This kid is a reader!

 I have been working extra with Chase and along with preschool it's paid off.  He's really taken off in his learning. 



We've been writing notes back and forth at dinner.  

and this was my favorite Halloween decoration this year:

Chase came home from school one day and said that we needed a "Boo" sign to scare people.  He ended up running out of room on the paper and the extra "o" had to go before the b, but it is still my favorite.





I was trying to get him to pose for a picture for me (the picture above was the result.)  He dragging his feet and telling me that he didn't want to read a book right now.  Not two seconds after I left him alone did I find him as pictured below. :)

We took advantage of exploring our own backyard to find these petroglyphs.  They were all over the place on these broken rocks like in the picture above.  If you look on the top right corner of the boulder Daniel is kneeling by you can see one of a deer.  That obviously was Daniels favorite :)

 Chase wanted to be the photographer on our trip.

We drug Preston along with us.  He's a good sport to play with the boys who love him to death.  Literally ...they try to love him ...to death.

(Apparently we weren't very concerned with making sure Brody ended up in any of our pictures.  He's actually in all of them, just hiding behind Daniel in the backpack.)

L-3 zoo day

(We went into survival mode for a couple of months so I'll be playing catch up on the blog for the next little while.)

 We took the boys to Daniel's work's zoo day.  They were so exited about it for weeks before hand.  I was excited too, but more so because they were serving us dinner so I got the night off!

Brody can sure make a hamburger look good!  He is a hamburger kid all the way.  

Chase in front of the traditional lions drinking fountain

The tigers were Brody's favorite.  It helped get him excited for dressing up as a tiger for Halloween!

Election 2012

(Written November 8, 2012) I'm a little late on this and most of anything I could think of to say has already been said; however this being my sort of journal I didn't want this to pass as if it wasn't important to me and my family.

Daniel and I voted two weeks prior in the early election but it was still on my mind all day.  I sat next to Daniel glued to the T.V. screen on Election night.  I was nervous and confused watching it knowing that just because they were showing Romney slightly ahead in the beginning didn't mean much of anything.  And I felt the rush of disappointment that many others did that night as President Obama was officially elected for a 2nd term. 

I wasn't too surprised when I checked facebook before bed to see my updates blowing up with dooms day comments about the country and the choice that was just made.  I totally understood everyone of those comments because I felt the EXACT same way.... 4 years ago.  

4 years ago I felt sick after the election.  I thought we were seeing the end of our great country and I was very dramatic  about it.  Well 4 years later I feel the country is in  a worse place than it was, but it hasn't ended yet.  This year I shrugged my shoulders in disappointment and headed off to bed.

I have heard so many great comments come about this year that echo exactly how I feel right now. 

  -the picture of President Monson with the caption "My president didn't change tonight."
  - the church putting out an official statement congratulation President Obama and saying that now is the
    time for American to come together.
  -Jill pointing out that a black man and a mormon where running against each other as president.  Our
    country is making progress in some areas.
  -"The future is as bright as your faith" -Thomas S. Monson

And most importantly I don't really believe that Mitt Romney could have changed the country as dramatically as we all hope.  I don't believe any president has quite that much power.  The really important changes are the ones that need to be made in our homes and in our lives.   We have half a country whose values and ideas align with the presidents enough to let him have another 4 years and that is what worries me. 

Halloween Preschool Party

 Chase had looked forward to this party for the whole month of October! 

Brody and I got to go and celebrate with them.  They had lots of candy games and "witches brew".

Halloween festivities

 This year we decided to start a "Boo" around our neighborhood.  I let the boys pick out what they wanted o make about a week before we made them so I would have time to get to the store and everything and they decided on "mummy cupcakes" (found on pinterest).  They were calling them "mommy" cupcakes and it wasn't until the day we were making them that I realized it wasn't just a pronunciation problem.  Chase asked me if we could make "daddy cupcakes too".  That's when I realized the boys didn't know what a mummy was :)

They enjoyed making the cupcakes as much as delivering them.

Brody seeing his chocolate face in the mirror :)


The boys had so much fun sneaking them to the neighbors houses.  Brody and I would find a spot to hide while Daniel and Chase would take them up and ring the door bell and run.  Then we would all watch as they tried to find us.  Chase had so much fun with it.  Brody just wanted to eat the cupcakes and wondered why we were giving them all away :)


 Then we came home and each got one of the reject ones. (as you can see some of the mummy's ended up with a few too many eyes:)

PUMPKIN CARVING

Brody was game to dig right in and help out.

Chase has always hated the pumpkin carving and when he quickly turned his back, folded his arms and refused to touch any nasty pumpkin guts.   I wiped some on his face to give him a hard time and Daniel forced his hand into the pumpkin.  That's when the gagging started.  We left him alone after that :)

We had Chase draw the design for the pumpkin and Daniel cut it out.  It's my favorite pumpkin ever!

 Of course I had to force them into some pictures. 



They would only take one with me if we did crazy faces :)

All dressed up

 After watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Chase wanted to be a ghost like all the kids on Charlie Brown.  (But only two holes:)  After thinking it through I realized that he wasn't going to wear a sheet over his head all day at a preschool party and trick or treating so we borrowed the ghost cover from Grandma and used paint for the rest.  Easy, cheap, and he was thrilled! 

Brody is big into tigers right now and that's all he wanted to be, which worked out pretty great for me because we just happened to have a tiger costume on hand! We picked that tiger costume up for 5 bucks one year and it has been used for 4 years in a row.

My spooky boys!

 Brody was so into all the decorations and other kids dressed up that the candy was just a bonus.  Every house we walked up to he would stop squat down with his face right by their pumpkins and comments on how "spooky" or "scary" they were.  He loved the "scary fire" lighting the pumpkins up.  I remember Chase being the same way at that age.  I'm pretty sure the 2.5-3 years age is my absolute favorite for trick-or-treating!