You Can't Catch Me.....

We went to feed the ducks and geese last week up by Weber State, and they were a little aggressive. The kids loved throwing bread to them, but the geese were the same size as them and would come after them because they knew there was food. I got this cute picture of Ben running from the geese. He was saying, "Oh no geese! Scare Ben." He and Isabel spent most of the time on top of a bench they had there so the geese couldn't get them :) I just thought it was a cute picture!

Fun with Felt

The kids and I loved the Halloween Advent Calendar so much, that I thought I should do a turkey one for Thanksgiving. The kids get to take a feather off each day and put it in one of the pockets, until the turkey is completely bare of feathers on Thanksgiving day! I had to make 28 feathers to accomodate the change dates for Thanksgiving each year! I love how he turned out. The letters I did aren't my favorite, but the rest I love! I made the turkey puffy, like a stuffed animal and just saftey pinned him on. I originally tried to velcro him on, but he kept disappearing...... The feathers are all made of felt, but I cut fall-ish looking material to sew on top. I left about a 1/4 inch around each and made little cuts to make them look more like feathers. I love how it turned out. (Somethimes I wonder if the things I see in my head will really look cute...this one worked I think)
I have the felt out, and decided that since I have a ton of orange felt left over from these past 2 projects, I should make something for the kids. I covered a heavy piece of cardboard with orange felt, making their own personal flannel boards. Then I cut out a bunch of easy shapes, so they could use them to create stuff with.

Isabel made a house, a man sleeping in a sleeping bag, a christmas tree, etc

Ben made a train and put people in it. (I put the 2 rectangles down and he did the rest)

They played with them for quite a while which let them be close to me while I was working on stuff! I'm thinking this will be a great church toy too! It's quiet!

I glued a pocet on the back and put their names on it. This is to hold all of the shapes. My next thought is to get some notecards and draw ideas (tanagrams?) and see if they can make them. That part could take me awhile. Until then, they can play with these! Isabel thinks they are magic because the material sticks without glue or tape :) Mommies are magic!

5lb hand Turkeys

Well, it's Thanksgiving time and the weather has been kind-of blahh so that leaves me and the kids inside for most of the days. Here is what we decided to do for the grandparents this year for Thanksgiving. Personalized hand turkeys. (Ignore Isabel's hair in this one, I did it right after the picture ;))
I got black beans, nerds, elbow macaroni, spaghetti, colored rotini, fruity & chocolate cheerios and elmers glue. The kids got their own glue and went to town.

Here are Isabel's turkeys. She cut them in half and one is now proudly hanging in grandma Tracie's front room window so everyone can see it. (Only about 1/2 bottle of glue, I had to put them on cooling racks to dry so they wouldn't be glued to the table!)

And here are Ben's turkeys. He gave the one on the right to grandma Tracie, cause he wanted to hang the bean one on our fridge. It is currently being held up by 5 magnets :) He used the spaghetti noodles to poke the turkey all over....what a kid....

I had to make one too. You know, to show the kids what to do :) Actually I like doing little things like this! Mine is hanging on the fridge too, the kids insisted!

So, we gave grandma Tracie hers, and when we skyped grandma and grandpa morgan on sunday we showed them the others. (No way we are mailing those suckers, they weigh at least 5 lbs :) jk) Fun times for all!

Last Camping Trip

Isabel told grandma Tracie on Monday that since daddy and mommy didn't have to work on Saturday and since Ben wasn't sick and she didn't have soccer, that it meant that we were going to go caming in Mantua. When Tracie told me the news :) I informed Isabel that if we did end up going camping, it wouldn't be to Mantua, it would be to Knolls because it would be way warmer in Knolls. Well, Isabel's wish came true! We went camping friday and saturday out at Knolls. Ben absolutely loved the dirt bike this time. He didn't want to get off!

He didn't want to get off the 4-wheeler either! They love riding with dad. Knolls is fun because there are the sand dunes (little and big) and there is a train you can ride out to see. We even rode out to where it was flat and made shapes with the 4-wheeler tracks. The octagon didn't really look like one, but I tried :)

Isabel insisted on a fire, which is ok with Brady cause he is a pyro at heart! Here she is with wood she found.

Brady took them to find more wood for the fire. The people who were camping next to us had brought a scarecrow from their house. They put it on top of the hill and burned it. It reminded me of the burning of the witches.....

The other fun thing about Knolls is the sand. The kids love it and so do I. They can just go play and dig wherever. Brady buried the kids last time, and Ben freaked out. This time they both loved it. Here is Brady digging their holes!

I thought this picture was way cute of them both buried :) Just like a landscaper to 'plant' his kids..hahaha Brady then gave them both a shovel and told them to dig themselves out. They loved it. Ben stayed in there a long time!

Isabel then decided that she needed to bury Brady up to his armpits! Ben tried to help, but he was still digging himself out :) This is how big the hole she dug was. Pretty deep huh?!

I absolutely love this picture. I just need to photoshop it. Hopefully no one notices becuase the picture is small :) They loved standing next to each other buried to see how tall they were!

Ben loved being taller than Isabel! Sand keeps them entertained for hours! We only had 2 issues camping this time. Ben stepped on a hot coal and burned his foot, and he got bit by a bug on his arm, and we know what that means with Ben, a staff infection. Oh well, at least we know how to fix it!

We had an awesome time camping. Glad Isabel talked us into going so we could enjoy outdoor fun before the snow comes!

Halloween the conclusion

Instead of a trunk-or-treat this year, our ward did a Halloween Parade. Brady was working, so I asked Tamina if she and the kids wanted to come. Jon was able to come too because he was off work early. (The parade was at 5:00). Jon and Tamina walked the parade with all the kids, except Sam, while I handed out candy to the parade goers with Sam. Here they are getting candy from a pirate!
This picture is just to show how people lined up on both sides of the street, and the kids went to each person. They loved it and got a ton of candy in a very short amount of time!

Sam was such a good helper! And a cute Mickey Mouse at that!

We wanted a group shot with all the kids, so here it is! Yes, they all have candy in their mouths already!

Funny story....Isabel wanted to be a butterfly, so at one point she had wings, until Ben broke them. So, then she wanted to be a butterfly without wings, then a fairy. Well, when we skyped with mom and dad on sunday, they asked what she was for halloween. She told them, "a fairy butt..." and stopped at that! They were excited to see the pictures of a fairy butt! That's my girl!

Jon ended up having to carry Ben on his shoulders for most of the way. Not because Ben didn't want to walk, but because when he walked fast, the cars on his road costume would bang against his legs. He didn't like this, so he walked very slowly.....

The first time going down the parade line, the kids wouldn't go in the haunted house tunnel thing. They eyed it, but wouldn't go in. Well, they eventually got brave, so if you look close you can see Isabel and Ari running out of it!

We went to South Weber to trick-or-treat with Zoey, Kandi, and Nick on Halloween night. Here is Ben handing out candy to Zoey. He wouldn't pose with the other kids for me...the little turkey

After trick-or-treating in the rain in South Weber, we came home and did some trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. It made me glad that we went in South Weber. There was hardly anyone handing out candy here. Maybe 1 in every 6 houses had their light on. Oh well, the kids didn't need anymore candy, I just wanted them to burn off some of the sugar :) We will be doing that for a few weeks is my guess! Holidays are definitely better with kids!

Pre-Halloween Party

Happy Halloween! 2 days before Halloween we had a pre-school age party with the cousins. (We were sad Noah was in school and couldn't be there). Here is the group.
(Adam , Sam, Ari, Nara, Isabel, Sarah, Zoey, & Ben)
Tamina's Super Heroes! (Adam and Sam)

Kandi and Jen had games for the kids (musical pumpkins and throw a halloween object into a haloween pumpkin bucket) which the kids loved, and then made some halloween food!

We made mummy hot dogs! Ari ate hers before it was cooked! (Isabel told me that gma & gpa needed to know that) We let the kids make faces with ketchup and mustard. The kids liked them :)

After the games and lunch, we made SPIDER COOKIES! This was a hit with all the kids. We just did the oreos with frosting, licorice for the legs, and mini m&m's for the eyes. The eyes were definitely most popular. Jen's nephew Jack wasn't very into the games, but he was sure into the cookies! So, here they are showing us their creations!

Isabel~Jack~ Zoey

Ari ~ Benjamin ~ Adam

I didn't get any good pictures, but the kids then made foam bat door hangers. Isabel made a green one and Ben made a yellow one. They loved them. It was a good way to start off the Halloween weekend! Thanks for the fun time Jen, Kandi, & Tamina! We'll have to do it again!

Potty Training Funnies

Ben has finally decided that he should go potty in the toilet! I let him pick out his own undies and he picked Thomas the Train. Here he is showing us his new undies!
Now the funny part is that he has to wear them backwards so that he can see his trains :) Funny huh! I love how his one cheek hangs out! They don't quite fit right backwards!