Halloween

I fear I didn't do a very good job taking pictures of Halloween this year.  I repent and vow to try to do better next year.  I know my babysitter, Carolyn took a picture of me and the kids in our costumes.  When she gives that to me maybe I can upload it here.

Here's all the kids carving pumpkins.

Camden loves pumpkins!  Whenever we see them sitting on someone's porch he screams, "Pumpkin!  Pumpkin!  Pumpkin!"  on repeat until you acknowledge that he is seeing pumpkins.

Liv was the one who requested such a design this year.

I took the kids down to Dad's office on Halloween so they could show off their costumes.  Liv was Maleficent (she went back and forth between that and Elsa from Frozen---I was sooo glad she finally decided on Maleficent because every other girl was Elsa).  Camden was her crow and Carter was prince Phillip.  I, who had no intention of dressing up, ending up throwing together a last minute Sleeping Beauty costume because I was asked to go into work that day and everyone else always dresses up.  Then, it ended up being slow and I didn't even have to go in.  Oh well.  We made Dad wear a Burger King crown and he was King Stefan.

We went trick or treating.  All the kids loved it and stayed out late.  And, I am still dealing with the candy melt downs whenever I have to say no to more candy (you know after piece #7 for the day or something ridiculous like that).

The World Series X 2

Our beloved Giants appeared to have the chance at the World Series again this year.  Derek is still mad about missing the once in a lifetime chance of attending their last world series game with my Dad because I was due to have twins at any moment.  (No matter that he had already been to a world series game a couple years before when they were there).  This year he was determined to go if they went.  And go we did!

For good luck the days and nights of playoff games we adorned the kids in Giants gear:

The boys loved watching the game and would practice swinging when the batter swung and throwing when the pitcher pitched.

All our good luck charms worked because the Giants made it into The Series!
The Monday before we flew out, we had a baseball FHE and let the kids hit off a tee and ran around bases in the backyard.

Two days before we were supposed to fly out Camden came down with a stomach bug.

He was sooo sick couldn't keep a thing in him.  Every sip of water he took came straight up.  This lasted two days.  He got so weak and kind of in and out of sleep that the night before we were supposed to leave I was planning to take him to his pediatrician the next morning and knew they would admit him if he was still the same.  But, he seemed to wake up on the morning we were supposed to leave feeling much better and able to eat and drink.  He did throw up one more time a few hours before we were supposed to leave.  Let's just say I was a little nervous about how the trip was to go.   Especially if the other kids caught it.

Camden never threw up again, but he did have a diarrhea blow out in the airport waiting to board the plane luckily I had packed pajamas and changed him into those.  And we packed all kinds of ziplock bags in preparation.  That night he had another diarrhea blowout in the middle of the night.  Then, Carter threw up the next morning.  He seemed to handle the bug a little better.  Was a little fussy but didn't throw up too much.  In fact, we thought it was just going to be that one time for him.  Until we got on a trolley...everyone on the trolley was so nice helping us with our crazy kids and all the stuff.  Then, when we were just one stop from getting off...Carter who was in a backpack on my back barfed all over me and himself and the backpack.  We immediately all evacuated the trolley and God bless whomever was nice enough to throw us a travel size package of those sanization wipes...not sure how we would have fared without those.  There was lots more diarrhea and then Camden who was all better at this point, puked twice on me at the World Series game because he choked on popcorn.  Needless to say, the day we were supposed to go home every article of clothing I had packed for the boys either had diarrhea or puke on it and that was with me having them re-wearing the dirty stuff that didn't.  Luckily, Lynn came through with world series shirts she had bought for them the night before or else I didn't know what they were going to wear home.

Despite all the bodily fluids, we really had a fantastic trip.  The kids were beyond excited to ride on the plane, and then we rode a bus to a train that took us into San Fran (all so we wouldn't have to deal with car seats).

Our first morning there, we took the kids to the San Fransisco children's museum because be could have free entrance with our Thanksgiving Point membership.  The kids loved the museum!  Tons of stuff geared towards them.

Liv got to make a music video of her singing (guess what)  Let It Go!  Ever since then Camden does his own rendition.  They had this HUGE slide that probably seemed more like a roller coaster ride that Liv thought was pretty fun near by.

The first evening we stayed at a Hyatt since we had some Hyatt points, then moved over to the Monaco where everyone else was staying.  The Monaco puts a gold fish in the room if you are staying with kids and gives every kid a stuffed animal.  My kids loved that.

The boys mauling an ape statue in the lobby.

 That afternoon/evening was the trolley ride which was really fun until Carter barfed on me.  We got clam chowder in bread bowls at Fisherman's Wharf for dinner.  Then we walked down to Peir 39 and let the kids see the sea lions and attempted a family photo (Liv did not want to cooperate).

Saturday morning, I met my good friend Bonnie who is currently living in San Fran for brunch.  Liv got to come with me.  I love my Bons and it was so fun to visit with her.  Then, we went back to the hotel and picked up Dad and the brothers, Uncle Nathan, and his girlfriend, Benazir.  We all crammed into a taxi and rode to Golden Gate Park.  We let the kids play at the park and in the sand.

 They had an neat little slide carved into rock on the side of hill.  The kids (and crazy Moms) would sit on cardboard boxes and slide down.

Then, we rode the carousel which all the kids loved and didn't want to end.

Then, we miraculous found a taxi to take us back to our hotel so we could get ready for the big game.  We walked to and from the game with both boys in backpacks and Liv in a stroller (that was mostly how we cruised around San Fran).  I'm sure it looked ridiculous.  The kids were actually pretty good at the game (except for two separate choking on popcorn and barfing on Mom incidents).  They enjoyed the crowds and the noise and the popcorn and cotton candy and hot dogs and whatever other junk.

They have a slide that Liv could ride down right behind us and this miniature baseball diamond with a tee for the kids to hit off and bases and an outfield and even ballpark workers who would pitch to the older kids.  Our kids loved that and we visited it twice during the game.

Before we flew off Sunday morning, we dressed the kids in their Halloween costumes and let them trick or treat at everyone's hotel doors and we had 11 different hotel rooms!  The kids loved it!  That was Liv's favorite part of the whole trip.

Carter was hilarious every door we went to, he would not move on to the next until he had opened the candy he had received and sampled it.  Then, it was time to ride the train, then the bus, then the plane back home.  Good trip.  Good memories.

Dad's Birthday

Derek turned 34.  We had a BBQ with a bunch of his buddies the weekend before his birthday.  Then, on his actually birthday we had some neighborhood friends over for cake and ice cream.  I made a golf cake.  It wasn't planned.  It was just going to be plain chocolate, but last minutes I decided to throw it together because he had so hoped to sneak away from work and go golfing that day but was unable to.  I racked my brain trying to think of something green for grass- mint leaves just growing in the yard!

The boys helped (or hindered depending on how you look at it).

 Most notable gift- he seemed pretty thrilled with the stand up drawer unit I gave him for all his garage tools.  At least he spent the whole Saturday before in the garage rearranging everything as a result of it.  He got to open that one a little early only because I guess my wrap job of just hiding in a corner in the garage with a blanket over the top was not as inconspicuous as I would have hoped.

Cute, but Crazy Kids

Here's the typical smorgasbord post that I feel the need to throw together from time to time just to capture all the cute and crazy moments of our life.

Carter helping Dad with the sprinklers:

The boys cuddled up together watching Elmo-they are even starting to branch out a little.  Camden is always asking for a "movie" every time we get in the car after that long drive to Reno.  And whenever he sees a tv he points and says, "show?"

Boys playing footsie- their twin relationship is so cute to watch develop
At the car wash- I will never do that alone with all the kids!
Liv's picture day at school.  This is the pre-picture day shot.

I insisted on dressing her.  I put her in pants, but this girl never wears pants.  All she will ever wear is dresses usually accompanied by some horrid bow that doesn't match at all and Elsa socks.

Carter climbing to the utmost top of his crib posts and then catapulting himself into his brothers bed among other things necessitated the switch from cribs to toddler beds.  They are good about going to bed at night and getting better about it at nap time, but it was rough for a couple weeks.  Here's how Carter slept for his nap one day.

The boys are so cute and seem so big when they kneel down beside their beds for prayers every night.
Babi bought the boys new "Choo choo sheets."  They are both pretty excited about it.
All my kids found it thoroughly entertaining to run around the house holding hands one evening while I was trying to cook dinner.  That is until Carter kept trying to go a different way than Camden wanted to go resulting in Camden biting Carter out of frustration (I was sort of glad because generally Carter is always doing the biting, so I thought it was good for him to know what it feels like).
The boys got these monster slippers from Poppi's and Lynn.  They love them and want to wear them everywhere instead of shoes.  So we totally went to Costco and the grocery store looking like this. 
Slightly more acceptable right now close to Halloween, but I fear for when it is March and we are still going to the store in monster slippers.  They call them their "RRRRs".  Here is Camden dressed as a super monster.

A park day.  It's not so blazing hot anymore, so one Saturday while Derek was mowing the lawn I ran the kids to a park to play and then ran home.  Camden loves to go on runs and whenever we get in the garage he climbs in the jogging stroller and begs for a "Run?!"
The boys went straight from the bath to answer the doorbell ringing and were thrilled when it was Kylee and Cole and their huge great dane, Willy.

One BYU game day I sent Derek a cute picture of the boys, but his only response was that I had dressed them inappropriately for game day and that they should be in their jerseys.  So,we changed into appropriate attire and sent this BYU game day picture back to Dad.
It rained all day one Saturday, so we took the kids to the Dino museum at Thanksgiving Point.
Grandma and Grandpa grew pumpkins for all the grand kids this years.  So, all my kids went over there one night to claim their pumpkins.


They are all still quite enthused about them and the scarecrow on our front porch.  The other morning Liv woke up and asked if she could wake the scarecrow up which consisted of sitting on his lap and talking to him bright and early in the morning?

More Culinary Endeavors

Beautiful Heirloom Tomatoes- I plant these because I think they are pretty (and they taste good too).


Turned into Tomato Basil Soup

And more salsa.  Liv was amazing and helped me peel the skins of the tomatoes for probably and entire hour.  I didn't know she was capable of that kind of stamina, but she was actually a real big help.

Plum tree is now over and done with.  Liv loves to eat them, I don't.  But, I love plum jam.

My apple tree is now in full swing.  I have been drying them, maybe I will try a pie or applesauce if I get ambitious.

These apples are huge and deserve to be showcased: