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!!

Midas Creek Halloween Carnival

Drew's elementary school held their 2nd annual Halloween carnival last Friday night and we all had a blast! One of my room mom responsibilities was coordinating a booth at the event so I did a "Monster Eyes" game where kids bounced a ping-pong ball painted like an eyeball into a cup of water. It was just one of 30 booths spread out all over the school. Drew got his hair spray painted, they both made crafts, played games, ate goodies and had an all around great time!

As you can see, this year Drew decided to be a gladiator and Will chose to be Elvis. We're sorry to disappoint those of you who had come to expect us to dress up in a family theme as we have every year in the past... Jeff and I had two other parties to dress up for, so we just decided to all do our own thing this year. But they're still cute as can be, even without a theme!

Pumpkins & Witches... oh my!

The boys and I made what's now become the annual trek up to Plain City to visit my cousin Geana and her boys and pick out pumpkins from the "Weston you-pick pumpkin patch" in her backyard. They look forward to it every year! And every year Geana adds something special and new to her pumpkin patch... this year it was a straw dig where the boys could dig for candy. Last year, it was a new "Happy Harvest" sign with a space cut out to stick your head in for a photo. She's just so amazing! While we were visiting we discovered that she was going to be making a trek of her own the following day to Salt Lake City to see the witches at Gardner Village, so we of course decided to join them. It was a mad house, but it was fun to stroll through the crowds together and look at all the creative witches. These are just a few of our favorite ways to celebrate Autumn!

Grandpa Pilgrim's Cabin

Every fall we like to head up to my Grandpa Pilgrim's cabin in the high Uintah's for a little family retreat. This year, we brought up Jeff's BB guns from when he was a kid and set up a target behind the cabin. Everyone was very impressed with my shooting skills. Jeff thought the scope was off, but then on my first shot I hit the target in the center, so he figured it must have been his vision that was off:)

We also rented 4-wheelers from the Bear River Lodge and rode all through Christmas Meadows and up to Lilly Lake. All the aspen were changing colors and the leaves were raining down on us as we plowed through the trails... it was so beautiful!! Jeff and I let the boys drive the 4-wheelers with us sitting on back and they were so excited! They felt so grownup! For a 4 and 7-year old, they did an awesome job staying on the road and not running into any trees!

Back at the cabin we played games, watched videos, read books, took naps, ate lots of yummy food and just had an all around great time as a family! We are so thankful that my Grandpa had the foresight to build a place for us to go to escape the world and bond as a family. Thanks Grandpa!!!