Denton's week long extravaganza~!

We had a birthday party for Denton at the Bonewell's house while we were in St. George. I told everyone they could not buy him gifts because I wouldn't be able to get them on the airplane. They decided to give him money instead. Granpa belt gave him money under 4 layers of envelope and tape. Aunts Jennifer and Stephanie gave him money with a personalized picture of the real life Bat Mobile. Grandpa and Grandma Bonewell gave him a birthday cake and money in small bills that were inserted in birthday balloons. Denton had to pop all of the balloons to get to the money. He had a blast. We also played a "get to know you" game about Denton. His cousin, Awsten, won a whole bag of candy bars. Grandpa and Grandma Coon gave him money in a birthday card.

Denton had a fabulous time picking out his favorite items with the money.

Here's what you bought him:

Grandpa and Grandma Belt bought him "Monsters Vs. Aliens", the movie

Aunt Jennifer and Aunt Stephanie and families bought him a riffle.

Grandpa and Grandma Bonewell bought him a camping set complete with tent, sleeping bag, back pack, and flashlight (he has been wishing for this for a long time!)

Grandpa and Grandma Coon bought him snow pants.

His mom and dad bought him snow boots, a transformer, and a hot wheels stunt set.



When we got home, we celebrated again on his real birthday! So spoiled :-)

Trip Home

Our trip home was so much FUN! It was a little rough being on the airplane for 4 hours with the kids by myself, but it was totally worth it! When we flew into Vegas, I called my very missed friend to see if she wanted to meet me at McDonalds for dinner so my kids could have a break from traveling. It was sooo nice to visit with her. I forgot how easy it was to talk to her and it made me more than a little homesick. She offered to let us stay and her house that night since her kids didn't have school the next day. The kids had a blast with their long lost buddies!

We enjoyed our 2 week vacation. We stayed at my parents house, but we visited my in-laws, and Jennifer every afternoon. A couple of times we were able to play cards and eat candy at my in-laws house, and I'm so glad.. it's one of my favorite traditions. And, I got to be KING the longest :-) The kids LOVED playing with their cousins. Everynight, I would have to drag Denton away at bedtime even though I could see him yawning and tell he was tired.

We got to go visit aunt Alisha and the kids had fun playing in her awesome backyard.

My brother Adam, and his wife Heather came down to stay overnight and visit me.

My niece, Emilie, and her husband and kids came to visit.

We got to go visit Grandpa and Grandma Belt. They are always too cute and happy to see us. I love hearing all of Grandpa's stories.

I was able to take my little brother-in-law, TJ, to a John Schmidt concert. That was amazing!

I spent a lot of time visiting with my parents since we stayed there. When it looked like my kids were wearing on them a little, we went for beautiful hikes.

This is Brigham Tea.

I took my kids to see this cole kiln. This was one of my favorite things to do in high school. I never imagined back then that I would be hiking to it with my kids someday.

We had a fantastic birthday party for Denton!

We got up at 3am and started our long journey home. The kids did sleep a little on the airplane. I was so happy to see Brandon in the Detroit airport.

When we got home, I walked in to the smell of turkey! Brandon made us a little Thanksgiving dinner. This was the first time that we've had Thanksgiving with just our little family. It was perfect.

Such a fun trip! The only thing that would have made it better is if Brandon could have been there with us!

Halloween Face... after Halloween

Today is my birthday! Cody decided to prank me with his after Halloween, Halloween face. This is what I saw when I went in to get him out of bed this morning. After a brief moment of panic, I saw that he was smiling at me while the blood was running down his face, so he must not be hurt too badly. Then, I remembered that he had a little blood blister on his forehead that popped yesterday. I thought I had it taken care of, but Cody must have pulled the bandaid off in the night and messed with the blood blister again.

Halloween Time!

Brandon got me excited to carve pumpkins this year. We had a lot of people comment on them and even look inside to see if they were real. It was a lot of fun.

I had a fun Halloween party with my preschool class. We all trick-or-treated from each other, and learned the 5 little pumpkins song.

Denton and Julia are very social. They've made friends with all the neighbors. This pays off on Halloween. Our neighbors gave the kids bags of candy, chips, full-size candy bars, and their own box of count Dracula cereal. Talk about spoiled! This is also nice for me because their buckets were full after 5 houses. We did empty the bucket and Brandon took them for a refill around the neighborhood where the kids weren't so well known.

It's Autumn Time. The Leaves are Falling Down.

A few days ago, there was a big wind storm. It was literally snowing leaves outside. Leaves can drift like snow does. We found this out because all of the neighbors leaves drifted into our yard. The last garbage day, we had 12 trash bags full and you couldn't even really tell we had picked anything up by looking at our yard. The kids sure have a good time in the leaf piles though.

Pumpkin Patch!!!

That's Julia on top of the haystack!

Our very own Charlette. I found her in our garage.

BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Yates Cidar Mill

The Cidar Press

The Petting Zoo

Drinking our fresh apple cidar and eating cinnamon sugar donuts.

We had so much fun at the Yates Cidar Mill. Denton and Julia got to ride ponnies. We watched them make fudge and then enjoyed some. We ate donuts and drank apple cidar on a covered picnic table while it rained down. We also went on a nature walk and fed the goats in the petting zoo.

Denton's First Day of School

Denton did fantastic on his first day of school.

He was super excited and jumped out of bed, got dressed,

and waited excitedly for time to go catch the bus.

I was way more nervous!

Being the overprotective mom that I am, I waited to see

Denton get on the bus, then I hoped in the car and raced his

bus to the school so I could make sure he got off the bus

and to his class ok. Surprisingly, there was no one there

to great the children as they got off the bus and show them

where their class is.

Two little scared brothers tapped my leg and said they didn't know

where to go. I recognized them as kids that got on at Denton's bus stop.

We helped them find their classes, but I was sure glad I was overprotective

for Denton. I didn't want him to be scared or lost on his first day.

He came home on the bus by himeself though. He had a huge smile

on his face and he told me all about how much he loved school.

Yes!

Car Wreck

Denton was very excited to be in the back of the police car.

This is the lovely field we ended up in.

My father-in-law pointed out that I didn't post pictures/story of our little car wreck incident back on August 13th (Friday the 13th).

We were going on a little one night camping trip and we were on a long straight road in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours north of our house.

We were admiring all of the huge, old barns. Brandon looked back at the road after staring at a barn and he saw a car stopped in the middle of the road in front of us, waiting to turn left.

He slammed on the brakes, and we skidded for about 50 feet before hitting into the back right side of the black car you see on the side of the road. Brandon told the police officer that he had been looking at the barn and not paying attention. The police officer said since Brandon had told the truth, he wouldn't give him a ticket. No one in our van was hurt, just a little shaken up. A 88 year old grandma in the other car had a huge goose egg on her head, but hadn't even realized she hit her head on anything. She had to go to the hospital.

The rest of the day was long and exausting. The police officer took us into town. From there, the closest place to rent a car was 45 minutes away and we had no way to get there. There were no buses, taxies, trains, planes or anything else to get us out of town. Finally, Brandon called the guy who towed our van and he was kind enough to leave his daugher-in-law's birthday party and give Brandon a lift to the car rental place. Brandon took the boys with him and Julia and I wandered around Mayberry for 2 hours until Brandon came back with a rental. Then, we had to go to the wrecking yard and get all of our camping stuff out of the van. We were so happy when we finally got home.

Duty Calls...

I guess we can no longer use the excuse that it's summer, or we're new, to get off easy. I feel the full weight of responsibility on my shoulders. When did I turn into an adult? Denton is starting school next Tuesday and I'm having a little bit of a hard time with it, not because I don't think he will do great and it will be very good for him, but because it's an end to him being my side-kick all day. I've joined a group of moms to do a preschool for Julia. October will be my month to teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have also received a new church calling to be the 1st counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I know I will learn and gain far more than I can give. I'm just feeling like a small child trying to clop around in her mom's shoes. I know Heavenly Father can help me be who and what I need to be and I'm excited to see how things work out, because they always do :-)

Challenging Myself

So, I decided I need to set a big goal and accomplish it for my own self-satisfaction. After having three kids, and being a total couch potatoe, I've decided to train for a half-marathon. I've never been in a real race (I was in a 4x100 relay in a stake track meet and I made us come in third instead of 1st). I don't think that matters. What I'm setting out to do, is get in shape, and have a tangible accomplishment that I can be proud of. This is my new hobby. Today was the first day of my training schedule that I made at runnersworld.com. My feat, 5 miles in 1hour 20 min. I love the clarity and the peace of mind that comes while I'm running. Four miles into my run, the van pulls up next to me and Brandon and the kids are cheering me on. The kids were also pretending like they were the ice cream truck and they were pretending to throw me whatever flavor I asked for. It was so fun! I managed to run my 5 miles in 54 minutes, blowing my goal time out of the water! I think I'm well on my way... stay posted :-)

Stoney Creek

We found a beautiful park called Stoney Creek.

On our first visit, we went for a bike ride on the path around the lake.

Then, we went and splashed in the lake to cool off.

The second time we went, we hiked through the woods.

The kids really like to hike. I can't believe how green everything is!

We were prepared with our swimming suits the second time to the park.

The whole family had fun taking a dip in the lake.

We bought a year pass, so we plan on a lot more hiking and biking.

My Baby is 1 now!

We had a very fun birthday party for Cody. I can't believe my baby is not a baby anymore! The neighbors grandaughter wanted to celebrate with us. Denton and Julia had fun teaching Cody what opening birthday presents is all about. Cody is a sweet little boy. He likes to play with his big brother and sister and make growling noises at them. He can army crawl anywhere he wants to go now. He has no interest in walking or even standing. He loves his little walker that allows him to tag along with mommy a little easier. He's even tall enough he can pull things off of the table when he sneaks into the kitchen in his walker when no one is looking. Cody has 7 teeth now. He will eat just about anything I give him. He has a special little personality that makes anyone around him smile. WE LOVE YOU CODY BEAR!!!