Yay my boys!

I am so proud of my boys! They are such amazing human beings! This week Will finished reading his box of Clifford phonics books and was rewarded with his very own lamp that hangs by his bunk bed. Since he's reading so well, now he gets to stay up and read books for 15 minutes after bedtime, just like Drew! It's quite an accomplishment!

And Drew achieved his Wolf rank advancement in Cub Scouts tonight at pack meeting. He's been working hard and learning all sorts of new skills and we are just so proud of his efforts!

Service Learning

For over a year now, we have been volunteering as a family at the Utah Food Bank once a month. We have done everything from sorting food and putting together food boxes for the elderly to bagging apples and frozen turkeys to be delivered to the needy.

It has been a great learning experience for the boys both in helping them enhance their reading, writing and math skills through sorting the food into the appropriate boxes, but also helping them see how efficiently we can accomplish things by working together as a team. And of course, it gives us a warm feeling inside knowing we're working to help others in our community.
It has also helped foster a friendship between us and my friend Lisa and her son Austin and sister-in-law Tamara who volunteer with us each month. The boys have become good friends.

It's such a worthwhile thing to do and I'm so happy we started volunteering as a family. There are so many life lessons we are all learning and it is truly our pleasure to serve.

First snowman of the season...

When I came home from work this afternoon I was so happy to be welcomed by Jeff and Will's first snowman of the season. It made me smile and cheered me up after driving home in the blasted snow!!

Will woke up at 7:30 this morning because he was so excited about the snow! He came in the bathroom where I was getting ready with a perma-grin on his face, demanding I let him put his snowpants on so he could go outside and make a snowman. I told him it was too early and besides, "there's not enough snow to make a snowman..." I was so elated that Jeff helped Will prove me wrong!

Will was so proud of his work on the head and he explained that dad did the two bottom circles. Then Will had the bright idea to use the faces from the decorated pumpkins that were still sitting on our front porch covered in snow. So the snowman has ears, a nose, eyes, a mouth and a witch hat... So cute!!

I wish I still got as excited about snow as my boys do! I remember loving it when I was a kid, but I think once I had to start driving in it I fell out of love with the stuff. If only it wasn't so cold!! I would much rather be hot than cold! Thank goodness for my boys though, for reminding me how much fun it was to be a kid!

Hooray for Halloween!

This is our Halloween! We had a month jammed packed with parties, visited pumpkin patches, carved pumpkins, and dressed up again and again and again... and had an all around great Halloween Season!

Drew was the most handsome Gladiator and Will was the cutest little Elvis you ever saw! People complimented him every where we went!

Jeff and I went to a Murder Mystery party and I was Nineve, the lady of the lake, and Jeff was Prince Allendro, vampire king. We had a great time and both survived without being murdered. Then we went to another fun party with our friends from Ogden called Fear Fest. For that, I went as Wonder Woman and Jeff was a Gangster. We looked awesome and had a fabulous time! We love Halloween!!