Tyler is climbing the walls

Tyler learned about two years ago that he could "walk" up the wall in our hallway. And, yes, I let him do it and he does on a regular basis. I am sure some of you have seen him do it because he loves to show people and when he does, I usually get embarrassed and self conscious because what kind of a mother actually lets her kid do that?
The last time Tyler was climbing the walls I got to thinking about it wondering why it didn't bother me until other people saw him do it. I resolved then to acknowledge the fact that yes, my kid climbs walls and it is okay because he is just being a kid.
So in an effort to not become uncomfortable next time someone sees him climb our walls, here it is for the world to see.
In the summertime when he does it with dirty hands and feet after being outside I even send him up there with a wash cloth to wipe up after himself!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is what you get after two fun days of playing with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa.
We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents house this year. All of my siblings were there with spouses and kids.
It is so nice to live close and only have to drive an hour and a half instead of anywhere from 6 to 10 hours like most of my siblings. A big thanks to those that make the sacrifice so that we can enjoy time together.

Have a seat

Yesterday as we were sitting down in Tyler's, Brenna's and Braelynn's room to read scriptures, the door to my pantry (which is their closet) was open. Somehow they decided that the cereal boxes on the floor made a perfect seat.

Happy Birthday Tyler!!!

Tyler turns nine years old today! He celebrated yesterday with having eight of his friends over for lunch and a party. Can you believe we cooked 32 hot dogs, two bags of chips, two containers of koolaid and a birthday cake all gone with only one hot dog and very little of the rest of the stuff left over. And they aren't even teenagers yet!
He didn't want any games or anything, just to have his friends over and hang out, but I figured we needed to do something to channel some of their energy so I came up with this cool treasure hunt. We had five clues, each one they had to figure out. The favorites were a clue written on white paper with white crayon that they had to color over with a marker to figure out and another one that they had to pop balloons and put the papers together to figure out the clue. The treasure was a can of candy buried in the garden.
Here are a few things about Tyler:
1. His favorite sports to play are football and wrestling
2. He makes friends very easily and has a ton of them
3. But he is actually very shy when it comes to doing new things
4. He is very afraid of heights, even diving boards
5. He loves to do manly-man things like hunting, shooting, etc. with his dad
6. He is very into scouting
7. He is the very best brother ever to Brenna and Braelynn

The first thing they do every time...wrestle.


Look at that cake!

A Possible Bargain

I haven't had time to try this yet but hopefully during nap time... It was posted on a coupon site that I checked. She posted it on Wednesday so you would have to hurry, it is a great deal for a good Christmas present!

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081029_tows_messyhouse/7

She is giving away free 20 page 8x11 photo books for 48 hours. I just created and ordered mine, all i paid was 7 bucks for shipping. Not bad when the normal price is $29.99 !

On the main page of oprah.com the first thing that comes up "peter's clutter crew" in the blue section there is a link to "get your free gift from snapfish" it will show as full price until you actualy go and pay then the 29.99 discount is taken at the very end :)

Time In The Sky

Joe had the opportunity to go flying for a few hours yesterday. Our friend Jess is going to pilot school and just got his private pilots licence and offered to take Joe up with him. They were only able to spend an hour or so in the air, instead of four like they wanted to because of the weather, but they seemed to have a great time.
Here is a picture of Joe, Jess, and the plane they flew in.

trick-or-treat

Time to post the Halloween pictures!

Every year we head out to Joe's Mom and Dad's house for their neighborhoods annual trunk-or-treat. The kids love to show off their costumes to Grandma and Grandpa. We always try to round up the grandkids to take a picture which is always entertaining. This year Grandma and Grandpa decorated their truck really cute so we put all the kids in the back of the truck. It was much less entertaining but we got a picture with all the grandkids (minus Veronica) without having to chase one child or another back into the picture!


Veronica as a cat. She ditched us this year to go with her friends. We missed not having her with us but it is fun to see her old enough to go out on her own and are so glad that she has good, responsible friends to hang out with.

This picture does not do Braelynn's hair justice. I was really proud of the way it turned out. I wasn't sure how to do Snow White hair with not a lot of hair, but I put a red ribbon and made it into a headband, then curled her hair. Very cute!

Brenna as Cinderella.

Samantha as a painter.

Very cool-looking pirate. I should have taken a close-up of his face, I did a scar and everything. I was really happy (and surprised) at how good it turned out.