Mason's Prayers Were Answered

All that praying for a brother paid off. Its a boy and he has a wee wee. Mason is thrilled....Peyton not so much. When we told them, Peyton threw herself on the floor crying her eyes out. We got it on video, but the video is not cooperating right now. She came to terms with it when I told her we'd take her to Wendy's for lunch. We could not be more excited!

Halloween

I had high hopes for the kids costumes this year. Last year I got all creative and made really cool homemade ones. I was up for it this year...I had visions of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bowl of mac and cheese. The problem was that Peyton being the stubborn three year old that she is insisted that she wanted to be a princess. It was all good though. Peyton already had the dress that I got from a garage sale over the summer and we borrowed the karate uniform from a friend. I spent two dollars to make Mason's headband and 3 dollars to make the very necessary gold crown...no ordinary tiara would do. So although the creativity and originality was low, the cheapness made up for it.

Mason Lost His First Tooth

Mason lost his first tooth! He got two dollars from the tooth fairy. At first he wanted to go buy whatever toy he could get for two dollars. When he realized that two bucks wouldn't buy him anything, he decided to put it in his bank to save for our Disneyland trip. About a week before the tooth fell out, his permanent tooth started coming in behind the baby tooth. The dentist said that if the baby tooth didn't fall out on its own in a few weeks, that he would have to go to the dentist and have it pulled. We are now waiting to see if it will move forward or if the other baby teeth are in the way. If they are not allowing it to move into place they may have to be pulled.

Corn Maze

The kids did not seem to enjoy this very much. It only took us about 30 minutes to get through the maze but about halfway through, the kids lost hope completely and started whining about how we were "never going to find our way out" They went as far as to say they were going to need to make beds out of the corn stalks and have to eat the hard corn because we were never going to get home.

Hiking in Castlewood Canyon

Cousin Eli came to Visit

Aunt Allison and Baby Eli came to visit for a week in September and the kids adored him! Although Eli loved his cousins too, I'm not sure he enjoyed being mauled by them for the picture. Eli is such a sweet little baby and we miss him so much!

Big Brothers are the best

They help you put on a Batman costume and teach you that its cool to be tough. Peyton is going to be one tough chica. She still loves to play princess tea party but can also hang in there with the big boys playing skateboards and hockey. Big brothers help you to become well rounded little ladies.
p.s. this blog post is dedicated to Stephanie J and her little baby girl peanut who is going to be three times tougher than Peyton because she is going to have three big brothers. What a lucky little girl!!

First Day of School

Mason and his two best friends, Griffin and Shane

Well...its official, my kids are getting way too big. Mason started kindergarten and Peyton started preschool. I bawled my eyes out at both drop offs. It didn't help the situation that because of a mix up, the school thought I was picking him up on the first day and I thought he wast taking the bus home. I was waiting at the bus stop and Griffin gets off but Mason doesn't. I pretty much lost it again. But we found out quickly what happened and that he was just sitting in the school office just waiting for me to pick him up. I was so scared that he got on the wrong bus or got off the bus at the wrong stop, but everything turned out okay. That night in his prayers he said "and please bless me that I won't have to live in the school office and that I'll get to ride the bus with Griffin." I'm pretty sure I was more traumatized than he was.

Family Reunion

We had a family reunion in Weston Idaho this year. We kicked off the reunion with dinner at the Copper Mill. Part of the reunion was the hike up Big Hill. Mason was a super star. He practically ran the whole way up and he was the first little kid up. It is a really hard hike because it gets really steep and there is no trail. Mason was pretty proud that he beat so many of the "farm kids" We also had a fun day at Bear Lake and an afternoon at the Cache Valley Fun Park, then we had a big dinner at the Cornish Retreat. It was really good to see everybody.

Camping at Mueller Park

Mueller Park was so beautiful. Even though it was one of the coolest places we've been camping this year, I'd have to say it was probably the worst camping trip of the summer. First of all it rained/hailed really bad. We had a lot of trouble restarting our fire. Luckily, a helpful fellow camper had kerosene and was able to help us out. Second of all, Mason was possessed by the devil the whole trip. He was a total nightmare. I don't know what got into him but he couldn't keep it together for more than five minutes at a time. He's never been that way on a camping trip, even when he had an ear infection on our last trip to Cripple Creek. Hopefully by labor day he will have convinced me that he will never act like that again.

4th of July

We had a great fourth of July. We started the day with the ward 5k, then bike parade and breakfast. Then we had the Leak family 5k, then the traditional BBQ and watching fireworks from Kevin and Jeanne's deck.

Peyton's Third Birthday

Peyton had a great birthday. She started the day with a special breakfast of mini blueberry muffins and a present from Mason (a Zhu Zhu pet) Then we went to the mall and picked out her pillow pet. Then we came home for lunch and naps. Then we went to the movie. Then she got to pick wherever she wanted for dinner and she chose Wendy's. Then we came home and did presents with the rest of the family and had cake with the neighborhood kids. I can't believe she is already three, its seems like just yesterday she was my screaming little baby.
All dressed up to go pick out the pillow pet. The arrangement was she had to trade in her binkies to get the pillow pet
She chose the purple Hippo
Princess Castle Cake
Watching Toy Story 3 with Grandma

Mason's Preschool Graduation

Well...even though I find the practice of having a "graduation" for preschool kind of silly, I have to admit it was pretty cute and really fun for the kids. They marched in to the traditional graduation music, then they sang some really cute songs, then they each got their diploma, then we watched a slide show, then had cake. I actually found myself tearing up because I can't believe my baby is getting so big. He has been in Ms. Tuckers class for two years and he is really going to miss her. Peyton is in her class next year so her and I will be able to see her. Now he's off to kindergarten!!

Camping Memorial Day Weekend

Chubby Bunny
One of the only parts of the hike that Peyton walked, most of the time she rode on Daddy's shoulders.
The cave we found

We went camping in Cripple Creek with Spring and Jameson last weekend. It was our first two night camping trip with the kids. They did really well, even though Peyton was getting over strep and Mason had an ear infection. We went to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument where we went on a three mile hike and saw fossilized redwood stumps. Spring and I went on this major hike where we really got off the beaten path and found an abandoned mine and a cave. Both of which we were too scared to go into. I am so glad that my kids like camping so much especially now that we're in Colorado.

Grand Valley Marathon

I just ran my first marathon! It was the hardest thing (next to childbirth) that I've ever done. My time was slower than my goal because my knees were killing me the entire way, the hills were way worse than I anticipated and the wind was not in my favor, but I finished and for that I am proud. i actually cried when I crossed the finish line. I can honestly say that I don't think I will ever do that again. It is now crossed off my bucket list. Yay!!