Halloween

I am feeling like a slacker this year. I didn't decorate the house, I didn't dress up at all, I forgot to take pictures of the boys, I didn't even do any trick or treating. The kids didn't have school so we went up to my mom's for our annual pizza lunch and decorating sugar cookies. Then we came home and I made homemade chicken noodle soup and rolls. Then I dropped Rylee off with her friends at a Halloween party. I dropped the boys off at their friend's to go trick or treating. Then Mike, Jenna, and I headed up to his sister's house for chili dogs and trick or treating (this is a tradition for us). When we got there our niece, Alicia, and her husband David wanted to take Jenna trick or treating. So we were able to sit and eat and watch some football and old "scary" movies. Everyone had a good night so in the end Halloween was a good one this year. Maybe next year I will try to be more on top of things.

Rylee with 3 of her friends...
the one in the blue is one of her best friends and one of my favorite kids too!

Jenna (the vampiress) with Alicia and David

Jenna and Shannon

A Fun Visit

Our cute niece, Ashley, is expecting her first baby January 1st. She lives in Pasadena so we don't get to see her as often as we like. Her, and her cute husband were in town this weekend for a couple baby showers so we were lucky enough to spend some time with them.


Jenna LOVES their pug, Lucy. The way Lucy attacked her, I would say the feeling is mutual.

Rylee with her cousins: Alicia, Ashley, and Shannon.
They are all so beautiful and so much fun to be around.

The boys didn't come to the shower and kept bugging me about seeing Ashley.
Usually when Ashley comes all they ask about is where is Lucy? Where is Brett? This time all they wanted was to see Ashley! They got to spend some time with all 3 of them.
Love this picture! Just wish Noah was smiling!

GNO

I was lucky enough to get together with most of my girls from nursing school. We had our same clinical group (10 girls) throughout most of our 2 years and all but 2 of us were able to be there. One girl has moved to Canada and the other had something come up last minute. So the rest of us met at The Porcupine Grill (YUM) for dinner. It was so much fun to get caught up on everyone's lives and to laugh like the old days and even better that we didn't have to try and squeeze studying in too. One girl has gotten married, one is engaged, one is divorced, 2 have had babies, 1 is pregnant....All of us have RN positions that we like and are becoming the best RN's around! I really would not have made it through nursing school, especially clinicals, without these girls. I cannot believe it has been almost a year since we graduated and were all together.

Haunted Houses

I went to a haunted house a couple weeks ago with some of my girlfriends and Rylee and my niece, Shannon came too. I was really freaked out, but had a blast!!! Rylee and Shannon have been buggin me to take them to another haunted house and my boys wanted to try one too. So we decided to try the Haunted Hollow in Ogden. It's outside in a wooded area...spooky! It was not as scary as I was anticipating and not as scary as the other haunted house we went to, but it was fun! The boys loved it! and were not scared at all. I had to hang on the them a few times.

PLANKING

Not sure the what, where, when, why, and how of the whole planking thing,
but the kids had fun the other day planking.



Jenna

Cole

Noah

Shannon

Rylee
(when I saw this picture I yelled at her a bit. She is way too high up, on too thin of support. Teenagers...too brave and/or stupid...)

6 Years

Cannot believe it has been 6 years since seeing his incredible smile. 6 years since he has given me one his big brother hugs. 6 years since we got to hang out with our kiddos together. 6 years and it still seems like yesterday. 6 years and I still think about calling him to tell him some exciting news or get some brotherly advice. 6 years and it still hurts a little everyday.

I love you Brandon!

9th Grade Choir

Rylee is in choir again this year and enjoys it a lot. Not sure if that is because all of her friends are in the class or because she enjoys singing (probably the friends). I know she does not like their dresses, which I think look very nice. They always sound great! They did a few songs with actions and their closing number was The James Bond Theme...very fun!


Anna, Jackie, and Brayden with Rylee. These 3 are some of her best friends. I love these kids almost as much as she does...they are awesome!!! So glad Rylee has good friends.

BAND

The boys had their first band concert at school and it was a lot of fun! It was just the beginning band and their instructor said they have only learned 3 notes so we would be hearing a variety of the 3 notes. Even with only 3 notes it was great!!! I am really glad the boys decided to try band. A week or so before they were suppose to start summer band they both said they did not want to do band because they had heard bad things about the teacher. I encouraged them to try it, but left the decision up to them. They definitely made the right choice for them. They LOVE band and they LOVE their teacher. It was a good lesson for them in not prejudging and in keeping an open mind.

They have been awesome about practicing, I rarely have to remind them. It's great to hear the trumpet and baritone coming from downstairs along with the guitars, drums, and keyboards. They are already talking about which instruments they might try next year.

Noah: my Trumpet player

Cole: my Baritone player