Baby in the cupboard...

Zac has a new 'favorite' thing to do. He loves to climb in the cupboards. In the kitchen, in the bathroom, in the laundry room...anywhere he can. If you open the cupboard while he is in there he says, "close the door." His older brothers taught him the joy of playing in the cupboards one day when they were all playing hide and see together.

Another picture from the Christmas Program

I was going to upload a video, but it is so shaky it may make you sick. I had Zac and Hunter on my lap while I was trying to record so it does not stay in one place for long:) Anyway, the programs was great! Jake and his class did a great job on their song. And you should have seen the crowd. There was standing room only at both the afternoon and evening shows.

Merry Christmas!!

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!! I have been a big slacker this year and have not gotten Christmas cards out. Below are the pictures I was going to use. Actually just the second one since the camera flash reflected off the fireplace glass so bad. Anyway, have a great Christmas and a wonderful 2008!!

Jake's Christmas Program

Jake's school had their annual Christmas program today. It was a lot of fun. They repeat the program tonight at 5:30. I am going to try to get a video of the song his class does tonight. Maybe I'll try to post it tomorrow. I have circled Jake in the picture. Ryan must have taken a night shot or something.

sleepy baby

It has been awhile since I have been on this site. Things have been very busy around here. Nothing real spectacular, just life and holidays:) Time to update my page with some winter stuff and get rid of the fall background...someday soon:) Anyway...The other night Ryan and I were upstairs watching tv after all the kids were in bed sleeping. I thought I heard Zac crying, but listened harder and didn't hear anything. When we went downstairs to go to bed, we found a cute little surprise for us waiting at the bottom of the stairs. We had to get a picture and then I carried him back to his bed.

Our 'secret' spot

We had a GREAT weekend!! We went to Jake's last soccer game of the season, which they won 3-0. It was pretty exciting!! After the soccer game and lunch, we took the boys riding on the quads. Ryan took us to a 'secret' spot that he found the week before with Hunter and Zac while Jake and I were at another soccer game. It is a great little canyon type area with lots of sand. We had a blast. We really love being able to take off on the quads from our house and have SO many fun places to ride. Here are a few pictures from the 'secret' spot. Such a cool place and such beautiful November weather to enjoy it.

Zac getting ready to jump....

three of my four boys..Hunter, Jake, Ryan

Hunter and Jake jumping....

Hunter working on one of his many sand angels

I love Brad's, I mean my new puppy:)

Brad left his puppy here when they came to visit a couple of weeks ago. Zac has taken over possesion of it. He sleeps with it and we even had to take it to Basha's today and strap it in the cart with Zac...it had to be strapped in!!!

More Halloween costumes...

Taylor, Brad and Madison

A new sheriff in town

I was anonymously sent this picture of the new sheriff that has been seen perusing the streets of Layton, UT. You'd better watch out:)

Halloween

We had a blast at the ward Halloween party last night. I wish I would have taken more pictures while we were there. I also wish I would have taken pictures of the kids in their costumes before we left for the party. Jake's costume looked really good before we left, but after playing in the hay in the barn for a couple hours all of his mummy stuff was falling off. The party was at the Shumway barn. There was a big bon fire, lots of chili and corn bread to eat and the kids really scored at the trunk or treat!! I think we came home with more candy than we took. Jake and Hunter both filled their buckets. Zac stayed at the car with me to hand out our candy. It was really fun. The kids especially had fun climbing on the hay bales in the barn.

Elementary costume parade

Jake dressed up as a lion for the costume parade at the school. He decided it would take too long to put his mummy costume on. He was trying to pull himself along by pulling his tail in front of him.

Hunter's new bike

We bought Hunter a new bike for his birthday. When he first saw it he said, "I don't want that. It's too big." He has been riding a very small bike for awhile. We took it out and he rode it around for awhile but decided that he wants to give his new bike to Jake and he will take Jake's old bike that is about an inch shorter. Jake told him that he would be willing to trade for 2 days. When Hunter cried about that Jake agreed to trade for 2 weeks.

Pumpkin carving and painting

The boys decided that we should carve and paint pumpkins while Ryan was gone to the church for meetings tonight. We had a great time! I made Zac use watercolor paint...not quite sure about his painting skills. When I saw that he was eating the paint rather than putting it on the pumpkin, I was glad that he didn't have the other paint. You never know with a two year old:) He is developing quite the vocabulary. Today he kept asking for more candy corn. When I would tell him no, he would either say, "why not" or "how come?" Then he would laugh. Anyway, here are a few pictures of our fun night. Amber, notice that Zac likes to drag Brad's puppy along for the fun:) He is really taking great care of him:)

Hunter's birthday party

We had Hunter's family birthday party last night since Ryan has church meetings tonight and we have our ward Halloween party on Wednesday night(Hunter's actual birthday). We made a pumpkin shaped birthday cake and some Halloween cupcakes. Hunter had a great time. He was so excited about the money that he got from Uncle Roy and the gumball machine he got from the Virtue's and has been playing with the k'nex and watching the movie from Grandpa and Grandma Hall. He had already opened a few of his presents early from Aunt Amber, Grandma and Grandpa Barlow and Grandma and Grandpa Robertson...oh and our friends the Rasumssen's. He will get one more fun present on his birthday tomorrow from Mom and Dad. I can't wait. I'll post some more pictures of him with that tomorrow:)

Halloween Party #1

Here are a few pictures of the Halloween party that Trista(Ryan's step-sister) and her friend Jill put on for the kids. The kids had a blast. They had homemade rootbeer, decorated cupcakes, painted pumpkins, did apple bobbing, hay ride, and more. I wanted to get some pictures of the hay ride, but my battery went dead. I got one picture of Jake getting onto the trailer then it died. The kids had a blast!!

Jake's second grade picture

Jake got a floor burn on his forehead at school the day of pictures...haha...nice:) I still think the pictures turned out pretty great.

Visit from the family...pictures to follow soon.

I know that it has been awhile since I have posted anything and I was afraid it was going to be until Hunter's birthday....but I am getting in just before:) My parents, Amber, Brad, and Kaydee came to visit this past weekend. We had a great time...eating out, going to the corn maze, going to the pumpkin patch. Unfortunetly it was pretty cold and windy for the outtings and now all of the kids have colds. Amber had her camera so I we took pictures with it. I didn't even get mine out. She has burned me a cd and will be sending it soon. When I get the pictures I will post them. There are some really cute ones. We had a great visit and I wish they could have stayed longer. It is always too short. Especially for them since they have to travel about 12 hours each way. The boys and I will be going out to visit for a couple weeks this summer. It is not as bad for us because we get to stay for a week or two to break up the travel time. Anyway, I am so glad they came. Bradley is getting so big and has quite the personality. Amber says he is starting his terrible two's early, as he is capable of throwing some pretty amazing fits:) haha!!

A few more birthday pictures

Zac had a great birthday and got spoiled:) We had Ryan's family members that live here close by over for cake and ice cream. Zac was a little cranky since he didn't get his nap, but that didn't stop him from reaching for a gift as soon as someone would walk through the door. I need to teach him some manners before his next birthday!

Zac enjoyed the cake. Ryan took a nice picture of him crying by the cake. I'm not sure if he didn't like the candles or if he was mad because he didn't blow them out on his first try. Jake and I came to his rescue and helped him blow them out.

Jake thought that he would help Zac out by opening the gift that Grandma and Grandpa Barlow sent, but accidentally opened Hunter's birthday gift. They were sent in the same big box since Hunter's birthday is just a few weeks away. Anyway, we rushed it to my bedroom where I will eventually re-wrap it. Luckily Hunter was outside playing with the other kids(making a mess with the sunflower seeds that they were pulling out of the big sunflowers we grew this year), so he didn't see the gift. We then found the gift for Zac and Jake opened it for him.

Overall it was a fun and tiring day for everyone:) All three boys went right to sleep when we got them in bed. None of the, "but I'm hungry, I can't sleep, I'm not tired, I want water....etc." Thanks to everyone for the gifts and birthday wishes! We love you and really miss the family that is not closer:)

Let's make cake

Zac had a blast helping me make his birthday cake. It was SO funny. Everytime I would add an ingredient he would say, "holy cow" and just get more and more excited. He wasn't too happy about taking his 'football game shirt' off to lick the batter, but soon realized that was not up for discussion...shirt off or no licking the beater. We made Ryan's aunt Marsha's conference cake...SO YUMMY!!! We have had a great birthday so far, but now to cleaning the house and getting it ready for company tonight....cake and ice cream. Yum. We wish more of our family lived closer so you could come join us:)

Zac turns 2....

Jake and Hunter were so excited for Zac to open one of his birthday presents before Jake had to go to school. Zac was thrilled with the gift from Amber!! As soon as he opened the football jersey he said, "football game shirt, awesome!" And of course the football was a big hit too!!! He has hardly set it down so far today. Thanks Amber!!

Sweet Dreams

Zac was so cranky yesterday. He missed his afternoon nap and didn't want to let me leave his side for a second. I finally talked him into watching some football in the fish chair. I left to fix dinner and when I came back to check on him he was sound asleep. Most likely dreaming of football:) Lucky for me there is almost always a college or professional football game being re-run almost 24 hours a day:)

scrapbook page

Zac is sure getting a lot of face time on this blog. Just so you all know I do love all my children. I have just been getting back into the digital scrapbooking and Zac has had some cute fun pictures to scrapbook:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER

Today is Amber's birthday!! We hope you have a great birthday!! We love you and miss you and wish you were closer:)

Zac says hello...and does a trick:)

Zac LOVES to do somersaults. Usually he does them better than he did here for the camera. He will keep doing them until he gets dizzy and can hardly stand up. He puts his head down and jumps his feet up until they get to his head and then he flips over....SO FUNNY:) I haven't posted a video before, so I hope this works.

Still undefeated...

We took the kids to the Snowflake high school football game again last night. We had a great time, but the kids weren't quite as good as last time. Zac was great, but we sat a little closer to the field this time so the bigger kids thought it was great fun to go down and sit on the front row. Snowflake is still undefeated and Round Valley is no longer. Snowflake won 28-6. Go Lobos!!

We are having a weekend full of football. Ryan is currently flying to New Mexico with some friends in their family plane for the BYU football game. Those of us left here at home will all be watching the game closely to see if we can spot him in the crowd:)

Here are a couple pictures of Zac enjoying the game and a picture of Sidney as the Lobo! She does a great job. Sidney is Ryan's step-sister's daughter and our favorite babysitter:)

Labor Day camping trip

I don't really have anything to post today. The boys and I are making a trip into Show Low to go to Wal-mart for soccer shoes and the remote control helicopter that Jake has been saving for. The highlight of the week. We are heading out as soon as Jake gets out of school.

I just thought that I'd share a couple of pictures from our Labor Day camping trip. We had a GREAT time! The weather was perfect. Just the right amount of rain to keep us all cool:) No luck with the archery deer hunters though.

1. Jake is keeping the firewood dry during one of the rain storms.


2. Amy Stradling took all of the kids fishing for crawdads, Jake is holding one up to show.


3. We went on several great 4-wheeler rides, too bad Zac slept through this one:)

Hunter the builder

Ryan was working on a couple of the MANY projects on the to-do-list at our house on Saturday. Hunter just couldn't stand to sit back and watch, so Ryan gave him a project of his own, cutting molding:) Zac had a great time watching. We are loving our home here in Taylor and it is definetly keeping us busy!! Our project lists are long and seem to be getting longer not shorter!!

High School Football

Ryan and I took the boys to their first high school football game last night. We had a blast!! Snowflake won 48-0. I wanted to take my camera, but forgot in the rush to get from soccer practice, home and then to the game. I will have it next time for sure. The boys loved the game. Hunter got a little bored and was ready to go home at half-time, but once he got another treat he was okay until the end. Jake loved it and Zac especially loved it. He was so good. He sat either on my lap, Ryan's lap or on the bench looking through his binoculars. Everytime Snowflake scores they do fireworks and Zac kept saying, "I want one more firework." Ryan has got Zac trained. He loves to sit with Ryan and watch football on tv. In fact he wants to watch tv all the time and will cry, "I want football." He cries when it goes to commercial saying that he wants more football. After the football game last night he kept saying, "fun football game, fun fireworks." We can't wait until the next game. Should be a closer game since they start conference play next week.

Water...water...everywhere

Zac watered the flowers, himself and even me. Check out the look that he is giving me. So much for smiling for the camera, he gave me his...I'm gonna get you look....and he did:)