On the Way to Fish Lake

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to make a trip to Utah. We stayed in cabins at Fish Lake for most of the week. Normally when we travel to Utah, Jim makes us wake up at 4am and we drive straight through for 12 hours until we arrive at his parents house. It is a rather miserable experience to say the least. This time we decided to relax a little bit about the whole thing. We didn't have to drag the kids out of bed while it was still dark and we drove to St. George and spent the night there rather than going the entire way in one day. I didn't take to many pictures when we were in St. George but here is a few. We ate dinner that night at Golden Corral. The kids thought they were in heaven with their dessert bar. I have never seen that many desserts in one place. They even had a chocolate fountain! Golden Corral is really the epitome of fine dining. ;) At least when you are 4, 6, and 8 years old it is!

I think my boys are kind of deprived when it comes to traveling because when we entered the hotel room (which was nice but not really anything spectacular) they dropped their jaw and Ben immediately said, "This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen!" Luke followed up with, "Mom, can we live in this hotel forever?" Wow! I'm glad that they liked it but I really wasn't anticipating that kind of reaction. It probably was due to the fact that the indoor pool was located about 20 feet from our hotel room. Which was nice because it was indoor and the weather was like 40 degrees outside. The boys were in heaven!

Stay tuned for more pictures from our trip. I have over 1,000 pictures (not all from my camera) from the cabins to sift through so it might take a while but I promise they are coming!!

Halloween 2011

Halloween was super fun this year, as always! Jimmy was a robot, Ben was a pirate, and Luke was his favorite Star Wars character Darth Vader. Jim said that he was dressed up as the world's best looking guy. That's the Halloween spirit Jim!

Jimmy's costume was very popular. The boys wanted to wear it for days after.

Ben got a tatoo that said R.I.P. on it. I asked Ben was R.I.P. means and he told me that it means "rest in PIECES." Yikes! That's not how I want to rest when I'm in the grave!!

Halloween Treats

I had a lot of fun this year making Halloween goodies for the kids. I don't really get into the scary stuff or the dressing up but I do like to make tasty treats for Halloween. The picture below is what we had for dinner that night: mummy pizzas, boogies on a wand, and carrot fingers. The wands were definitely the most popular.

For breakfast that morning we made halloween pancakes. The kids really liked that. I started out doing spider webs but Ben had a great idea to do jack-o-lantern faces too.

These Frankenstein cupcakes turned out super cute and they were so much fun to make!

Carving Pumpkins

Jimmy was so proud of himself for carving his pumpkin all by himself this year. Usually they tell us what they want and Jim and I do most of the cutting but he did his all on his own! Even the nasty scraping part. He is really becoming independant. Last night he even made dinner for us because I was helping Ben with homework. He made the best mac and cheese that I've ever had!!

We used the finished products to decorate our van for the trunk or treat at the church.

Jimmy's is on the left. Ben's is in the middle. (It's a bat-kitty just in case you can't tell.) Luke's masterpiece is on the right.

Pumpkin Patch

This fall we went to the pumpkin patch with our friends Joshua and Noah. The boys had a great time but I miss going to a real pumpkin patch in a real field or farm. But here in L.A. they bring the farm to the Albertson's parking lot. :\ The boys didn't care at all but I felt a little claustrophobic. It was still a lot of fun though. There was a lot of activities for the boys and they were all smiles and laughter. :)

There was a hay bail maze.

At first, they were trying to find their way around the maze the conventional way like everyone else. . .

but then they just decided that it was easier just to climb over the hay bails.

Luke and Noah on the train.

The petting zoo was by far Ben's favorite thing about the pumpkin patch. He fell in love with the bunny. He must have followed it around for like 15 minutes. They had to practically kick him out of the petting zoo to let those who were standing in line come in.

Who knew they would have a roller coaster at the pumpkin patch! This is the kind of roller coaster that my boys will actually ride!

Ben was begging me to buy a pumpkin there but I couldn't bring myself to spend $20 on a pumpkin that would cost $5 at Vons. That seemed a little pricey to me. Is that how all pumpkin patches are?!

Why is it that these boys will make guns out of anything - sticks, paperclips, bananas, balloons, pumpkins - you name it!

It was a fun day and as you can see from this picture they were a little wired after the whole experience. Too exhausted to look at the camera I guess!!

Luke's First Day of Pre-K

A week after Jimmy and Ben started school Luke started Pre-K. He loves it! But he definitely loves the playing part more than the learning part! I guess that doesn't make him any different than most other kids. :)

First Day of School 2011

We had a great summer but like all good things it had to come to an end eventually. Now the boys have all started another year of school. Jimmy is in 3rd grade this year and Ben is in 2nd. Luke started pre-K but he started a week after Jimmy and Ben. My little boys just keep getting bigger and bigger!!

Here is Jimmy with his friend Josh. They are really excited to be in the same class this year.

Here is Ben with his friends Kaleb and Jacob. They were in the same Kindergarten class last year and now they are together again.

When they got home from school I surprised them with a back to school pencil cake. I kind of got the cake decorating bug this summer. The cake looked a lot cuter online but the kids enjoyed it regardless of the mistakes I made.