Brothers

BEETS

Super Sweet Halloween

Chapter 1: Choosing a Costume

So we (meaning Zack) had lots of ideas of what to be for Halloween. They included Mickey Mouse (again, which is weird because he hated that costume) I believe a spoon came up once, he wanted to be an airplane, a rocket, Buzz Lightyear (I was pulling for that one) and a red crayon. 

We finally decided on Buzz Lightyear and were getting ready to acquire it when Zack decided he wanted to be a gingerbread man. At first I didn't want to make a costume, I have about 10 sewing projects piled up already. But then I got to thinking about it and looking at what other people have done and I got really excited. 

Meet Gingy!

 I wasn't going to dress Ruby up this year, I have a bear snowsuit that I was just going to have her wear. When I saw how cheap it would be to make Zack's costume I decided why not make one for Ruby?

Meet Ginger!

The felt cost me $6. I was so excited at how inexpensive these costumes for my 2 kids were going to be! Then I bought rik rak..... Ruby's costume took 12 yds. Zack's took 26, not to mention that I bought 2 different kinds for his because I didn't like the first one. Then I got to working on the gumdrop buttons... I did those twice. Of course Zack's costume needed a prop!!! So I made a giant sucker. Ruby's costume also needed a little something else so I made her an apron. It ended up costing me more than the Buzz Lightyear costume, but they were so fun to make and everyone loved them!  

Rik rak for Ruby's apron was originally going to be for Zack's but I 

decided it was too big. I have 5 yds if you ever need some! 

Chapter 2:

Pumpkin Pickin'

Zack wanted to go to the corn maze this year, i'm not sure where he even learned about it. I remembered that a pumpkin patch we went to a few years ago had a small corn maze that was free so we decided to check it out. Small it was, and afterword Zack wanted to go to the "big" corn maze. The pumpkin patch also had a tractor ride and I think that made up with it's "whimpy" (in a 3 year olds eyes) FREE corn maze. 

Rub's and Daddy braving the corn maze. Even Kevin couldn't see over the tall corn!

Zack did appreciate all the tractors you could drive. Lucky for us they had a RED one.

My matcho husby in his shorts and shirt. If I remember right I was bundled up, and freezing...

And last but not least, our little scraggly hair girl.

Chapter 3: Pumpkin Pie

By: Zack

 "Mommy, I hafta scratch this punkin cuz i'm gonna make punkin pie"

(using an orange peeler) 

"Mommy, I need more tools"
(When he talks to me he always addresses me first,
every single time he opens his mouth)

"Mommy, this is my scoop. Do you know where I learned how to make pie? I learned it on Super Why" 

"Mommy, why is Grandpa dressed up?"
What the? How did that get in there????

Chapter 4: Carving 

Ruby getting ready to draw on her design...

Zack starting to scrape the insides.... 

He reaches in..... And he's done............... 

Pumpkin guts are too nasty for him.

The rest of the night he spent making a train out of the kitchen chairs. 

Except when it was time to claim the finished product he came back of course. 

His pumpkin is a haunted house if you can't tell. 

And Ruby spent the rest of the night kicked back with her fat little feet on the table, drinking...

Princess posing with us girl's pumpkins 

Deciding whether or not she likes raw pumpkin. 

Judging by the fact that she sat and sucked on it for 20 minutes, i'd say she liked it!

Chapter 5: Halloween Night

 Ginger before trick or treating

Ginger after

Yes, that is a Christmas cookie and the Easter Bunny

 Although they were BOTH in the wrong holiday,

 They were still stinkin cute!

Loving the special treat from his friend Carson

Zack checking out his haul. He didn't eat any dinner that night so he wasn't able to have any of his candy, well maybe one piece. He forgot about it after that and still to this day hasn't had any, he hasn't even asked about it. I think he is pretty used to his Nazi mom not letting him have sweets. But hey, it doesn't seem to bother him a whole lot, it definitely doesn't motivate him to eat!

Hope you had a fabulous Halloween. 
BRING ON THE HOLIDAYS!

Sweet or Scary?

Comparisons

 What do you think?

Ruby and Zack

Both 6 months old

Same villan eyebrows, different face shape, same nose.

Ruby and Rachel 

Not sure how old I am.

Same everything, but different, and I had 17 times more hair than Ruby does.

My Mom and Ruby

Karen 9 months, Ruby 6 months

Identical.

CRAZY FUN SUMMER!

WARNING: LONGEST POST EVER!

PICTURES IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER.

KEEP LOOKING IF YOU DARE/OR HAVE THE TIME.

A few weeks ago my brother Aaron and I and the kids met up with Kevin's sister and 2 of her kids to visit the dino museum at Thanksgiving Point. The museum was cool and crowded, and this contraption was even better! What a fun way to cool off. We will definately be visiting this again next summer.

BACKYARD FUN

In August the whole fam met up the canyon for a whole day of bonding. We had great company, AMAZING food and a whole lot of fun. The boys all went up the night before for a backpacking trip. Zack loved it! I'm sad I didn't send the camera with them.

Matt and Danie Burrito

Zack and cousin Alex

The triplets

(Jon is wearing a 5 year olds hat, it's missing the little spinner on top)

Danie showing off some mad skills on the slack line.

And Matt trying to match her

Contest to see how many people we could get on it and stay on it.

Typical Luke

I think I took these near Father's Day

Zack and Bella, 12 days apart

Fun with cousins

My parents had this red car that Zack named Lightning, they sold it this summer so before Lightning went to his new home we let Zack take him for one last spin.

We rode bikes alot.

And drank alot of pool water!

A Sunday evening snack and snooze

With Bernie waiting patiently for the crust.

I have pictures of Zack in this chair as a baby. He looks huge in it now!

All the West grandkids at Grandma and Grandpa's surprise birthday party.

Kevin and Ruby at the party. I made her a mini lei.

My cute little family

Our smiley girl

Yet another Sunday night snack, you see a trend here? We don't often get naps on Sundays. He never even made it up to the counter to get his sandwich. He kept waking up because we were laughing at him but he would fall back to sleep.

He's turning into a boy...... Not sure how I like that!

Campout in the backyard

More pool water

The famous ice cream bucket hat. He has been wearing this at my grandma's since he was probably 10 months old. Surprisingly it still fits him!



We got to spend lots of time with these crazy people

4 generations of Strebel women

Ruby at her first baseball game.

We decided last year to make it a tradition to go to the Bee's game on the 4th or 24th every year. This year our buddy Carter and his parents came with us.

I painted the boys faces while we "watched" the game

FINALLY got out on the field for the main event!

Zack spent lots of time out in the sandbox

And Bernie spent lots of time babysitting him

Our neighbor has a horse and Zack was lucky enough to get to ride her.

My boy rides bare back!

Ruby started eating solids and loves everything but fresh bananas

Zack started preschool! He goes to the same preschool that I went to here in the neighborhood.

More photos from our family day in the canyon

We did a may pole, it was interresting. My mom said it was a good team building activity.

I told her it was a good activity for a team that had been working together doing other team building activities for the past 8 months.

It was very entertaining for the outsiders to watch though!

And a good time for sneaky little boys to finish off the whole pan of brownies.

Other little boys didn't know that some were eating brownies and sat bored out of his mind instead.

Years ago when we would go camping with all my moms siblings we made a huge sign for my grandpa and each of us decorated a body and then we took a picture with our faces in it. The kids and Kevin and my dad were the only ones that wanted to do it. But they sure enjoyed doing it! (kevin maybe a little too much)

Zack

Super Grandpa!

Emily and Miles

Best Buddies!

Ruby's first pony tail

A while back I decided that Zack needed some extra attention from us. We started taking him out on a date each week. We haven't been great at it lately but I noticed a huge difference in his behavoir and Kevin and I have really enjoyed spending special time with just Zack. One night he and I went to Target and to get ice cream. Kevin and Zack went to ride trax another night. And his next date he wants to go walk across the bridges that cross bangerter highway. Easy to please and I love it!

More sandbox time

There's that pretty girl again! Getting bigger and bigger!

And cuter and cuter!

And bigger and cuter........

Ruby Kay and my Grandma Kay

Little trouble makers in time out. I left them there because they were having so much fun.

Look at this little face!

This is on our way to Fairview last weekend to spend some time with my cousin and aunts family.

We had such a good time!!!

One day we drove up the canyon and stumbled upon some train tracks. We decided we needed a picture but not before Zack jumped out of the car and smacked his face. Hence the "holding his face and sad" picture. I was trying to distract him and showed him the train signals, he said he wanted change the tracks and was worried that we were standing on the tracks.

 

Before the awesome BYU vs UTAH game we went to a really fun park in Fairview 

Once again, Kevin having too much fun.

And Kenzie right along with him

Ruby loving the swings, unlike Zack, he says they make him nervous.

Digging the Digger

And that's all........ I'm sure we did alot more but I can't remember and i'm lucky enough to get this much done. Enjoy and thanks for watching!