::Bubb turned 4::

Bubb was SO excited to turn 4!!  He kept telling me how many days 'til his birthday.  He said "Mom I'm gonna be foooouuuur....."  And I'd tell him that no he couldn't turn 4.  He got a couple of cards in the mail and they said 4 on them, and he LOVED it!  He wouldn't let anybody else touch them, and was really worried that I would throw them away.  They were HIS cards because he was 4!!  Cute little Bubb.

We had our little family party for him on his birthday.  He wanted to go to Chick-fil-A (a little change of pace-usually it's McDonald's) because of their little playground with the big car in it.  So we did.  They all got some nuggets and played.  We might have snuck in a trip to Costco while we were down there too (sorry Bubb).

When we got home, we had cupcakes and let him open his presents.

The big kids made him some cards.  Aren't' they so sweet??

:]

Mae-Mae just sat in her seat and ate her cupcake :]

First was a fun Chuggington movie...

Then (ohh he's excited!!) the big present...

A big truck with a trailer!!!!!

Anyone who knows Bubb knows he's big time into trucks and trailers (and also tractors and 4 wheelers and pretty much anything boyish).  If he has any type of vehicle (well, not a car), he will hook a trailer up to it.  I don't' know why, that's just how it should be in Bubb's world.

Then, a couple of days later (Sunday), we had Matt's side of the family over for a little party for him.  They're always so good to come and celebrate with our kids for their birthdays.  They brought him the funnest stuff!  He was in heaven!!  He even slept with some of his new toys :]

He wanted a deer cake (again).  The store had such cute Chuck-the-Truck (which he also loves) cakes and tractor ones (both of which he didn't know about), and I so wanted to get him one of those, but I didn't dare.  I know this boy...He knows what he wants!  I didn't want to make him mad on his birthday (and he would've been if I hadn't gotten him the cake he said he wanted).  He wanted a deer cake, so that's what he got.

We sang to him, he blew out the candles, and we ate some deer cake.

I just love this boy so much.  He is definitely a challenge.  He's a little crazy, and can make my days long and difficult.  He's my stubborn, bossy, loud, determined, spirited child, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I am so proud of him.  He knows what he wants and he's not afraid to tell you.  He will always know how he feels about something and will never waiver.  He makes life fun and interesting.  He is soft and sweet and likes to cuddle.  He calls me Mama Bird :]  He likes to sleep with his Mumma (blue and brown blankie).  He gets a little jealous of Ava, but he loves her lots.  He wants to be just like Port, and gets very sad when Port doesn't want to play with him.  He thinks the sun rises and sets in his dad.  He thinks every truck should have a trailer on it.  He misses his Papa Snowman like nobody's business.  His Uncle J is one of his very favorite people.  He wants to go deer huntin' so bad he can't even stand it, and doesn't understand the concept of being too little (or being too little for anything for that matter :] )  He likes to say things for shock value (and sometimes it works!!).  He loves school!  He can write his own name, and it's perfectly legible.  He colors beautifully!  His teacher writes notes on his papers about how nicely he colors.  He likes to draw.  He ALWAYS wants to play cars.  He wakes up super early in the morning.  He's busy all day long and hates to go to bed.  He likes country music-especially songs that have the word "truck" in it.

He's our little Bubb, and we love him (and his brother and sisters) more than anything in the whole world.  I'm so thankful for him-even on our worst day!  I'm so thankful for everything he teaches me about being a mom.  I'm so thankful to be his mom.

::the first snow::

We had our first snow on November 9th!!  Seems so early for snow, and we were SO excited to have it!  It was a friday, and Matt was home, so he and Bubb built a snowman.  It was so sweet, and Bubb loved it!!

Look at him helping Da-da roll up some snow...

:]

There it is, all finished.  We didn't have anything for a mouth.  So he's a silent snowman.

Then, when Port got home, he got way excited about it and decided he needed some arms and a mouth.  He found some rocks and used the sandbox rakes for the arms.  What a smart little Tater.

We're hoping this early snow will mean lots of snow for Christmas 

(( hopefully...cross your fingers :] ))

::veterans day::

The first grade classes at Port's school put on a special program for Veterans Day.  It's was so cute!  They sang some great patriotic songs, and did some pretty awesome actions.  

I got to go help in his classroom before they went on stage.  He has a pretty rowdy class :]  The kids are sweet though.  They were excited that I was there.  Especially the girls ;]  There are a few of them in his class that are sort of taken with my boy.  I can't blame them...so am I :]

Anyway...So they sang and did some actions.  One of my favorite parts of the evening was when Portie was doing the actions to a song, he had to throw his arms straight out in front on him...When he did it, he sort of knocked the girls (that was standing in front of him) headband off.  Once he realized he did it, he started laughing.  It was pretty funny.

My other favorite part of the evening was when they asked the veterans in attendance to come to the front and tell about their service.  There were a few in uniform and a few not.  They said their name, and a brief statement about their service and stood in a line.  Once we had all who wanted to come forward, the teacher in charge announced the veterans again and the auditorium erupted in applause and everyone stood in gratitude.  It made me teary eyed.  I couldn't hold back.  I tried, but I couldn't.  I felt like such a dork, but I couldn't help it.  We owe them so much.  I'm glad to see that most of us as citizens realize that too.

I just love Port's school!!  In the weeks leading up to the program he had been asking me if we had any family in the military.  I told him yes, both of my grandpas (Grampa R. was in the Air Force, and Grampa D. was in the Army) and I think his Papa Snowman.  He was so excited, and asked if they could come to his program!!  I told him I was sorry, but no because they are all too far away to come.  He understood, but wished they could.  He still thought it was so neat that we had family who served in the military.  His program was so fun and so sweet!  I love to go and watch the kids in anything they do!  I'm so glad we got to go see him.  Great job, Port!!  Love you, you silly little potato!!

::vote::

Bubb, Mae-Mae, and I voted today.  Hopefully it'll do some good.

:]

Now, the Mr. and I are glued to the TV watching to see who wins. 

 He's nervous. 

 I'm not.  

We'll see how it all turns out.

::halloweeny::

We had a lot of halloween this year!!

Here they all are...

The boys' costumes should be no surprise.  They just used the same ones from last year (since they wanted to still be Mario and Luigi). We decided right after Halloween last year that Ava would be a little ghost. We even pinned her costume on Pinterest a year ago!  I was so excited to make it for her-I had to wait a whole year!!  Chloe wanted to be a witch-she picked that not long after we picked Ave's costume.  We pinned some witchy eye make-up, and just went from there.  I made her a little witchy tutu.  She looked pretty cute.  It was the first year since she was a baby that she hasn't been some kind of princess/Barbie/fairy.  

So our lots of Halloween started off with a party/carnival at Bubb's preschool.  

Here's his class all dressed up.  His teacher, Miss Katey, dressed up like a clown.  There were 2 Luigis!!

She made a witch's brew...

And they played lots of fun carnival games...

It was the cutest little party.  She did a great job.  She does it all by herself.  She asked a few of us moms to help her out with the games, but she did all the preparation and stuff herself!  She's kind of awesome.  She's such a doll too!  I told Coop he's so lucky to have Miss Katey for his teacher.

That same night (the 30th) we had trunk-or-treat with our ward.  We had a pretty good turn out!

I wanted to decorate our trunk with spiderwebs and Bubb's spider he made at his preschool party (isn't is awesome??) but the store was all out of spiderwebs, so I just hung the spider up without a web.  One kid screamed when she saw it (really?).  

Then (whoops this is out of order)...On the 26th, we went to the school carnival.  It was at Chloe's school.  We go every year.  The kids love it.  I didn't take many pictures this year!

I did take one of them getting ready to go for it in the silly string room!  This was a new thing this year. Chloe and Port LOVED it!  Bubb...not so much.  Matt had to help him push down the nozzle.  Plus the smell in there was SUPER strong!

Ok, back on track.  On Halloween day, I (and Bubb and Ave) went down to Port's school to watch his Halloween parade.  The kids just walk around to Halloween music in their costumes.  Is it worth waiting 30 minutes with 2 rowdy, tired little kids to see your 6 year old walk past you for 3 seconds?  I don't know, but Port was happy I came :]

Which brings us to Halloween night...

Here's our ghost...

She was so cute!  She even would say "boo."  She didn't love her costume when she first tried it on, but she got used to it.  Her boots, she loved!  She still does.  She goes and gets them out of her room and brings them to me to put on her.  She LOVES shoes!

Mario!

He wouldn't let me draw a mustache on him.  Not sure why.  He thought people would think he was weird.

A Witch!!

A cute witch.  She was so excited to wear her costume.  She got to wear it to school, trunk-or-treat, and on Halloween night.  She even had some sparkly tulle on it!

Luigi...

Poor Luigi.  He's not happy in this picture.  He wanted some candy.  He just wanted to go get some candy.  He didn't understand why we had to take pictures when all that candy was out there just waiting for him.  He was a cute Luigi anyway.

::I'm still in my 20s::

Today, I'm in my 20s.  I just thought I'd get that down while I still can.

I'm not gonna lie.  I'm not too happy about it.  I'm kinda sad about turning 30.  I don't feel like I should be 30 yet.  

30...

THIRTY!! 

30.

Thirrrrrrty.

Sounds weird.

I don't like it.  Maybe one day I'll be ok with being in my 30s, but I'm sure it won't be tomorrow.

Also, it snowed in our little mountains today.  

See...

This has nothing to do with me still being in my 20s, I just thought I'd mention it.  Bubba saw it this morning when we were waiting for Port's bus.  He said we could "just drive the Denali up there and just go sledding."

::football::

 Yesterday was Porter's last flag football game.  He's been playing every Thursday (except for one-during Peach Days) since the end of August.  It's been pretty fun to go watch him- a little frustrating if you're Matt, but fun for the most part :]

In this (horrible) picture, he's the one in the black pants and white jersey and blue flags with the ball (if you can even make out the ball) running towards the right of the frame.  He was running it in for a TD.  He didn't make it.  He would've gotten a first down, but he saw a sea of blue jerseys and got scared that they were going to pull his flag so he turned around and ran the other direction.  Oh, Porter! 

So just little stuff like that all season.  Overall, he did pretty well.  He learned a few things, and he had lots of fun, which is most important!  He loved running around with his buddies and tackling each other.

Here he is with his medal after the game...

The whole team...

:cornbellys::

Ok, so this might be a photo overload, but it's one of my favorite Fall traditions.  We've gone every year for the last, what 6 years (give or take a year)?  They add new stuff every year, and this year was no different.  It is HUGE!!  We were remembering back to our first year when it was just on large field, and they only had a few activities, and a corn maze.  We thought it was fun then, but now, there is so much to do, we didn't even do the corn maze!

We met my parents down there too.  My brother and his family were invited, but they had something else going on, so it was just us and Grandma and Papa Kitty, which was way fun. 

So here's our family...

There are TONS of wooden structures to play on.  They're all shaped like fun things like trucks, castles, houses, pirate ships, things like that, AND they'e for sale.  They don't come cheap, but it's nice to know you could have one if you really wanted one :]

There were lots of hay stacks with those irrigation tubes for the kids to slide down.  They were a big hit.  Ave didn't love the tube slides.  She preferred the little slides and the little hay stacks (unless I climbed up the big hay stack with her).

A friendly game of tetherball...

They even had a REAL LIVE tractor there!  A REAL one!  Bubb was all over that.  He sat in it and loved it.  He took it pretty seriously...

The slide races, a family favorite...

A game of tic-tac-toe.  

Squashes vs Pumpkins.

The zip line!!  This (among other things) was new this year.  We decided to do it.  Chloe wanted to do it as soon as she saw it when we pulled into the parking lot.  Port wanted to too, but was a little unsure. I did just because it was pretty much the same price as if 2 people went (I think like $1 difference), plus it looked way fun.

So there were only 2 lines which meant only 2 on the platform at a time.  Port and Chloe wanted to go together.  Chloe said she would count down and they would jump together.  3-2-1...

Chloe jumped and poor Portie was still on the platform.  I watched Chloe and listened to her squeal with joy, and I climbed up the steps to my frozen little Tatey.  

Chloe LOVED it!!  She wanted to do it again!!

Port was a little scared.  I asked him if he was ok.  He said "I don't know how to do it, Mom."  I held his little fingers and told him to just step off the platform.  I counted 1-2-3, and sort of pulled him gently off the platform, away he went.

Then I went.  It is a bit weird to just step off a platform that high in the air, and with a bunch of people watching you.  It was fun, until I realized I might hit the wall (an air-filled wall) in front of me at the end of the line.  That's how come the face...

I came to an abrupt stop pretty quickly after I made the face.  This sweet girl helped me down.  

The zip lining was way fun!  Chloe and Port wanted to do it again.  Chloe-no surprise there.  She'll be my child who will want to go sky diving when she grows up.  Port-what??  He's not the dare devil of the fam.  But he loved it!  I'm proud of him for doing it and not being too scared to try it!  Great job, Port!!

We love Cornbellys!!  We'll keep going back every year as long as they keep lettin' us.  They added the zip line, state fair food, paint ball, some new games, and probably more stuff that we didn't even get to. 

Thanks, Grandma & Papa, for such a fun day :]