Temple Square

We decided to venture out in the freezing temperature and head down to Temple Square for family home evening last Monday. It was soooooo cold-or as the kids would say Cold-Daddio. We got up there before the lights were turned on so went through the visitor's center and over to the conference center. Damon had a great idea to take hot chocolate in a thermos with us. The twins didn't know what to think of the hot chocolate...except the marshmallows...which they loved. Cole, Damon and I couldn't get enough of the hot cocoa! The lights were awesome as usual. We had lots of fun, despite the cold temperature.

Time to Play Catch Up-Halloween

So, our computer died on us so I've been unable to post any blogs. Sorry...it's time to catch up.
Halloween was lots of fun this year. Cole decided he was going to be a zombie for Halloween all the way back last spring. He never changed his mind and stuck to it. Papa came to his Halloween parade at school and it was fun to watch him play it up and drag his foot and make his "dead" look.
Ellee and Luke went back and forth changing their minds. Ellee originally decided on being a witch, but then went with Teresa and Ashlyn to look for butterfly wings for Ash to wear on Halloween and the final decision was made. She was going to be a butterfly...just like Ashlyn.
Ellee also got to dress up for dance the week of Halloween so she felt extra special since she got to wear her costume before the boys.
Luke was dead set on being a shark for Halloween. I tried and tried and tried to find a cute and inexpensive shark costume but had no luck. So we started helping him think of different ideas...Frankenstein, a monster, a dinosaur...but the minute we got out our old costumes he saw the Spiderman costume and he had his answer. Luke and Ellee had a parade at their preschool. They got to hold Mama's hands and lead the parade around. They were so happy and thought it was fun that all the mom's and dad's were gathered to watch them march around the school.
Damon got stuck working Halloween this year. No fun for us! I decided that since I didn't have his help maybe it would be a fun chance to head down to Cedar City and spend Halloween with the Williams. Ashlyn, of course, was a butterfly like Ellee and Alyssa was a dancin' monkey. The kids were so cute together. Plus, you can't help but smile when you see Chase going hippie.
The cousins get along so well and had never been together on Halloween so I kind of invited myself and luckily Teresa said that sounded like fun. We had a blast. Teresa and Chase even talked me into going to a couples party with them...even though my hubby was at work. She even found a lovely hot dog costume for me to wear :) It really was a lot of fun. We did the trunk or treat thing at the church and took the kids around trick or treating in the neighborhood.
Teresa and I even made time to work on some crafts that we've been wanting to get done. It was lots of fun for me and the kids. The only downfall was that Damon was at work instead of with us. Thanks for letting us invade, T!

Jack-o-lanterns!

Okay-my only excuse is that volleyball has been all consuming. It is now over so now it is time to play catch up with my blog. We had a great Halloween week. We loved carving pumpkins on Wednesday night. The kids had been asking every day about when we would carve pumpkins and we finally couldn't put it off any longer. Cole went through a book and found a fun fiery face that he wanted on his pumpkin...he traced it onto his pumpkin...and cut quite a bit of it-just needed a little bit of help. We gave Ellee and Luke a marker and let them draw their faces on and then we cut out a face with most of the characteristics they wanted. The funnest part of that was trying to make eyelashes for Ellee's princess pumpkin and make googly eyes for Luke's silly monster pumpkin. I loved that they came up with ideas on their own for what type of pumpkins they wanted. Cole was a trooper this year. He dug right into the pumpkin guts and cleaned his out really well. It took a little bit of prodding to get Luke going, but once he got started he just kept going and cleaned most of his out by himself. Ellee was a little diva the entire time. We got her to reach into her pumpkin maybe a handful of times. We got big scoops probably twice and then daintly little pinches the other times. She wouldn't even attempt to finish so we got to help take care of that. It was much better than last year when we had to clean out all the pumpkins and did not enjoy it much at all. I was very proud of the final result. We had a good time as a family and got some super cute pumpkins.

Splash Park

There is a splash pad in the park by our house. The kids absolutely love it. The water is super cold but that doesn't bother the boys. They run around the whole time. Ellee walks daintily around the side and once in a while gets a little adventurous and puts her hand in the water or her hair. It is so fun having places like the splash pad and pool close to our house. The kids really enjoy it when we go with cousins and friends. Here are some of my favorite pics from the splash pad.

Summer Fun at the Pool

So, I decided that since summer is clearly over I should probably post some of the fun things we did over the summer. We spent part of almost every day at the pool, even if only for an hour. It is so nice having a pool that we can head to whenever we want. Plus, we figured out the schedule when it wasn't too busy and made sure to get over there during that time. We also had a fun time at the pool with Sarah and Brody. They were at the pool with us just about every time we went.Ellee was a little hesitant at the beginning of the summer to get in the pool, after her incident at Dimple Dell last winter. It only took her a couple weeks to be comfortable floating around in the pool again. She started with her water wings, but then fell in love with her pink tube and just climbed right in and floated around the pool.
Luke was completely different this summer from last summer. He started out in his green tube. He loves jumping right into the water and floating around. He also discovered that he can reach in the three foot area and was so proud of the fact that he didn't have to stay in the "baby" section of the pool. Luke is quite the swimmer underwater. He loves swimming under the water and would even swim to the side after doing cannon balls into the deeper water.
Cole is our little fish. He LOVES the water. He is fun to watch, doing somersaults under water, handstands, playing tag, etc. He can go anywhere in the pool because he's really gotten pretty good at swimming. We didn't sign him up for lessons this year but he is still picking it up pretty well. Damon has been working with him on using big arms and swimming on top of the water instead of just underneath and floating on his back.