Catching Up. . .

I know I have missed WAY too much so I am just going to start fresh. Some highlights of our life lately are:

1. Keane turned 4. Our camera broke so I had no camera for a couple of months. But he had a really cool shark cake, ate Panda Express (his fav) and went to see Ice Age 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs (because he is still not over his dino-obsession.) Happy Birthday Keane, we'll always have the mental images!!

2. Little brother Brian got hitched to the beautiful Haylie Farnsworth. It was lovely and I wish I could hack Annie Randall's website so you could see some really gorgeous pics but yet again we were without a camera and so I hacked this one off the family website. Congrats!

3. Halloween. It was simple but fun for us. Thanks to my neighbor Brenda for taking a pic of my kids while we were trick or treating. As you can see we have a she-vampire (she wore high heels the entire time we were trick or treating), a cop who rubbed his mustache off (I swear he looks like Ryley in the second pic--seriously where are his eyes!!!), and a cowboy who was supposed to be a redneck but refused to wear his coonskin hat. We'll take what we can get from Cash these days. We had fun just trick or treating around our hood.

The night before we went to the school carnival in our neighborhood and the kids got kind of overwhelmed in the huge crowd. As they finished a game, Lucy and Keane went over to pick a prize from the bucket and I saw a neighbor and said hi to her for literally less than a minute. I looked down and Lucy was at my side and Keane was not. Keane is a very cautious child and NEVER wanders, so I knew he was somewhere panicking. We frantically searched for him and a couple of minutes later we saw him standing alone with crocodile tears streaming down his face. I felt awful. Through his sobs he explained that he was trying to find a mom or dad to help him but he didn't know who were the nice people and who were the strangers. Sad. So we went home feeling exhausted and as we walked in he says to me, "You were not the bestest mom tonight because you lost me and you forgot my jacket!" Okay I deserved that. But seriously I know that I am not the only mom who has lost her kid for a couple minutes!

4. Lucy broke her arm. Yup it finally happened, our first broken bone. It is simple math really--

Rollerskates + Hill at the Park - Wristguards = Lots of Copays > X Rays + Pediatric Orthopedic Specialist

Now imagine all of that over the Square Root of Lucy in bad mood divided by a cast that developed a lovely odor. It was a simple buckle fracture and she had to wear the cast for about 4 weeks so it was not too bad. She was definitely glad to have her arm back though. These pics were taken the morning she got her cast off. Keyword here is morning. She doesn't love mornings and most of them she makes faces similar to these, which she specifically asked me to not post on the blog (oops):

5. Lucy got Student of the Month at her school. She never ceases to amaze me with how smart she is. Everything comes pretty easy for her so far and she adores her teacher. So cliche, but she is growing up too fast and we are always sooooo proud of her. They give the award out at flag ceremony in the morning and this is what her teacher said about her, "Lucy is a hard worker. She strives to do her best every day. She always comes to school with a smile on her face. She is a great friend to her classmates. I enjoy having her in my class." Which I think is funny that she shows up to school with a smile because she leaves every morning with the face you see in the above pictures. Way to go Lulu.

Here are all the classes lined up for flag.

Her brothers are so supportive aren't they. haha.

6. Cash turned 2!

I love this kid's mug more than anything. He keeps me on my toes for sure but he is just so loveable. It makes it easy to love him when he is literally a miniature version of Tyler in every way. Happy birthday Mad Dog!

The cake is supposed to be a stencil of a money sign but it didn't work out perfectly. Oh well. The cake was homemade chocolate cake from scratch (The Fat Sisters recipe--love that cook book!) He liked it so that is all that matters.

7. Obsessing over this place:

We are planning a trip for hopefully sometime in the Spring but we are counting on Santa to help us out with some tickets or gas money or something!!! Lucy was 2 last time we went and Keane was 4 months. They are the perfect heights and they love everything Disney. I know it will be a blast and I am literally losing sleep thinking about how much fun it is going to be. It's the happiest place on earth you know.

8. Speaking of height requirements, we have been using that excuse a lot lately to get the kids to eat better. "You better eat your fruits and veggies so that you can ride Space Mountain!" Well Cash has been trying extra hard. . .to the point of exhaustion. Check it out. The music from "UP" is playing in the background. Funny. I love that movie.

9. Missing these guys a lot lately. We are used to having them around and are still getting used to the fact that they live in UTAH!! Looking forward to hanging out at Thanksgiving.

10. I have been doing a lot of this lately:

Running, not cross dressing. I have been training for 6 months for a race that is coming up very very soon. I am super excited and just ready to get it done so I can sleep in past 4:30am for once!!! Let me know if you have any ideas for any good running or work out songs that could help keep me going. Wish me luck!