time to carve pumpkins...

This was our FHE activity tonight. Livy's pumpkin didn't survive the night, but Ethan and Cole's are still holding strong.

Fall Festival

For the past few days Ethan has been talking about the Fall Festival. It is a little Halloween Carnival that his school does every year. Tonight was the night and it sure lived up to all it's hype. We had such a fun time! The kids dressed up and went trunk-or-treating. There were so many different games we got to play, like miniature golf, fish pond, throw pies in faces, cake walk, karate chop (Ethan seriously broke a board with his foot), glow sticks, crazy balloon lady, face painting, lots of food, etc. etc. I really had way too many pictures, so here are just a few!

By the end of the night Liv was done. She just sat in her stroller and polished off a bag of chips!

The face painting lady was a little crazy. She tried to make Cole a mean Anakin (Shawn will be so disappointed I think I spelled that wrong), and for some reason Obi-Wan has a bat on his face. Next, is our cute little lady bug!

Pumpkin Patch

I bet you didn't even think the Las Vegas could grow pumpkins in this miserable heat. Well, a cute family in our ward grew over 60 pumpkins this year and made a fun Pumpkin Patch for the kids.

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Today for Cole's preschool we went on a little nature scavenger hunt. Last time the kids painted wood treasure boxes and today they got to fill them up with fun things they found at the park. Here is Cole with his nature box.

Family Picture

This is what happens when we attempt a family picture. Really, I don't abuse my kids just torture them a little with pictures.

Loyalty

Cole is such a loyal brother.

No matter how many times Ethan picks on him, punches him, or makes fun of him Cole remains his number one fan. Ethan and his friends like to chase and tackle each other at school. Sometimes in the morning I will take Cole and Liv to play before school starts. Cole usually remains playing calmly by my side. That is until someone tackles Ethan. Cole will dash over and jump on the kid who is playing with Ethan and start hitting him. Obviously, I run over and explain to Cole that they are just playing (as you can tell because Ethan is laughing), but I can hardly turn my back for a second when it happens again.

This is also happening in the mornings when I drive carpool. We ride with a neighbor friend and lately she has been kind of teasing Ethan (a.k.a. Flirting). She'll punch him in the arm, throw her backpack on his face, take his toys, all in good fun. Ethan enjoys it and reciprocates, but if Cole's is there he jumps out of his seat and starts yelling. I have had to pull over twice this week to stop Cole from beating someone up. It really makes me so mad, but then I think about it and he is doing it totally to protect his brother. He thinks Ethan is getting hurt or that people are teasing him and he jumps in to the rescue. If that doesn't show brotherly love I don't know what does. So, all you future bullies, watch out because Ethan has a body guard named Cole!

Random Update

This last week has been fun, getting excited for all the halloween festivities. We made candy Haunted Houses for FHE on Monday. Can you believe they are still standing and most of the candy is still attached?

I sprained my ankle last week. I wish I could say that I was climbing a mountain, running a triathalon, or fighting a bear, but I was just climbing down off the playground. I laid around for most of the weekend with a big swollen ankle. Shawn wrapped it up and kept me loaded with pain killer. He has been making fun of me all week long-he doesn't believe that I just fell at the park. The wierd thing was as soon as it happened I jumped up and then fell back down. I started to black out and see stars. Then came the nausea. I was afraid that if I moved I would either pass out of throw-up, neither of which I wanted to do. About the same time this happened Cole found me and said that he had to go to the bathroom. Great timing! The bathroom happened NOT to be very close, so I told him to go behind me in the bushes (I'll regret that later). A few seconds later some friends said, "Jenn, Cole is peeing in the bushes." They could tell from my I-don't-care response that something was wrong. Anyway, my friends helped drive me home so I wouldn't crash. My ankle is now fine, just swollen and black and blue, but mostly I just lost a little pride!

The weekend was nice listening to Conference and relaxing. Shawn had to work, but what's new there? It seems about every six months I need a reminder of what I need to be focusing on so the Conference timing is perfect.

Ethan came home from school on Monday playing kissing tag. When I asked him where he learned how to play that he said, "the girls at school." Seriously, he is only in Kindergarten. I at least waited until 2nd grade before playing kissing tag. Today while walking through the parking lot there was a really cool old Yellow Jeep. Ethan ran right up to the Jeep and said, "Cool." I thought to myself, Shawn would be proud. He has moved up from the junky RV as his dream car to a jeep. (for those of you who don't know Shawn, he drove a jeep all through High School).

Cole continues to enjoy his little preschool. I taught last month and my friend Cassey is teaching now. He gets so excited that he gets to go to school like Ethan. Here is a picture of the preschool kids.

Liv continues to be precious and punky, sweet and sassy, hysterical and horrible and we love her more each day.

Liv's Bath

I don't usually take pictures of my kids in the bathtub, Shawn calls it baby porn, but I happen to have my camera tonight while Liv was taking a bath. I just thought this shot turned out so cute.

Cheap Entertainment

What do you do when you are home watching conference and looking for kid friendly entertainment with all the supplies on hand? Make play dough!!! We were desperate for a little something to do today and this was just the right thing. The kids were very excited to help make it and each choose their own color.


1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Salt
1 T. Oil (cooking oil)
Food Coloring

Mix all ingredients together over medium heat and cook. Stir continuously until starts to get thick and pull away from edges. Remove from heat and let cool. These measurements are good for about one person, but you can easily double it.


Every time I turned around Liv was trying to put some in her mouth.

Cole made a few snowmen, but then he basically just smashed it everywhere.

Ethan was really into making things, creatures, and shapes. Can you see the concentration in his face? And notice how he is sticking out his tongue, if you watch Shawn he does the same thing when he concentrates.

Picnic at the Park

Today Ethan didn't have school (and I am the dumb mom who totally forgot and didn't send his homework packet with him on Thursday-that he usually turns in on Friday.) Lucky for us our friends were all meeting at the park for a picnic.