HALLOWEEN '07

WOW. It has been a long, fun, sunny/warm turned into cold/windy, tiring day! Tanner and I went all over the town. I took 96 pictures today!!!!! Needless to say, I will not be posting them all. At least right now! ha ha. I will do more posts tomorrow. I want to post some family pix right now. These are each pictures of my sisters and their families. They are SO CUTE!

Landon and I as LOSERS. We didn't prepare this year. Next year we are all over it. I threw on some clothes and tried to be a cool skater girl. Landon is just a hot jock as himself, and Tanner is our adorable pirate.

Me and my buddy. We had a fun day!!!!!

My oldest sister Jaylynn dressed as a hot mama, and her family. Brandon is daddy, and 4 cute kids. They always have fun costumes. Last year was the best! Brandon was a headless butler carrying his head on a platter!

My sister just 16 months older than me, Shauna, and her precious family. Shauna and Asher dressed up here for a fun adult party! Nice Asian flare, as Shauna put it! Sexy!!

My younger sister Kim, and their adorable family! I love it, the Peter Pan Gang. Too stinkin' cute. Last year they were awesome too...all dressed as characters from "The Incredibles." CUTE.

I am missing a picture of my little brother and his new wife. I hope to see pictures soon! They supposedly used the headless butler costume and Andrea was a waitress carrying a huge butcher knife! Cute. My sister, Jaylynn, just posted a ton of pictures on her blog today from Halloween as well (so cute... www.jaynbrandon.blogspot.com). This was one of her posts and it shocked me!! It was sooooo sweet. I'm trying not to cry my eyes out. Sierra is my neice who wrote it. She is almost 12 and is one of the most angelic, precious, innocent girls you will ever meet! She has always been special to me and I love her and miss her so much. THANK YOU SIERRA. That meant so much to me. I love you!!! Jill Kirk: Sierra, my sixth grade daughter, was given the assignment to paint a pumpkin in honor of her hero. Some kids did firefighters, others did special people in their lives. Sierra chose to paint her pumpkin in the likeness of my sister Jill. FAMILY IS THE BEST. Landon and I have the greatest too. We miss you all!!!!!

another halloween activity

Friday night there was a pumkpin walk along the lake! It was beautiful and fun to see all the carved pumpkins down the path. Tanner loves doing anything Halloween related and has been saying for days and days now "I so ecited!" He can't wait to dress up as his pirate and go trick or treating. We went with 2 other families. There were treats for the kids and decorations along the path. At the end of the road there were crafts for the kids, hot apple cider, roasting marshmallows with graham crackers and chocolate to make smores and little games to play. It was all FREE too. It was a fun evening. It got dark REAL QUICK though. We had fun!!

Tanner with his big smile saying he is soooooooooooooooo excited!!

halloween party

We had a neighborhood party today. Actually, it was a street party...we don't have traditional "Utah" neighborhoods here. We have a lone street with a few spaced out homes! It's a bummer (it will make trick or treating interesting!) There are a few families that live on our street and the street behind us who have kids, so we had a party! (Alot of old retiree's around, since this is a vacation/resort town). It was fun...there was pumpkin painting, colorbook coloring, applejack necklace stringing, cupcake eating, lawnmower hayrides and more yummy treats to eat! The kids had fun and it was a great afternoon activity! The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day :)

I think Tanner has some real artistic abilities! That pumpkin is stunning!! (use your own definition of stunning!)

Daddy helping Tanner create a mess, OOPS, I mean masterpiece!

Stringing the applejacks to make his necklace. He ate half of them along the way. Barely had enough to wear around his neck!

Yummy cupcake. He licked off all the frosting and said "I'm done!!" What a fun lawnmower hayride! That is how us hillbillies have to do it now!! Neighborhood cuties!

3 year old independence

Tanner wants to be independent in alot of things now! He TRIED to put his undies and shorts back on after his potty stop. We got a good laugh out of it, but he didn't think it was funny. He got mad that mommy and daddy were laughing at his mistake! Dad helped correct the problem and all was well again! Oh the fun of independent 3 year olds :)

Tanner wanted us to see "Lightning McQueen on his cute bum!"

No we do not dress our son in skirts. These are his shorts he made into skorts :)

Checking out the wad of mistake he jumbled himself in to!!

Daddy to the rescue fixing the disaster!

All better and all boy again! Yippee, no more skirts for Tanner :)

Laugh a little more!

I think we all need to laugh more in our lives! We've all heard the cliche, laughter is the best medicine! When I am in a bad mood, if Landon does something funny I can't help but start laughing and then I'm all better!! Even when I was working as a nurse, in a job that can be so intense, all of us nurses would be laughing at our nurses station which probably seemed so inappropriate at times, but was needed. In such an intense workfield we would NEED to diffuse situations with laughter. Well, our jobs as moms are intense too! I know our kids can totally stress us out, but they really can be SO FUNNY. I challenge us all to laugh in the moments we want to scream and smile in the moments we want to cry. Easier said than done at times, I know, but let's just TRY IT!! Laughing at ourselves and the situation helps reveal that small things are not the earth-shaking events they sometimes seem to be. Looking at a problem from a different perspective can make it seem less formidable and provide opportunities for greater objectivity and insight. Humor shifts the ways in which we think, and distress is greatly associated with the way we think. It is not situations that generate our stress, it is the meaning we place on the situations. Humor adjusts the meaning of an event so that it is not so overwhelming. Laughter activates the chemistry of the will to live and increases our capacity to fight disease. Laughing relaxes the body and reduces problems associated with high blood pressure, strokes, arthritis, and ulcers. Some research suggests that laughter may also reduce the risk of heart disease. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. The good feeling that we get when we laugh can remain with us as an internal experience even after the laughter subsides. It really is priceless medicine! HAVE YOU HAD YOUR LAUGH TODAY!?

Saturday family outing

Saturday was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the air was warm! We decided to do something fun together so we went to Outback Steakhouse (it's always fun when I don't have to cook). YUMMY YUMMY, I get the Alice Springs Chicken every time. That honey mustard is to die for. Landon gets the same thing too! Anyhow, dinner was delicious and then we went and played mini-golf. It was tons of fun. Tanner was hilarious. He loved golfing. It was the first time he's been. He was SOOOOOOO good too. He would get a hole-in-one almost every time. He cheated. Yeah, it was cute though. He would start at the beginning spot and hit the ball once, then go pick up the ball, run and set it right on the edge of the hole and then hit it in, or either throw it in! It was so cute. We would cheer really loud for him and he would bow afterwards and say "I'm so good." It was hilarious. We had a great night out together!

< I love the weekends and being with my boys!! I was kickin' Landons butt at the first (got the only hole in one for the night), but didn't want to humiliate him so I slacked off and he ended up winning. Yeah for Landon!! The course was really cool, great scenery and decor...made for a fun atmosphere. The boys were getting sick of me taking pictures...you can tell in a few shots! When will they learn to just cooperate, enjoy, and smile!!!!!!!!??????? Probably never. Oh well. I STILL LOVE MY BOYS!!!!!

Yesterday after church Tanner said "let's go play golf again!" We'll have to make it a frequent family event! Oh, and thanks for everyone who signed into my blog!! It was fun to see some surprise visitors. You guys are great. Thanks and come again soon :)

Nice pirates today!

Here is the winning photograph! The picture turned out really cute and we have a happy pirate (and mommy!) Tanner loved wearing his costume and was all smiles the whole day. The picture is kind of blurry, but since I live in po-dunk city the studio isn't hightech enough to email me the pix too...so I had to take a pic of the pic. Oh how I miss Kiddie Kandids. I can't wait to see pix of all your kids!! Halloween is so fun :)

what's happening today...

If you can't tell my posts are pretty random. I usually just post whatever is on my mind when I come sit at the computer. Like yesterday I was having such a fun day with Tanner...lovin' him up and thinking about Randi! I love my baby so much and it almost always returns to thoughts of Randi...so I thought I would post about her. You guys were all so sweet with your comments, thanks! The day before I was obviously not having fun in the kitchen. Well, right now we are getting ready to have pictures taken of Tanner in his Halloween costume. I've never had professional shots done of him at Halloween, so I thought I would start. He was soooooo excited to put on his outfit. It was hilarious. I've been hiding it on purpose, and I'm sure now he will want to wear it every day until Halloween. Oh well! At least me makes a cute pirate! Anyways, we are off to get photo's soon! Should I have him smile or be mean!!?? I told him to be a mean pirate...nice try. He's just too sweet!!