Halloween 2011

Halloween was fun this year. We had the theme of Xmen. After many years of dressing up, as Rogue from X-men, I finally made her traditional outfit found in the comic books and the old animated series on TV. I was so proud of myself!

Me as Rogue

Andrew as Gambit (we didn't ever get an individual pic of his costume.)

Gavin as Nightcrawler

Austin as Wolverine

This was the first house we went to. The neighbors across the street. Austin was excited, as you can see in the pic, Austin is peering through the window. What you don't know is that he is yelling "Trick or treat!" and Gavin just cried the whole time. Great, and we still have about 20 houses to go....He warmed up to it after we let him stay in the stroller for the next few houses.
Besides the actual Halloween fun I also wanted to show off my decorations. Keep in mind we are grad students and have a VERY small budget:

 Don't ya love the BO? We ran out of staples in the gun and when I found the staples, the other O went missing... oh and there were more bats too, My little ones decided they needed a cave in the air vents.

I love my pumpkin frames!

The eye frame. I never put anything in it...next year I'll get something spooky instead of the insert that comes with the frame.....

Carving Pumpkins

This last week we decided to buy some pumpkins and see if Austin and Gavin would enjoy themselves. Our kids are odd boys who don't like to get dirty so cleaning out guts of a pumpkin might not be enjoyed. Gavin took to it once we told him it was ok.

Austin never liked the idea except making the faces on them. Here is him banging the pumpkin with a spoon instead of scooping out the guts.

We had so much fun! here are some more pics and finished products.

Gavin's Birthday

April 12th Gavin turned 1 year old. It was fun to see him be excited about the different gifts he received and "share" them with his brother, Austin. He was even Lucky enough to have 2 b day parties. We had one on his birthday with our fam and the Joneses. Then Grandma and Grandpa Stockdale came by along with Mana a day or two later to give their present to the birthday boy.

Humm...That shirt looks strangely familiar...

I think it was a great birthday for little Gavin but what I loved the most was that I wasn't pregnant! haha I knew I was pregnant with Gavin when Austin was 9 or 10 months old. So HUGE relief knowing I'm not having another little one around right away, thank goodness!!

Where's my cookie?

(March)
We made a family trip out to Elwood to see Andrew's fam. We spent some much needed time with them since we haven't been able to go there because of cold and other illnesses. But finally we drove to see them and enjoy time together. We played games with Mitchell and talks lots with Andrew's Mom and we were able to sit down and watch a movie with them all call Pure Luck. It was hilarious. If you haven't seen it I suggest you do! As we were watching the movie we had some oreo type cookies. We told Austin he was on his last one. A while later I look down at my kids and Gavin is completely covered in cookie.
Me: Where did he get the cookie?"
Andrew: "I don't know?"
me: Weird, OK, just make sure he doesn't get the carpet dirty."
Andrew : "No prob"
10-20 minutes pass Gavin finishes his cookie. We take some pictures and clean him up..

I just found a cookie!

Austin: "Cookie?  *looks around*   Where is it?  *Looks with asking eyes*  uh-oh, cookie?"
At least we know where it came from now....
Right before we left a got a few pics for a family book I'm going to be making. Everyone was sports to let me hold a camera with dying batteries in front of their faces for longer than I would like and know they are going to hate me for sharing! :)

 When did this happen Mitchell? We are going to have to keep those girl away from you!

I like all the pics. Now I will just have to hope the others agree! :)

(April)
For Easter Andrew and I had to divide an conquer with both of our families in town. Though it was mainly because Austin had a cold....still. When will these kids stay better longer than a week? So I stayed with my fam with Austin and Andrew took Gavin out to see his parents. I have no idea what happened there and what was said but I will show you the pics that Andrew took while he was there and hopefully that will be enough to tell some sort of a story. :)

I love how it looks like..I'm going to guess Ammon has a monocle around his eye.

Baby Blessing and Friends

We had a great excuse to leave cache valley. One of our great friends the Gibby's just had a baby girl and we got to travel to Spanish Fork to see them and their cute little girl! Now since their church started at 9 and having to drive about 2 and a half hours we start brain storming who we could go to stay the night. Andrew thought of our friends, Aja and Mario. Sadly Mario's family was going to be there that night but we were welcomed to come and see them in the afternoon. We took up that offer quickly!
While we were waiting for them to arrive we saw this: (WARNING: if you have a weak stomach do not look at the next 2 pics!)

The best part of finding and watching this hawk was the fact he was stuck to his prey and tried to fly away. Andrew and I both started laughing. It reminded me of the old dragging toilet paper scenario from the bathroom, which I've done by the way..)

When Mario and Aja returned home we were able to see their home and catch up on many things that we have missed over the last 2 years like children. Both of us have had a child since last seen! we also had pizza and played some Wacky 6 for old times sake. As we were playing Mario's family made it. We were invited to stay and have cake and ice cream with them. It was his brother's b-day. Now it just wasn't any cake it was a tres leche cake that Aja made herself and it was delicious!! I did feel like we didn't belong there until we had some of that cake. I didn't care if they were trying to kick us out of the door! I was there to enjoy that goodness :)
After spending time there we headed to Andrew's Uncle's home to stay the night. They were nice enough to deal with us!
The next morning we woke up and quickly got ready. We were able to talk a little with Andrew's Aunt and uncle then out we went to make it to the baby blessing. We actually got there early and had good seats, and could almost hear every word (It seemed quiet at times)

After we had food at a nearby school which was awesome and a different location for this! Gibby's sister is a teacher there so it made it easy to get it and have all the space needed for everyone to be comfortable. We once again felt misplaced since Brian and LaShelle weren't there yet and all the other family members were eyeing us knowing we weren't family. That immediately melted away as they arrived and I was able to hold little Evey first. Everyone else wanted to eat their food. My gain, their loss! Sadly I didn't take ANY pictures of her! I can't believe it! I seem to write this a lot though...I need to be better! I did get pics of the boys having fun with daddy...

Yes I let them play with the cones but it was so cute and Austin figured it out all by himself. It was awesome to watch.
After all their family left we played Dominion and then headed back to Aja and Mario's home. They wanted to try out Dominion as well. Aja won I couldn't believe it it should have been me! Haha When we left we rounded the block and had to leave a present for them. It was the perfect time of year to remind them of this:

We had fun with that string of balloons. We went back and forth a few times with our pranks. The top on was ours and the bottom one was Aja and Mario's. The sign says Congratulations It's a Girl! At the time Andrew and I didn't want anything to do with kids so it was the perfect joke. We used that bib with the ballet shoes on it for both of our boys! :) This is what we left as a reminder sorry the pic is really dark! And we were afraid they would come down the hallway any minute!

Not very extravagant but we were proud of ourselves for tying it on their front door. They had their main door open so it would have been easy to be caught! It was a great weekend of rushing around and having so much fun seeing friends we don't get to see all the time. And not to mention we were WAY overdue to leave Cache Valley. Thanks for the fun weekend!