Month: November 2010

Grams and Gramps took all the grandkids on a hayride to meet the witches. It was so much fun. The witches were awesome, and the kids totally ate it up!

Instead of tickets they gave the kids cockroaches, they showed them their house, with their ‘withchy beds’, rotten food garden, cockroach graveyard, and how to make poison apples (the secret ingredient was spitting!)

Afterwords we went to the candy store, and choose out a treat, it was so much fun! Thanks again Grams and Gramps!

It was so nice to have Toph and Grandma at the museum with me! In case you were wondering…that is a one to one ratio children to adults, and that is NICE. 🙂

We love the museum, and this might be the last trip for awhile until baby sister arrives, and gets bigger! A few highlight, Elliots hair being blown away in the ball area. Truman trading silly bands in the Helicopter, and Tucker building new creations everywhere we went.

After cheering Patrick on, Grandma Phillips came with us and we made our first stop at a Pumpkin Decorating Event that was taking place downtown. There was no carving going on there, but the kids did get to paste and paint their pumpkins. Which in lots of ways was more fun!

Elliot has been obsessed with baby pumpkins, so it was fun to see his reaction as he got his very own ‘baby pumpkin’!

A fun weekend, we spent one day at home playing with toys. The older the kids get, the less time we find we are spending at home with downtime. It was nice to play with no schedule and no agenda other than just playing with toys and each other.

The next day, Toph took off work, and we headed to cheer Patrick on at the State Special Olympic Games. He was participating in swimming. It just so happened some of our good friends (one of Truman’s best friends from Preschool), was there as well!

One of the most earth shattering experiences happened while we were there. I don’t even know how to blog about it, a brief synopsis: we thought Tucker wandered off, there was about 5 of us, and we were checking surrounding areas, buildings, bathrooms, he was ‘lost’ for 15 minutes. I was ready to call the police. When Tucker rolled out from under a bench, where he’d been reading a book, just like he said he was going to do. Go read a book. I have never prayed so hard in my life, and felt so much gratitude.

At the end of the Tucker scare My mom was up there for a closing, so we saw her for a few minutes. And as she was leaving Toph’s parents, Grandma and Grandpa Phillips, arrived. They always have yummy food at Special O State Games, and the kids enjoyed it!

Patrick is an amazing swimmer, and it was such an awesome event to be able to go and cheer him on! We got to watch him swim a couple of sets, and get 3 medals!

We’re so proud of you Patrick~

Our kids elementary school is located close to a park, and so it was super convenient to take a fall field trip to the local park, and no school bus was even needed! We all walked over with the kids (Well, Eli rode in his stroller.)

And as I am participating, I am always have a sense of gratitude I can come and help at events like this…I love seeing my kids with their friends from school.

There were many fun activities.

Ghosts on sticks,

Relay races,

Games, Monster Mash Snacks, (no pictures, sorry I was busy helping the kids!)

And here is a picture of his class. A fun group of kids. This isn’t all of them. There is almost 30 kids in his class! Crazy!

Such a fun morning to spend with my sweet Truman enjoying Fall.

Not unlike most children, Elliot’s motto is: the smaller the space, the happier the kid, and the bigger the smile.

I have found him in the funniest spots lately. Mostly in the back of closets, under his crib with the sides down, behind the couch, and in laundry hampers.

He loves laundry hampers.

Followed by a close second of the chicken coop.

The best part about all of this, is he usually sneaks away to these small corners whilst I am caring for his siblings, but luckily for me, I can just call out “Elliot where are you?” and he’ll respond “good!” or ‘Elliot are you hiding?’ and he’ll respond ‘good!’, or ‘Elliot mommy can’t see you!’ and he’ll respond ‘good’.

Let’s hope that positive outlook of looking at everything as good in life holds!

The tradition continues! Getting up early, early before school, eating donuts and choosing out a special book.

This year Tucker choose out a Judy Moody Book, Truman got a Star Wars Easy Reader, and Elliot choose out Chuggington the Train book. They’ve all been read numerous time already. Another great tradition and fundraiser for our kids school! And another reason I love their father. He is such a good sport about going with the boys!

when we received a hand written letter espescially from Dallin Paul. to us.

the boys were thrilled, and so were we.
Thanks Dallin Paul for brightening a dreary day.

We attended the Fall Parent Teacher Conferences, where it was great to meet with the kids teachers, and find out how things were going in the classroom for our kids (this was our first parent teacher conference for Truman).

Again, gratitude filled my heart as we met with teachers who were invested in our kids, were excited about there growth, and I could tell enjoyed our children.

And outside Tuckers classroom we found his family tree:

From Left to Right:
Truman, Tucker, Elliot
Mom and Dad
Grams and Gramps then Grandma and Grandpa Phillips

This year we got ‘booed’ a record 4 times (Even though I promise we had our ghost on our front door!) I guess our neighbors thought we needed a little Halloween spirit at our house!

It was sure fun to watch the big boys go and deliver the ‘boo’ treats to neighbors, they did it all by themselves.


They got themselves dressed and disguised, and Toph and I watched from the window as they did the job. It was pretty cute, and amazing to watch how big our kids are getting!