Thankful for a great trip (and to be home again!)

We just returned home today after an extended (9 day) trip to Utah.  It was a lovely trip, and I am kicking myself now that I took so few photos while we were there.  I didn't get a single one of anyone on the Marchant side.  Dang it.  

This one was taken on our first or second day there.  My cousin, Shane; brother, Matt; and Ty played baseball and football outside for literally hours.  As in, about 4.  On one of my excursions outside to see what they were up to, I found them like this.  They were calling themselves the Rhino Brotherhood.  Weirdos.  :)

We had our big Thanksgiving meal at my parent's house.  There were something like 30 people there.  It was eclectic mix of family:  my own siblings (except Josh and his family), my Dad's mom, one of his brothers and his family (including married children), both of my mom's parents, several of my mom's sisters and there children, and even some of my sister's in-laws.  There were lots of family units represented, but it was a grand party!

We did a lot of just hanging out.  We spent a fair amount of time on board games, Biggest Loser, and books.  I read the Hunger Games trilogy.  My guys got in their fair share of Dr. Suess with Matt.

And, though I don't have a picture of it, I need to insert an unprecedented occurrence that happened at Adam's parent's house.  Every other Sunday night, my in-laws invite all their children and grandchildren over for Sunday dinner.  With 25 people to feed (excluding us, since we obviously don't get to make it all that often!), it's a big deal.  My mother-in-law does not do anything halfway,  so it's always an enormous feast with copious amounts of food.  Well, a few of us somehow convinced Rosemary that we should just have "Cereal Sunday," mainly so she wouldn't have to go through all the work of feeding all of us again right after Thanksgiving.  It took some intense persuasion, but she finally relented.  The idea was that each family would bring a couple boxes of cereal, and Rosemary would get a break.  It was a grand idea, really.  Until it backfired.  She supplemented our cereal with an enormous fruit platter, bagels, cream of wheat, pancakes, and both orange and cinnamon rolls.  So much for no work for Rosemary.  :)

Yesterday (was it really just yesterday?!) the boys and I were able to meet up with a former college roommate of mine and her kids.  We went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point.  The boys had a blast, and so did I, because I was able to catch up with my good friend while the kids played themselves out!

And last night my mom was attending a night class and my dad was teaching a night class, so we were left to our own devices for dinner.  Matt and Ty had a hot dog roast in the fire pit in my parent's backyard.

Notice how Matt plays so prominently in the majority of the pictures I took?  My boys adore him, that's why.

It was a really great trip, more so because we won't be there for Christmas, so we made the time count.  I'm already kind of missing it, but I am ready to be back into the schedule and routines of our lives here.  Next up?  Potty training.  I'm going to start tackling that one with McKay in the next couple of days.  Wish me luck--I have a feeling I might need it!

A Dinner Conversation

Ty:  "Mom you are Lightning McQueen and I am the bad Professor Z.  Watch out!  I'm going to blow you up!"

Me:  "Oh, no, please don't blow me up Professor Z!"

Ty then commences to blow huge breaths of air at me.  After a minute, "Ha!  I just blew you up!"

I love how literal kids are!

Talent Show

The youth in our ward had a talent show for mutual last night, organized by the Beehive class.  It was so entertaining!  Somehow, Adam convinced me to sing a duet with him.  I have to admit, I am pretty self-conscious about singing in public, not because I have never done it before, but because I really don't enjoy doing it.  I feel like I have a great choir voice--I can hold my part and blend in in a crowd--but I don't think my voice is solo quality at all.  So, this was kind of going out on a limb for me.  Here we are, a la Tim and Faith, singing, It's Your Love.

Besides that little mess-up at the beginning, we felt decently good about the rest.  And apparently the Beehives liked it, too--we came home with a second place ribbon.  First place went to the YW leaders performing a hilarious skit--there was just no competing with that!

Sorry for posting this without permission, ladies!  You knew we were recording it!

StacKING

You know, as in the stacking king.  That was my totally lame attempt at being clever.  Fail.

But, really, McKay has been stacking everything lately.  He says he's "building towers."  And I think it's cute.

Today's tower was constructed out of books in Ty's room.

Ty took this picture.

That was the entire shelf of books, and had there been more, he undoubtedly would have tried to add them on.  But still, that's a pretty tall tower for a two-year-old to construct singlehandedly.  Can you tell how proud of himself he is?

Snow Surprise

Last Friday night, I was on my way up to bed when I glanced out the sidelight window by our front door and was startled to see a large form on my front yard.  Initially, I thought it was human, and I had that heart-in-your-throat reaction for a moment.  But when I pulled back the curtain and really looked, I found this friend:

So obviously the work of young men from the ward.  The following morning at our volleyball game, I singled a couple of them out and thanked them for the "friend" they left us.  They denied it, but their huge grins told me I had nailed them.  If this is as much trouble as they will cause on a Friday night, I think they're doing pretty well.  :)

Another Awesome McKay Quote

I spent this morning at the stake center coaching three volleyball games.  Adam brought the boys to watch for a little while, too.  Between games, Adam was hitting with some of the kids in our ward out on the court.  McKay came to me and asked if he could go out on the court and play, too.  I told him that if he went on the court while the big kids were playing he was apt to get leveled.  His response:

"But I am a volleyball player, Mom.  I NEED to play."

My shoulder-less boy

All bundled up in his heavy winter coat for the first time this year, McKay says with great concern in his voice, "I don't have any shoulders!"

Me:  "Yes, you do, sweetheart, they are just hiding inside your big coat."

McKay then sticks his hand down the neck of his coat, feels one of his shoulders, and says, "Oh yeah!  That's good, huh Mom?"

I sure do love that little boy!

Halloween Festivities

This post is apt to be huge, considering I am lumping all of our Halloween festivities into a single post.  Consider yourself forewarned.  

Last Monday night, we participated in the annual Kaiser Family Pumpkin Carving Contest.  This is something my family has done for probably five or six years running now.  And there is certainly a good incentive to participate--a $20 cash prize!  We always email pictures of our carved pumpkins to my family, and they email us theirs, so we can all see each other's and cast votes.  This year McKay wanted a Tow Mater pumpkin:

And of course Ty chose to do McQueen:

By the end of the night Ty was a mess.  That tends to happen when he stays up late!

But in the end I guess it was worth it because Ty was the winner this year!  He was thrilled when his cash prize arrived:

 

And just in time, too.  He bought the new Cars 2 DVD with his winnings.  Appropriate, I suppose, considering his jack-o-lantern.  ;)

On Thursday we went to a special Music Makers, where all the songs were Halloween-themed and the kids got to trick-or-treat to each Mommy!  The boys loved it, but I didn't get any pictures.

Friday we invited our entire Sunbeam class to a party at our house.  Sometimes I think I must be a little crazy.  Nine 3- and 4-year olds.  Yikes!  I was grateful a couple of the moms stayed and helped out--it could have been pretty wild all by myself!
We played pin the head on the skeleton:

And a fun game called Grab the Ghost:

Then we did the pumpkin beanbag toss.

And we finished off by decorating cookies.

I would say it was a success!

On Saturday we had our ward party.  There was dinner, carnival-style games, and a trunk or treat.  And I just have to add this in here:  one of the games was a shooting range where the kids could shoot monsters with nerf guns.  Ty had the best score of the entire night, of any age kid!  He shot down all six monsters in just four shots.  Apparently he was acting well his part of Woody!
Here are the boys checking out their loot after the party:

On Monday Ty had a party at preschool.  Daddy was able to get off work early so the two of them could go together.  It worked out perfectly that way--McKay and Mom got a good nap in to prepare for a late night of trick-or-treating!

 

After a dinner of mummy dogs (which the boys LOVED!!), we went trick-or-treating around the block.  The weather was perfect, and it was a lot of fun, although Ty commented at the end of the night, "Wow, trick-or-treating really wore me down tonight."  Love him!

YEE-HAW!! 

The boys finished the night with hot chocolate in pumpkin cups that G&G Marchant sent in their Halloween package.  

It was a LOT of Halloween this year.  My friend Beth cleverly coined the term "Halloweekend" to describe all the time we spent celebrating--and it's certainly a fitting word.  I am pretty Halloweened out, I would say.  But we spent this chilly, snowy morning getting all our Halloween decorations down and Thanksgiving up.  Crazy that Thanksgiving is just three weeks away!