Santa Visit

This year my moms ward had a christmas party and Santa came! We went to see him and I couldn't believe how focused Luke was! He was so cute, I could go off and visit with people and look back and was still in line and being good! I was really exciting for him to see Santa, this year he was finally understanding what was going on. So he sat on his lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas and was bouncing off the walls he was so excited!

Ryan on the other hand was LESS than excited to see the man...he wanted nothing to do with him and only wanted to look from a distance and pat his leg...it was funny.

A 4 year old in the house!

4 years ago as of about 4:27 this morning, our sweet lukey was born! He was as stuborn then as he is now! He is a ball of fire and we can't imagine our lives without him! He is such a sweet boy, full of imagination and very spirited. I can't believe he is 4 already, it seems like it went by too fast, soon he will be going to school and making friends and I will just be his mom, not his best bud anymore ( i hope it never happens but I'm preparing myself!)

For lukes birthday cake has been telling me for about a month that he wanted a red dinosaur cake, so I did my best and I think it turned out alright, but I didn't get a good picture of it. And for his birthday dinner he wanted Steak and potatoes with little trees (brocoli).

Happy Birthday to my Sweet, loving Lukey!

I have a confession to make.........

I LOVE to dress my boys the same! Caleb is constantly telling me it is SOOO lame but I think they are so handsome and its kinda cute right now....It will stop....someday....when they make me, but as for now I am the mom! When he starts dressing them, he can do what he wants!

Halloween.........better late than never right!

Luke Skywalker
Ryan the Ewok
Haylie as Darth Vader

Ryan didn't make it throgh the Bashas trick or treat

Isn't he a cute Ewok? I loved it! And he figured out the trunk or treat pretty fast!

Pumpkins!

We started with these.......





















made this,








and this,











and took a try at this (caleb has been BEGGING for a pie from the pumpkin, not the can) It really wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, but its still easier to open the can. Caleb said that there wasn't much difference in taste but when I made pumpkin rolls out of it, they were fluffier than the canned pumpkin!

BTW, one pie pumpkin made 2 pies and 3 pumpkin rolls! Can you believe it!

SNOW!

Can you believe we woke up to this the week of Halloween!?!










It was so crazy cold and the kids loved to be it in.....








for like 5 minutes, until he got cold!

Birthday

Every year Caleb makes me a birthday cake! This year it was chocolate with cherries and whipped cream between the layers....YUMMY!

Here is Ryan enjoing the pizza and rootbeer

Living the High Life!

We had the opportunity to go to flagstaff where caleb had been working and stay in a motel room....a first for my boys! Luke LOVED it! It was so fun to watch him in his excitement, he was so silly!

what a cute boy he found in the mirror!

corn maze and pumpkin patch

Today was the harvest festival, yay! I love this time of year, I do think that October is the best month! We had lots of fun, we can't wait for the haunted maze later this month! fun fun fun!

Primary Program

This year was Lukes first time to be in the Primary Program! We got his part about a month before and he had it down that day! It was 'Heavely Father has a plan for me!" I would ask him about a dozen times a day what his part was and he would spit it out like a pro :)

A couple weeks before the program he was picked to give a talk in primary and I was helping him and I couldn't get him to STOP saying his program part and just give his talk! It was cute.

The day before the program I got a little worried because they had a practice and he did NOT want to stay and practice, so I was afraid he wouldn't do it in sacrament meeting. But when the sacrament got over he marched up there like a big boy (i started to tear up a little) and he was the second one on the line up and he stood up and said his part like a Champion! I was so proud! I was a little more teary then, but my heart was so full! I really feel like that was a good part for him because with all that has happened in our lives lately just when I was at my breaking point he would tell me 'Heavely father has a plan for me huh mom" It was so sweet! I am so grateful for primary and for the AWESOME teacher he has in sunbeams, she is amazing and totally picks up the slack for me being such a slacker mom! He is such a sweet boy and I'm so lucky to have my Lukey! (you gotta love Rynos tie too right!)

See this little boy?

He really knows how to push the limit, but at the same time, he MELTS my heart!

Story behind this picture:

There is a sweet little 9 year old girl in our ward who is currently in Phx Childrens Hospitle with ovarian cancer. They removed a 12 pound tumor. We have been fasting, and praying and thinking an awful lot about this sweet girl and her sweet family.

Well last night I was at the store and ran into a friend and we started talking. Well Luke kept finding things to put in the cart that he thought we needed and I would tell him no and he would take them and put them back, until he came to me with this Sierra Mist. I told him we were not going to buy it but he wouldn't budge, I kept telling him to go put it back and he came up to me and told me,

"there is a girl in primary that is very sick and she needs this!"

I wasn't sure what kind of little care packages the primary has made but I know they have been making card and have started a quilt that everyone is signing but I wasn't sure what Sierra Mist had to do with this. So I told him we would talk to the primary president and see what they needed, and this little boy would NOT take no for an answer on this! He just hauled that soda all over the store because Halli needs it! I don't know if she dose or doesn't but maybe this is a lesson I needed to be taught. Maybe my sweet little boy is trying to learn service or is thinking of others. so we bought the soda if she ends up getting to come home this week like they plan on, then he can take her that soda and feel good because he wanted to help someone get better!

Camping (serious picture overload warning!)

Thursday morning Calebs boss told him they were slow on work so to finish up the morning and come back on monday, so we decided to go camping! We actually haven't been at all this year and didn't go last year either! I can't believe it! I think I had gotten burnt out because camping is usually when we are deer or elk hunting so its October-December camping and its COLD so its not really that much fun cause you wake up so freakin early its miserable! Anyway, the boys had alot of fun. Ryan couldn't have been happier than he was playing in the dirt (less ants and bees would have been nice) and we brought Lukes BB gun and his bow and he had a blast shooting the stump. It was fun to just get away for a couple of days with the boys.

It is so cute how many times I catch Luke trying to do exactly what Caleb is doing

Luke in his element

this cracked me up....

starting him out young

Ryan would not stay out of the fire pit while Caleb was getting it ready......

and kept wanting to climb in while a fire was there!
soooooo much help!

Couldn't wait to get inside!

our little campsite

Greed?!?

Ok so on Tuesday we got an offer for our house. It was a real crappy offer. It wasn't even going to pay off our mortgage, so we have to counter with $5,000 just to break even. Anyway, I just don't know what to do because this guy is a very well known member of the community and is paying cash! but that still doesn't change the fact that we have to be able to pay the house off and pay the realtors and closing costs.

So this is the delema. Caleb and I can not see eye to eye on this. We have been praying to sell our house. And now that we have the chance to (assuming he accepts the offer) Caleb is wanting to counter with 10,000 over what he offered us. To me, in this market and taking into account that we have NEVER recieved an offer and the year mark is coming up, I think we should feel lucky and like our prayers have been answered to break even on this deal! I am scared that if we come back with too high of a counter then he will walk because this is a serious buyers market if I have EVER seen one! I just don't want to offend God by saying 'thanks for answering our prayers but we want more money' I keep telling Caleb, 'we didn't pray to be rich! We just prayed to sell our house so that we can be together as a family and now we have been given that opportunity'!

Does anyone else agree with me? Or am I crazy?

random boy-ness at our house!

Ryan offically loves horses,
and hats, any hat will do

I think........

its going to.........

runin the family!

(don't you love calebs hat? its really lukes bob the builder hat. I guess daddy misses his orange hard hat from the papermill)

Luke learned how to ride with no training wheels! I can't believe it! 3 year olds shouldn't have training wheels taken off! But his cousins do and he had been trying to ride their bikes so we took him to the park and now, I can't ever find him!!

(unless the bike is tied to the tree...hee hee hee)

Ryan likes bikes too

and mud....100% boy, just like his brother