HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

We have been busy with Halloween activities this past week. Last Saturday we went to "Trick of Treat Street" put on by the businesses in our community. The kids had a great time and we got a lot of candy that we were able to recycle at our wards trunk or treat last night! I think we will recycle some of the trunk or treat candy tonight:)

David decided he wanted to be an elephant this year, doesn't he look funny! We went to the zoo this week and he thought it was great fun to see the elephants and know that was also his costume.

The skirt Madeline is wearing was mine as a little girl and I thought it was the perfect shape for a poodle skirt so I added the poodle and made a little scarf, total cost; $2.50 that is the kind of costume I like!

As many of you know Jacob thinks that Star Wars is the coolest thing right now so of course he wanted to be Obi-Wan. I found how to make this costume on the Internet and it was the EASIEST costume ever made. He has been wearing it for the last couple of weeks to play in, go to the store, to a friends house, he loves it!

We carved our pumpkins two nights ago. Ben couldn't resist the M which he says is both for Mower and Michigan, he is still a fan even though they are terrible this year. While we were carving Jacob said, "Mom, isn't this so fun" I am glad he liked it.

Growing up my mom always made holidays so fun, so I am trying to live up to her legacy:) I made pumpkin pancakes for breakfast this morning. The boys really liked them, I think mostly because there were chocolate chips, who doesn't like chocolate for breakfast? And it is just what they need, to start Halloween day off with some sugar, whoops. I have decided that from hear on out we will have soup and bread every Halloween dinner so I am going to make the Zuppa Toscana soup from Olive Garden for dinner which is delicious! I hope you all have a great Halloween and happy trick or treating!

A Little Humor

This evening as I was cleaning up after dinner the door bell rang. I went to get the door and there was a sales man on the porch. Jacob and David were right there with me, he looked at me and said, "is your mom or dad here" I laughed a bit inside and just said, "I am the mom" So funny, I bet he was a bit embarrassed. I guess it is good I still look young!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

We have had a reality check this week. After three years of law school(that were actually quite enjoyable) and a summer of bar prep that wasn't too strenuous and then two months of no job, no school, no studying, Ben has now started work, bummer. A pay check will be nice but the hours he is gone just aren't very fun. Ben takes the light rail to work and since we only have one vehicle we all get to take him to the station each morning and pick him up each night. Luckily it is only a ten minute drive from our house. We pull the kids out of bed at 7:05 stick them in the car and then take Ben. It takes Ben about an hour to get to work, another bummer. He comes home between 5:30 and 6:00. I know those aren't terrible hours it is just an adjustment after having him around so much, which we loved! Now that it is the third day we are starting to get adjusted by going to bed earlier so that we aren't so tired in the morning. I am lucky to have a friend close by that helps me get through the days. We have a schedule of the week that includes, swimming, going to the park, and story time. We really like where we are living and are settling in. Ben is enjoying his job so far so I hope that continues! Below is a picture of Ben on his first day getting sworn in, doesn't he look official.

A Homeowner For Two Weeks

It has been two weeks now since we closed on our house. We have had a busy few weeks, it is a lot of work to move into a new house and especially a house that is dirty and needs a new paint job on all of the inside. When we showed up to move in a day later then we had planned on this is what we saw. Yikes! It was an odd day trying to not be mean to the guy moving out but still letting him now that he needed to get out, Now.

He took everything out onto the driveway and garage and sorted through his belongings because he could not fit everything on his truck. The day that we moved in he was outside until 11:00 p.m finishing packing everything in his truck. I felt a little bit bad because for me when I leave a house it is always a bit strange and I like to have that last walk through to give me closure, say goodbye and move on. It must have been really weird for him to leave with a strange family now living in "his" house. But enough was enough and he had two extra days then we had planned on so we had to give him a little push to get out.

Because he could not fit everything on his truck this is the lovely garbage pile he left us with. It took a week and a few calls to our realtor until it was finally taken away. I am sure that is a good way to make a first impression with your neighbors!

The day after we moved in Ben went to work painting the house. We decided to start with the kids rooms and then work our way down. I think the rooms turned out really fun! Ben is doing a great job at painting. He is almost done with our bedroom and then we will have four bedrooms, a hallway, and two bathrooms done. Basically the whole upstairs and then it is on the the main level. Here is a picture of Madeline's room.

This is the boys room. Both of the kid rooms have the same dark brown as the background and then the colored stripes and polka dots. Jacob likes his stripes but tells us they are not quite as cool as Star Wars stuff.

Last Saturday Ben was painting the play room and I asked him to come to Madeline's room for a minute, while we were in her room she crawled out without us knowing and crawled down the hall to the play room where there just happened to be a gallon of opened paint. What a fun discovery! She put her hand in and then spilled the whole can. Ben was really mad. We took a puddy knife and scraped up as much paint as we could and then I took a wet towel and tried to soak up as much paint as I could while Ben ran to the neighbors to borrow a shop vac. We poured water on the paint and then vacuumed the area. I was really surprised how well the paint came out. Here is a picture, the spot is in the door way and is even less noticeable now that the carpet is dry.

While we were working on the carpet I stuck Madeline in our tub because she was covered in paint and she would be contained. Here is what I found when I went to take care of her after we had cleaned up the paint. I think she knows she did something bad.

We just keep working each day getting a little bit more done. Ben starts his job next Monday and our all day long work days will be over. We have met some friends and are enjoying Colorado!

Housing Frustration

I am mostly writing this post because I have absolutely nothing to do, here is the story. We were set to close on our new house in the Denver area yesterday(Tuesday) at 11:00. Last Sunday evening we got a call from our realtor saying that the seller of the house was planning on moving out on Tuesday which is the same day we were to close and move in OUR house. We sorted things out and decided he could move out on Tuesday and we would start moving in first thing Wednesday morning which is today. We still closed yesterday at the scheduled time and the seller said he would be out by 10:00 p.m that evening. This morning Ben went over to the house because our POD was being delivered, when he arrived he saw the seller's moving truck still there with boxes and stuff all over the driveway. The seller came out to talk to Ben and said he wasn't going to be able to fit all of his stuff on his truck maybe we would like some of it, um no, it is all junk. Anyway, Ben saw in the house and noticed that there is still a lot of stuff everywhere, not boxes ready to be loaded but loose stuff. Frustrating!! So we called our realtor(who we really like) and he called the sellers realtor and the seller has two hours to get all of his stuff out, he ordered a POD to put the rest of the stuff in and then all of the junk he decides he doesn't want will be put on the curb and a garbage company will come pick it up tomorrow. Do you think he will be out in two hours, I doubt it. Even if he is the stuff will just be on the driveway and yard while he sorts it and loads a POD. Maybe next time he moves he will learn to be a little bit more prepared, but probably not. So we are all sitting here at the house of our friends parents wasting away time. Hopefully we can get to work soon. Oh speaking of work, if he is rushing to get all of his stuff out of the house do you think he will take time to clean it, hmmmm, I think I will be cleaning a house today. Lets hope our afternoon is better then our morning!

This and That

Get ready for a lot of pictures! We have been doing a ton of fun things this month and it has been really fun to have Ben at home without any school or work! A few days ago Ben and I went to Park City for the day without kids (thank you mom) we went to the Olympic village and watched freestyle skiers practice their jumps and land in a pool of water. I was impressed with their skill and how high the jumps were, it was a lot of fun to watch!

Yesterday we went to Payson Lake and had a picnic and then walked around the lake. Madeline enjoyed some crackers and turkey at our picnic, the bees were everywhere.

Jacob and David had fun hiking around the lake, they liked to take every side trail they could find.

Last week we went to Bridal Veil falls. We hiked up the water fall a bit and then came back down and played in the pool of water at the bottom, this was a fun activity we all enjoyed getting wet.




Last weekend we went to Idaho to visit Ben's family, we had a great time but I didn't take many pictures. This is David in Logan's football pads, to bad Michigan didn't do well at their game last week, maybe they need David's help.

At the beginning of the month we spent a few days at Bear Lake and had a blast! Jacob and David loved playing in the lake and floating on these little boats.

Thanks to my aunts and uncles we were able to have a boat ride and enjoy wave runners. David and Ben rode the wave runners together and David loved going "so fast"

Madeline liked the water and sand, she was always filthy!

I thought this was a cute picture of David and my grandpa.


Also not pictured because my camera ran out of batteries is my brothers wedding. I was really disappointed that the camera didn't work, it was a nice wedding and he married a great girl! On Monday we are off to Denver! I am excited to move to the next phase of our life and move into our first house.

Simple Pleasures

Little kids are great at enjoying the simple pleasures in life, this evening Madeline had a great time eating an Oreo cookie. This mess was created from only one cookie, I wish I could be as satisfied after eating only one cookie!