Justin Carving his pumpkin (10-08)

Justin loves to be creative and he starts talking about what his pumpkin will look like as soon as we start seeing pumpkins in early October or late September.
However, taking the pumpkin guts out is not one of his favorite parts of the tradition. He has never liked having his hands dirty or sticky. He must of got up at least 10 times to wash his hands during the process of removing the guts.
One of the things I love about Justin is he is always ready to lend a helping hand. Ryan was getting frustrated because he couldn't get all the strings out of his pumpkin. Justin stopped working on his pumpkin to help his little brother. What a great example he is for his younger brothers.

Ryan carving his pumpkin (10-08)

Ryan loves everything about Halloween, but he especially enjoys carving pumpkins.


He loves playing with the pumpkin guts and makes the best sound effects while doing it.

Joshua carving his pumpkin (10-08)

Joshua was so delighted with his pumpkin that he picked all by himself.
This was his first year to really enjoy our pumpkin carving tradition. He was only 5 months old last Halloween. I think baby's seconds are always better than their firsts. He was so cute!
He absolutely loved touching the pumpkin guts. Every time he suck his hand in his pumpkin he would giggle.
He also enjoyed taking the pumpkin guts out of his pumpkin and putting them inside of his brother's pumpkins. The older boys got a big kick out of that.
He drew his face on his pumpkin with a lot of help from mom. Then daddy carved it for him. After we put the candle in, he kept saying, "ohhhh" in a high pitched voice. He was darling the whole night.

Jack-O-Lanterns and Caramel Apples (10-08)

The boys had so much fun making jack-o-lanterns for family night the Monday before Halloween. Each of them is sitting behind their pumpkin. As tradition, we all had a caramel apple as a treat after our night of carving.

Ward Halloween Party (10-08)

The Jacob's Ranch 2nd Ward had a great Halloween party. We all had a good time especially the kids. Joshua wasn't too sure about the scary costumes that some people had, but did really well.

Lagoon Fun (10-08)

Ryan had such a blast at Lagoon. For about 2 1/2 hours out of the 12 hour day at Lagoon, Jeff and I split up. He took Justin to all the big rides that Ryan is still too little to go on and I stayed with Ryan in Kiddie Land and watched him ride all of the rides over and over. He was all smiles!
Justin and Ryan love the Dinosaur Drop. Ryan is always a little nervous at first, but once he rides it once, he wants to go over and over.
This is the new ride at lagoon. I can't remember the name, but Justin and Ryan loved it. It is a family water ride, but you can control how wet you get. We spent most of our time at family rides that we could all ride. Our favorites were the Tilt-o-Whir, the Scrambler and the Tidal Wave.
This is a weird picture to take and then love out of all the pictures we took this day. However, I love it because it shows such brotherly love between the boys. Justin was so darling in that he always kept a protective arm around Ryan in lines and made sure Ryan was all buckled and settled before buckling himself. If Ryan was nervous at all, Justin would say, "don't worry I won't let anything happen to you." Ryan would grin up at Justin and off they would go.
We had the best time and the best weather all day. We had t-shirts on all day until the sun went down when we put on sweat shirts. It was perfect, never too hot or never to cold. We ended up staying for 12 hours. We kept waiting for the kids to get cranky or for it to get too cold, but it never did. We had pajamas in the car for the boys and they were both out within 10 minutes. My mom and dad had Joshua for the day so he was happy. He cries anytime they leave our house without him. So we knew he was having a great day being spoiled. It was one of the those awesome days where everything went just right and I can't think of a thing I would change. Hooray Lagoon!!!

Justin's Football Party (10-08)

The Spartans Football team rented out the Lehi Legacy Center's pool for their end of the season party. All the players had a blast! GO SPARTANS! This is several of the team waiting for a huge bucket of water to fall on them. Justin has on the white swim trunks and blue goggles.
This is Justin receiving his trophy. He is so proud of it and shows it to everyone that comes to our house. He can't wait to be on the team next year. GO SPARTANS!
The party was for the whole family. This is Ryan having fun in the pool. He has really taken to the water lately. My mom kept Joshua for us because the party didn't start until after his bed time.
This is Ryan coming do the slide. He must have gone down it at least 30 times. He was fun to watch.
This is Justin coming down the slide. He loved it too. However, he spent most of his time wrestling and playing with his coaches and teammates.

It was an awesome party and we had the best time. Ryan keeps asking if we can go back to the fun football practice at the fun pool.