Halloween 2012

Halloween this year was Dr. Seuss inspired with the boys being Thing 1 and Thing 2!! I had found the idea on Pinterest and LOVED the costumes so I decided to make some for the boys because buying them each a costume was just too expensive! I bought them sweats and long sleeve shirts at Target, bought white iron-on interfacing and black sticky felt. To get the letters I downloaded a Dr. Seuss font that I liked and enlarged the words to the size I wanted. Then I made the wigs by hot-gluing blue boas to beanie hats! Then I just bought red gloves and cheap red socks to cover their shoes so they were all red!! It was such an easy costume to make and keep them warm, however we totally lucked out with the weather and instead of having to bundle up with tons of layers and coats, they were actually getting too warm and kept trying to take the wigs and gloves off! Anyways, they had a total blast going and getting candy and could have kept going all night!

On October 26, I took the boys over to World's Gym here in Rexburg to their Trunk or Treat. That day was a lot colder and it had just snowed 6 inches that morning!! Luckily it had melted off the parking lot, it was just really wet and still pretty cold.

For Halloween we got together with Chris' brother and wife and their two boys. It was so fun, we just hung out and had pizza, went trick or treating and had homemade hot chocolate...which was so delicious! Because we lucked out with the weather the boys could have kept going all night, but we just went to the houses right around Jeff and Maria's house and then headed over to my aunt and uncle's neighborhood! We had a lot of fun and Parker is already asking to go trick or treating again!!

The boys and my adorable nephew, Kaydon (who was a cute little dinosaur)!

 It is so incredibly difficult to get three kids to smile at the camera at the same time, if at all!!! 

This was taken at the Halloween Trunk or Treat at World Gym...

The Traveling Jacket :)

My step mom has this adorable jean jacket from the Gap that she has had literally for YEARS for when my brothers and youngest sister were little. It is now called the traveling jacket because it does just that! It travels now to each of the grandkids. I have had it now for 4 years and now it gets to travel back to Arizona for Kelsey's little girl to wear! My boys haven't ever really gotten to actually wear it because by the time it actually fit them it was summer time and too warm to wear it. But I still got some pictures of them both wearing it. You can see Parker's here. And here are Tyler's!!

I had forgotten about it because we hadn't needed to wear coats for quite awhile, so when we got home from Arizona I pulled it out and tried it on him and get a picture of him wearing it and found it actually is a tiny bit small for him...Oh well, he still looks cute in it and he was actually posing for the camera! haha

Phoenix Zoo - October 15, 2012

Today we decided to go with Valerie, her two youngest kids, Ella and Nathan Jr, and hers and Chris' dad to the zoo. It was pretty fun, but we could only stay for a couple hours because it is so big and it was getting to hot. 

 Some of the things we saw were the biggest turtles ever...

 ...Iguanas...

 ...monkeys...

 I love this picture...Tyler just ran up on his own and grabbed his grandpa's hand...so sweet! He NEVER wants to hold our hands!

 And Parker took a turn to push the stroller :)

 Snack Time!!

 Cousins!

 Tyler's expression cracks me up! haha

 They took a ride on the Merry Go 'Round...

 ...Saw the giraffes...

 ...and got to pet the stingrays...OR just play in the water like the boys did!

It was a lot of fun to spend some time with Val and her family. We wish we lived closer so we could do more stuff together!

Baby Blessing - October 14, 2012

This morning our nephew Nathan Jr was blessed by his father. We were so happy that we were able to attend his special day!!

 This was so sweet to see the three of them checking in on Nathan!

 Both sides of the family that was able to attend...

 The cute little family!!

 The Bell side of the family!

Date Night!! October 12, 2012

On October 9 bright and early we loaded up the car and drove 16 hours down to Arizona for a number of activities. Our oldest niece, Sammy was getting baptized, our youngest nephew, Nathan Jr. was getting blessed and my sister was having her baby shower and to job search. We were all excited to head down to the warmth to visit family for a few days. My sister and brother-in-law took the boys Friday afternoon and kept them overnight so Chris and I could have a date night and be relieved of any sort of parenting duties for a little bit! It was so nice to have a little break and be able to talk whenever we wanted without anybody screaming or yelling to us and it was also nice to be able to sleep in and take our time getting up!! Thanks Kels and Alex, they sure had a blast!! So while they were over being spoiled by their aunt and uncle, Chris and I went to Golfland and did a round of mini-golf. It was fun and let the record show that I in fact WON!! haha After mini-golf we headed over to Target to get a baby shower gift for my sister, which proved to be VERY difficult because she is having a girl and everything is just SO DARN CUTE!!! We went before dinner and were in there forever so naturally Chris started getting hungry and went to get popcorn and a pop while he waited for me to make a decision...we may have been in there at least an hour!! lol I'm lucky that he is such a great sport and so patient...hey it's not everyday that can go into Target without any screaming kids and just enjoy myself, I had to take advantage of the moment! haha

After Target we went to dinner at Fuddruckers. I had never been there and boy their food is delish!! We just shared a burger and fries and then got a cookies and cream milk shake...so GOOD! But boy that place sure has a way of making you feel ginormous afterwards, even when you do share a meal!! It was a nice, relaxing and much needed night!!

General Conference Bags - October 6, 2012

For General Conference this fall I was determined to have something fun and different for the boys so that just maybe we could actually listen to at least one of the talks. After searching on Pinterest for quite a while I finally found something that looked age appropriate and fun for them. I made 15 different bags with a different activity & treat for each one. When one of the 12 apostles or the first presidency got up to speak they had to find his picture and then they could open up that bag. It sort of worked, but half of the activities they didn't seem too incredibly interested in, but we did get to listen to most of the speakers so I feel that in and of itself was a HUGE success!! Some of the things I had in the bags were Popsicle stick puzzles (temple,   the prophet, Jesus, etc.), homemade peanut butter play dough with m&m's, lacing cards, prophets matching game, pretzel sticks and mini marshmallow building, pop corn in cute containers, puzzle, felt Mr. Potato Head and Pumpkins and a few other things. 

Blast Off - September 29, 2012

We decided to take the boys to Blast Off to let them get some energy out. We even picked up our Nephew, Kaydon, so he could play with his cousins while his parent's finished cleaning and getting ready for the family to come over the next day for a luncheon to celebrate their baby's blessing. And then being the cool, fun parents and aunt and uncle that we are we took them to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt! They each got to have their own little bowls and their own toppings! I love that they all get a long so well. We only have one fatality...and of course it was Tyler! He was going down the slide showed in the last picture and Kaydon had just gone down and hadn't moved yet and Tyler smacked his nose on Kaydon's head. This resulted in a huge bloody nose that didn't stop for like 20 minutes!! That's when we decided it was time to leave :(

 Kaydon at least was willing to stand still long enough for me to get a non-blurry picture and smile!!

 Where's Parker?!

First Day of Preschool!! - September 26, 2012

Today is Parker's first official day of Preschool!! He is so excited, as am I!! It will be really nice for him to be around other kids his own age for a couple hours. He goes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8:20-10:40 am. 

Have fun Little Man!!

Preschool Open House - September 24, 2012

Parker is doing the Preschool Lab on the BYU-Idaho campus this fall semester. He is so excited to go to "school"!! They had a little open house today to let the kids see the classroom and meet their teachers. The boys both had a blast and wanted to stay longer and play!