A little squirmy wormy

Jason went to let the dog in at 12:30 this morning on our way to bed, and as he shut the door, this little guy tried to sneak in. The lights were off so if he hadn't shut it in the door, it would have come in and gone who knows where! My bed is only 10 feet or so from this door!! OMG! PTL! ;) (Just for you Amy!)

Jason the crazy snake wrangler!

It amazes me sometimes when I stop to think about all the things God protects us from in the course of a day and a lifetime. We only see the things that happen, we don't see the things that could have, or the extent to which things that did could have gone. Faith is knowing that the Lord loves you so much, He only allows things in your life that will bring you closer to Him and closer to being Christlike. The snake, He obviously felt that wouldn't serve either two purposes, this time.

Happy Halloween!

We always have so much fun on Halloween! The kids really enjoyed picking out their costumes this year. Nathan and Corban decided to be The Super Mario Brothers from Nintendo, and they were quite adorable. (Much better than the blood and guts costumes they were otherwise insisting on buying!) Brooklyn chose a Candy Corn Witch costume, which she made look downright precious. We spent pre-Halloween time at Mimi's to celebrate the October Birthdays together, and The Crazy Gang gave us a preview of their costumes. On Halloween day the kids wore their costumes to school for the annual Character Parade, and then after school we made a trip to Sonic, stopped by the Lee's to say Hi, and then joined the neighborhood party at the Bribiesca's. They went all out this year with magicians, great food, and cool door prizes. It was so fun to just hang out with our friends and enjoy the beautiful evening. Jason dressed up as The Geico Gecko and when he got home from work, (yes, he wore the costume to work), he joined the party in progress and delighted everyone with his unique dance moves!

Brooklyn's 10th Birthday Party

High School Musical 3 World Premiere!

Brooklyn will blog about her birthday party herself, so I don't want to spoil her thoughts, but here's a taste of the amazing time we had! We took 33 people, 24 girls, 9 Adults and siblings, to opening day of High School Musical 3! Each girl received a personalized gift tote worthy of any Hollywood Premiere Party, full of High School Muscial tshirts, water bottles, pens, pencils, folders, and a box of movie candy for the show! We played a movie trivia game, enjoyed marble cake, and then had reserved seating at the show. It was a F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S time!

Nathan's 7th Birthday

Nathan had an AMAZING camping birthday party! We sat up the party in the open area behind our fence. We had tents, a fire pit, an outdoor movie theater, silly string fights, cooked weiners on sticks, roasted marshmallows for S'Mores, and froze some tooshies off.








The kids loved the silly string fight and afterward had a contest to see who could make the biggest ball out of the string for a prize, aka clean up the backyard! They look like snowballs!











Colton Herrold was absolutely hilarious trying to hold his wiener and get his bun on, I was laughing so hard!
















Back in July Nathan and I found these cool telescoping forks at Target and bought them for his party. The boys loved them and got to take theirs home at the end of the party!

Corban and Paul Young braving the heat to roast their hot dog.













Nick and Zach Bloedow opting for the cold weiners instead!







Nathan isn't a cake lover so I had the bakery make him a brownie and ice it like a cake. They did an amazing job replicating his invitation, and it was super yummy!























The boys took their cake and snuggled in for a movie under the stars. It was so fun! I think the biggest hit of the party was absolutely the fire pit. The boys had a blast exploring through the brush to find sticks, trash, boards, anything that would BURN. They kept the fire burning for several hours, and the only two casualties of the night belonged to Nathan and Corban. Nathan grabbed a hot iron cover, and Corban tried to lick his roasting stick right after he'd had it in the fire for awhile. (Ouch!)

Several of the boys left between 9-10 but we had 6 that stayed over night in the tent, plus Bayley (Brooklyn's friend) The girls stayed all night in the girls tent next to the big tent with all the boys.

It was so cold on this night. We lost 4 boys during the night, they came into the house with me, bu three plus the girls survived all night outside with Jason. It's been hot ever since, but that night, and that night only, it was bitter cold!!

Everyone woke up early and finished the party with Donuts and Presents.

Nathan had a wonderful party and is the most amazing seven year old boy! His daddy and I are so proud of his tender heart, his knack for figuring out the world's complexities, and his dark side too that loves to stir up a little mischief in the house. Our family is blessed daily by our "Gift from God." We love you Nathan!

So you can laugh out loud too. . .

Yesterday Corban and I were sitting on the couch talking back and forth. Somehow we got on the topic of being kidnapped and what not, so we were practicing his phone number, address, spelling his name and his parent's names, etc. And then we went through what to do if someone tells him his parents never want to see him again, or that they've stopped looking for him, etc. I asked him what he would do everyday while he was gone if that were to ever happen, and he clapped his hands together and in prayer formation said, "I would pray everyday." and then he rolled back on his backside and clapped his feet together and said, "I would pray with my feet too!" So then after assuring him that he was safe, and he would probably never be in that situation if he stayed with who he was suppossed to and didn't talk to strangers etc etc etc, the conversation went like this:

Mommy: "What could you do to ever make mommy not want to be with you and stop looking for you?"

Corban: [very loudly] "Nothing!"

Mommy: "That's right! I'll love you forever and ever and always want you with me no matter what!"

Corban: "Well, someday I'll grow up and move away."

Mommy: "That's true! Won't that be fun to be all grown up!"

Corban: "Ya, someday I'll get boring and go to work."

Mommy: "Do you think you'll get married?"

Corban: "Yes!"

Mommy: "Do you think you'll have kids?"

Corban: [stops moving, thinks for a minute, shrugs his shoulders]

"Aww, I don't know, I might get her fixed."

And then here's our school picture disaster!

Pumpkin Patch

FALL ROCKS!

Beautiful Brooklyn

Crazy Corban

Nate Dog the Spectacular

Tripp the Magnificent

On top of the World (Or a huge bale of Hay, whichever!)Yes, be very afraid, they almost died on this horribly unsafe piece of playground equipment. Too bad we left with no broken bones or skull fractures, I could have seriously used some cash from suing the non-profit pumpkin patch.

Go MAVS!

We enjoyed an awesome dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse (A Family favorite) and then headed over to cheer on the Mavs!