Happy Ten

Tyler turned ten years old this last week! Yesterday was his party. We took him and a few of his friends to a new place called Funtime Inflatables. They just opened up this summer and with reasonable entrance prices, six different bounce houses plus an open space to run, it was the perfect place for a birthday party! The boys spent two hours running, bouncing, sliding, and playing for two hours until I made them leave so we could come back home for cake and presents. I tried to take some pictures but the ones I got were dark and blurry no matter what setting I put my camera on.
Last year, Tyler wanted a volcano cake for his party. It was such a hit that he wanted it again. Fine with me, it is easy and looks very cool. In fact, last year, I went into his classroom the day after his party and his teacher said that was the first thing she heard about that day, how cool Tyler's birthday cake was.


Happy Birthday, Tyler, we love you, Tyler!

Veronica

Veronica had a violin recital on Wednesday. She did an amazing job. She looked beautiful (as always).
I took a video and wanted to share it with those of you who are far away and would like to see it. But I spent way too much time today trying to get it on here and it is not working.
So instead I will just let her know publicly how proud of her I am. She is driven to succeed and has the abilities to do so. She is kind and giving. She is beautiful on the inside and out.
This recital was extra special because her Grandma and Grandpa Haley and Great-Grandma Connors, and Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Great-Grandpa Smith (The person who gave her her first violin and is an accomplished violin player himself.) were all able to be there.
Great job, Veronica!

Funnies and Deals

Yesterday Joe said that after dinner he would "throw" Brenna and Braelynn into the bathtub. Braelynn started giggling and said "Daddy, you can't throw us into the bathtub, it would make too big of a splash!"
A few weeks ago when we were hiking, Brenna was making her way up the hill and said "Mom, this mountain is huge, it will never fit in the gym!"
This one happened years ago but I saw the word CAPACITY the other day and it reminded me of Veronica when she was in kindergarten. She started reading early and would read everything she could. For some reason we were staying in a hotel and while we were swimming she asked me what capacity (sounded cap-a-city) meant. It took her showing me the sign to understand what she was talking about. Even now when I see that word, I always think of her.

I have been mourning the loss of Albertsons closing down here really bad. I am really going to miss the deals that I can get there. I decided I wouldn't even look at the ads and coupons to go with them, better to not know what you are missing, right? But since we were going to be in St. George on Saturday anyway, it wouldn't hurt to just look right? Good thing I did, they had amazing deals. So Friday night I clipped my coupons and made my list. Want to know what I got?
I spend $42.54 and bought 39 items, including 2 8-count packages of paper towels, 4 Sara lee pies, 4 Bryers ice cream, 8 boxes of Chex, 6 3-count boxes of Pop Secret popcorn, 2 Ragu spaghetti sauce, 3 Crisco oil, 6 cookie mixes and 4 frostings.
I spent $42.54 and saved $126.57.
I got my rush, I am happy!

Tricks and Treats

I hope everyone had a good Halloween! Here are a few pics of ours!
Brenna as Tinkerbell.

Everyone loved Samantha's Pippi Longstocking hair. (Thanks, Christie for supplying us that costume!) In case you were wondering, that is her real hair, just sprayed red.

Braelynn was Sleeping Beauty. She was not feeling well but wanted to wear her costume anyway so getting her to smile was entertaining. She would cheese smile. I took a whole bunch of pictures with her smiling an obviously forced smile.

Tyler wanted to be a football player. I tried to get him to be something different since he really is a football player and has been one every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for practices and every Saturday for games for the last two and a half months. His team won a very suspenseful game yesterday, qualifying them for the playoffs!

Veronica opted out of dressing up or anything this year and handed out candy instead since most of her friends were out of town this year so I snuck around the house and took a picture of her.

It was a great day. Joe was able to be with us for the whole Halloween festivities, something he has missed out on the last few years because of work. He helped out at Samantha's school class party, took the kids out trunk-or-treating at a few businesses on Friday and then helped with the costuming and everything yesterday. It is amazing how much easier all that is with an extra person after doing it solo for so many years. That, and for those that know him, know how much fun he has doing that stuff (well, anything) with his kids. Thanks, hon, for being such an amazing dad!