Luke just has a lot to say!

I went up to visit my Aunt Dorothy who is in the hospital and afterward my mom, Andrea, and the boys went to lunch. Luke was dead set about going to McDonalds and we passed a couple of fast food places on the way there and mentioned Wendy's. He said "Nope!" and as we were driving down the street and waiting at the light to go to the golden arches, he asked if we could eat at "Subway, eat fresh." I said no way (because he had made such a big deal about going to McDonalds but was laughing because of his comment) and he said "Darn it." Then later he asked my sister if she got Caroline anything to eat and Andrea said "No, she just eats milk right now."
He said, "Oh, she just eats zero year old food huh!"

Bowling

For a fun activity for the boys' birthdays, we went bowling on November 9. We have kind of a crazy week during the first part of November with 3 birthdays in 6 days. The boys went off track on November 9 and had a half day on November 8 so and since those are Nicholas' and Andrew's birthdays respectively, it was an extra birthday present. The boys actually do pretty good bowling and this time Liam got into it and pushed the ball down the ramp to make it go down the lane. It made it into the gutter everytime, but he would jump up and down watching it roll. Andrew won this round and we will be back for a rematch!

Seven is heaven!

Happy birthday Andrew! We went to Red Robin for dinner and then came home and had cake and ice cream and watched Ratatouille. I can't believe that he is already 7 years old! He is such a nice and considerate boy and loves legos and playing soccer. His favorite color is green and he hates marinara sauce. I love you sweetie!

A couple more from Luke

The other day I was taking Luke to school and he was looking through my purse and found my gum. I love the Orbit brand and he asked me what it said. I told him, "Orbit." "What's an orbit?" I proceeded to tell him that an orbit is a planet's path around the sun and it goes in an oval. I thought that was sufficient until he asked me if the planets melted and went into the box for gum!

We were at Chili's for Nicholas' birthday and he handed out coasters for everyone and said, "There, now everyone has a lilypad!"

Yay for Justin!

My family has long awaited the arrival of a cheesecake factory and it finally opened--just in time for Justin's birthday which was on November 3. My dad waited for about 3 hours so we could eat there and it was worth the wait! The food was delicious as usual and we got three different kinds of cheesecake to share, my favorite was the dulce de leche and Justin's was the pumpkin cheesecake. We are so glad that Justin had a birthday so we could have a reason to go eat there! Justin, I love you!

Witches and pumpkins

On October 29, we made our annual trip to Gardner Village to see the witch display! It is always fun and this year we stayed a little longer and the boys got to feed the fish and ducks and even saw a water snake which they thought was pretty cool. Afterward, we stopped at the candy shop to get jelly bellies and a Diet Coke for mom...to calm my nerves. That night we carved pumpkins and we all had a good time. It was Liam's first time really getting into things and he did pretty well. He does NOT like to have his hands dirty so he would touch the pumpkin guts with the back of his hands, not his fingers. The boys drew the faces on their pumpkins themselves and they did a pretty good job! See what you think!

PARTY!

Caroline did not like her costume too much-so cute though!

On Sunday the 28th, Justin and I threw a little Halloween party with our families at our house. It was so fun--everyone dressed up and we had a gross menu that included mummy toes, toad's eye soup, bat poop, and everyone's favorite: kitty litter. We love our family and are grateful that we are close enough to get together on a regular basis. The kids were so funny though-they kept asking me when we were going to have dessert and I told them that the kitty litter was their dessert...they didn't like that idea too much so after a few times of asking me, I finally broke down and gave them good old fashioned ice cream!

Halloween!

Well, the time has come again for costumes and it could not have come too soon. We love Halloween and plan the costumes about 3 months (or more in Liam's case) in advance. This year, Nicholas is a skeleton, Andrew is Wolverine from X-Men, Luke is a mummy (NOT a ghost!), and Liam is Elvis. All of them look adorable! On the 26th, we had the school parade and then on Friday night, the boys and Justin went to a trick or treat thing at Sylvia's work. I told them that they don't need to go trick or treating on Halloween and I was met with blank stares. Ahhh, let the sugar highs begin!

pumpkin patch

On October 10, Luke, Liam, and I met up with my friend from work, Erica Gardner, and her son Ty to go to the pumpkin patch. It's this cute little place that had a mini corn maze and a long row of tractors that the kids could sit on. Luke ran through that maze about 15 times and Liam loved the tractors...when he would sit on them he would yell "E-I-E-I-O!" I don't know how he made the connection between a tractor and a farm since we don't go to farms very often, but it was cute. Liam and Ty are still getting to know each other but by the end they were sorting the smaller pumpkins into baskets. They will be friends soon enough!

A Luke joke

Luke: "Knock, knock!"

Me: "Who's there?"

Luke: "Seatbelt!"

Me: (quite hesitantly!) "Seatbelt who?"

Luke: "I didn't know you could put your seatbelt on!" while laughing hysterically.

At least HE thinks he's funny!

We all scream for ICE CREAM!

We (me, mom, dad, Andrew, Luke, and Liam) went to the Utah State Fair on Monday, September 12 and feasted on all the ice cream we could eat. It was HEAVEN! There were several different kinds of ice cream and we tried many that we probably wouldn't have had it not been there...such as American Idol ice cream which was not one I would have voted for...okay, bad joke. Andrew of course got vanilla. Afterward, we went on a couple rides...Liam was unsure of the ferris wheel but made it through without any problems.

Try it Grandpa, you'll like it!
The view from the top of the ferris wheel.

A day at the museum

On Wednesday, September 5, my mom and I took the boys and Caroline to the museum of Natural History at the University of Utah. I had not been there in years and it was a nice step back in time...literally and figuratively. The boys of course had fun and despite all the neat exhibits there, they were most interested in the one with the naked Indians in it. Oh well, boys will be boys.

another funny from Luke

Tonight at dinner Justin and I were discussing Nicholas' soccer practices and he mentioned that they were thinking of moving the Thursday night one from 7:00 to 6:00. I said "It is almost worse at six..." and continued on saying that it is harder for dinner and getting everyone organized. A few moments later, Luke said "Will I be worse when I'm six?" I explained that what I was saying had nothing to do with him and told him that he would be even better at six!

Oil for breakfast

This morning I was making oatmeal for Nicholas and Andrew and they took it into my room to eat and play on the computer. Luke was also in there and came out and said "Mom, I want oil for breakfast too!" I said "Oil? I don't think that would taste very good!" I could hear Luke having a conversation with someone in the bedroom and then said "Oh yeah, I want oatmeal!"

Liam is 2?

Where has the time gone? We just celebrated Liam's second birthday on September 1st and it is hard to believe that he is such a big (hee hee) boy. He is such a sweet and wonderful addition to our family and is doing so well. We had a circle theme for the party...we almost had it in our garage because that is one of the few words that he says, but I vetoed that idea since I had already planned for a different party. It was fun...hamburgers, hot dogs and an ice cream sandwich bar for dessert. We love having the family over and Liam was spoiled by all...with presents AND attention. We love you Liam!

This IS the place!

On Tuesday, August 28th (?) the boys and I with my mom and baby Caroline went to This is the Place park. I hadn't been there for a while but my mom's friends, the Stotts, volunteer up there and thought it would be fun to go. The boys had a GREAT time...there was a train that Brother Stott ran and let the boys sit up in the engine and "drive" the train, a little area with play houses, a petting zoo, an old school, and even a house that you could work in like pioneer children did...beating rugs, watering the garden, etc...which was the boys' favorite part. Unfortunately, it is much more fun to do it at someone else's house than our own! We got sasparilla (which was NOT enjoyed by the kids) for a treat and then had to take some reluctant boys home. We will definately have to go back soon!

lunch with dad!

The kids are off track until September 10 which means that we will have a three week period where we are trying to do things nonstop to keep the kids entertained. Today we went to lunch with Justin at Red Robin and the boys had a great time...they feed off each other so most of the lunch was filled with laughing and silly faces. Liam slept the entire time so that is why he is not in any of the photos!

I have been visiting other blogs and realized that you don't HAVE to have a picture posted to have people want to read about your family. I don't take pictures everyday, but everyday my kids say something funny or suprisingly intellectual so I thought I would start posting some of these occasionally, first of all to remind myself and secondly, to make people smile!

A couple days ago, we were working on Luke's homework and for that day it was "say the letters in your name." He started by saying L-U-K-E and then moved on to "S". I was going to be impressed because we don't really go over how to spell our last name and was excited that he must have learned this at school. After saying the "S" he followed it with saying "DOT". There are two Lukes in his class. I just thought it was cute that he made sure that the period was recognized.

On Saturday, I had mistakenly told the kids that we would go swimming before checking with Justin and he didn't want to go that day. We decided to go to the splash park but convincing the kids was a different story. Surprisingly, Luke was the first to agree and Andrew was going on and on about wanting to go swimming. After a few minutes of this, Luke got frustrated and stood right in front of Andrew with his hands on his hips and pronounced: "Andrew, you need to listen to your mother!" I only wish that he would follow his own counsel!

Lastly, yesterday Andrew was telling me the colors of the rainbow. He said "red, orange, yellow, green, blue, MANGO, and violet." I said: Mango? He said: Yep. Mango, you know that blue/black color. I said: I think you mean indigo. He said: Oh, yeah, indigo. Well, I told Justin to ask him what the colors of the rainbow were. He did and Andrew replied: "red, orange, yellow, green, blue, um...you know that one color..." Justin said: what color? Andrew said: well, I think its FLAMINGO or something? Justin said: Indigo? Andrew said: Oh yeah, indigo and violet.

BEES!

A favorite activity of ours is going to Franklin Covey field for Salt Lake Bees games! The team was in a streak of 8 losses--I guess they just needed us to come so they could win! The boys always have fun--they played catch, played on the playground, rode on the train--not much game watching but oh well! Liam also had fun playing with grandpa's elastic face! :) The girls also had a five minute treat--free massages by Heavenly Hands-just what they needed!

Grandpa is such a good sport!

First days of school!

Well, another school year has begun!
Nicholas started third grade--I can't believe it.Andrew was so excited to be "in a grade"-when he woke up in the morning, he said "Say hello to the big boy!". They both started on the 25th of July at Jordan Ridge Elementary. Luke started Kindergarten on August 1. I cannot tell you how strange it is that he is this old! I guess with Nicholas I was pushing him to grow up, but now I wish all of them would slow down!
Luke liked his teacher and had a good day, so hopefully good days
will continue!