A Marvelous Halloween packed with a Rodent, an Oo-la-la lady, and a Kung Fu Kick!

Fancy Nancy, Kung Fu Panda, and a Black Rat

(chosen in an effort to "scare all the moms")

This year the kids picked their costumes, which were homemade (learned my lesson there -- spent nearly as much as I would have had I purchased them already made and would have spared myself several trips to the store and time I'll never get back!). However, they turned out okay in the end and the kids were thrilled with them, which is all that really matters, right?

We enjoyed carving pumpkins with Grandma and Grandpa Taft -

especially when Grandpa John whipped out the drill to speed things along!

Of course we had to have a UTES pumpkin with a red light!

This is MJ, our YW Secretary and her daughter, Chantelle, one of the beautiful young women I get to work with at church! MJ had come over asking for a hula hoop the night before but the costume she was making was top secret and she wouldn't spill even one bean. She left me wondering until the ward Trunk or Treat when I discovered her adorable CUPCAKE outfit!

All the Taft grandkids
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Below:

(back) Mack (Anikin -sp?), Utes Cheerleader Avaree, Halle, Wyatt

(front) Dragon Jace, Carson, and Yoda Mason

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This is trick-or-treating in STYLE!

Thanks to Grandpa's Ranger and Golf Cart we were able to cruise through the RAIN and hit a couple houses before we too drenched to go any further!

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It was so fun to t-or-t at the home of one

of our VERY favorite babysitters, Sequoia!

Of course we had to hit the McSwain house

where Hailey brought out the bucket of goods!

And then the rains REALLY came

But we'll do ANYTHING for

Grandma Connie's caramel popcorn balls!

We saved our favorite stop for the last one of the night:

Grandma B.!

keeping all the balls in the air...

Sometimes life's ironic. Perhaps it's just part of becoming a parent of a child that's getting older and more involved. Or perhaps it's not for any reason in particular, other than this is how life happens at times.
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But for me, this summer screams with irony.

I entered into these summer months worried that my kids wouldn't have enough to do, and now that I find summer halfway over, I'm already wishing it would come to a close because I feel like it's been a constant "go-go-go" and I'm ready to get back into some semblence of a routine! Between vacations and road trips that seem to appear nearly every other weekend, swim lessons, weekly movie day, craft camp, birthdays, family home evenings, etc. I feel as though our entire family has a schedule akin to that of the Energizer bunny! It has been non-stop. All fun, mind you, and nothing that I'd want to give up, but there just hasn't seemed to been time to catch my breath. Let's be honest here...we're lucky if the laundry gets washed between events. And what I hear from moms more "experienced" than myself is that it only gets worse. Heaven help us!

However, I am grateful that we've had things to do and haven't been bored. We're so lucky to live in a community that offers a variety of entertainment, many times for FREE! (I'm taking part in a prime example of that entertainment tonight with my dear friend, Heather. Our husbands are absent, so we're taking the kids to the Polynesian concert at Brigham Young Park after dinner.)

One public service that we've enjoyed this summer is the Storytime and Programs offered at the Davis County Libraries. Here are some pictures of my kids (with the sweet neighbor friends as well as their fun little cousin Mack) at the Bountiful Branch's Jugglers performance. You can see from their faces that they had an excellent time!

a memorable Memorial Day

Our Memorial Day "festivities" aren't exactly noteworthy to most, but I wanted to mention what a great time I had Monday afternoon.

Thanks to the wind & rain, we had a simple "indoor" BBQ with our good friends & neighbors, the Stewarts, and one of my kids' absolute most favorite people, "Cousin Joleen".

I was so happy Jo came over. I had invited her but with false hopes, because I didn't think she'd actually come. This spring she had been so busy she put beavers to shame, and so I guess I was kind of used to her not really having the time (she's been passing CPA exams left and right). Anyway, like I said, it made my day that she came. We were laughing over dinner about what a love-hate relationship she and I have had over the years. Being "aunt/niece" with birthdays two months apart often times felt more like attending the same grade K-12 with your sister. But as children we loved to play together, especially the days we survived our petty little arguments. I'm sure you can relate. It does sound a lot like a sibling relationship, does it not? And then...ahhh...then we lived together one summer. Boy, was that the straw that broke the camel's back! I think we both wrote pages of the book "101 Ways To Sabotage What Could Have Been a Great Roommate Experience". Seriously, with exception to a couple good memories, I know she'd agree that we both made a lot of mistakes that summer. But the good part is, we can talk about it now. We've admitted we were both in the wrong, and now I'm just thoroughly enjoying her friendship and the beautiful person that she is. I really admire her determination and success she's had in school and now career, and let me tell you...this woman can cook! I've gotten some of the most interesting, but tasty, recipes from "Jo's Kitchen". She's gorgeous, having developed this super-fun, classy sense of style...I asked her yesterday where she finds all her cute clothes! Anyway, thanks for coming, Jo...we had a lot of fun with you!

And then of course, there's the Stewarts. When you move into a new home, one concern you (or at least I) have is always "What will the neighbors be like?" Likewise, I'm sure they were curious just who had moved next door and prayed we weren't ax-murderers or worse, lawyers (just kidding, Shawn!). We feel like we got the real luck of the draw with Shawn and Kami. They are the perfect neighbors in all the right ways: they take care of their house, they take care of their yard, they have children that are not obnoxious, but rather so adorable I could eat them right up! Their two kids and my brood get along famously, which is good because we swap babysitting at least once a month. Thanks to Kami, I've gotten a lot of great advice on how to plant shrubs and flowers, and thanks to Shawn, we've extracted "free" legal advice from him on two separate occasions in less than a year. We'd better be careful not to take advantage of his generosity...he might start timing our phone calls! :) I've called Kami from "the road" before asking her to make sure I shut my garage and it makes me feel good that she's felt able to call me for small favors, too. They had a busy day yesterday, with family activities in the morning, so it felt wonderful that they'd make time for our little BBQ, braving a new recipe I tried (which, thankfully, turned out pretty darn good thanks to our other 5-Star neighbor, Jayme. Thanks, Jayme! The Blue Cheese Burgers were a hit!)

Sunday after dinner, we'd driven the kids up to Hooper to see Brett's grandparents graves. It was a seized opportunity to talk to our kids about them (Halle was only two when they passed away) and also discuss the importance of temples and eternal families. Surprisingly, Halle was genuinely interested in them. I would think a 6 1/2-year old would have rather joined her younger brother on his walk around the cemetery to look at the different flowers, etc. placed by the headstones. Especially since she'd insisted on bringing her new "bug catcher" with us. But once Brett started talking about Grandma and Grandpa Taft, all she wanted to do was sit next to Brett at their gravesite, asking him questions about them, and the occasional question about heaven and the Plan of Salvation. On the way home, we drove by their house (which I'd never seen so I definitely loved seeing the square red-brick home near Roy High School) as well as Brett's maternal grandparents home, which she did remember. "Is that the house I went to where I got to play with the Jack-In-The-Box?" After we got home, her fascination continued. She'd disappeared for a while upstairs, reappearing about fifteen minutes later with a scrapbook page I'd done with Mack and Hazel Taft's pictures on it. "Is this them?" she asked Brett. Then she sat on his lap and asked more questions. It made me think about my own grandparents, and my brother, who have gone on ahead, paving the way for us on the other side, and how richly blessed I am to be tied to spirits with such strength and honor. The best question I'd heard all day was as we were walking to the car at the cemetery. I had mentioned the reason temples were so important was that they made it possible for us to be together forever with people that we love, even people that have already died. In childlike enthusiasm, she stated, "Oh! I get it, Mom! So because Grandma and Grandpa were married in the temple, they got to be together again? And I'll get to meet them some day? And then Wyatt and Carson will get to know them, too? And then I'll get to be with them forever!" I'm so proud that even at her young age, Halle is already grasping the significance of a noble heritage and the importance of making that connection with those that have gone on before!

So there's our Memorial Day weekend in a nutshell. Nothing earth-shattering, but leaving us at the end of the day feel extremely blessed to have certain people in our lives.

Hope yours was memorable, too!

P.S. If you've noticed the time, don't be alarmed. Between Wyatt's last awakening and my flu-like symptoms, I decided it wasn't getting me anywhere tossing and turning in bed. Now that I've been up twenty minutes, I'm ready to go back to sleep. So mission accomplished!

Yardwork, Pirates, & Bears, OH MY!

A week or so ago Brett's dad and brothers came over for a modern-day "barn-raising". Or in our case, a "shed-raising". Not only were they helpful with the shed, but nobody came empty-handed. Dad brought some tools, Tyson brought Mack, and Tanner brought personality and...a bear (explained below).

And there is Tanner's afore-mentioned PERSONALITY. What a ham.

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The kids kept busy with the ultimate kid-entertainment: large, empty boxes! They decided to play pirates. Here they are decorating their ship with stickers and crayons.

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Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, A pirate's life for me!

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Have I mentioned that I love this kid?

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And I have I mentioned that I really, really love this "kid"?

Here is that bear I was telling you about. Tanner hid underneath a box and started growling. The boys were going absolutely nuts waiting for the rabid beast to emerge!
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As he escaped from his lair, the boys anticipated their "grizzly" death from bear attack.
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"Grrrrrrrrrr!" The bear was fearsome and showed no mercy.

The boys, of course, loved it.

It was hysterical!

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Tanner is basically the most adorable uncle in the world. I keep telling him that after his mission, all he has to do to impress a girl & melt her heart is to let her watch him with his niece and nephews.