Zack's birthday

So Zack turned six today. This was the first year that his birthday was on Thanksgiving. He was born the day before Thanksgiving six years ago. I got to come home for the holiday though so was very glad. Zack was pretty lucky this year because he got two parties and two birthday cakes. Today I made a dinosaur cake, big surprise, right. I think it turned out really cute. Shon did most of the decorating. He loved it.
Spike JR, which he has wanted for a long time. We have a lot of dinos around our house.
Shark Park car track. All the kids loved this one.
Dino cake. Pretty cute if I do say so myself.
So on Monday, we had a little friends party. For this one he really wanted a lego cake. It was the easiest theme cake I have done.



Buzz wings. The boy loves to dress up.
Oh the anticipation.

Birthday/Thanksgiving Bingo. It was fun for a while, but the kids just wanted to eat the M-n-M's . We had a great time. I think he had a good birthday.

Life for the last few months...

I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything. I have been a little anti blog lately, just one more thing I have to do. But I know that my sisters and mom and my in-laws love to see updates, so I am going to get back into it and start enjoying it again. Because there really was a time that I really liked blogging, but lately I have not really done things that I like and I have found life to be a little harder. So I am going to count my blessings everyday and make life a little less monotoneous. (I really don't know how to spell that word.)


So this first picture has a pretty funny story. I had gone shopping on Saturday morning and left Shon to get the boys ready for Football and Soccer games. I kind of lost track of time and knew that I was cutting it a little close when I left the store. When I got home, Shon was really grouchy and we both left in a big hurry, Shon taking Ty to his football game and Cam and I taking Zack to his soccer game (the last few games they had happened to land at the exact same time). I thought Shon was just mad because I had not come home earlier. Well, after the games and lunch, he told me what our little menace had done. Cam had climbed up onto the counter and had dumped the whole canister of cinnamon sugar all over the counter. Then he added left over hot chocolate from breakfast. So when Shon came upstairs to get everyone ready, this mess is what he found. He was less that thrilled, to say the least. We were still finding sugar for days.

One of my favorite things of fall, fresh apple pie. Shon's folks had picked all the apples from their tree and I got the fruit to preserve and use. Yummy!! I make a whole bunch of apple pie filling so I can enjoy it more many months!
One thing that we make very often in our house is smoothies. My kids love them and they are getting fruit in them. Much better for them then milkshakes, right? This is when Emily and her kids stayed with us for a week. So much fun.
Cam really enjoys smoothies too. It just isn't too fun to get them out of his shirts. Dang kid won't wear a bib.
A highlight we had was having my family here for a day or so. Everyone of my siblings were here, which hasn't happened for a really long time. Two brother in laws were missing, Bryce who belongs to Nat, and Jake, Emily's husband. It was great, just a very full house.
Shon's sister, Janae and her family came and visited a while ago. We did some hair, had pizza and make sugar cookies. Ty and Zack love it when Kelsey is here. No one can make them laugh like she can for some reason.
Another day of enjoying a bountiful harvest. Mary and I put up about 45 quarts of tomatoes that day.
Zack played soccer again this fall and loved it. I must admit that it isn't too fun for the parents with kids this age. The kids don't get it and they are mostly concerned with the treat that comes at the end of the game. But they have fun and that is what matters.
Ty played flag football this fall for the first time. He didn't really love soccer when he played in the spring so we decided to try football, which he loved!! He played wide receiver and we had a pretty good coach that taught him a lot. I think he wants to stick with it. It was fun. Shon actually took some video of some games, so when I figure out how to upload with that camera, I will post those.

I found this yummy recipe for zucchini muffins that was soooo good. My kids and husband will eat zucchini if it is disguised with chocolate. I frosted these with cream cheese frosting. Very yummy!! (Cam really loved the cupcakes, and he had that bib on for about 5 more seconds after I took the picture and then it was on the floor).

Halloween

We had a pretty fun Halloween. Ty and Zack wore their costumes for days before the big day so I had to wash them the night before Halloween. We had a party at Grandma and Grandpa Shuldberg's on Tuesday, which was really fun. The boys wore their costumes and Grandma had made a very spooky dinner for us all. I can't believe that I didn't get a picture of it. She had green goblin spaghetti, bat jello, pumpkin guts bread. My kids are a little picky with food and all the weird stuff kind of made them a little uneasy, but it was fun.


Amazing Superman and a partial Ironman.
Natali made these little amazing looking eyeballs. She used mini muffins and white chocolate. They looked cool.

Here are our carved pumpkins all lit up. Nat did the one on the left, I did the one in the middle and Shon did the one on the right, with Tyler's help.
The elementary school had a costume parade after lunch. Zack was already home from school so I took him back to walk with the afternoon kindergarteners. It is always so fun for the kids. Here is mister Ironman who wouldn't wear his coat, of course.
Superman looks a little cold, doesn't he? It was pretty chilly, but sunny.
So I didn't get any pictures of us trick or treating, but here we are at the ward trunk of treats. They did it at 5:00 so it was still light out, which was nice. The kids made a haul in about a half hour, so we headed home to go trick or treating in the neighborhood. Cam was in the stroller with me pushing. He actually got out at most of the houses. He has to do everything that his brothers do. Man they got a lot of candy. We were out for about an hour. They caught up with their friends and then were tired. We came home and started pigging out. Now I have put most of their candy away for rationing sake.