Madelin's Warning to Owen

This week while I was decorating the house with Christmas parifanalia and what not, madelin was "organizing" the stuff I was trying to put together and Owen was of course running around naked as we are potty training him. He is always the first to find the scissors if they are out. I turned around from tying a bow onto the garland just in time to see Owen with scissors pointing down, just centimeters away from his little peeper, just snipping & snipping, with both hands opening and closing the scissors, at a rather speedy pace. I, in my spastic, panicked/ concerned for my childs possible lack of future generationness voice, yelled "Owen! Your're gonna cut your pee-pee off!!!" Madelin, without skipping a beat, as she rarely does, said, "Ya! And then you'll have a girl pee-pee and all the other kids will laugh at you!" Yes, I laughed good and hard at that one....after swiftly removing the scissors from Owens hands of course! I love my kids. The excitement never subsides at our house.

Autumn/Halloweenie!

We love Halloween @ our house! The kids loooove that mom and dad dress up with them. I always try to be a little crafty and make at least one of our costumes. Owen was the lucky candidate. In case you don't know who I am supposed to be, I am Tiger Lilly, the only other girl role in Peter Pan besides Wendy. I didn't want to be Wendy and wear a nightgown! A shout out to Katie who let me use her old wig so I could be a brunette without dying my locks of gold! It is a good wig, made of real hair so I had at least half a dozen people ask if I died my hair just for Halloween.

I love Owen's huge feather that's almost as long as his arm. Ha. They didn't have smaller ones at the craft store. We got to trick or treat with our cousins this year and it was sooo fun. Thanks for the invite Jeana!
Brett making Rylee wet herself! Poor girl.

The girlfriend Owen found along his way while trick or treating.

Coldie Owee. Loud Madi-loo

The attempted pic to get all the cousins in one shot. (Ya right)

Steph and her cute kitty cat

Grandma and the baby chick! He was my favorite. His Martha Stewart of a mom made it (no offense Jeana) But that woman can make anything.... really any thing at all

Madelin... so happy to be with her cousin Braelyn. They don't look a bit alike. Check out Madelin's running shoes so she can get the most candy in the least amount of time.

Owen at the ward party, asking with his snot-nosed puppy dog face for yet another piece of candy. How could I say no?

Me and my cute kiddos. The reason why Owen is showing a little shoulder is because I made his costume. Sorry buddy!

PUMPKIN CARVING!

Crazies. I love Owen in this one, joining in on the silly faceness

CORNBELLY'S @ THANKSGIVING POINT

For those of you who don't live in Utah, if you are ever passing through during the fall, make sure you get to cornbelly'ss. It's a kids dreamland of super fun fall activities! We love it. We went during the day with our good friends, the VanOrman family and then got sitters at night and went back as couples to do the corn maze and ride the mechanical bull and do the scary stuff kids wouldn't like. Don't be alarmed by this first photo...It's only my inner thigh 10 days after riding the mechanical bull! Brett will die of embarrassment that I posted this, but I had to share. FYI: It didn't hurt while I was riding, but both of my inner thighs got bruised like this and lasted for over 2 weeks! Please disregard the super white pastiness!

My princess and her prince brother

Owen sword fighting with a random scarecrow thing. Check out that forward lunge as he strikes!

the princess pumpkin carriage

The corn box (like a sandbox, only better)

Fun swings made out of old tires. I love this girl in her cowgirl boots.

Owen on the shark swing

Madelin after she mastered the kids corn maze. So proud.

The guys racing the pedal tractors

Me and Owen squeezing into the kids cow train

Madelin snuggled with Westley, her man of choice. He says he's going to marry her. It was such a beautiful sunny day, as you can see. We had so much fun. Let's do it again next year Van-O fam!

Cuties Conversing

Owen: (pointing to the dogs, one at a time) "Mom! Dat dog name Dar! (Darla)

Dat dog name Jama! (Jamba)"

Mom: (pointing to Owen) "What's that dogs name?"

Owen: (laughing) "Mom... I not doggie!! I'n Owee!"

Mom: (pointing to myself) What this dogs name?

Owen: (laughing even harder) "You not doggies mom, you Owen mom"

Mom: "So my name is mom?"

Owen: "No, it's Lena"

Madelin: (driving in the car) "Mom, my foot has a fever!"

Mom: "Do you mean your feet are hot?"

Madelin: "No, just one foot has a fever and I need you to pull it out with those silver pinchy things

(tweezers) as soon as we get home!"

Mom: "Oh, a sliver?"

Madelin: (laughing) "oh, ya....silly me!"

Random summer stuff I forgot to post

AT THE ZOO WITH GRANDPA HONEY (QUAYLE)

We got to see the baby elephant there

cute Owen joining the monkey family

My little monkeys

Owen wanted to live in this slide

MADELIN'S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

She picked out her "fuchsia" top with leggins!

Owen was sooo sad to see her go

He wanted his backpack on too

My little dolly and me

A HIKE TO TIMPANOGAS CAVE

My cute friend Shellie invited me to go with her and her sweet foreign exchange student

crappy pic, I know. It's all I got

In the dark cave

BOATING WITH OUR FRIENDS STEVE AND MIRANDA AND HIS MOM AND POPS WHEN THEY CAME TO VISIT

Owen wake surfing with daddy

Madelin wake surfing with daddy (after she got over the scared out of her mind part)

Cheeseball on the way to the lake

A HIKE UP TO BIG SPRINGS WITH GRANDMA & AINTIES AND UNCLE

cheetos in a hammock when we stopped for a picnic

Madelin loves her grandma to pieces

Owen peekin' out

Owen getting sick of being in there

cute Steph was in town so she came

poor Eric carried madelin most of the way back

HAVING A CAMPFIRE WITH GRANDPA IN OUR BACKYARD

OUR NEW DECK

the dogs basking in the sun

my kids basking in the sun

Twas a good summer

Witchy!

Me and a few of the fun girlies in my ward went to the witches night at Gardner Village. It was a blast. We danced for quite a while which I miss doing terribly. We were highly entertained by the crazy people there in their amazing costumes and we ate all kinds of delicious treats. In a two hour span I ate 1/2 of a caramel apple (Shared with Sarah B), a whole sack of those yummy cinnamon sugar coated almonds, and 1/2 of a GINORMOUS scone (shared with Shellie V.) covered in butter and some more cinnamon and sugar. It was really quite enjoyable.

My favorite person there was the lady with the pumpkin boobs! Isn't she great?

These are the girls I went with. Krista, the scary one in front, was highly entertaining. She scared so many people by jumping out from hiding spots. We laughed all night.

Sorry so blurry, but it's all I got! This is me and Shellie. She has become a close friend to me.
She is one of thee most selfless, and genuinely caring people I know.

This is Tara. She is my amazing friend who never slows down, always has a smile on her face and a good piece of advice.

This was my 2nd fave . She looked way cooler in person walking around.

Lake Powell (A couple of months ago)

Owen's hair got whiter and whiter every day

Madelin playing with baby Rylee

Owen distraught that someone has dumped out his rock collection

Madelin doing some night rock climing

Owen entertaining Grandma

Owen fishing with daddy

Madelin snuggling up to Nate and Katie

At the end of August we went to Lake Powell with Brett's parents and siblings and a couple of aunts. It was a blast. We brought the boat and waverunners and had so much fun learning to wake surf . We had a great camping spot and yummy food. We each took a meal to be in charge of and it worked out great. The kids were filthy but happy. And the adults were just glad to have a break from real life. What better place is there to escape to, than Lake Powell. It's paradise.

So, ya know that girl that always has dead batteries in her camera and asks "will you please email me all the good pics you get of this?" That's me at every ocassion, vacation, etc. So thanks go to Jen who so kindly shared her jump drive of pics for me to blog with.

Nate and Katie. (Brett's bro and wifey)

Steph and Brock (Brett's sis and hubby)

Owen throwing his normal fits even tough there was nothing but dirt to throw himself down on.

Cute squishy Rylee with Jackie and Kyle's pup

Rylee taking over Oakley's bed

A spot to be crazy and daring. Look at that blue, blue sky. It is so beautiful there.

Me and Brett wave runnin'

Me wake surfin'

Brett wake surfing. He's pretty dang good at it.

So gorgeous

What a great pic Jen!

Brett's two fun aunts came along for the trip, and his cousin Kayla. It was fun to have them with us.

Jackie, Kyle, and Molly in her teensy tiny life jacket.

More of Owen's birthday in CO

Owen's birthday landed over a weekend when we went out to visit Steph and Brock (Brett's sister and hubby) in Colorado. Stephanie was nice enough to make Owen a cake. He was so happy about it. Love his smile.

Me and Steph got to go get a pedicure while the boys watched the tykes.

We visited Brocks sister where Madelin and Owen got to collect the eggs out of her hen house.

They were a bit scared, but then they got in there and got em.

Little Rylee got stuck in the 3rd row of the Pilot. She was a good sport.

We went up to their cabin for a night and Brett took the kids for a long ride on the four wheeler. So long that I went looking for them.

Cheese ball kids

The weeds outside were too dry and hazardous to have a campfire, so we improvised and Madelin and Steph roasted marshmallows on the stove.

They were dirty kids and we threw em all in together to get fresh and clean.

We always have fun in CO. We hope to go again soon.