Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was small & really low-key for our family this year.  Kristin's in-laws were in town for a wedding so they had Thanksgiving with them.  And, Ashlee's family went up to Greg's sisters house in Grace, Idaho.  (Actually, Ashlee ended up staying home with a sick kiddo, but the rest of her family headed up there.)  So, for our Thanksgiving dinner, it was just my parents & us.  That didn't stop Nana from making waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much food--like usual.  I guess some things never change.  I told her that I thought we should just keep it simple & do just basics.  She agreed, and then we ended up with all of this...

Yes, that is her idea of a simple Thanksgiving meal!  She cracks me up.  That picture doesn't even include my Dad's famous appetizer hot spicy tomato drink, which I love...and it doesn't include the pies either.  Of course, there was tons of leftovers.

Here's our little group around the table.  Poppy & Viv were there too.  Poppy was the one taking the picture & Vivvie was sound asleep...

 

After dinner was over, I had to go into work to do the evening shows.  Not exactly ideal, but I did get to spend most the day with my family before it was time to go into work.  Then, I got to go eat another Thanksgiving dinner once I got there--this time with my KUTV family.  Double Thanksgiving dinners = Double bonus!  Channel 2 is always really great about catering food in for those of us that have to work the big holidays.  It makes working on holidays just a little bit easier.

 

After I left for work, Nana, Poppy, Mike & all the kiddos went to the movies to see the latest Disney movie...

 

It was a big hit with all of them.  But, how could it not be?  The whole movie is about video games!  So, for this family full of video game lovers, it was great!

After the movie, it was back to Nana & Poppy's house for pie, and then the fam headed home.  It was a very simple--but still great--Thanksgiving!

I love this holiday & time of year.  It's so great to take time out of our busy lives to really appreciate the wonderful blessings we all have been given.  This year, I am--of course--so grateful for my family.  I have a fabulous husband, great kids, wonderful parents and awesome sisters!  Every single one of them are happy & healthy.  I'm also grateful that Mike & I both have jobs that we love.  In this economy, that's something we don't take lightly.  I'm also so thankful to have the gospel in my life.  It brings me peace everyday.  And, I am most grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am grateful for his love, sacrifice & example.  I hope that, someday, I can be more like Him.  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, full of food, family & fun!  --Lindsay

2 1/2 Years & $20,000 Later...

We finally have our backyard finished!!! Yay!!! Just in time for...wait for it...winter. BOO!!!  Our timing is impeccable!  But, hey, it will be all ready for next summer, right?  I went out & took a few pictures a couple of weeks ago (before the big snowstorm) so you could see how pretty it turned out.  I wish there were more leaves in the pictures, because this place is gorgeous when there are leaves on the trees, but oh well.  I'll have to take a picture in the spring so you can see that, I guess.  Here's the view as you walk through the gate on the north side of our house...

The view from my backdoor...

And the view from the south gate...

When we were just beginning to build this house, I told our agent that I wanted the biggest lot that was left in the neighborhood.  In our last home, our back fence was probably only 15 feet away from our backdoor.  We did have a decent-sized side yard, but we filled it up with a big playset.  I just felt like my kids had nowhere to run.  And, if you know boys, you know that sometimes they just need to run--sort of like dogs.  Not that I'm comparing my boys to dogs--although they do sort of smell like dogs at times--but I digress.  So, I wanted to have a huge backyard where the boys could run to their heart's content.

Unfortunately, when we made the decision to buy this big lot, we didn't think about how much money it would cost to landscape it...or how much time it would take us to save up all that money.  So, for the past 2 1/2 years, we have just been slowly working on it.  And, when I say "working," I mean *really* working--as in doing almost everything ourselves!  And, when I say "we," I really mean Mike.  This dude has worked his tail off on this yard!  The only things we hired out were the little rock retaining wall that allowed us to flatten out the yard (plus the rock stairs that go from one level to the other) & the rock retaining wall that goes around our firepit; digging the pit for our in-ground trampoline & the trenches for our sprinkler system & gas line; and installing the posts for our fence.  Mike did everything else himself!  He is Mr. Handyman. And, if there's something that needs to be done that he doesn't know how to do, he teaches himself how to do it--either through watching YouTube videos or by making friends with business owners, who he somehow convinces to spill all their secrets.  Don't ask me how he does it--the dude has this ability to make friends easily and--five minutes later--make them feel like they are best friends.  Anyway, one of the things that Mike didn't know how do so was stonework, but he really wanted to have a super fancy firepit in the backyard, so he pulled his magic strings & learned how to do stonework.  This is the result...

Didn't it turn out beautiful???  He did the stonework on the ground, as well as the stonework around the firepit & on the raised flowerbed behind the rocking chairs.  Looks pretty darn professional to me...

We absolutely love this firepit & have already spent many evenings around it cuddled up in blankets while roasting marshmallows--even before it was finished!  It's natural gas, so you can just turn it on & off or up & down as you please, plus you don't smell like you've been camping for a week when you're done.  I love it!  We thought about hiring someone to do the firepit for us, but all the bids we got came back in the $15,000-$20,000 range.  Good grief!!!  That's what I spent on my entire backyard--and you want me to pay you that much for just a firepit area?!?  Mike ended up spending only about $4000 doing it himself.  Talk about savings!  My grand master plan is to put a bunch of cute adorondack chairs around the firepit & a pergola over the top of it, but that will just have to come later.  For right now, my old rocking chairs & the starry skies above will just have to do.

So, that's our backyard!  It took a lot of blood, sweat, tears & money over the past 2 1/2 years, but we absolutely love it now that it's done!  I especially love the fact that our extra money can go to some other fun projects we've had waiting in the wings until this darn backyard was finished--like my dining room!  Oh, I can't wait to finally put some furniture in that room.  So excited!!!  In the meantime, we're counting down the days until next summer so we can get outside & enjoy the backyard.  Barbecue & s'mores, anyone?  --Lindsay

October Dates

I'm finally getting around to posting about our October dates...even though we've already started on our November dates. I need to be better about posting these things right after they happen. I start a lot of posts out this way, don't I?

All three of the boys went to the fun center near our house again this month.  You'd think they'd be sick of it by now, but they still love it.  Connor went on his date with me this month.  We started out with some rock climbing...

After we got done rock climbing, we headed over to sign up for laser tag.  Well, as we were walking over there, we ran into some good friends from our old neighborhood, the Skinners.  Connor & Tait were great friends when we lived by each other, so we ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the evening.  Here are all the boys with their laser tag gear on & ready to go...

We ended up playing several rounds of laser tag.  Unfortunately, our team lost each & every time, but we had a ball.  Then it was off to ride the Frog Hopper...

And then a round of glow-in-the-dark miniature golf.  Here's a blurry picture of the fun...

It was a great night & it was so fun to run into old friends.  We need to "run into" each other more often, either that or I need to work harder to convince them to move up by us (believe me, I've already tried more than once.)  Thanks Skinners for hanging out with us!

Aiden went on his date with Mike this past month.  They played at the fun center as well, and this picture is the one & only picture taken the entire night...

Hopefully the statement "a picture is worth a thousand words" rings true here because I don't have many words to say about this date since I wasn't given a whole lot of info on it.  I know they did some rock climbing, laser tag & miniature golf--and that they had a good time.  That's it.  Sigh...one of these days, Mike is going to surprise me & come home from one of these dates with about 243 pictures.  I just know it!

Cohen went on his date with me in October.  When we first got to the fun center, he ran right to the pirate ship video game that he loves to pieces...

Then it was off to do some miniature golfing...

He got to ride the Frog Hopper all by himself because the place was totally dead the night we went...

Then we headed outside to ride the go-carts.  I'm so depressed to see this picture of Cohen & I outside without coats on just a few weeks ago.  You couldn't do this now.  It's been freezing this week & we have about six inches of snow on our front yard.  Please come back soon Summer, we miss you already...

After go carts, we headed back inside to do some rock climbing.  Cohen went up the wall about 6 feet (which is when I took this picture) and then he got freaked out & wanted to come back down.  Oh well...

After that, I told him it was time to go, but he insisted that he get to play the pirate ship game one more time.  How could I say no to this cute little face?

So, those were our October dates!  They were all great.  I love doing these little dates with our kiddos!  --Lindsay

Mike's Birthday

Okay, I have no pictures for this post, but I had to share with you what we ended up doing for Mike's birthday. As you know, Mike took me to "Thriller" for my birthday, which was so much fun.  After that, I felt some serious pressure to do something just as fun for Mike's birthday.  Luckily, I was able to figure out something pretty darn awesome.

We started out the evening with dinner at Cafe Trang.  It is a really yummy Vietnamese/Chinese/Thai restaurant.  Neither of us had eaten there before, and I knew that Mike really wanted to try it out.  To be honest with you, I'm not a huge Chinese food fan.  Chinese food is okay, but it's definitely not my favorite.  Because of this, I wasn't expecting much.  But, I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised.  My food was really good!  Mike absolutely loved his dinner too.  We'll definitely go back sometime.  Part #1 of the evening = success.

After dinner, I surprised Mike with tickets to see this...

Both Mike & I have always wanted to see a Cirque Du Soleil show.  We always say that "one of these days" we're going to take a trip down to Vegas for a weekend (preferably in the winter when it's freezing cold up here) & see a Cirque show.  But, with four kids & two careers, you can imagine how often that happens!

Well, as luck would have it, the traveling company just happened to be in Salt Lake City on Mike's birthday!  So I bought tickets & finally told Mike where we were going after we finished dinner.  We absolutely loved the show!  The stunts were incredible!  I'm not even sure how they do 93% of them!!  And, the set was amazing too.  If their traveling set is that cool, I can't even imagine how awesome the one in Vegas is!  "Someday" hopefully I'll get to find out.

So, that was Mike's birthday for the year.  Sorry for the lack of pictures.  Posts without pictures are so boring, but I had to prove that I had planned something fun for my hubs.  Happy birthday Mike!  I love you more than anything.  Thank you for always being there for me, for making me smile & laugh everyday, for being my calming influence in life, for working so hard for our family, for dropping work the second you walk in the door to focus on being a husband & dad, for being my daily personal masseuse (best backrubs ever), and for being my rock that supports me throughout everything!  Love you!  --Lindsay

This is Halloween

Halloween was a SCREAM this year at our house!  All the kiddos are at fun ages right now & they had a great time dressing up & Trick or Treating.  It was a pretty simple day all around.  We started out the day with Connor & Aiden's Halloween Parade at school, and then I helped with Connor's Halloween party in his class a little later in the day.  Cohen was at preschool during the parade, so I only had to take one child, uh ladybug with me...

Yes, this was the best picture she would let me take of her--little stinker.  She would not look at the camera or smile.  Despite the grumpy look on her face, she really did love dressing up, especially in a costume that included wings.  In fact, she pitched a royal fit when I took the wings off for her nap that afternoon.  Such a girlie girl.  Oh, sorry--back to the parade.  It was a lot of fun.  I always love this parade every year.  It's so fun to see all the kiddos costumes.  Here's Aiden, uh Anakin Skywalker, I mean...

And here's Connor, oops--I mean Commander Cody, sans helmet...

Can you tell we're still really into Star Wars at this house?  It's just fine with me though.  I know that within just a few years, Connor is most likely going to want to dress up as some freaky, bloody, gory zombie thing every year--so Star Wars characters are just fine with me for now.

We did have one boy go as a non-Star Wars character.  Cohen--who is slightly obsessed with superheroes right now--wanted to be Spiderman.  Unfortunately, I didn't get an individual picture of him since he was at preschool during the school parade, and I just didn't think about it until it was too late, but you can see how cute he looks in this group shot.  Love the built-in muscles...

This picture was taken right before they all headed out for Trick or Treating with Mike.  Don't they all look so stinkin' cute?!?  This was Vivvie's first year Trick or Treating (she slept through it last year).  Let's just say she is a huge fan!  Mike pushed her in the stroller, and she just waved to everyone & ate her candy all night long.  The weather was so perfect this year.  In fact, we broke a record high temperature on Halloween by getting up to 76 degrees.  It was in the 60s during the evening hours when the kids headed out to get all their candy.  It was so nice to not have to put them in coats.  They were plenty comfortable in just their costumes.  Ahhh, I could get used to Halloween's like this!

While the kiddos were Trick or Treating with Mike, I stayed home & answered the door at our house.  Mike played Halloween music through our speakers on our front porch, which made it really fun.  I can't tell you how many times I would answer the door to little kids dancing to "Thriller" or "This is Halloween."  It made the night really fun.

Eventually, Mike dropped Aiden, Cohen & Vivvie off at home when they were tired & their bags were overflowing with candy.  But, Connor & Mike decided to stay out a little longer & hit up a few more homes.  Connor emptied his bag at home & then refilled it *twice* before coming home for good.  He & Mike stayed out until probably 8:45!  I think we'll probably be eating Halloween candy until at least Easter.  But, I see absolutely no problem with that.

It was a great Halloween!  I loved every second of it.  I'm so lucky to be the mama of these awesome ghouls & goblins of mine.  Love them to pieces!  --Lindsay

Connor is Double Digits!

Yep, I am the mother of a ten-year-old--and I can not believe it!  Where did those ten years go?  It seems like it should be closer to 3 or 4 years, not 10.  But, nevertheless, it really has been 10 years & Connor has entered the "double digits."  To celebrate, we held a Halloween-themed birthday party with a few of his closest friends.  It was a "late night" party from 7:00-9:00 pm on a Friday night.  Everyone wore their costumes & we played some favorite fall games, like eating doughnuts on a string without using your hands.  Always a crowd pleaser...

And unwrapping the Halloween candy while wearing mittens...

This was quite amusing to watch as well...

We also did some pumpkin bowling, using 2 liter bottles as the pins.  The kiddos loved this game...

Some of the boys had awesome form...

We also played "Hot Pumpkin" (which was just Hot Potato, but with a pumpkin) and good ol' fashioned "Murder in the Dark."  The boys loved "Murder in the Dark" and we played it over & over again.

After everyone had played all the games to their hearts content, it was time to put the kiddos on a sugar high, with this darling cupcake cake.  Yes, that's really just a bunch of cupcakes arranged in a shape & then frosted as if it was a cake.  I loved it...

Here's the boys singing "Happy Birthday" to ConMan...

Connor was obviously quite serious about getting every last candle out.  Wonder what he wished for...

After cake & ice cream, we finished off the night by opening presents...

He was spoiled by all his friends...

It was a really fun party & I think all the kids had a great time.

That wasn't the end of the birthday festivities though.  This past Sunday was Connor's actual birthday, so we held a family party that night.  We started out with a yummy lasagna dinner, made by the fabulous Chef Mike.  Then, at Connor's request, we went straight to opening presents...

He was spoiled again...

Here's the birthday boy giving hugs to Tata & Dan...

Showing off some of his new loot...

More loot...

After that, it was on to cake & ice cream...

Uncle Dan thought it would be fun to put trick candles on Connor's cake.  So Connor blew...

And blew...

Until he finally got them all out...

Oops, never mind--not out yet...

He was pretty out of breath by the time he finally got them all out for good.  It was a funny sight to watch, and Connor thought it was hilarious too.  Great idea, Dan...

So, that's how Connor celebrated his 10th birthday.  And, what an awesome 10-year-old he is!  Connor is smart, creative, brave, happy, strong-willed, loving & has amazing integrity!  I am so proud of the awesome young man he is becoming right before my eyes!  I know I already said it, but I can't believe I have a 10-year-old!  I'm not old enough to have a 10-year-old, am I?  Wait...don't answer that!  --Lindsay