kolby would jump up and down waiting for the ball to hit the pins, so cute.

Such a fun family celebration night.

Who likes Polka music?

Apparently Luke and Kolby!

We went to our local Oktoberfest over the weekend. If you have ever been to an Oktoberfest picture a version 10% in size and you have ours. Its small but we love it. And they have Bratwurst so Dewey is happy.

When the Polka band came on stage the boys could not be stopped, they ran out to the floor to dance. (or do their version of dance)

It should be said that Luke is not shy in the least....

Ahhhh his first "dance" with a girl

Notice the age difference of the dances, how fun is that?
This was the chicken dance.....yep that's Dew out there on the left.

Luke's dance moves involve a lot of jumping.

Unfortunately the wind was BLOWING like crazy so no fall leaf pictures. We will have to go back up and get some another time.

I love this time of year!!

Well we are hooked...

We LOVE Geo caching!!

Miki and Steve introduced us to their hobby in Park City back in July. I had heard the term before but didn't really know that much about it. Something involving coordinates and a GPS, it seemed a little beyond me. (for those that don't know, me and electronics have a mutual agreement to leave each other alone we don't get along well) But low and behold along comes my new phone that has a super easy caching app that even I can figure out and we are hooked.

The boys call it treasure hunting, for them that's just what it is. The caches range in size from tiny to large enough to fit small items and toys to trade.

And the best part even in our small town there are thousands hidden all over the place.

This is a find at a local park.

We love exploring new places and caching fits right into that. We headed West in search of a few caches. The boys fav find was a huge horny toad.


And look where we ended up..... A place we would likely have not ever gone to, as you can see its in the middle of nowhere.
But it ended up being a great adventure.

To give you an idea of where caches can be hidden.......

This is one of the small ones hidden not to far from where we live, pretty sneaky huh?
The boys are so funny, every day on the way home they beg to find a treasure. This is a cache Kolby found that was hidden in plain site. (Its in the bird) Notice Kolby has his binoculars around his neck, they take it very seriously :)
Such a fun new family hobby. Thanks Steve and Miki for the new addiction.

Lukes first day of Kindergarten

Wow how time flies, Luke started kindergarten today.

When we brought Luke home he had just turned two. He was so small and didn't talk at all. With the help of our pediatrician we started Early intervention. We said from the beginning that we wanted him caught up by Kindergarten. We were told very politely not to get our hopes up. Instead of saying "we wanted" we started to say "he will be" caught up.

Last week Luke went in for his evaluation to see where he tested for his age. It was thought he might need an all day Kindergarten for further help.

He tested right on par for his age!!!!!

I am amazed and humbled by the progress he has made the last few years.

Dewey and I spent an hour going over every thing we thought he might need to know for his big day. I'm pretty sure he knew we were just as nervous as he was.

At his evaluation Luke informed Dewey and his teacher that he would be taking the bus everyday. In my head....... wait ,what I'm supposed to put my baby on that great big bus by himself... no not going to happen. With my voice "really wow that will be fun and exciting.......sob"

This morning the whole family walked Luke to the bus stop (at the end of our property) to wait for the bus. When the bus pulled up Luke calmly walked on, sat down and waved to us through the window.

Impressive that I could take a picture while crying.

Ok so we let him ride the bus it doesn't mean I wasn't a watchful mother hen. We followed the bus to school to make sure he made it into his class. The principal was out front, I told him what we were doing. He just laughed and said we weren't the only ones.

Kolby and I went to school to make sure he made it on the bus. Notice the erasers in Kolbys hand he had to have a back back and school stuff just like big brother.

When Luke walked out of his class he was holding a little girls hand. He later told me that she was really scared of the bus so we was helping her be less afraid. I'm so proud of him!!

He just got on the bus like he does it every day.

And yes I jumped in the car to beat the bus home and wait for him :)