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)