Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

 

 

Every year I say, "lets just go buy a fake tree." That way we don't have to drive up the mountain, get stuck, hassle with other drivers on the one way roads, walk around the mountain trying to find the perfect tree that has been growing beautifully for 35 years (no kidding) just to cut down and put in our house for a month then throw out!! But then mid November rolls around and all I can remember is the fun of it all, I long for the fresh cut tree smell and the chill of the mountain air. Then we get up there and I say, "why didn't we just go get a fake tree." :)

 

No, it is a fun tradition. Although I do feel bad cutting down a tree that has been growing for longer than I have been alive!

So here's our Christmas tree!

 

 

 

This one was a bugger.  It had a little bit of a crooked trunk so it tipped over TWICE. (eiyiyi!)

 

After our fun day on the mountain we made our way to the Rupert Square to enjoy some hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls and to watch Santa Clause turn on the lights and then watch the fireworks. This just might be the favorite Thanksgiving weekend tradition!! I love it, some years it is freezing cold but this year the temperatures were pretty mild!

 

Here's the kids watching the fireworks:

 

My mom is amazing! She made and put together gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate.  They had so much fun. 

Look at that mess, she's is so brave!

 

 

Here's our little gingerbread village!

 

We saw this idea in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine, so the big girls got to make a snow globe city! Cute!

 

Thanksgiving 2013

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with the Mickelsen family!!  Lots of good food and fun playing with cousins!

After dinner per tradition, the guys go out and shoot clay pigeons. Get out the ear plugs!

It was a beautiful day...LOOK at that sky!! Hudson just hung out on the 4-wheeler watching the action.

 

 

 Here's Nate throwing a clay pigeon for Braiden.  He hit some! I was impressed! I wouldn't be able to hit a stationary target, and a moving one, not in a long shot! (OOooohahaha! :D)

Here is my brother and my nephew. (father and son)   Last time we measured I was only taller than Ethan by about an inch, I'm sure he's passed me up by now! Freaky!!

 

I love this picture of my dad, my nephew and my brother. (father, son, father, son) I wonder who got the target??

 

While the guys are out shooting the girls stay in an do paper crafts...my fav!

 



My Tiny Dancer

Little Miss is loving dance class, the cuteness of it all kills me week after week!

 

 

These are a couple of our favorite dance outfits:

 

 

 

This is her winter performance costume:

(love it!! very practical!!)

 

 

 

Dance hair:

 

She loves her dance hair and even sits nice while it gets done! WOW! Such a girl.♥

 

Here they are at festival of trees! When my friends see my boys at the performances they are always amazed that I was able to get my them to come. :D 2 things...  1: they didn't have an option and 2: Do you know how many of their ball games x 3 she has sat through!!! They can surely watch their little sister dance for 1 hour 5 times a year!!!

 

 

Here are her two dances for your viewing pleasure!

 

In both dances she is the fourth one in from the right...the one hamming it up on stage!

 

Sugar, Sugar

 

 

 

If All of the Rain Drops

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These videos were of the very first performance, they got much, much better by the third! Still, SO. DANG. CUTE!! At least everyone was dancing and no one was bawling. :)

A Fall Project Complete

It seems funny to be writing about a fall project in January but I am trying to play catch up, so here we go! ;)

We have had "build a shed" on our to do list for quite a while now.  Winter was creeping up on us so we had to do something!! I love the way it turned out!! It took about 3 GOOD weekends and lots of help from family but it is done! It is so nice to have the lawn mowers, weed eaters, bicycles, coolers etc. OUT of our space. We can now park two cars in our two car garage...that's always nice!!

Trick-or-Treat

 

How did August turn in to November??? I feel bad that I have neglected my blog for so long. 

I've been working on Hudson's baby scrapbook lately (when I can find the time) and I realized something, this blog is very valuable!! There is a ton of journaling to do but he was born 5 almost 6 years ago!! There's a lot that I don't remember, little details you know (which is sad.) So I turn to my blog, I love, love, love, looking back and reading and watching my little munchkins grow and change!

 

We made it through football season, 3 boys on 3 different football teams, it was pretty wild! They love it, and I love it when it is over...I mean when it is over I can look back and say, that was fun! :) My 11 year old knows more about the sport than I do. He knows the calls the refs on TV are going to make before they make them!! eiyiyi! I'm glad they love it and I'm glad that they can share that with their dad.

 

I am enjoying my new calling, I am learning so much! It really makes me study and rely on the spirit.  2 weeks ago my lesson was on How Can I Develop Christlike Love?  I fell in love with the talk by President Uchtdorf The Merciful Obtain Mercy I read that talk over and over I even made handouts to go with the lesson.  Well, Saturday night rolled around and I was putting together my lesson, organizing all of my thoughts and not one part of that talk made it into my lesson, I even threw the handouts away. I ended up doing my whole lesson on President Monson's talk: Charity Never Faileth.  It was the Lord's way of telling me, "Yes, you needed to hear, The Merciful Obtain Mercy. But the girls need, Charity Never Faileth. I am so grateful for the spirit to guide me though this, I could not do it with out!! I showed this video, I bawl and bawl every time I watch it.  This Church is amazing!!!

 

Little Joslyn is in dance and she is loving it!! Her first performance is tomorrow!! I can't wait to watch her. She asks me just about every day if she has dance. If I say no she gets mad at me and says "you always say no dance today!!"

 

Hudson is in kindergarten and is doing so great! I am amazed at the stuff they are learning!! WOWEE! But they get it, those young minds are little sponges soaking it all in.  I help in his class on Tuesdays for 30 min.  It is so funny to see those little kids, they are always excited to see me (I'm not sure why... ;) ) "Hi, Mrs. Catmull!!!" They say, so cute!

 

 

Here are my kiddos on Halloween:

 

 

I made Hudson be Peter Pan, he was OK with it in the end.  Joslyn was Tinkerbell & we had that awesome costume from when Braiden was Peter Pan hmmm 6 years ago (?) When he was 5.  So he had to! At first he'd say everyone is going to think it's dumb! :( But when it all boils down, all they want to do is dress up! Mom and I bought Brody's costume the day before at Target, it's pretty much all they had left. He is out growing the cartoon character or super hero costumes, so this was our choice.  I don't care for the disgusting mask but there again, all they really want to do it dress up & he thought it was fabulous! Braiden was a Hobo. He is at the age where you have to be creative with costumes.  He came up with the idea, I made it happen! I'm all about that!! I guess on Halloween his school is on the 1:00 bell schedule and then at 1:00 they have a Halloween dance in the gym.  Imagine my relief when he told me that he forgot his activity card and $2.00 and didn't really care to go.  So he and his best friends went to his Advisory teachers room and watched The Croods. Fewsh!! I'm glad we're not there yet!

After school we went over to Nate's grandma's to trick-or-treat and the kids found her GIANT leaf pile! I've never seen them have so much fun!! I love this pic of them smiling so big and having fun together! Brody is off to the side raking the leaves into a bigger pile.

Here I think Tinkerbell is throwing leaves at the two boys.  She really is a rotten little stinker in the movie.  In the Tinkerbell movies she is sweet and creative and friendly but in Peter Pan she is a naughty little fairy.  We're going Secret of the Wings here! :)

Happy Fall Y'all!!

Random August Happenings

 

 

Ready for school, I love buying school supplies. As soon as they hit the shelves I am there!

 

 

Cute cousins, Lilli and Joslyn are great friends! Luckily we have got to hang out with these guys quite a bit this summer!

I thought this picture was funny, all the boys were dressed up having a nerf gun war.  Love the shades Brod.

Poor little Brody had to get 5 teeth pulled.  We took him to our good friend Jeff DaBell who is an oral surgeon in Pocatello, because he needed to be put out.  He had an extra tooth called a mesiodens behind his two front teeth, they had to cut the roof of his mouth and dig around to find it but we got it out. (the little trouble maker) (the tooth ;)) plus 4 baby teeth pulled. so 5 in all.  Poor little buddy. So now he has stitches in the roof of his mouth. makes eating not so fun.  He is sick of yogurt. Do you want to know what surprises me? This picky little eater loves himself some CHOBANI!!!

 

My mom kept the rest of our kids while we took Brody to his appt. When we got home they were playing on the slip n' slide.  Notice Joslyn...she thinks she is one of the boys! Hilarious.  They were all wearing shorts and no shirts so that is what she wore too!!! :)

And...I got a new calling. I am the Mia-Maid advisor.  I am nervous/excited.  It will be good for me to study these lessons each week.  I gave my first lesson on Sunday, it went good, I have some great girls in my class.  I didn't even use 1/2 of the stuff I planned but that is good to have too much and not enough.  So here we go, It's been about 7-8 yrs since I've been in young womens and a lot has changed.  Here's to a new learning experience.

Red Fish

 

If you follow me on Instagram this is all old news, sorry

 

We are now at the tail end of July and time for our annual Red Fish Lake camping trip. The kids look forward to this all year. We had to stop at the Shoshone snack bar for lunch and an ice cream yummo!

 

Playing at the lake one day the clouds chased us away, and it was rainy the rest of the day and evening.  That stinks when camping.

But the last two days were sunny and beautiful!

 

I have to get a picture of the kids in this spot every year!

 

And we need a silly picture with the cousins too!

Grandma Camp 2013

 

Here we are at grandma camp. We got to go up to Challis this year, double the fun! My mom had so many fun things for the kids to do, there was no time to be bored.

 

Here's the crew:



 

 

Stick People, the kids hunted for sticks first of all then came in and dressed them up with fabric scraps.  I love Kailey's ballerina (3rd one in from the left.)

 

The awesome thing about the cabin is that has great lighting for taking pictures...not. ;) Here are all the kids holding their stick people.

She even had water bottles with "grandma camp" labels!!!

We panted fingers and toes

 

 

While the boys did a little archery

 

 

 

 

They loved this! Every spare minute they had they were shooting arrows.


Swimming at the hot springs. The first day we went in the afternoon. and it was too hot! The water is about 98 degrees and it was about 85 outside.  Lets just say we were a little sluggish when we got out.
The next day we went first thing in the morning and it was much better.

Bella:

 

Decorating plates

 

 

 Summer snowballs, the kids had fun with this, Brody said, "this is so fun, I wish I could do this every day!"

There were prizes frozen in these ice blocks, the kids had to chisel and work to get them out.  This kept them busy for a long time!

 We had to make a dollar store flip flop run because Bella and Joslyn forget to bring some.  They  picked some cute ones.

 Clothes pin airplanes:

Cherry blossom tree paintings

I love these kids they get along so well together. Thanks Grandma for all the great memories

July

 

I love our little town, we party for a week over the Fourth.  Here we are at the Christmas lighting breakfast.  (a fundraiser for the Christmas lights.) It is a fun tradition and the food is so yummy! We ran into the Wayments there.

Later that night is the fireworks show so it is a early morning and a late night on that day.

 

There are food booths all around the square and that is the best part!! The Mexican food is a must, the scones are a must, the kettle corn is a must and you have to have a hamburger at least once.  So you have to go daily because no one can eat all that food in one sitting. ;) Every night they have entertainment and it is fun just to go sit  and listen.  Nate is involved with the Kiwanis and they have a food booth so if we want to see him over the fourth we have to go to the square. :) darn.


Here is the parade crew:

  

Braiden and Brody were in the parade this year on the Rupert Sharks float.  They got to take squirt guns and spray all the parade viewers with water, they thought that was great!

 

After the parade we went and played on the river at Paul and Karla's for the rest of the day.  Heaven.

Ezra surfing with Joslyn

July 5-6 was a massive Catmull family reunion. Catmulls came from far and wide. 

Busy busy.