Halloween fun...

Tonight was Halloween and the kids were super excited. We had several last minute costume switcharoos but it all worked out just fine.

My boys. Em the naughty cowboy (naughty was his own stipulation) and Rugs the firefighter. Rugby was pretty sick with a fever and soar throat but he really didn't want to miss out so I let him go.
The whole crowd with grandpa. Rugby, Emerson, Chloe, Grandpa, Zoey (dressed as Grandpa the dentist), Max, Caleb, Breckyn, and Maddie.
Our cute little crowd. We had a lot of fun and a really lot of candy. Happy Halloween!!

my cowboy...

baby squirt...

good night my pretty pretty candy...

Halloween Parties...

Both of the girlies had a Halloween party to go to today. The parties were a little sketchy but they enjoyed dressing up.

Zoey went as a cat...
...she scored tons of loot at her party...
Breckyn wanted to go as "not and ugly witch."
She is a pretty pretty witch. She wouldn't even let me give her a wart-- go figure....

further explination...

OK, I'm not that cruel. A few Halloweens ago I had him be Paul Hamm after he won gold. (all the other years he was a super hero of some sort) It wasn't all that bad-- he already had the sweat suit and he looked super cute in a headband. He had the matching red hair and a fake gold metal. See.... no tights involved at all. I'm sure he won't have therapy about this one.... maybe...

Pumpkin fun...

It's Monday night family night!!! Tonight we did a great lesson about uniting our family and our activity was carving pumpkins. We had a great night and so did the kids.

Em's was the first one done because he opted to have Mom do all of the grunt work. Smart kid!
Breckyn decided to use Mr.Potato Head pieces to give hers a little bit of character. Rugby wanted his to look sad because he just got his brains scooped out and holes carved in his head-- that'd make me sad too.... Z wanted hers to be winking and Em didn't care.
Here are my big school girlies...

a little taste of our crazy family fun. I think at one point everyone is talking at the same time.

sneak peek....

Rugby has decided that anything from Aunt Jodi is the coolest no matter what. Jodi offered him a few of Caleb's old costumes for Halloween and Rugs thought it was super cool. Jodi suggested that he should be Darth Vader. He didn't need a whole lot of pushing because all things cool come from the Barlows. So Zoey says, "You don't even know who that guy is!" He says, "Yeah, I do... Mom who is that guy?" I told him he was a naughty guy from an old movie and he was all about being him for Halloween. He still has no clue who he is but he knows two things-- Darth Vader is naughty and Jodi gave it to him to use-- Done! That's all he needed to know. So here is your sneak peak to yet another Halloween of fun.

Football...

We all got a chance to see Caleb in action last night. He had a game and we all came to see him-- not even the rain could stop us.

The gang was all there (the men were down the field to get a better view).
Barlow (on his birthday) proudly watching his little man from the sidelines.
Caleb looking pretty cool on the field-- ready for anything.
Here he is stopping to get refueled. I told him I'm so glad his shirt says Elkhorn and not Shannon Park.... it's so nice to have the Barlows here. Go Caleb!!!

muscles...

Here are the much anticipated pictures of my underoo boys...

Those are some nice lookin' pits huh?!?
Rugby's explosion muscles... his latest of many super cool tricks.

This guy is his Dad's younger clone. They are so much a like it's scarey! Can you see a hint of T-Bone in him?!?
Emerson's attempt at muscles-- but it's mostly elbows. (still way tough though)

Underoos!

Yesterday I found some amazing sales at Target. They were clearancing all of their underwear. It was down to $1.28 for whole packs of undershirts, underwear, and my personal favorite-- underoos. I never buy underoos because they are always 8 or 9 dollars a pair!!! (for something they might pee on--- no thank you) But these clearance ones were so worth it. Underoos come with a pair of superhero underwear and a matching undershirt with the same guy on it. I brought them home and washed them up-- the boys could hardly contain themselves. They showered and put on their jammies at 4:30 so they could put on the new undies. In the mean time I'm downstairs making dinner and they come racing down in the undies, shorts, and just the undershirt. (uh, not what I was thinking but doable) The undershirt happens to be in the "wife beater" style which is super cool to the boys. Rugby yells, "Hey Mom, look at this!!! When I put my arms up everyone can see my pits! Isn't that awesome?" (yeah, awesome was just what I was thinking-- yeah right) So the rest of the evening was spent with the girls and I seeing nothing but pits every time we looked in the boys direction. Lucky us! (stupid sale)

dog days...

Jodi and her baby Owen after a quick bath...
what a face...
Zoey and Yaya taking cover from the rain...
Mom bought the girls fuzzy slipper socks... they don't go too well with shoes...
Here is my little puppy-- woof!

a few videos...

Here are the boys doing a little hsm2. (high school musical 2) If you've seen it, you'll appreciate their rendition. If not-- it's still pretty funny...

Breckyn and her newest friend...

Zoey saying hi to her baby Cam...

garbage guy...

I leave Tim alone with him for a few minutes and he puts this little one right to work. (Although, I think Em was pretty excited about helping out)

Zo-Zo

Here is a little clip of my bubbling little girl...

just a thought...

I know it's been a little while since I've blogged-- sorry. I've been a little overwhelmed with my current position. (you know, mom, first lady, vice president of the home office, ... whatever you like to call it...) I got a chance to watch general conference this weekend. (for those of you who aren't familiar with this, it's a conference put on by our church twice a year to help us become better people. We have several speakers over the course of the weekend, including our prophet, to help motivate us to more closely align our lives with Christ.) Anyway, a few of the talks got me thinking about my current position. I want to do better. I was hoping that's where you all would come in.... I want to know what you do to make your kids feel loved. I want to know some good ideas for family nights, date nights, and other things that you do to help your kids feel special. Do you ever feel like you are just making it through the day checking off the list but not really connecting with your kids? I want more of the good stuff and less of the fluff stuff. Tell me about your good stuff... no getting embarrassed. I just want your best ideas...

my funny boys...

The boys are dancing to one of their favorite songs for Cam. Cars Rules!

They both miss little Rex so much! Here's one for you too Rex...

pumpkin fieldtrip...

This past week the boys went with their preschool on a pumpkin picking field trip to a local farm. They had a blast with Jodi as their guide.

Here they are deciding on the perfect pumpkin...
..ok, perhaps a bit too much sun....
Em and the hay ride (he was pretty excited) The big boys claiming their spots for the ride...
When they finished picking they got to run around a little hay maze climbing thing that the farm does every year. They sure had fun!

A shout out to Cam!!!

The boys wanted to say "good job" to Cam! We miss you buddy! Good job on the potty!!!

swimming lessons...

Things are looking up once again at the Taylor house. Last night was swimming lessons and we all went just to get out of the house. (we needed it) Emerson was the next in line for the barfs and capped off with 7 fairly clean bucket runs. Hopefully that is all behind us now...

This makes me laugh everytime... goggles-- they've gotta have 'um. My kids have a slight obsession with goggles-- it makes me giggle...

...and so it goes...

I wish I had some amazing news to share but, I don't. I've been trying to survive life after surgery and things were starting to get better until.... last night around 9:30 we heard Breckyn running for the bathroom. It wasn't pretty. She had gotten sick and said it "snuck up on her." Needless to say-- she didn't make it. She hit everything there was to hit in her room and on the way to the bathroom....and in the bathroom....walls, toilet-- you name it, she got it. As I was cleaning it up (because Tim is immobile and unable to help) I was regretting letting her have root beer with her dinner and also discovered that Tim had snuck her some Doritos without my knowledge. After the night of 8 barfs (and a few more messes) she still wasn't feeling well. This afternoon she redid her original pattern and rebarfed all over the newly cleaned bedding.... it's gotta get better soon...... please!!!!

Jodi's new baby...

As all of you have heard, Jodi (and the rest of the family) got a new dog. It is perhaps the sweetest little thing you have ever seen. Jodi tried to buy the dog under the pretenses that it was "for the kids"-- but I gotta tell you she is pretty much in love with this little guy.

His name is still being debated. The kids want Sam, and Jodi likes Piper or Owen... I'm sure they'll decide soon enough.... or not. (we all remember what happened with Jacob-- oh I mean Caleb)
The kids are super excited-- especially Maddie who is not scared of this little guy at all. He doesn't make any sudden movements and is pretty relaxed. He is the perfect kid dog. He even lets Chloe take swipes at him and he doesn't care. Here she is so happy and proud of her newest companion. She can't stop smiling even if she tries. Welcome to the family Barlow pup (fill in the name when they decide)!

Addition updates...

Just a quick update on Yaya's house. Mom and Dad are making some good progress on the addition. In fact, they have everything drywalled and Mom just finished painting the master bedroom. The new carpet will be done next week and things are really kicking into high gear. The goal is to have them moved in by the end of the month. Mom is having fun with something new to decorate (I'm totally jealous) and Dad is having fun doing his man work. I don't think he has looked back once since retiring-- he's too busy plowing forward with new work.

This is the outside view (Yaya's house is too the right). The french doors are in the back also-- it's a mirror image of the front. It looks like a great fancy breeze way. (they do have the garage door in but it was up when I took the picture)

To the right is the garage door entrance and the doors are the ones you could see from the front of the house. This will be their main living area TV blah blah...

I turned around and these are the back doors I was telling you about. Now the garage door is off to the left and you can see the space for Mom's desk and a small closet.

I turned to the right and you can see into the kitchen (which use to be the laundry room). Where all the boxes are is going to be cupboards ect. The cubby looking thing to the left will be the washer and dryer cubby (with a door). If we peep off to the right you can see....

...down the hall the old spare bedroom. (which will be Dad's office/guest room). All stripped and ready to be carpeted.
Across the hall is the master bedroom. Mom painted it a really cool greenish shade that makes her striped chairs look awesome. Now I will turn to the right and show you....
This is the master bath. The new cubby will be the future shower. Mom picked really fun tile and Dad is scheming a cool shower head configuration he is very excited about. The new shower covers up where the old one was. Where the level is (the yellow thing) is where the old red tub was. They covered up the tiny closet doors and made a bigger door to the left. Again, where the level is (yellow thing) will be Dad's vanity area....
...this is to the right of the shower. This will be Mom's vanity. (white mushroom looking thing on the ground was where the old toilet was (step has been removed) and the new one will go there. Oh, and Dad built Mom a little cupboard (to the left) with an outlet in it to house her beauty items. Isn't he so thoughtful....
Here we are at Yaya's end. I thought you'd like to see the new linoleum she picked. It has little pink flowers and a slight carmel colored design on it. But, it's defiantly an all white room now... I'll keep you posted with the latest happenings. I'm sure there will be a lot of change this week because Mom's got all of her paint brushes out and she's got that crazy look in her eyes... I'll let you know how it turns out...