Jude has gotten big enough that he knows has chores. This is one of them. I plop him up on the counter and it is his job to put away the dishes. I hand him a dish and he finds it's spot. And he does every single dish and utensil in there. He really likes it and thinks it is fun and will even get upset if he sees someone putting away the dishes. What a responsible young cutie pie.

Fun fun day! There was a day at the farm type activity that we took the families to. We got to go into a petting zoo to see goats, bunnies and chickens. We got to do face painting, and horse painting. That's right, horse painting.It is supposed to be some type of theraputic thing but they let all the kids dip their hands in paint and make hand prints on these horses. Very strange but the kids got a big kick out of it. Alice was not even kind of scared of the animals, she just ploppd herself in the middle of them so she could be part of the action. One of the horses loved Jude's hair and tried to get a bite of it. Everyone had a really good time. Well...except for Derek. But that is good enough to be another post.

Oh my. Oh my, oh my, oh my. Not good, not good at all. So Derek is really allergic to hay. I have always known that but I never understood it, that is until Derek came home from our little at the farm shin dig and looked like this!! His eyes were red and pussing and his whole face looked like a puffer fish. I felt so bad and guilty for taking him to the farm but I have never seen anything like this. He never even touched the hay, he didn't even get near it! I'd hate to think what his face would look like if he had. I never knew that Hay was so airborne. Goodness gracious! Note to self, no hay! EVER!!! This first picture is about 15 minutes after we got home. About 2 hours later
Before going to bed

And waking up the next morning.

Gaint bugs part two!!!! Look at the size of this grasshopper! It's as big as that tree!
Ok not really but it is still pretty big. And Jude was so excited to see the "Grasspopper" as he put it. I think I might like grasspopper even better.

Our nephew Dexter LOVES the color blue. It is his most favorite! So his crafty mom decided to let him be a blue crayon for halloween. She even went out and bought blue spray hair dye. Dexter was in high heaven and when Jude and Oliver saw how cool he looked they needed to have blue hair to. These are some slammin' blue haired boys!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALICE!!!!!!!!

My beautiful little girl is now a year old! I couldn't believe how much she has grown!! We of course had a shin dig to celebrate this day and we had a really good time. I decorated with pink and purple streamers everywhere, Angie and I made tie dye cupcakes that we let the kids decorate, and we also did a balloon popping game. The kids did really good and we all had a great time.

Then Alice got to open her presents and they were great!! She is a spolied little primma donna that is for sure. We did a little "fortune" game where she gets to pick from an aaortment of things and it tells her "future" well she picked the things that have to do with technology and athletics. hmmm....... Maybe she is going to grow up and build robots!!!!When it came time to eat the cake Alice was so dainty! She must not have wanted to ruin her party dress.

The boys and their balloon bash!

Yeah!! I love our town! It was a saturday and the higher ups just thought they would throw the citizens of S.George a big random just because we can carnival. They turned the park into this fun little spot and had all sorts of rides and attractions. FOR FREE!! So off we went. The kids got to do bouncy houses, a big carnical swing, and train rides. They even had all sorts of booths full of neat things. One guy was doing free balloons for all the kids and all the boys got balloon swords and promptly began beating eachother.
They had a free photo booth that you could take themed pictures at. Here is Jude and I being scary!!!

But poor sad ALice, who knows she is just as big as anyone was having a hard time getting left out of some of the big kid fun. Here she is being very sad while she watches all the big boys ride the swing.But her uncle Brain was here to help her get her adrenaline going. He was doing all sorts of crazy thing with her, Shot putting, and pitching her around, she loved it.

We all had a great time and ended up being so tired. Fun day, fun day indeed.

Boy fights!

The library was having a "Meet the firemen" event so off we went to the library. When we got there the host informed us that the firemen had gotten a call and would be back later, hopefully. So she went on with the program and had all these cute little activities. The kids got little phones and learned how to call 911. Then they taught them what constituted as an emergency. Then she taught them how to stop drop and roll. They all got little fire hats and just when we were out of activities in walk the firemen. The kids got so excited. Some of them even got to try on the firemen gear. At the end they asked if anyone had any questions. No one was asking any thing so I pipped up and asked how much does all their equipment weigh after it is on. The fireman looked at me and said, Why don't you come try it on! I WAS SO EXCITED!! but then....but then... they got another call. So off the heroes went. I know it is their job and I wouldn't want them to do anything but what they were supposed to do but I was bummed I didn't get to wear the gear or that the kids didn't get to see the fire truck. I bet they will do it next year, so we will just go again.

We were watching the Bowles boys tonight while Angie and brian went off to the temple and we had a gooooood time! There are some things I didn't get pictures of so i will just tell you about it. We started the day off with coloring in the cutest little sketch pad. The paper is like a half colored picture. It has trucks and bikes and stuff onthe paper and some of it is colored and some of it isn't. It makes for a really fun art work(Thanks to Dad and Rose for that.) Then even though it was raining the kids insisted on going out to do chalk. So off they went for awhile. Next they came in and raced eachother around in a tunnel, just laughing and going as fast as they could.

We went in my room to shoot off ballon rockets(the boys LOVE them.) And then they came up with a quasi dangerous game of jump off the bed onto the rocking chair. I was just waiting for someone to get it but all's well that ends well I guess.

Then the main event of the night!! An all out boy vs boy vs boy brawl! They were jumping and smashing and pushing and pulling everybody everywhere. It was so funny to watch! Just a big ball of legs and arms. Occasionaly I would hear a "No, don't do that!" Only to have that same boy turn around and do the same thing. Dang toddlers fighting dirty. It was just so cute to see my boys being boys. GO FIGHT WIN!

Random carnival in the fabulous freddy's parking lot. We went over and ended up hacing a really good time. They had a petting zoo, about 4 diffrent bouncy houses, a fire truck (but they had to answer a call before we could get pictures, shucks) a giant pirate ship (from little mermaid performance) with about 5 bubble machines. It was so beautiful that we had to have a dance party in the bubbles. They also had all sorts of games, and prizes for the kids. It was a wonderful Saturday.

So my Dad and Rose came to visit this weekend. It was really fun to see them and to see my Dad cross the finish line of the St.George Marathon! WAHOO!! They stopped by for dinner and we had a really good time catching up. Jude was a little overwhelmed and not very photogenic, this was all I was getting from him. But Alice was being so cute and sweet. Just like my Ali boo! SHe got some birthday presents early and they were a hit! Some adorable little snow shoes, a toasty pink jacket and a doll that became an instant obsession. When you press her tummy she giggles and no matter where you are in the house she will find that doll. We named her Who-dat" cause that is what Alice's says whenever she sees her. Thanks Dad and Rose for picking such a hit!

AHHH!!!!!! GIANT BUG!!!!!!Ok, not really but it's still pretty big. About the size of a costco card. I have never seen a praying mantis that big.

Jude is of course all boy and has no problem with bugs. He kept trying to poke it even though the mantis was doing his fighting stance. I kept telling Jude watch out so he just cirlced the bug like there was some invisible bubble fending him off. Bugs are cool.