Benton's Birthday!

Benton had the funnest birthday party!! He had a whole carnival. There was a huge bouncy house, a cotton candy machine, popcorn, snow cones, games, prizes, and a whole lot more!

Honestly I felt like it was my birthday. It was a dream come true to make my own cotton candy!

Guess Who's 2?!

On July 23rd GK turned the big 2 years old!! I can't believe how fast he's grown up. He is so much fun! He is really talking a lot lately. He is so much fun to watch playing "sports" he can drop kick a ball better than me and for sure shoot the hoops better than I can. He loves his little sister, it's amazing that adapting was so easy for him. Gk is so curious and a typical 2 year old. He hates shopping but does really well ( I often bribe him.. said I never would!). He gives the BEST kisses! He still takes naps, usually 3 hours! He is a super good eater most of the time, sometimes he is too busy playing. I just LOVE this little man!

On his birthday we took him to The Original Pancake house. Of course Jenn & Brandon came, it wouldn't be the same without them. Gk got the smiley face pancakes.

He had a lot of fun there. He loved riding his bike around.

We stopped at the store then went home for a nap. He says "Happy day" for Happy birthday. When we put him down it totally broke my heart, he was in bed crying saying,"happy day, happy day" while he was jumping around. But he really needed a nap!

We had a party at the park by Lyndsey's house. It is a really fun park, and no one is ever there. We of course, had lots of candy. Gk was just happy to play with all his cousins.

The poor kid was throwing ice and bumped his elbow against the hot charcoal grill. I'm sure he has 3rd degree burns on his elbow, but the grill was really clean and it looks really good. There is an imprint of a phillips head screw . I am so glad it wasn't very deep and not on his hands or feet. He forgot about it being on his elbow.

We had a pinata, I think this was the first time he understood (kinda) what was going on. He didn't want anyone else to use his bat, he got really mad! But when the candy came out it was the cutest thing ever! He got SO excited, jumped off my lap and ran for it shouting "CANNY" (he so takes after me!) He got way too many presents and we had so much fun.

And on the same day Bentley turned 1 month old! She is changing so much. She holds up her head really well and is so patient with us. We are so lucky to have these 2 kids and we are very very grateful!

Hand Dipping!

Every one in Patrick's family always talks about the times when they use to dip chocolates. I have never seen it or been invited, I have tasted some of the caramels, centers, and even had some of the chocolates. This year Vickie really felt she needed to pass the trade on and I was so excited. First Michelle and Vickie made the centers: penuche, mint, rum (artificial & real), cherry, orange, lemon, and caramel. I think I may be forgetting some... Then we all got together and rolled them into little balls. They are so good plain, I ate way more than Vickie knew.

The room, the chocolate, the centers all have to be at a certain temp. It was really a lot of fun! I had an inch of chocolate all over my whole hand. I ate it off, I think 3 different times. DON'T worry, I washed my hands really really good in between. I was not very good at writing the letters on top of the chocolates. Vickie is really good at it. I need a lot more practice.

Patrick was so good to watch GK all weekend for me. I thought it would take Saturday morning and afternoon. (On Saturday night we had our annual trip to the Old Spaghetti Factory, it was so good and I wish I had taken pictures because Jason, Adam, and Patrick had gone to Cabela's and bought the same style shirt. It was really cute!) But we were dipping all day Sunday too. It is really hard work, your back gets pretty tired from leaning over. I had chocolate everywhere! I was a mess. I am so glad we did it, I hope we continue dipping!

Happy Halloween

We started Halloween out by going to my Mom & Dad's house. Patrick was working on the tile and needed us to not be in the way so it worked out perfect! I only got a couple pictures before my batteries died, so I got to use my Dad's really nice camera to take some more pictures but I don't have copies yet so this one will have to do. My Mom made us lunch then we headed home so GK could get a nap. Well he fell asleep on the ride home then he was done napping (a whole 25 min). But that was fine. We had a lot to do.

We went to the store and ran some errands then it was trick-or-treating time! We went with some friends, Nathan was a sweet heart and pushed GK almost the whole time. We ran into Will who was an adorable monkey! At Denise's house GK got a lollipop and it lasted it almost the entire time we were out.

When we got back Brandon and Jenn came over. They are such good sports for hanging out with us. GK just adores them. We had yummy soup in bread bowls and some nachos. I can't remember what else but there was a lot of food. All the while handing out candy to the kids. I am so happy we ran out of full size candy bars. Every year we have a bunch left over and I am stuck eating them all. Gk was so funny watching the kids come up to the door, he was quite the little helper.

We were going to watch Vacancy but it was too scary for Jenn and me. So we watched Friday's episode of Medium and The Soup. We were going to watch The Great Pumpkin Patch but it was getting really late! I love Halloween it just gets the ball rolling for all the fun holidays coming.

Saratoga Splash

 

Saratoga springs had their big town days this past weekend. It was so much fun! There was a 5k I ran through but I wanted to run further so I didn't sign up for it... but I think next year I will. It was a lot of fun! We went to Joel McHale on Friday night. It was really funny. He is a comedian who has a show on the E channel called The Soup. The first comedian wasn't very funny but Joel made up for it. Saratoga Springs had a boat parade that night that I wanted to go to. Hopefully we can go next year. But our little city had a parade! I don't think they've ever had one before and it went right in front of our neighborhood! It was a lot of fun! G.K. didn't quite get it but I was glad to do a test run before the big Lewiston 4th of July parade so he knows how to smile big for more candy! :D

Memorial Weekend Stay-Cation

 We had such a fun Memorial Day weekend. It didn't all go quite as we planned it but we had a lot of fun! On Friday evening we were planning on going to the Jordan Walkway with Jenn & Brandon. Patrick and Brandon couldn't get away from work so Aunt Michelle came over with McKell and we ate some lollipops thanks to The Peppermint Place~ G.K. was so sweet to share his sticky sucker with Aunt Shell! We did go for a short bike ride but G.K. was screaming in the bike trailer. It was past his bed time and we took the sucker away. 

 

On Saturday I went for a run with Dave up to City Creek Canyon, we took the trail and I forgot how much I liked it. My Mom came too and she walked around the Capitol. It was such a beautiful morning! I will learn to take my camera. In the afternoon we went to play tennis at the Middle School. I really suck, Jenn has only played a couple of times and she is really good. Don't let her fool you! It started to rain and G.K. was tired of being in the Pack 'n Play so Jenn and I played with him.. i.e we took pictures of him! On Saturday night Patrick and I took G.K. to Won Won Wok for some sushi~

 

On Sunday we went to church but we only made it for sacrement meeting, we went home and had a relaxing afternoon. I harvested some Strawberries! The first of the season! Brandon and Jenn came over because we wanted to do a test run camping with G.K. We had planned to set up the tents in the back yard and see how well it went. We had hot dogs and hamburgers and Jenn brought some yummy dips w/ chips. We were all stuffedwhen it started pouring rain! G.K. was so tired so we just put him in his bed. It did clear up when we were eating our S'Mores over the barbeque-er. We contemplated setting up the tents and grabbing G.K. but I think we were all too tired for that. So between the dogs being restless all night and the fridge making noises, no one got any sleep, we should have set up the tents!  I guess we did test out camping: eating way too much and not getting any sleep, but at leat G.K. got a good nights sleep.

 

Then since Jenn & Brandon just couldn't get enough of us we decided to go to Park City for some shopping! We went to Main street for Lunch and remembered why we don't shop there. Our lunch was $40 and it wasn't any good! So we went to the Outlets where I love to shop. They had some really great sales. We didn't need anything but it was sure fun to go shopping! 

Cookies!

Garrison is getting so big!

We really like to watch him experience new things.

He likes all food (except fresh mushrooms).

He really likes Cookies!!

Sunday in Disneyland

On Sunday we used our Magic Morning passes and got in a bunch of rides. 

I had forgotten how much fun a lot of these rides were since I couldn't ride them last year. 

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel Saturday night and it was so nice to be right in the middle of everything. 

We got to swim in the pool and ride the river rapid ride in California Adventure.

 

Also in California Adventure there is a new Toy Story ride and it is a blast! 

I think that was the longest line we waited in but it was well worth it.

 

On our way home we had a few extra minutes and decided to go see the Queen Mary, and this was as close to that haunted ship I ever want to get. 

I am so glad that we got to go to Disneyland this year.

We didn't think we would be able to, so it made it more exciting when we could.

Thanks Mom & Denise for watching G.K. for us. 

I know he would have had fun in Disneyland but it would have been a lot of work.

I think he had more fun at home with you! Thanks a million!

I really know better!

Today I was going to go to the Festival Of Trees with Jenn, but she wasn't feeling well and neither was Gk. We really didn't get much sleep last night with his stuffy nose and sad little cough. So after we took a nap, I decided to try making my Grandma's Peanut Brittle. It is a super easy recipe, and really yummy! Best of all you can just make it in the microwave. Here it is if you wanna try it! 

I cup granular sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

microwave for 3 minutes

add 1 cup peanuts

microwave for 3 minutes

add 1 T butter

1 t vanilla

microwave for 2 minutes 

add 1 t baking soda

pour on cookie sheet/aluminum foil

Pretty easy and you should only dirty one dish so the cleanup is super easy.

Making this really made me miss my Grandma, she was such a good cook and a wonderful woman! Her house always had home made candy and treats. And she let us have pop with lunch.

Anyway I think she really would have laughed at my first attempt...

Oops...

I really know better!

The Peppermint Place?

Patrick brought me to The Peppermint Place about 6 years ago. It was an adorable little store tucked away in Alpine. They made lots of candy, the decorated suckers and had their own delicacy of chocolate dipped potato chips. The had a neat observation deck you could watch all the action. 

Ever since Patrick took me there I've dreamed of taking our kids there. So this weekend Patrick was going pheasant hunting because he didn't get enough last weekend. For a special treat I thought GK would like to go see where the candy is made. Now I'm not good with directions so I knew I'd get lost but I couldn't find the building. There was one that looked just like it but it was a mattress store. I drove forever and kept going back to the mattress store I went in and they moved the candy store, you can't watch them make it anymore, and a company out of China bought it so most of the candy is shipped in.

But we went in anyway, it was still really cute, not as much candy as I like but they added a gelato machine, so I'm sure I'll go back. My point in all of this is to not wait. If you wan t go watch the candy being made don't wait to have kids, just go watch it because you might not be able to when you finally have kids. We are planning a trip to the Sweet's factory though if anyone would like to join us!

Pheasant Hunting

This last weekend Patrick and Brandon were going pheasant hunting up in Lewiston. 

And the sweet Hall family were making SpudNuts and they let G.K. and I tag along to learn how.

We had so much fun. I seriously LoVe Lewiston. It is so much fun!

Cecille (Jenn's Mom) is the sweetest, she works so hard and is such a good example of how I can be a better Mom, Wife, and person. She is a really good cook.

She fed us so much and it was so yummy I really feel indebted to her. 

Well Spudnuts are doughnuts that have potato in them,

but they taste the same to me as regular doughnuts.

We had a pretty awesome system Jenn cooked the doughnuts

Emily and Holly put the icing on them and sweet little Hanna put the sprinkles on top.

Hanna was so cute! She really liked her job and eating the sprinkles.

There were a lot more doughnuts, we ate quite a few

I felt like such a Homer, I was drooling all over them so I had to eat those.

My favorite were the doughnut holes because they were smaller but I think I ate 20.

This is everyone that helped in the prouction.

G.K., Holly, Trever, Cecille, Jenn,

Rachel, Hanna, Katelyn, and Emily.

Katelyn and Rachel were big helpers with GK for me. 

Poor Patrick and Brandon were really really tired.

Patrick really wants a bird dog now. But we already have a dog.

They probably walked 12 miles or more. 

They left just before 7:00 (Patrick woke up around 5:00 and woke up Brandon to go because the clock was off in our room. He was so excited he couldn't go back to sleep.)

Jason and Quenton met them and they hunted all over Lewiston, then to Menden. 

They came back had a doughnut and took out Kyle (Jenn's nephew).

They had so much fun but they were totally worthless when we went out to dinner to Firehouse Pizza. I love that place. Dinner was so good but we had to get a trizookie to share after.

On Sunday we went to church (Do you know they have messengers in sacrament meeting?) then had a delicious dinner. 

Thanks again Anthony and Cecille for your hospitality!

and Jenn and Brandon, we had an awesome weekend!

Disneyland

This last weekend Brandon, Jenn, Patrick, and I all went to California. Our main focus was definitely Disneyland.. It is the happiest place on Earth you know! We had many adventures... These are a few pictures of some of them. We had so much fun and it was nice to break it up over two days so we could take a little break on Saturday afternoon. my favorite was the cotton candy (only 4 bags), Patrick's favorite was the churros he only had 2. The weather was amazing. All the lines were really short and the Dream Team gave us Fast Passes. 

Ginger Bread Houses

On Friday Kortni, Quenton, and Braydon and I made some gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. We did the best we could. Kortni's turned out the best! On Saturday Jodi had her annual gingerbread house party. She is amazing! Jodi made all of these gingerbread houses and all of the frosting for us to make these neat houses. I think the adults had just as much fun as the kids!