The most wonderful time of year

Happy Halloween, ya’ll! I hope you haven’t gorged yourself too much on your children’s candy (like I have, lol). I LOVE this time of year! The costumes, scary movies, candy, decorations, candy, parties, candy, candy… ok, I’ll stop. I watched two of my favorite Halloween movies, The Shining and Hocus Pocus,

and lots of Simpsons “Treehouse Of Horror”.

My ULTIMATE favorite scary movie is “Watcher in the Woods'”, but alas, it is very hard to find, especially when you cancel your Netflix account. Then we dressed up the boys and started partying!

Evan was a garden gnome and Deacon was “Plex” from Yo Gabba Gabba (I tried to sneak in an astronaut costume but Deacon saw Plex first. This is the LAST year for Yo Gabba Gabba!) Here is  their official Halloween photo. Inkley’s does  them for free!

 

First we hit up Black Island Farms for a good ol’ fashion hayride and some super slides

Then we went to Terry’s dad’s and had a “pumpkin hunt”

 

The family gets bigger every year!

Then we hit up the ward trunk or treat!

This guy had way too much fun…

Then we went to Maria’s. My Dad was loving the costumes more than the boys!

Maria works for the Chamber of Commerce, so we headed down there for a staff lunch with the other families.

And last but not least, we headed to Terry’s mom’s for some good soup and doughnuts and more trick or treating!

Finally the boys were able to devour their stash!

Don’t worry. I’ve already taken 3/4 of their candy for myself, hehehe. Can’t be a hygienist and let my kids eat candy! Don’t you know it causes cavities?! I’m so mean….

Family pictures

We headed to the train yard in Ogden for some much needed family pictures. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday!

It’s birthday time at the Rees household!  Maria and I turned 25, ha ha. But the biggest birthday was Deacon! He turned 3 on the 22nd. We celebrated by having a meltdown at preschool, going to the doctor and not having a meltdown (yay!). They were so nice and gave the boys a racecar.

Then we had lunch at Tucano’s (Terry’s favorite! All meat!) And a killer cheesecake for me. Deacon loves that place because of all-you-can-eat “cookies”, aka croutons (I have no idea where he gets these things!!)

Then we headed home for the big birthday surprise: A trampoline!! I loved my trampoline as a kid, so naturally we go Deacon one. Terry was a pro and had it set up in no time with minimal swearing

We had a party with the family, and they spoiled Deacon rotten. I decided to make the cake myself this year. It will be LAST time I do it!!

This is what it was supposed to look like.

Yup, nailed it.

Only 4 tries this year to blow out the candle!!

Deacon, we love you so much!! It’s been the best 3 years of our lives with you in them!!

Onion Days

It’s that time of year again: Onion Days! I started off the day bright and early running the city sponsored 5k. I haven’t been running as much at home, so I was pleasantly surprised at my time (29:51, 6 minutes faster than a year ago!) They printed out a cool little card for us to show our pace and placement. Payson, you rock.

Then we hit the parade, which was slightly more boring than last year, or maybe I’m just getting older?

Uncle Kevin spreads the love with cookies

Then we hit the carnival. Deacon can’t get enough of this ride!

Evan called it quits after the parade and missed all the rides

Another sign that I’m getting old? That merry-go-round went really fast!

We saw some friends and neighbors (my mom’s good friend Michelle)

We slept over at Grandpa’s

And the next day Deacon started preschool!

Ours go to 11

Anniversaries, that is (yes I’ve been waiting 11 years to say that). The big 11 was last week and the hubby didn’t disappoint.  He gave me a dirty card (typical) with cold hard $$$ in it. He gets so mad just giving me money, but I’m able to get what I want and everyone is happy, right? Right?!?! Then we went to eat here…

And ate this…

And this…

And this…

No picture of the happy couple. Terry is not blogger/camera friendly. He about died when he saw me pull the camera out. He begged me not to be one of “those girls” who takes pictures of every dining experience and then blogs about it ( I know I just offended everyone reading this. Sorry!) It was a lovely kids-free evening, and I seriously can’t believe we’ve had 11 of these things. That’s like saying I’ll have a 32nd birthday in 3 weeks, which is just plain crazy (I’m sobbing while I type this). Getting old. It’s going to take a while to get used too!

DIY

I finally got around to painting the boy’s dresser (Evan is 17 months old, I’m slow). I have no experience with painting or anything remotely crafty, so this was huge for me. I didn’t get an official “before” picture, so enjoy this one of Deacon asleep on the floor (it’s slightly blurry)

After!!

 

I have ZERO experience when it comes to painting, so I think it looks pretty darn good. My sweet mother-in-law helped me. A lot. She politely asked me if I had a drop cloth. Umm, no. Or trays to put the paint in. Again, no. (Did I mention I don’t have any experience painting?) Luckily she was well prepared!

I tried to “age” it, but it didn’t quite work the way I wanted.

 

Then I replaced the hardware

 

I hope in 20 years the boys like it and realize how bad this sucked to paint. But I guess by then they won’t want a red and blue dresser!

Then I got even MORE crafty and decided to dye some mason jars blue (EBay wanted WAY to much for the originals!). I bought some blue glass dye and went to work. It was pretty easy, but there are some streaks if you look close. Then I bought a mason jar holder from Wally World and made a silverware holder for family parties and get togethers. I’ve been through several and just can’t find one that I like. The silverware (ok, plasticware) always falls out or doesn’t hold enough so I thought this was a nice solution :)

My next project? Taking a nap!