Friday, December 14, 2012

Richfield Light Parade

How long have I lived here?  Not long enough apparently!  Richfield has a Christmas Light Parade every year.  Maybe I blocked out the mention of it—I probably thought it would be too cold, my kids were too little, or it couldn’t possibly be any fun.  I was wrong on 2 of those counts.  It was bitterly cold, but we had a fun time anyway.  It was scheduled to start at 6 so we left our house around 5:30.  I wanted to find a place so we could see the parade well.   It was a little hard finding a decent parking place, but we found a great one!  A few years ago, Richfield City improved Main Street by putting in beautiful flower beds in raised cement thingies.  (can’t think of the right word! lol)  Since it was so cold, there was an empty planter with plenty of seating.  And so we waited! 

IMG_1470

Terrible picture, but you get the idea!  About 10 minutes before the parade lots of people showed up.  I’m glad we already had our seats!  Next year, though, we will take an old blanket so we don’t have to sit on the cement directly.  We all had frozen bums!

IMG_1471

See this boy?  This is a boy who thinks he knows he knows more than his mama.  See what he’s wearing?  Shorts, sandals and a thin jacket!  I warned him and he fought me so I decided to just let him suffer the consequences.  And he did suffer!  He was freezing!  And he had to spend most of the time in the car.  Did he learn to listen to his mom?  Only time will tell…..

 

The parade itself was fun!  Lots of lights and Santa at the end!  The best part was the Fire Dept. truck.  They set off huge fireworks from the back of their truck!  Some of the fireworks didn’t go into the sky very far and embers landed on the roofs of some of the businesses!  It was cool but I’m glad nothing started on fire!  Crazy.  We can’t wait for next year!

Friday, December 7, 2012

Hanging up Christmas lights

Outside Christmas lights are kind of hit and miss around here.  It’s a job that I don’t want to do and so it depends on Brian!  Some years it happens and some years it doesn’t.  I’m happy to report that we hung Christmas lights outside this year.  It’s been really warm and so it wasn’t even uncomfortable—Brian didn’t even have to wear a jacket!

IMG_1455

I promise that Brian gets truly excited about things sometimes!  The picture in this post (and the last) would lead you to believe that he’s not happy, but I promise he is!  Maybe he just doesn’t like having his picture taken?

IMG_1456

Corban was big enough this year to help.  He got a little nervous about being so high on the ladder, but he did it!  It’s still a little surreal that he is getting so big/old!

IMG_1457

Much to Brynn’s disappointment, her Dad wouldn’t let her help on the top of the ladder.  It was her job to make sure the lights didn’t get tangled on the ground. 

IMG_1459

Nora was just happy to be outside!

IMG_1462

And this is what it looks like!  Yep, all that fuss for just one little tiny strand of lights!  They are really pretty, though. 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

(most of the) Family Game Night

We didn’t do our usual thing on Sunday, so we had lots and lots of time to kill after church.  Corban begged his Dad to play Solar Quest with him.  BEGGED!  After a nap, Brian finally agreed.  I’m pretty sure it was because I threatened Brian with his life if he didn’t play a game with his son.  Corban was starting to get pretty pathetic!  I didn’t play and got in an hour of reading (uninterrupted reading!).  It was fantastic!

IMG_1354

Two out of three people in this picture are having fun!  Can you guess which two?

IMG_1355

Nora had a fun time watching the game.

Contrary to the photographic evidence, I think Brian had fun.  And guess who won?  My little Brynn, of course!  She slayed the boys! 

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

First Snow

It finally happened!  After a very long and strangely warm fall, winter has finally come to our little valley.  The children were ecstatic!  Nora kept standing by the front door begging to go out.  It was really cute!  The cold didn’t even stop her—she just wanted to be outside. 

IMG_1348

My sweet girl loving the snow!

IMG_1347

My other sweet girl loving the snow!  Brynn spent a couple of hours playing all by herself outside.  She was frozen when she finally came inside, but she loved it!

IMG_1350

Corban had fun too!

IMG_1349

Sisters and best friends too.  Doesn’t get much better than that!

IMG_1351

Where’s your coat?  Silly Dad!  Look at the beautiful fog on the mountain behind Brian.  Gorgeous!

This snowfall happened a few days ago.  While it’s stayed cold, it’s been warm enough for the snow to melt.  I wonder when it’s going to snow again?

Monday, November 5, 2012

VOTE!

I’m voting tomorrow.

Are you?

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Halloween 2012

We decided to do things old school this year—meaning we actually went Trick or Treating around the neighborhood instead of wimping out and doing the trunk or treat.  The kids loved knocking on doors and the weather was mild enough that Nora got to go too!  Corban went trick or treating all over town with a friend.  We all had a blast!

IMG_1330

My cute kids!

IMG_1331

The nicest little witch!

IMG_1332

A delicious cheeseburger!

IMG_1333

A sweet little pig!

We had about 85 kids actually come to the door.  I was surprised at how many we had!  Luckily I bought plenty of Fun Dip candy to go around. 

IMG_1339

Part of the ward party was face painting!  So much fun!  Brynn asked for a witches hat.

IMG_1338

Corban asked for a bottle of ketchup and….

IMG_1340

a pickle, of course!

IMG_1341

Beautiful girl—she had a blast at the party!

IMG_1342

I thought this was cute—another little girl in the ward was a skunk.  Who knew that a pig and skunk would be friends?

And, of course, my kids haven’t touched their candy since they got home from trick or treating.  I’m not surprised since I threw away all of last year’s candy so they could use their Halloween buckets again this year!  Weird kids!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Monday, October 29, 2012

Carving Pumpkins

Being the fun mother that I am, I put off carving pumpkins for as long as possible this year!   When Brynn finally talked me into it, the task wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.  It was actually fun to carve pumpkins this year!

IMG_1310

Gross!  Pumpkins guts!

IMG_1311

Ewww!  Yuck!

IMG_1313

Nora’s not scared—in fact, pumpkin guts look kind of tasty!

IMG_1322

All done and on the front steps.

IMG_1324

Aren’t they spooky?

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Nora loves her brother

This was a sweet moment that I happened to catch the other night.  Nora sure does love Corban.  And for all of Corban’s big talk, he loves his sisters too!

IMG_1268

Saturday, October 20, 2012

An Easy Change

Every once in a while I get a good idea.  It doesn’t happen often, believe me!

Corban moved downstairs and Nora moved into her own room recently.  As part of him moving downstairs, we agreed to buy Corban a loft bed.  Nora needed a new dresser and so both of these things were ordered.  Brynn didn’t need anything, but she really wanted a pink bed!  Easy enough, right?  Her little bed was it’s original brown with lots of scrapes and “character”.  We picked out a pretty pink color and got to work. 

IMG_1261

Taking the bed apart.

IMG_1262

See the color?  Definitely NOT pink!

IMG_1263

This is after the first coat of spray paint.  Looking good already.

IMG_1264

The finished product.  It took about 3 coats total to cover everything completely—about 2 cans of spray paint.

IMG_1265

Does she look excited to you?

IMG_1266

Trying it out!

IMG_1267

It looks so beautiful.  So, for about $8 in paint and 1.5 days in the garage, Brynn’s room looks totally different.  She loves it!

The color is Rust-oleum Painter’s Touch, Sweet Pea in a satin finish.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Getting talked into taking the children to the park

In taking my kids to the park, I am a dismal failure.  The weird part is—I’m not even sure why I dislike the park so much.  In the summer it’s too hot, most of the time it’s too windy.  Maybe it’s because of Nora.  She’s just walking and so I actually have to really supervise her (I know, huh?)  So instead of parking my bum on a bench and looking at Facebook, I have to walk around with Nora and make sure she doesn’t climb too high or get stuck somewhere.  No thanks!

Yesterday though, the fates aligned and I suggested we go to the park.  Seriously, everyone was in the car in under 5 minutes! 

IMG_1233

At the top of the biggest slides.

IMG_1249

Ha ha!

IMG_1234

So much fun!

IMG_1258

Nora LOVES the swings!

IMG_1259

Brynn can pump herself.

IMG_1260

Corban jumping out of the swing.  Daredevil!

IMG_1241

Playing and exploring.

IMG_1239

Brynn on the twisty slide.  Fun!

IMG_1248

Corban jumping off of the uneven bars.  He’s so brave!

When it’s cold and snowy this winter, we will wish we could go to the park.  That’s why we’re going to try to go as much as possible this week.  Who wouldn’t want to go to the park?