Some Love for this week...

Some things I am way excited about this week....HALLOWEEN being the first! I can't wait - I love halloween! (more on that later) Haunted corn mazes - YES I GO! I can almost smell the gas from the chainsaws as we speak! Although I haven't been to the Castle of Chaos, they have a pretty wicked video intro on their website this year. May feel to much like I was in the middle of a horror movie, not so sure I am going to venture to that one this year.
You can check it out here!

The rest - in no particular order:

Finding costumes for the kids. I love when they start talking about what they want to dress up like. They always think of the most interesting things and they always go back and forth a couple of times. Remember when it used to be this simple just a plastic mask and a vinyl outfit....I swear I actually WORE this costume one year!

It is upon us, I can feel it...FALL - my most FaVoRiTe time of year!! The world is at it's most beautiful and the air is crisp and clean!

Talking with Anita Stansfield yesterday...really cool!

Abby making LeMoNaDe out of LeMoNs - I wish we could put the yard in this year, but it looks like that may not happen now. Love this economy! :) We are all jealous of the Farr's next door who are putting in theirs tomorrow! Abby decided to make designs in the dirt with the rake. How funny is that?! Here is a flower I took a picture of before it got too dark.

Josh had his 2nd game of the regular season last night. This is his first year playing comp soccer for Wasatch. I think it has been a little intimidating thus far and I can tell he doesn't have the confidence he had playing rec soccer. He used to score several goals in each game last year and this year it is a whole different ballgame! We have seen him be really tentative and afraid to take the ball down - just kinda unsure of himself. We have been talking with him about it and each preseason game he has made some improvement. He scored his first goal of the season last night - YEA! He was a bit more aggressive and more confident. I think he is coming around. I am excited to see him play with his full potential.
Check out his eyes/eyelashes - so handsome!


I LOVE soccer season. This year is fun because I don't have to wait all week to watch them play again. Josh plays on Mondays and Thursdays and the little kids play on Saturdays so I get to enjoy soccer games all week long - and I DO REALLY ENJOY IT!

We have been able to spend a little time extra time with Phoebe this week. BOY do my kids LOVE her! She is treated like a princess when she is here! Everyone wants to help. They fight over who gets to sit by her car seat in the car, and who gets to feed her and everything else. Abby wouldn't even let me help her change her diaper. She said she needed practice for when she becomes a mom. How sweet is that! We love you Pheeeeb!!!

The challenge our sweet dear RS Pres TIFF gave us - to read the Book of Mormon by Thanksgiving. Scripture reading has become more of a priority lately because I don't want to be left behind. I can't ever say no to a good challenge! (personality thing) But what a good thing - the TV is off more and the scriptures are open more! I know my days have been better because of it, and I know I am receiving blessings.

Being able to look forward to something. With everything that has happened over the last couple of years we haven't had as many opportunities to go away like we have in the past. Next week we get to sneak away for a couple of days during fall recess and stay with Dayt's brother in Denver. We are ALL very excited to see the twins and have some fun. Of course, no trip to Denver would be complete without a Rockies game! I haven't seen one in years and we are lucky enough to be able to catch their last season game next Thursday - YES!!!


Have I forgotten anything....mmmm probably. But oh well.
There is always room for happy posts!

Who Is Your Hero Posters

A couple of you out of there have asked me where I got the posters for my kids' rooms. You can find them at RealHeroPosters.com
They look great on the website but they are even more BEAUTIFUL than they appear online. There are so many great choices I had a hard time choosing which ones I wanted. They all have such great messages. Because they are relatively inexpensive I am going to swap them out every couple of months. Buy some!! You won't be disappointed!
Here are some images of a couple of the prints for those of you who don't know what I am talking about. They have a scripture reference on each one. They have a bible series as well as a Book of Mormon series.

I Heart Jack Sparrow!

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - On Stranger Tides - it's official!
More pirates, more Johnny, mmmm yes!!

Read about it HERE

Goldfish!

I love my little Jantzen! Things have been a little quiet around here when everyone is at school. At least I have Jantz for 1/2 the day - and at very least - he LOVES to chat! I get to sit and talk with him, which, if you know Jantz AT ALL - you know it's good conversation! Here are some funny things he said this week. I want to write them down because I have already forgot the other 8 things that made me laugh this week!

We played "Goldfish" for hours this week. You may know it by it's original name - "Go Fish" but Jantz gives everything a little twist because he can't remember what things are called. I would ask him for a particular fish and he would say
"no - goldfish" or he would say " I believe I do" It was sooo funny! Then as he was about to ask me for the same fish for the 3rd time he would stop and pause remembering that he had already asked and say "mom, did you just "goldfish" or in other words, have you picked up a new card recently.

He was watching Shrek the third - something he hadn't seen for several years and made the comment (as Shrek was getting into bed) that Shrek had forgotten to put on his garments!

We were playing the blinking game and I said playing around with him, ha you blinked...why do you keep blinking. He said, I just blink - that's what I do. I said, why and he said, there is just something inside me that makes me blink, I don't know. I said, well what is it. He said my lungs or something!

And as for APRIL...

We started off with Dayt's 35th birthday! I was catching an early plane to Denver to do some business at Bella during the day so we opened some really quick gifts with the kids that morning. One of which was a book written as a tribute to the author's child using a Bob Dylan song "Forever Young". Cute book! Great songwriter, voice...not so great. Dayt loves him though!

Dayt met me later that night in Denver and we dropped by the hospital to see the new Donahoe twins. That was REALLY fun! You can see those pics HERE
The next day - his brother Derek took him to the Bruce Springsteen concert for his birthday - what is with this guy - his favorite singers are all actually crappy singers but good songwriters...he he he
It was super nice of Derek and they had a great time. I had an even better time in the NICU holding those sweet little babies - all night long! The next morning we took a really early flight (sorry again Derek!) to make it home for my mom's easter egg hunt.
It was a really quick trip but totally worth it!
Here is a pic of us eating lunch in Denver with Derek and Mandi - Dayt gave this pepper a go just for fun.....it was soooo much FUN for us, not so much him. We laughed so hard! His mouth was burning and his eyes were watering as his face went bright red and his tongue went numb!
Good times!
Later on the next week we had a couple of get together's for his birthday with family.
Dayt LOVES musicals! These were two he didn't have. Can you believe neither of us have seen West Side Story. We both can't wait to watch it and see what all the hype is about.

One of Dayt's other fav things - pork rinds! Random I know! Gross!!

Another fav - coconut cream pie, he chooses it every year! This isn't the coconut pie in the picture, but rather one of the other pies from the counter, we had several yummy ones!

Then we move on to.......

Easter

Dayt was in charge of still pictures while I was taking video...there is nothing more that needs to be said. Hope you enjoy the plethora of pictures!

The day before at my mom's Easter egg hunt he took a "few" more!
The pictures have crappy clarity - but I am not blaming THAT ONE on him.
:)

Here is one I snapped quickly so we wouldn't be late to church.
9am is hard on a holiday sunday! They sure look cute though!

The weather was kinda warming up come the end of April so Jantz and I spent one of our special Friday's together at Swan Lakes. I took him last year and he loved it, so we went again this year as soon as weather would allow. It was fun to spend Friday's with him this year, he didn't have preschool and the kids were still in school. We had some fun. I will always remember this day especially because who knows....maybe one day this will be plastered all over ESPN. :)
K - maybe not this one...keep scrolling!


On this hole - #3 Jantz scored a HOLE IN ONE!
Pretty amazing right! Keep scrolling.....

On this hole - # 6 he scored a HOLE IN ONE!
REPEAT! WOW - and this hole wasn't all that easy - he made it up onto the hill and right into the top - nice and easy.
Who can believe that a 4 year old can do that.....keep scrolling!

TRIPLE - HAT TRICK - whatever you want to call it - he did it again at HOLE # 18! I couldn't take a picture because there were people right behind us waiting - but here is the scorecard to prove it! THREE hole in ones! I guess he gets it from me????
He was a little embarrassed I think because every time he scored a hole in one I started shrieking and yelling and jumping up and down hugging him. We had so much fun!

Maybe it was beginners luck, or maybe he is the next Tiger Woods.


April update - CHECK!

MARCH MADNESS
March was crazy, although I don't have all the pictures to prove it. We started off the month with Abby's birthday. Then we had a wedding later that day and night and a late night b-day party. The next week we started off with Jantz's Star of the Week, followed by skiing and several other birthday parties. St. Patricks Day and Grandma G's birthday the following week, another wedding, some field trips and dad's and doughnuts at the school. We wrapped up the month with Kindergarten shots and registration, Rylee's baptism and started spring soccer. Whew! It was a BUSY BUSY month! Here are some pics....

Abby was pretty excited about her new bedside table, oh did I forget to mention a trip to IKEA! Gotta love it! She loved the lava lamp, the zebra phone and the i-home to play her new i-pod with. Everything you need to top a table!

She invited some friends over that night for a late night get-together.

We had some orange chicken for dinner - Ab's favorite!

Then each girl decorated their own cupcakes for dessert!

Females only, but how could I deny this cute face a cupcake....

Then we had a Spa moment

PEDI'S

and MANI'S

Opened some presents

Goofed around....all hail to the birthday queen!

And watched a girly show....The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Even though it is several years old the girls loved it and noone had seen it, so that was good! Who doesn't love Duff?

They trashed the place!

Here's Natalie trying to find her "ZEN" in all the chaos!

Later that weekend we had some family parties.
Cami and Abby share the same birthday.

If you are a first grader you gotta have Junie B Jones in your library!


Grandpa D got Abby her very own ice cream cake!! Luuucky!

More money at Grandma Macs - she asked for moolah to buy an i-pod nano

Jantz - STAR of the WEEK!
Jantz had to wait all the way until MARCH for his VIP moment - it was very very tough!! Here he is with the famous Miss Tiffany!

Then on to St. Patty's Day

Color hair GREEN - check!

Put on festive clothing - check!

Have a GREEN breakfast - check!

Eat lots of GREEN things all day - check!
Here is some of Abby's treats that she collected at school that day. Each kid picked their favorite green food to sample. Abby and several others chose green grapes. By the time she got home I was dying that she was going to eat them warm and mushy, but I didn't say anything!

Josh and his friends had some Leprechaun near misses in the field at the school. :)
What a fun day. Then we had a fab green dinner to end it...no pics unfortunately.
We like to party at the Donahoe's. It's good to be Irish!

March update - check!