Sugar me up Baby!

This year we spent Halloween night with some friends. Joanna and Dave Toy had our family and John and Angela Lampros family over for dinner before we hit the streets. Here is the group "kid shot" of all the trick or treaters. I love how all the boys are dressed up as something scary or dangerous. Here is the rundown: 2 Ninja's-Landon and Levi, Batman-Dayton, Dorothy-Sophia, Witch-Olivia, Gymnast-Kenayde, Dracula-Nathaniel, Power Ranger-Reece, and Jude as Rocky!---YO ADRIENNE (I heard that a lot growing up!)

My sister JeriLynn put together this cute little butterfly outfit for Sadie. I don't know if it was meant for Halloween or just one of those cute baby things but that's what Sadie wore for the night. Lovin' it, not even hatin' it.

The kids dined outside around the firepit.

After dinner we took to the streets and this is what we ended up with!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I Have the COOLEST Friends!

My friend Meredith was reading my blog and took pity on me. She made me one of her yummy caramel apples and delivered it straight to my door. How cool is she! This picture doesn't do it justice, not only did it look pretty but was the perfect mix of sweet with salty. Thanks Meredith, YOU ROCK!

That's not a knife, THAT'S A KNIFE!

So we have our pumpkins and we start trying to carve them and the top isn't coming off. I bought those little "carving" knifes they sell with the kit things and they just weren't cutting it. So Trav goes in the office, opens the safe and comes out with a friggin sword and proceeds to cut the tops of the pumpkins off for the boys. Needless to say my boys think there dad is the coolest ever and then they pose with the sword for a picture before mom has to put an end to it all with the "You're going to shoot your eye out" saying except knife version of that saying which went something like this...."Seriously, seriously.....sit down, I'm not kidding, seriously seriously, someone is going to get hurt, knock it off, Landon...Dayton....1, 2, 3, ..." Am I alone on this or what? I'm so outnumbered. Well, everybody survived and here is the finished product.

(Side note: I've noticed since starting blogging, my kids are always on the table, chair, some kind of furniture or another..and always the scary faces hmmmm...)

30 Days Poll

Okay, it's 11:30pm and Travis is out of town and I am obviously bored and I can't sleep so I was checking out blogs and I stumbled upon my friend Kaysha's blog and she had a poll on her blog asking people what they thought she should do for the next thirty days. I'm totally hijacking her idea and putting a poll on my blog cause I need some motivation people!! So vote for what you want me to do and I promise I will do whatever gets the most votes! Be kind....

I need to FIRE our maid!

This morning I woke up to a filthy house! I just can't put up with this any longer. The kitchen is a mess, bathrooms gross, I can't even see through the windows, piles of laundry waiting to be done, I'm sticking to the floor. I mean what is the problem here?? It is just so hard to find good help these days. Am I right? So I called Travis to discuss the issue with him and this is what he said.......... "Honey, we can't fire the maid, I love her, that's why I married her". Ughh, excuses excuses.

HELP Meredith HELP!

About a week ago our ward had it's annual Super Saturday. My friend Meredith was teaching a class on how to make candy caramel apples. The apples they made were works of art, so pretty and perfect, you know the kind that you pay $10 for from those fancy catalogs. I unfortunately was not able to take the class but I've been drooling over seeing them for the last week. So I decided to buy some stuff and we would try making them at home. How hard can it be right?? Well I didn't calculate 3 silly boys and a goofy dad to mess up my "martha" moment but we had fun anyway.
It started out okay, I was giving a demonstration of how to roll your apple in the caramel, that's the last thing I remember.....


Next thing I know the boys are on the counter sampling all the goodies to put on the apples...




It was so hilarious what a crappy job we were all doing decorating these apples that we were laughing so hard. I seriously almost peed my pants. I haven't laughed that hard for a while.

Mmmmmm.......apple, caramel, butterfinger, heath bar, nuts, white chocolate.....did I miss anything??

So Gross!!! I think Travis is the only one that ate more than one bite of their apple.

Here are some samples of the finished product...yummy....maybe I should start a home based caramel apple business.....maybe not!

Devious Dayton!

Pretty much since we got out our Halloween decorations out dear little Dayton has been making decorations of his own. He also has several fake spiders that he likes to place strategically throughout the house to try to scare me. I'll admit he has gotten me a few times. Here are a couple of pictures of his creations!

Here we have Dayton with a sinister look on his face after placing his spider on my purse!


Here is Dayton's scary monster pose along with little ghosts he made for my fake plants!


Another scary ghost hanging from the door...there isn't a door in our house without a decoration!



My cute little "Welcome" and fall wreath wasn't good enough for our front door so Dayton added his Jack-O-Lantern as well. (Scary pose again) Dayton wants everyone to know that this picture is "super scary because my shadow looks like a ghost that's going to getcha!"


Beware of the Devious Dayton come Halloween night everybody!

The Bottomless Pits!

This last summer the kids and I went over to a friends house for lunch. We were making sandwiches for the kids and my friend asked if they wanted a half or a whole sandwich and I remember thinking "Is two an option?" My boys are bottomless pits! Saturday after the pumpkin patch we went to the Golden Corral for lunch. Travis and I are not big fans of buffett restaraunts but it is a favorite for our kids. They eat and eat and eat. I am not a light eater but I am still amazed to see what these boys can throw down. For breakfast I made an entire package of bacon, 12 scrambled eggs, 10 pieces of toast, a big bowl of strawberries, a whole pitcher of OJ and there wasn't a scrap of food left. I'm pretty sure ten minutes after they were done eating breakfast I heard "Can I have a snack?" When we were living in Parker I remember a conversation I had with one of our good friends Ann Alletto. At the time the Alletto's had 3 teenage boys and 2 teenage girls, I remember Ann saying that their household food bill was more than their mortgage! I think those days are in our future.

Reecer with his icecream cone for dessert!

Dayton had 3 plates of food (real food) and dessert of course!

Landon also had three plates of food and dessert! Crazy!

Sadie just sat patiently thinking?? Are you guys done yet?

The Pumpkin Patch!

We finally made it out to the pumpkin patch with a week to go until Halloween. Every Saturday seems to be filled with all those things you "have" to do. This saturday was so much fun with the day free to be together. Of course Sadie is sporting her new pumpkin patch shirt and fall sweater (Thank you Jolynn). It was a nice day, a little windy but still great. The kids had fun seeing the farm animals, playing on the big slide, finding their pumpkins and playing in the hay.



Here is Dayton petting one of the baby pigs.



Reece looks as tall as Landon with the help of this hay bale!


Landon was a great big brother helping Reece up and down the slide. The slide was fun but not very slippery, the kids kind of rolled down instead of sliding down.



The sun was a little bright and Sadie wasn't having it! I kept telling Landon to smile and he kept saying I am!

Here is the whole Jensen crew!

After the family shot we took one of just the kiddos and Reece kept screaming "CHEESE" which then led to the kids laughing and this great picture. Love ya Reecer.

I was trying to prop Sadie up and get that one fabulous shot but she didn't like the wind much so was witholding the smiles. I still think she is darling I could be biased though.

Reece and his "Big Boy" bed!

Well, after the episode with Reece climbing out of his crib he never would stay in there. We ended up setting up a spare bed we had in the basement for him in his room. He was very excited about his new big boy bed. Eventually he will share a room with Dayton and Sadie will move into his room but for now she is still in mom and dad's room. We love you Reecer man you little stinker bum!

Tiny but mighty!

Reece is our fearless 2 year old. He cruises around on his bike and scooter like he is 10 years old. He kept taking his older brother's scooters so we finally bought one for him. I didn't realize how good he is on it until I saw him playing with someone else his own age and it's amazing how coordinated he is. Maybe I'm a biased mom but Reece has always had a knack for active things. I guess being the third boy he has had to learn quick to keep up with his older brothers. He loves sports! Forget T-ball, he can hit the ball straight from a pitch, and you better have your mitt ready because he will huck that ball right back to you! Needless to say with mom and dad being ball players ourselves we are excited!

Things to ponder

I thought I would jot down a few thoughts while they are fresh in my mind.

Elder Wirthlin "Come what may and love it" and President Monson "Find joy in the journey". It's good to be reminded to enjoy everything in life from the daily tasks to the "big" events. I do enjoy life but sometimes it seems I'm hurrying through one thing just to get to the next thing to hurry through. I don't want to have "empty yesterdays" because I'm always "waiting on tomorrow." I have a saying on my wall that says "Enjoy the little things in life because one day you will look back and realize they were the big things".

Jensen Look-alike Meter

I first tried this look-a-like meter with Sadie thinking for sure she is going to look more like me by a huge percentage so when it said she looked equally like both of us I didn't want to try it with my boys because they are spitting images of Travis. Well I decided to see what it said after all and here are the results...fun fun.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family reunion - Family tree templates

Jensen Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Jensen Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Family search

Naptime Blackhole

It all started Tuesday afternoon, it was naptime and as usual we sat in the rocking chair reading stories, giving hugs and kisses, singing songs then down in the crib for a nap. I went down stairs to start some chores and suddenly I heard the sound of little feet running in the toy room. Hmmm, I thought, Landon and Dayton are at school, Sadie is asleep in the swing and Reece is down for a..........OH NO! Quickly I dashed up the stairs two at a time and there he was playing with his toys in the toy room. I heard a sigh from somewhere in the universe coming from all the mothers that have come before me. They knew as did I what this meant. My two year old has learned to climb out of his crib. I acted quickly snatching him up and immediately putting him back into his crib and in a very "motherly" voice let him know he was not to get out of his crib again...that it was naptime and he needed to rest. I waited outside his door holding my breath, knowing but not wanting to believe, what was coming. Little Reece did not dissapoint and in just a few short minutes there he was peeking out of his door. The blackhole had been opened and it was starting to suck the naptime in. I tried as all mothers do all the usual threats, bribes and pleading as I put him back in his crib several more times. Alas I knew it was just a matter of time before my baby Reece would be too big for naptime so I unwillingly surrendered to the naptime blackhole. I sat down on the floor in a state of defeat when Reece climbed up into my lap, looked up at me with his little face that still had pudding smudges on it from lunch and said, "Mom...(wait for it)....(wait for it)..........I want to go to Home Depot". A smile came across my face and once again all was right in the universe.