Which Holiday?

On Tuesday as we were headed to drop Taylee off at school

we noticed news choppers above.

That's an unsual sight for our area.

Then I remembered why!

So we hurried and took a different turn and headed to the outlets.

The Anthem Tree had just arrived from California!

Two news stations were filming the crane standing it up.

Right then the truck arrived with all the branches to reassemble it

(It's a real tree that they basically tear apart to ship and then put back together!)

It's the largest real Christmas Tree in the nation!

Taylee wanted a picture but that bright morning sun got the best of her! lol

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Giant-Anthem-Christmas-tree-arrives-229726221.html

So we oohed and aahed and then bolted to school!

After school we decided to go back and check on their progress.

A local Radio Station was DJ'ing.

Which means Taylee was dancing! 

(video coming)

Happy Halloween Christmas!

Hallo Eve

On Wednesday Taylee wanted her pic taken before school

to show her Hallo's Eve attire.

She cracks me up!

Then she literally bounced on in to her classroom.

Primary Program

These little ones are too cute for their own good!

On Sunday was our church Primary Program.

I always love this Sunday!!

You laugh, you smile and you shed some tears.

The kids all did amazing.

Taylee waved to me for most of the program.

Anden smiled, waved and occasionally stuck out his tongue at me! 

They both said their parts perfectly into the microphone.

I was a proud Mommy.

But the highlight of the event was when all of the youth 12 and older, 

which normally don't participate,

did a surprise performance of an EFY medley.

"As Sisters in Zion & We'll Bring the World His Truth"

I was sobbing.

It was so neat!

I looked it up on You Tube later.

http://youtu.be/IzeDcGxau7k

Imagine being surrounded by 30 girls on one side of the chapel

and 30 boys on the other side 

and the 3-11 years old standing up front.

Ryan leans over to me, without looking at me,

"Why the heck are so many women crying?!"

Then he glances at me sniffing and wiping tears,

"What?! You are too?!"

Lol obviously he wasn't hearing what I was!

This was by far my most memorable Primary Program!

So proud of all of the awesome youth!

Pumpkin Carving Party

On Tuesday night we had our annual Pumpkin Carving Party.

More like holy crap we only have one more free night to fit this in.

Hurry and print some carving stencils and throw this thing together.

The Mortensens stopped by for dinner

and realized they had too much going on that night also!

So Ryan started one pumpkin before Tyler had to run to softball

and we had to run to football practice.

At least I attempted a Pumpkin Carving Party? lol

Needless to say,

the kids' dang pumpkins finally got finished by the adults at 10:30pm.

Check it off the holiday list!

Then it was on to assembling Halloween teacher gifts!

Trunk or Treat

We had our church Trunk or Treat party last night.

It started at 6:30pm.

However Anden's football game was at 6pm.

So we did a half and half type night.

We left football early.

Literally changed in the car.

And arrived at the party fashionably late!

The kids had a blast and scored lots of candy.

Which means Mommy is eating it when they go to bed! :)

Introducing The Sports Family:

The Coach

The Football Player

The Cheerleader

And the Referee that keeps the chaos together

Taylee, Layni & Anden

Grace & Taylee

 

As we were driving home I leaned back to take of pic of them devouring their candy.

One kid reveled in the spotlight.

The other didn't! lol

Take Two.

Not much better!

Happy Trunk or Treat!

Halloween Surprises

This Halloween the kids have gotten all sorts of surprises in the mail.

It's as exciting for them

as it is for me!

I love watching their giddiness as they open their own mail!

Thanks for all the love that's been sent to them!!

Anthem Carnival

This weekend was

Which means the Carnival was in town!

All sports were cancelled that day due to the event.

So we had a "free" Saturday!

I've learned in years past that the rides are ridiculously expensive!!

So I told the kids if they did all their chores in the morning

then we could go to the carnival during wristband hours in the afternoon.

Needless to say I've never seen them (or I should say Anden) so helpful! lol

We got everything done and at 1pm we were at the Ticket Booth buying our wristbands!

I opted to say some money and not buy myself a band.

I quickly learned that most rides still required an adult!

Go figure.

Another sneaky way the Carnies have to swindle you out of more money!

Luckly we ran into our friend Cameron and he gladly volunteered

to be the designated adult (he's 12) for the afternoon! :)

Cameron & Anden hit all the scary rides.

I was a tad jealous.

I love rides!!

Taylee was more than jealous.

She does too

but she wasn't tall enough.

It's hard only being 42 inches! 

So while Anden hit up all the "cool rides"

Taylee went on the "baby rides".

I assured her that most kids her height aren't crazy enough to go on the "cool rides" anyway!

She glared at me! lol

The toothless Carnie let me sneak onto the Ferris Wheel!

We had 3 hours for wristband time and we made the most of every minute!

We decided to hit the huge high fast swings last.

As we were waiting in line to go next,

the ride ended and a poor kid still in his chair was puking his guts out everywhere.

Yummy.

So there we stood and watched the worker throw buckets of water 

all over the ground and the swing chairs.

That's it.  No sanitizer or cleaner. Just water.

Then he started letting kids on and told them which seats to take.

I was juggling getting Taylee on a different ride while making sure the boys were ok.

I could easily do the math and see that Anden & Cameron were going to end up in the puke seats.

He directed them to those chairs.

I started running over to stop that.

Um heck no!  That's disgusting! lol

Luckily Cameron spoke up and the worker put them in the chairs behind it.

And luckily he wised up and realized not to put anyone in those chairs for now.

Have fun boys!

As the puke remnants swing back in your face.

Awesome.

I told Taylee how lucky she was to ride the baby rides

where kids don't puke on them!

As we were walking out the Carnie was splashing another bucket of water on the ground.

Looks like another kid bit the dust on that ride!

It was a Great Vomit Day at the Carnival! ;-)

Oh and on the way out I was shockingly humbled to realize

that I'm clearly in the wrong profession.

Because these Carnies are ballers.

Lined up by the entrance were pimped out

Mercedes,

Cadillac CTS,

Porsche,

Cadillac Escalade,

Yukon XL.

Hhmm maybe they are accepting applications?

If only I had missing rotted teeth.