goodbye halloween...ninja style

This was for sure the best Halloween yet. Each boy was so excited for every little thing that had to do with Halloween. Especially carving pumpkins.

are you loving the upside down pumpkin?

 Our traditional eyeball soup. Kind of disgusting. 

 Halloween is a blast with kids. Especially when they come in the form of little ninjagos. 

 And what does every ninja need? A tiny, adorable, little Chinese trainer. Sensei Wu of course.

hey, I did not sign up for this.

This little Sensei Wu has recently just discovered that he has hands attached to that cute little body.

 So another Halloween has come and gone. But these ninjas are probably here to stay for a while....

NINJA-GOOOOO

 for those of you who are not overly familiar with Lego's ninjago series....um, count your blessings.

Halloween fun comes to an end

Our month of Halloween Fun has been, for the most part, successful. Once again I did not take nearly enough pictures. 

The favorites were the rock spiders, candy corn sugar cookies, Halloween bingo, Don't eat Frank, witches stew,  toilet paper Halloween guys, owl smores, the hay maze, making Halloween bags, Halloween jokes (perfect humor for young boys), carving pumpkins, and of course cuddling up and watching the movies (charlie brown may have been the favorite)

I was not always good a letting it happen every night. Sometimes by the end of the day I was done and wanted them to just go to bed. There was a night or two when the boys reminded me that we did not do the activity. I told them we would do two the next night...just go to bed!

We did not do the fall roast, make haunted houses, make skeleton gingerbread men, or make the spiderweb cheesecake. But I don't think they missed out. I've learned that the most simplest things make their day. 

I hope they are always grateful for the simple things in life.

name and blessing

I remember over 4 years ago when I was pregnancy with Levi, Justin came to me with a name that he just read and loved.  He wanted a really masculine name for our child.  I laughed out loud and said no way. Then a few months later we were blessed with a baby boy. For one day we named him Devin...it didn't seem right. Justin, again, was reading and found one of the names that had been on our list. Levi. We finished the birth certificate papers and we never looked back. 

3 1/2 years later we had another decision to make. The name for our fourth boy. I knew I wanted the middle name to be Justin. But we couldn't come up or agree on anything for the first name until the name from over 4 years ago came up again and for some reason, this time it just felt right. 

And so our boy was born.

We welcomed Rudger Justin into our family. 

Rudger was named after an Apostle from our church. Rudger Clawson. The more we learned about him, the more we were grateful for his name. He was brave. He was a faithful leader. He did hard things. These are a few attributes we hope our Rudger will develop.  

Then a few weeks after Rudger was born, we went to my hometown's Temple Dedication. There we learned for the first time that Rudger Clawson had a big connection with Brigham City.  We were even happier with our decision. 

Justin officially gave him his name and blessing. It was a beautiful day.

 

Justin did a wonderful job.

 Thanks to all of our family that came. We had a great time visiting. 

(I only wish I took more pictures of everyone)

 

 

 Rudger was pretty tired by the end of the day.

getting back to halloween

We really should be celebrating Halloween right now...

  But instead we are acting like it's Christmas around here with all this snow.

 Building snowmen

 drinking hot chocolate. and maybe even enjoying some Christmas music...

But we'll get right back to Halloween now.

(because I have some costumes to sew)

Rudger's first week

I sometimes miss those first few days of having a newborn. He is so pure and so perfect, fresh from heaven. 

I love his quiet, soft cry. I love the way his legs curl right up to his body. I love the look in his eyes. I love the cute little lips. I love the little baby pimples around his nose and mouth. I love the soft hair all over his body. I love how he looks all swaddled up in his blanket.  And the smell, oh the smell.

We tried to take full advantage of this first week with him.

Day 1

 Day 2

 Day 3

 Day 4

 Day 5

 Day 6

 Day 7

 But now, I have to admit, I love that he has figured out when nighttime is and only wakes up twice to eat (two days ago he only woke up once!). But I especially love that when he looks at me, I think he knows that I am his mommy, and then he gives me a smile.

I like that a lot.

sisters

I am the youngest of six kids. Four boys and two girls. I am quite blessed to have them as my siblings. I love my brothers and look up to them a lot. They are all hard workers, good fathers, and have sense of humors that leave you with your stomach hurting.  A lot. I am lucky to have them as brothers.  But I don't think it can beat the fact that, I have a sister.  And not just any sister.

I have Mandi!

We have gone through a lot together. 

Sharing a room during our younger years, staying up a few minutes past our bedtime so that we could play a game or two, playing barbies (in reality we just set up the furniture dressed our dolls and then called it good),  building tents in our room. Then we grew up a little and she put up with my annoying teenage years; stealing her clothes, wanting her to drive me places, and every other typical teenage girl thing I did. The we both grew up a little more, I moved away from home, then she did. We each got married and then started having children.  But we lived over an hour away from each other. And then 6 1/2 years ago she moved a lot closer. And it wasn't until then that I really realized how incredibly blessed I was to have Mandi for my sister. And with each passing year, I love it and appreciate it even more.

In the past three months Mandi has gone through the most difficult thing any mother could ever imagine going through. 

And during this time I have learned more about her than I have in the past 20+ years. Mandi is amazing. 

She is strong. 

She has a beauty about her that is so much more than looks.

She is intelligent.

She has a tender touch.

Her love for her children is deep.

Her devotion to her amazing, supportive husband is beautiful.

She can do hard things. 

She truly understands the great plan of salvation.

She understands that she needs our Savior (as all of us do)

Her testimony and faith is strong.

I have learned that I need and want to be the kind of mother, wife, and woman that Mandi has become.

I realize even more that I am the luckiest girl to have a sister like Mandi.

Not only do I have the best sister, but we have the best mom in the world! She practically could be our sister!

october is great

Do you agree?

October has got to be one of the best months of the year. 

What's not to love about the crisp air, the sweaters, cozy blankets, chilly mornings and perfect afternoons, baking with pumpkin and cinnamon, driving up the canyons to see the change in nature, turning on the fireplace for the first time, earlier bedtimes, fall smells. I love it all. 

It wasn't until I had kids that I realized that Halloween is a great addition to the list.

I am beginning to love Halloween. Not for the grossness. No way. But for the excitement that my kids feel that passes right along to me.

So last Friday we blew off the dust of our 2 small boxes of Halloween stuff and went right to work. We spent the rest of the day enjoying a few Halloween Oreos, wearing vampire teeth, playing with the felt pumpkins, and putting up decorations.

The boys get so excited about the 13 day countdown to Halloween. But this year I thought I would stretch it out all month long. It's just way to fun a month not to. It is really simple, but luckily our boys like simple. 

M 1st: Introduce countdown. Bake Pumpkin Bread

T 2nd: Halloween Memory Match (put matching Halloween stickers on some small cards)

W 3rd: Rock Spiders

Th 4th: Halloween Treasure hunt to Halloween books - read them

F 5th: Treat - Frankenstein Pudding Cups. Movie - Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (thanks to my dad)

S 6th: Fall Fire Roast

Su 7th: Boo Am I

M 8th: Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

T 9th: Halloween Bingo

W 10th: Toilet Paper Halloween Guys

Th 11th: Read Halloween Books

F 12th: Treat - Pumpkin Treat. Movie - It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

S 13th: Witches Stew Game

Su 14th: Don't Eat Frank

M 15th: Skeleton Gingerbread Men

T 16th: Halloween Pictionary

W 17th: Owl Smores

Th 18th: Read Halloween Books

F 19th: Treat - Caramel Apples. Movie - Snow White

S 20th: Pumpkin Patch/Hay Maze

Su 21st: Haunted House Decorating (like Gingerbread houses)

M 22nd: Homemade Doughnuts/Hot Chocolate

T 23rd: Halloween Coloring Contest

W 24th: Make Halloween Bags

Th 25th: Read Halloween Books

F 26th: Treat - Witches Hat. Movie - Wizard of Oz

S 27th: Decorate/Paint/Carve Pumpkins

Su 28th: Tell Halloween Jokes while drinking Spider Cider

M 29th: Spiderweb Cheesecake

T 30th: Make a spooky fort and read books with flashlights

W 31st: Trick or Treat

There is a very good chance that I will not get to everything. (however the boys will probably do a good job making sure things happen). But I love to be flexible, so some things might change depending on the kind of day we're having. 

I just hope it's a good month with all my boys.