St Patty's Day

Growing up, our one St Patrick's Day tradition was having corned beef and boiled cabbage. Sorry Mom, but I'm NOT a fan! I've been trying different ideas I've found, seeing if some feel right for our traditions, and I think I've found a few. I've heard several places where leprechauns come at night and make a mess, but I think, what's the point? It's just more work to clean it up. Besides, our boys probably wouldn't even notice!

Well, a leprechaun did visit our house. He peed (green) in the boys' toilet and left little green footprints on the seat! The boys really got a kick out of it. I wanted to take a picture of it, but Dallin cleaned it up first thing Sunday morning. The leprechaun also left a little treasure hunt leading to their own little pots of gold (Hershey's nuggets).

Last year, Dallin's preschool had a float in the local St Patrick's Day parade, so he rode on it while I passed out candy. We had a lot of fun, and the other boys enjoyed watching it, so we decided to go again this year.


We purposely picked a spot at the end of the parade route. Only a few of the floats still have candy to give out, so we could actually enjoy it more. One group started taking the balloons off the float and tossing them to the kids. Our boys didn't get one, but a boy, about 8 years old, standing next to us did. When he saw Andrew come crying to me, he came up and gave his balloon to Andrew. It was really sweet.

After the parade, we stopped by Burger King to get our free fries. The boys got a kick out of the green ketchup. Caden said it was green because some leprechaun's got in it and had an accident. Boys! Andrew still believes it and I can't convince him otherwise! Then we came home and made our fruit rainbows. This year we did them on kabobs.





We decided to make a trap for the leprechaun. I had made the cake the night before and covered it with "grass". Dallin was especially excited about it. He wanted to make sure we covered the hole with the "gold". Seeing as it was my first attempt at piping frosting, I think it turned out pretty cute!


We went to Steve's family's for dinner, and the boys were excited to check it when we got home. Nothing. But the next morning, they found the leprechaun had eaten his way out and turned the cake into a rainbow!

It was a fun day. Now time to start thinking about April Fools Day...

Christmas is coming

We made gingerbread houses in Cub Scouts last week. Caden's was basically a rectangular box piled as high as he could with candy. Right before the picture, Caden dropped his and it all broke! :( He didn't really care though, because he still got all the candy! Dallin was a little more creative with his.

When it snowed yesterday, I pulled out a new "snowman kit" for the boys. Then we went out side and I saw the snow was just too powdery to make a snowman, but Dallin is a very determined boy!

You asked for it...

Yes, it is a couple of months late, but several people have asked about costume pictures, so here's halloween!

Dallin's work

Dallin made this at kindergarten the other day:


For those of you who don't read kindergarten, is says "Mom and my dad loves me cause we are playing together." I do so love that kid!

So Proud!

I belong to a mom's club here, and for the service project this month, we put our kids in their costumes and head over to a nursing home. There were actually 2 nursing homes across the street from each other, so we went to the first one and walked around saying "Happy Halloween!" Before we got there, I tried to explain how we were going to see old people who don't get out a lot, and how seeing the boys in their costumes would make them happy. I said we were going to be very nice and smile and talk to everyone.

When we got there, there was only one other mother there, and she only had a baby in her arms. So as we walked the halls, my boys got a lot of attention because they could interact with them. Andrew was himself, talkative and happy, and everyone loved him as they always do. But I couldn't have been prouder of Dallin. He smiled and said "Howdy partner!" to everyone (he was a cowboy); he just smiled and didn't try and correct anyone when they called him Alan; he was very attentive for as long as they wanted to talk to him. I even had to drag him away a few times! He let anyone touch him. One lady, I think she may have been senile and I know she didn't speak English, was grinning ear to ear as she touched him all over and mumbled in Spanish. Dallin, while I could tell he was a little unsure of it, just smiled at her and let her be happy. After we left, I hugged him and told him how proud I was of him for making all those people so happy!

We went to the second nursing home and they had a whole Halloween Party set up for us! At least 1/2 of the elderly were dressed! The boys weren't sure what to think about the man with the werewolf mask and gloves. :) Everyone was at tables, so they had us go "trick or treating" around each table! They had candy and Halloween tatoos, pencils, erasers, other misc, and even coloring books for the kids! Everyone oohed and ahed over the little devil, and loved Dallin and asked about his gun. One lady told us how her oldest son was once a cowboy for Halloween and she had a picture of it up in her room. :) Then one of the men read a story for the kids while they had cookies and punch. It was so much fun, and I'm so glad Dallin got to see his service make so many people happy.

Summary

I'm just going to have to give a summary of what happened this summer up until now. I've got a lot of pictures and it will probably take a few posts, but I will catch up! I'll try to go in chronological order, but we'll see...

In the end of June, we had a family vacation in Granby with Steve's family. We went fishing at Lake Granby. None of us caught anything, but we had a great time.


The ski resort was giving free lift rides to the top of the mountain, where you can hike a bit and then ride back down. Lots of fun!

Steve and Caden at the top of the mountain

But most of all we just enjoyed spending time together!



On the way home, we stopped at the Continental Divide and let the kids play around in the dirty snow.

Steve's birthday is on the 4th of July, always a party! Steve loves going to a hotel, so this year we went on a mini vacation close to where Steve's family lives. We went to Steve's parents' neighborhood party, which had great food and fun little party games for the kids. They also had a little bike parade, the same one Steve went on when he was young. The boys decorated their bikes and Steve took Caden and Dallin around it. It was about a mile long in 100+ degrees, and Andrew and I enjoyed watching them from the shade! We were so proud of Dallin, riding the whole way! Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture of him though. :(

Yum!

Tonight for FHE I made Cinnamon Bun Ice Cream and it was divine! So easy, and you don't need an ice cream maker! Just thought I'd share! :)

Guess where we are?

That's right! This is where this morning they announced they are going to build the Fort Collins temple! We are so excited! From leaving the church parking lot right across the street to pulling into our driveway it took us exactly 5 1/2 minutes! Even Utahans would be jealous!

Tooth fairy

Dallin lost his second tooth this morning. He came running upstairs to show me. I was very excited for him! I asked him where his tooth pillow was, and after we found it he said, "I really, really, really want to take a nap today!" After I explained to him that the tooth fairy only comes at night, he changed his mind!

Before and After

Before...



And after...

Baptism

I can't believe he's old enough, but Caden was baptized yesterday.

It was a simple, beautiful ceremony. We are so proud of him.

We were so grateful to have our family there to share in this special occasion.

After Caden came out of the water and the witnesses gave the approval, Andrew, who was sitting right in front of the font, shouted, "Good baptize, dad!"

The Farm

One of the teachers that Steve works with lives on several acres of land on the north end of Fort Collins. They have lots of animals there and last month she invited everyone to bring there kids and see all the baby animals. The boys had a blast! They went in the chicken coop and each picked an egg to bring home. They all took turns riding the horse. Andrew hopped on right away, but Caden took a lot of persuasion!


They had a great playhouse the boys played in for quite a while.

Andrew and Dallin got to milk a goat. Caden was too scared!


They loved playing on the tractor.

I wish I had taken a picture with Andrew and the baby goats. He kept wanting to get in the pen with them. It was really cute! :(
Andrew keeps talking about going to the farm and whenever we drive past one he gets really excited. We had a great time and hope it's something she'll do every year!

Catch up

It's been a while! There's been so many things I wanted to write about, but have missed, and now I'm playing catch-up, again. On Feb 28 Dallin turned 5.


He had his first friend party and chose a pirate theme.

In March, Dallin's preschool had a float for the Fort Collin's St Patrick's Day Parade. Dallin loved holding all that candy, and he was actually happy to give it out!

That was the start of the boys' spring break. I decided I missed my family too much, so I quickly packed a few things, gathered up my boys, said goodbye to Steve (his spring break wasn't for another 2 weeks), and drove out to Utah! We had a great time, not doing much of anything! :)

Andrew loved my dad. He learned real quick that Papa always has candy! One morning, I sent the boys upstairs and I went back to bed. When I went upstairs a few hours later, I asked Andrew what he had for breakfast and he said, "Candy!"

We were there on St Patrick's Day and we did a few little things, like turn the milk green, etc. Here is the leprechaun trap we built.

It was a really fun trip and I am so glad we went!

I had a lot of fun with our April Fool's dinner again. I told them because it was April Fool's, we were going to have dessert first, and then dinner. We had a cake first (meatloaf with mashed potatoes).

Then chicken nuggets (candy bars rolled in corn flakes) and french fries (pound cake cut up like fries).

I thought the best part was the straws.


I have too much to catch up on in one post, so that's it for now. Stay tuned, more to come! I leave you with a picture of what Andrew looks like in the morning.