Happy Holidays!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have a great New Year! 

Life has been crazy, as I’m sure it is for all of you, hence the lack of posts.  Plus, my computer was taken hostage for a couple of weeks during finals because Carlos’ laptop broke.  Hopefully, things will calm down (haha) and I’ll be able to catch up a little.  The boys are doing well and don’t know what to do with themselves all day here in the house.  I think today we’ll try and go do something to break up the boredom! 

Again, have a great Holiday Season! 

A Halloween Pumpkin Pickin’ Party

 

As is tradition, we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa’s for some pumpkin pickin’.  The kids all had a great time choosing the one they wanted.

We then got all dressed up to have us a little party.

 

The kids had to eat a marshmallow from a string, while sitting or kneeling, with no hands.  It was supposed to make it more fair for Zach, but he got mad at the beginning because he couldn’t grab the string and so he didn’t want to play anyway! 

There was a scavenger hunt with lots of fun prizes!

 

Is this not the funniest thing ever!  What a cutie!

 

Then they had a silly string fight.  EVERYONE loved it!

 

Grandpa grilled some YUMMY food, and we had a great dinner.

 

Then we hung out around the campfire (quite close to it, or we were freezing) and had homemade sweet potato donuts and hot apple cider.  Thanks Mom and Amy for making them!

This is such a fun tradition, one I hope we’ll be able to carry on and continue creating great memories for our children.  I treasure the memories of fun traditions from when I was a child, especially ones involving cousins.

Sometimes, You Just Can’t Resist

The Crime:

 

 

The Culprit:

Celebrating Independence

Amber inspired me to just get on it and get this post done.  It’s taken me long enough!  I honestly can’t even remember what we did that day before the party…..um…..I’m pretty sure it wasn’t too exciting!  Of course, we had a blast at the Burgener’s party!  We love to go every year. 

AND CAN WE SAY, This is the most awesome train ever!!!

What sweet girls!

Ummm……FOOD anyone?!

All of the cousins, aren’t they cute?

After dark…

And the “Shot” of the day:

Thanks Amber for the motivation!  Now if I can only get caught up on the rest…..

Redefining

 

October is Spina Bifida Awareness Month.  Here is my post from Zachary’s blog:

http://zacharysstory.blogspot.com/2011/10/redefining-spina-bifida-every-day.html

Firsts

 

All three boys are in school this year, and they all had different first days, because they are all in different schools!  Jaiden is in our neighborhood school, Austin in a preschool, and Zach in a preschool with the school district where he will now receive his therapy.  Once kids with special needs turn three, they transfer out of the Early Intervention program and into the school district.  He is bused to his school and therefore, is gone the longest. 

Jaiden is being Captain America (with shirt and backpack all Captain America too -- even though he hasn’t seen the movie), and is throwing his “shield” in this picture.

Austin is squinting in the bright sunlight and just wanted to get going, he was SO excited to start school!

I had to drop Zach off his first day, so I got pictures when he got home.  He LOVED his dinosaur that the bus driver gave him and wouldn’t let go of it all day.

It’s a little bit of a juggling act the days that Austin has preschool to get everyone dropped off and picked up, but they are all loving it! And, twice a week, I have about an hour and a half to myself! It’s been kind-of nice, but I’m glad to see my cute boys when they are done. It also gives me a little bit of time a couple of the days for some alone time with just Austin or Zach, which has been fun. I need to figure when to get some alone time with Jaiden too.

Name That Place

 

Here’s a newer(ish) photo to hold you over until I get around to actually blogging.  I’ve been way busy, and yet it feels sometimes like I don’t get anything done!   All three boys are starting school and we’re right in the middle of that, so maybe once they’re all in school I’ll get something done.  Maybe. 

So…..ten points to the first person (not including siblings/parents) to name this place. 

 

Family Reunion {that was over a month ago}

Um, so a quick synopsis.  We go to the Payson Lakes Group Site every year on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday after Father’s Day for the Wilkey Family Reunion.  It’s also always the same weekend as the Manti Pageant and I’ve always wanted to take Carlos but he hasn’t seen it yet because of that.  Anyway.  It is a lot of fun and the kids have a blast.  This year there was a fun paddle boat race on the last day and everyone had a chance to make their boats the day before.  There were canoes and kayaks and a raft.  There was also a great talent show.  So here’s a photo journey of those few days.

Obviously, Austin wasn’t a huge fan of the cold water.  Jaiden and Zach, on the other hand, loved it!

There was also a cool little platform that needed lots of love and attention.  Thanks to the Uncles for trying to make it work!

And then there was the epic fit by exhausted Jaiden and Austin because they didn’t win in the Paddle boat race (Zach did) and the resulting screaming which, for Austin, lasted until the very bottom of the canyon when he too finally succumbed to sleep. 

The best was that the whole time they were crying, Zach was playing with his prize, a little stuffed bear, and singing along to “I’m bringing home a baby bumble bee!”