Hayden cracks me up in this pic because she LOVES to be on her Daddy's shoulders.
My Gigantic family! There are a lot of us and we are still growing. Dan's wife Jen currently has a bun cooking in her oven. And they just found out it's a girl!
Our goofy side (at least some of us).
The two lovebirds that started it all.
I love to look at this picture of just the siblings. To see how grown up we all are and to think about the road we've all been on to get us to where we are. I have a great love for my siblings and am so proud of each one of them and what they are accomplishing. On that note, my brother Timmy (in the red) just got called to be a missionary for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He will be serving in the N. Atlanta, GA mission and leaves Nov. 17th!
Happy Labor Day everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. Our's was just laid back and ended up being pretty darn fun. Here's what happened:
We started off with a BYU game. We had two of the cutest BYU cheerleaders around, a party at our house - I think we got pretty close to maximum capacity, and an awesome Victory over Washington. The next day, Hayden looked so stinkin cute in her Sunday best so of course we had to get pictures.
And Videos:
That evening we had a couple from our church over. I cooked some phenomenal fajitas - sorry I had to toot my own horn here. I tried caramelizing all my peppers, onions and mushrooms this time and it was oh so so so so good!! And almost as good as the food was our company. The husband is an under-cover cop and his wife is in law-enforcement as well (now she is in the academia side of things). We had cool story after cool story of all his experiences.
On Monday, after getting some projects done in the morning, we headed out to a great shopping area and went to lunch at a place called T-Rex Cafe. It was filled with animated Dinosaurs and aquariums. Carter thought it was one of the coolest places he's ever gone. Plus, he ate a TON of food. As you can see, Hayden was pretty stoked to be getting out!
Carter in front of one of the aquariums.
If you're not careful, you might get eaten by a dinosaur!
After lunch we headed over to Cabella's where Carter loved looking at all the dead, stuffed animals and shooting the "rifles".
Then we hurried on home, to get to our Neighborhood BBQ. We ended up moving to one of the coolest streets in town. There are a ton of kids around Carter's age and the parent's are pretty fun, too.
This is in front of our neighbor's house.
Then yesterday, I threw a baby shower for a girl from our church at our house. Two of her favorite things are ice cream and oreos, so right away I thought I'd make her my friend Heather's mud pie that she raves about. I mean how hard can it be really?!? Yeah, for me it apparently is really hard:
First you start with a crust of a whole package of oreos, then a half gallon of chocolate ice cream with melted PB and hot fudge and crushed butterfingers. Then another half gallon of vanilla goes on that. I must have defrosted my ice cream too much because I ended up with Niagra Falls mud pie!! This is an action shot of me freaking out trying to save my mud pie! Oh man, it was a disaster. But I got it in the freezer, let it freeze up, finished the rest of the topping, froze it again, took off the spring form thing and it didn't look too bad. There will be a picture below.
But before the shower could start, Carter had his first Soccer "game" as he calls it. Here they only have Bitty Soccer for 3/4 yr olds, which is just a 4 week long soccer clinic. But since he had a team (the green team) and a coach (parent volunteer) it was close enough to a "game" for him.
This picture is Carter 100% through and through: his determined face, stretched out arm, the only thing he is missing is his tongue sticking out.
Grandma had been gone for 10 days taking Whit out to school, so Hayden had to get her loves on now that Grandma is back in town. She sat there hugging Gma for at least 2-3 minutes. It was so cute!
After hurrying home from the soccer "game," let the baby shower begin:
My mud pie, Mary's fruit plate, Jolyn did cute fluff balls for decor and some fresh raspberry lemonade. We were set. This sweet girl, Laura, who we were having the baby shower for, her mother saved not only Laura's favorite shoes, dresses, and blankets from when Laura was a baby, but also gave Laura some clothes and shoes from when Laura's mom was a baby. It was so sweet and fun to see these items that had lasted through the years and were in still such great shape.
Last, but not least, a video of Carter singing his sister an original song:
Hayden was making this funny sound and face. It got nick-named "The Old Man Sound."
P.S. I don't know how to make my blog wide enough so you can view the wole wide-screen picture so if you double click you can watch it widescreen through youtube.
This "chase lounge" with ottoman is the ulitmate in comfort and massiveness. Man, do we love to lounge on it! The funny thing about this pic (taken at Neb Furn Mart) is that our paint color (previous owner's paint choice) is the exact same color. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT? I go back and forth on being okay with it for a while to we must paint NOW! I would really like to hold off a bit, but I am just not feeling like the house is totally ours yet and I think it is because I am not in love with the paint or carpet.
Our chair to go with it. It is not the ultimate in comfort, but I think it's a great lookin chair.
We showed off our chub u lubs:
We showed off Aunt Jen's adorable dress and shoes she gave Hayden:
Had to get a close up of her shoes and her thighs that I love.
We kept working on our eating skills:
Played with Grandpa and Grandma a lot:
Carter piled blankets all around him and Hayden and called it a club:
Saw the whole arch of an amazing rainbow:
Got dressed up all the time in our swimsuits:
Wasn't always a fan of the swimsuit.
Carter on the other hand was always a fan of the swim suit.
We went boating a lot:
It's amazing to me how much younger Hayden looks in this picture taken just a couple months ago.
We grew big enough to start peeking over things:
We moved into our house and had Daddy ended his time in Pittsburgh to come be with us:
We re-did Hayden's room:
And when I say "we" I mean a lot of Bonnie, a bunch of Matt and a little bit of me. Grandpa even got involved in some of the babysitting action.
"We" painted walls, trim, and bead board. It was a much bigger job than any of us thought it would be. I am still finishing some of the decor and will show the finished product when it is done.
I gasp just about everytime I see this picture.
Hayden cracks me up in this pic because she LOVES to be on her Daddy's shoulders.
My Gigantic family! There are a lot of us and we are still growing. Dan's wife Jen currently has a bun cooking in her oven. And they just found out it's a girl!
Our goofy side (at least some of us).
The two lovebirds that started it all.
I love to look at this picture of just the siblings. To see how grown up we all are and to think about the road we've all been on to get us to where we are. I have a great love for my siblings and am so proud of each one of them and what they are accomplishing. On that note, my brother Timmy (in the red) just got called to be a missionary for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He will be serving in the N. Atlanta, GA mission and leaves Nov. 17th!
The Grandkids with Aunt Nicole and Uncle Tim
Grandkids
Grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa - so cute!!
