Memory Made

The other day I was talking to Claire about how Everett was her brother and she was his sister. I don't think she fully understood but it made me laugh a little when she responded with,

"I need a girl brother."

I'm not announcing anything, but I do know when the time comes, Claire is hoping for a sister. :)

five years

five years ago i was blessed to marry my best friend. well, five years and three weeks now. i'm a little slacking in getting this blog out. :) unfortunately, we didn't do anything grand and spectacular to celebrate this wonderful day. i wish i could whisk her off to paris or take a caribbean cruise or something special like she deserves for putting up with me this long, but sadly we can't make it happen just yet. maybe at ten years. maybe at fifty. she'll definitely deserve it by then. :)

our anniversary started out with amber making us a wonderful breakfast. we then spent most of the day just hanging out and playing with the kids. that evening we got some babysitters to come over so we could go do something. we went out to eat, then went to the provo rec center to go swimming. i know swimming at a public pool isn't the most romantic thing in the world, but since having the kiddos, it's not something we get to enjoy doing. :) we sat in the hot tub for as long as we could handle, then went and shot some hoops. we headed home to have our traditional anniversary cheese cake, sent our babysitters on their way, and put the kids to bed.

i then busted out my one surprise for the evening. i popped some popcorn, grabbed some blankets and the baby monitor, then told amber to follow me outside. outside she found our car parked in the driveway with a cool little projector (thanks mom!) on the dashboard. we had made our own private drive-in theater displaying up on the garage door. it was fun and i hope a little romantic. well, until our car battery died that is. :) we were then forced to move everything inside and project the movie onto our bedroom wall, which was nice too because it was a lot more comfortable.

the next day we set up the projector again for the kids and they loved it. they loved it so much that we've had to do it over and over again. it has been a blast cuddling up in bed all together. i really do love my family, especially that woman i am privileged to call my wife. these have been the absolute happiest five years of my life, and i cannot wait for the next infinity years that i get to spend with amber. more.
and because we don't have pictures of our anniversary, and i believe every blog requires pictures, here's some pictures of our family through the past five years. :)

Halloween

Talking with Scott, we both decided that growing up Halloween was never a favorite holiday of ours, but since having kids we both are liking the holiday a little more. I really enjoy making costumes for my kids and having the chance to get a little creative. And Claire's getting to that age that she really likes dressing up and so she was thrilled to be able to put on a pretty dress and wings. :) Everett loved being outside and both kids loved seeing their buckets filling up with treats. And Scott and I both love memorable moments like these. :)

For Everett's Peter Pan costume I used this tutorial for the hat and the belt and I made his leggings using this other tutorial, the shirt I made without anything, and there are definitely some things I would change, but it worked out good enough for a toddler costume. :)

For Claire's Tinkerbell costume I used two different tutorials, the top I got from here and the skirt part I got from here. It turned out to be a little too tight for her, but it actually worked out pretty well because the top stayed up on it's own instead of needing a strap around the neck. Just like Tinkerbell's dress. :) She loved it. :)


I don't know how long we'll be able to all dress up using the same theme, but we want to try for as long as they'll let us! :) Here's all of us - Mr. Smee, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, and Captain Hook.

After taking a few pictures for mommy's sake we set off to do some trick-or-treating. Claire was very anxious and excited to go to different houses. Before going we practiced saying "trick or treat" and then "thank you", but then at the door she would suddenly be shy and forget to say anything. They got tired quickly and we only ended up going about half-way around our block but they seemed to still have a lot of fun. :)

After trick-or-treating, the fun wasn't over though. We went to our friends' Halloween party and Claire was able to play with her other Disney friends Cinderella and Aurora. :)









Happy Halloween!

Painting Pumpkins

For Family Home Evening before Halloween we decided to paint some pumpkins. It's a lot easier than carving and maybe less messy. This year Claire was a pro and went at her pumpkin telling us exactly what color she wanted to use next. Everett was a little unsure what to do and kept wanting to put the paintbrush in his mouth. He got a little sad when we kept stopping him and taking the paint brush away, but after giving him a banana to eat instead and after some comforting he got more into it. :)

memory made

so i love to golf. i'm not any good at it, but i just love getting out into some beautiful scenery and hitting some balls around (plus driving around in a golf cart is a blast - it's like a go-kart with no track). it's just too expensive of a game for me to ever get any real practice in, plus i've never been good at anything that requires consistency and muscle-memory. so a good day of golf for me is a day where i end the day with the same golf ball i started with (that's why you'll notice the orange ball in picture -  helps me not lose it). occasionally (very rarely) i hit a shot worth bragging about. so the other day i'm golfing with my brother and sister at the eastbay golf course. i tee up on a par 3 and hit one of those very rare shots for me that went straight down the middle. it was a thing of beauty. landed less than two feet away. a short tap in and i walk away with my first birdie ever. i know... i'm awesome. :)

Cornbelly's

We decided to go check out Cornbelly's this year and it was pretty cool...

we played on the toy trains and walked through the mini corn maze,

rode in the cow barrels,

played in the corn seeds,

bounced on the giant trampoline... (Everett got sooo mad at me when I wouldn't let go of him, but he had no fear and the trampoline really scared me),

played pumpkin tetherball,

and had an enjoyable time with all the fun toys and things to see. Claire was especially happy to meet the pumpkin princess. :)

We had such a fun time! :)

memory made (and our 200th post!)

our kids have never been ones to fall asleep in random places. i always see other parents posting funny pictures or videos of their kids asleep at the high chair or curled up in a ball in a random spot or something like that. it's not been our kids' style though. the bed or the car seat. that was it. nowhere else. once, and i repeat, once claire fell asleep by the door after crying herself out because mommy had left for work. it was so funny that i had to get a picture.

well everett has always been the same, with the exception of the other day. we were just wrapping up lunch. amber and i were putting some stuff away when we hear claire say, "uh oh! everett!" we turn to look to see everett doing the head bob as he was falling asleep. so adorable. :)