A Few of Our Favorite Things

SLEEPING!!!

I have been collecting these "sleeping pictures" for about six months now.

 PICTURES OF MY CUTIES

SWORDS

LEGO DUPLOS

WOOD WORKING

Scott helped me use his lathe to make a pen for my Dad.

Dewberry Farm

For playgroup with our church, the kids and I went to a local type of "amusement farm."  There was a playground, tractor rides, various slides, trampolines, animals, etc.  I only lost track of Peter a couple of times (I am considering cloning myself because I cannot keep up with all three kids, ahhhhh!).  All in all, the kids were great and we all had a blast.

Peter the fireman

 Rigby feeding the goats.

 I love Peter's goofy facial expression.

The boys got to gather tiny pumpkins.  Rigby has been in heaven this Halloween season because orange is his favorite color and there is a plethora of orange to be had this time of year!  He has had a preference for orange since he was one.

 I think the boys went down this "roller slide" about 20 times each (constructed of PVC pipes that rolled as you went down).

 This homemade tractor-cow ride was my favorite thing.

I love seeing the kids have fun!  It makes the hassle of dragging them all three out and about worth it.

Halloween 2012

For some reason the boys always have a hard time getting into the "pumpkin-goo spirit."  The first 10 minutes of cleaning out the pumpkins, Peter and Rigby refused to use their hands and insisted on using spoons.  Finally, Peter decided it was fun to have yucky hands and Rigby picked up a few seeds.  They are NOT clean freaks by any stretch of the imagination, so I am not sure why this happens when it comes to pumpkin carving.

(Peter & Rigby)

Looking back I wish we would have let Addy into the fun, but she was a little grumpy.

  I love this little pouty face before she starts crying.

And here are the finished products!

 Perry the Platypus

Phineas

Ferb

During our trip to Yellowstone this summer, we found some real coon-skin caps and I could not pass up the opportunity to make the boys mountain men.  I think this is my last year of of fun because next year Peter will have more of an opinion being in Kindergarten :(.
 

 Here are our handsome mountain men and one cute little pumpkin girl.

These two have such a sweet relationship.  I love watching them together.

The kids were able to participate in our church trunk-or-treat activity, so they already had plenty of candy by Halloween.  As a result, Peter was beyond excited to hand out candy on Halloween instead of trick-or-treating.  He was so excited that he opened the door before they knocked.  He also said to one kid, "You deserve a special treat!  Skittles!"  Too cute!

Also, after trunk-or-treating, Peter said, "That was the best Halloween ever!"  Love that kid's enthusiasm!

Houston Air Show

The Saturday before Halloween we were able to go to the Houston Air Show as a family.  I think I was just as excited to see the planes as I was to have the boys see them.  The reason being is that my Grandpa Madsen (my Dad's father) was in the air force.  He was never in a combat position, but he did train on a T-33/shooting star.  After serving for a while, he decided that he wanted to begin working on his parent's farm.  However, before he officially retired, he would sometimes help out with training exercises at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.  During one of those training sessions, the plane he was riding in crashed and he was killed when my dad was four years old.  Since I never knew my grandpa in this life, I feel like planes are my connection with him now (although I firmly believe I knew him very well in heaven; love you, Grandpa :).  So, here are some pictures of some of the fun things we got to see.

 

One of the military personnel had this remote controlled robot that they would use to sneak up on people.  It was fun to watch.

 Rigby and Peter got to sit inside the back seat of a helicopter. 

I think Rigby would have cried the entire time if we had not let him jump in this bounce house.  His two-year old tantrums are in full force these days (gotta give in sometimes though).  The boys spent probably 30 minutes in here and loved it.  It was worth all $4 for both the boys and the parents. 

 This guy was crazy!  Mid-air, he cut the engine and started it again.  Insane, but everybody seemed to love watching the crazy stunts.

We waited a whole hour for this ride!  There was a navy promotional video inside that correlated with the movements of the ride.  Good thing the boys loved it.  Peter kept saying, "This is the funnest ride ever!" 

I thought this hurricane plane with a satellite on top was fascinating.  Wouldn't it be fun-and crazy-to ride into a storm in this thing!?

During much of the day, there were older, retired planes that were flying overhead.  I will have to learn more about identifying planes before I go to another air show.

Before the main show, we found a place to sit and eat a snack while the boys played with their little metal airplanes.  Side note:  Metal toys may be durable, but I prefer stepping on plastic toys--ouch!

Here are one of the Blue Angels planes before take off.  The show was so much fun to watch and Scottie got some great pictures.  He was practicing his photography skills with the zoom lens and took over 550 photos!

 And last but certainly not least, my sweet boys with a fire truck.

(Rigby, Scott, Peter)

Trip West: Tuacahn

Before the kids and I left to go home to Texas, we were able to go down to St. George and go to an outdoor theater called Tuacahn.

Here is everybody walking up to the theater.

Peter and I saw the show Aladdin.

Here are my wonderful grandparents heading towards the Tuacahn buffet.  I love my Grandpa with his sunglasses in this picture-pretty cool looking for 92 huh?!

This is not the greatest picture, but here are the kids and I in front of Southern Utah's beautiful red rock.  What a gorgeous backdrop for a play!!

(Rigby, Rachel, Adeline, Peter)

Here are Peter and I in our 3D glasses.

My parents watched Adeline and Rigby during Aladdin.  Thank you so much mom and dad, you are wonderful!!!  Despite the fact Peter had a hard time sitting still and he fell asleep halfway through, hopefully this is the beginning of him building an appreciation for the arts.  I ended up having to carry all 40 pounds of him to the car-talk about heavy!


Here are some fun pictures of us hanging out at the condo in the pool.

Rigby and Marissa

My little goofball, Peter.  Are you doing a ballet pose my dear boy?!

Sara and Isabelle

Peter, Rachel, Rigby

I am so glad we went!  LOVE YOU MY WONDERFUL FAMILY!

Trip West: Northern Utah

During our time at my parents house, we visited the children's museum in the LDS Church History Building.

  

Here is Peter doing what he does best--destroying!

(Peter, Scott)

Isabelle looks beautiful in her Mexican skirt, but Peter was too busy doing karate moves to pose for a picture.  After this picture he promptly took of the vest, tossed it onto the floor, and ran to . . .

. . . play puzzle games on the computers.  He is his father's son-obsessed with technology!

Rigby was obsessed with this truck.  I think he spent at least 30 minutes in it pretending to drive.

After the museum we were able to meet up with Scott's parents and eat lunch at Chilies.

Peter loves to goof around with Grandpa Flamm.

Grandma and Ads hanging out together.

The kids look super excited and cooperative, right?!

(Rigby, Kristine, Peter, Doug, Adeline)

We were also able to eat at my two favorite places in Utah: Gandalfoes and this little French bakery that we used to live next to in Orem.  Mmmmmm!

After the French Bakery, we took a drive on the Alpine Loop through Provo and American Fork Canyons.  The kids kept whining to go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but Scott and I could not drag ourselves away from the scenery.  We decided that our 3rd honeymoon is going to be backpacking/camping.  I am already dreaming up plans!

The boys always LOVE shooting off rockets with Grandpa Stewart.  We did not have time to get any rocket pictures with Grandpa and the kids because us silly adults left the scissors opened on the ground and one of the kids picked them up and cut my Mom's finger (3 stitches).  Ouch! 

(Marissa, Rigby)

This kid can sleep in any position and anywhere!  Minus his bed, of course.

(Rigby)

Sara and I decided to be brave and take all 5 kids to the Hogle Zoo.  The van was a bit full, huh?!

(Audrey, Isabelle, Rigby, Adeline, Peter)

Rigby riding a caterpillar.

Here is Peter at the bottom of the snake slide.  Cool idea for a slide, huh?!

Rigby and Peter looking at the elephants.

Despite their grim expressions in this picture, Peter and Rigby thought it was awesome that they got to go on a train ride.

Unlike her brothers, Adeline was all about sleep during the train ride.  Ahhhh, she looks so sweet!

 

Isabelle, Audrey, and Sara on the train.

A picture at the end to prove I made it through 3 hours at the zoo without any major meltdowns (from me or the kids) and without losing any of them.  I was kinda proud of myself, but completely exhausted.

(Rachel, Rigby, Adeline, Peter)