Halloween, new pet, and life

For my Birthday/Halloween, my parents and grandma drove up to spend the week with us.  Some aunts and uncles that live out of state also came over to spend time with them.  I got to see family that I haven't seen in years!  It was like a mini reunion! I wore my family out by keeping them busy everyday. One day we went to Gardner Village, which had lots of cute witch displays for Halloween.  We also ate at Archibalds restaurant for my birthday lunch.  That night, my mom tried to make a lemon pie for me, but the ingredients were rancid.  I decided to just wait, and have my birthday dessert the next day.  We went to an AMAZING waffle place for breakfast, and I ordered  a "waffle monster." It was sooooo good!! I also took my family to cornbellies, but it was freezing, and we rushed through everything.  Wesley got to mine in the frigid water, which made him happy, but he was so wet and cold we had to leave after that.  For Halloween, we went trick or treating around our neighborhood.  Blake didn't understand, and once he got one lollipop, he was happy and didn't want to go to any more houses, so we just pushed him in the stroller.  Wesley and Chase had so much fun. Our neighborhood is awesome - my boys got sooo many full sized candy bars!   After we walked around our street, we dropped of Blake with my mom and grandma, and my Dad and I then took the older boys up near the temple (about two minutes from our house) where there are multi million dollar houses.  Once again, the boys got a bunch of full sized candy bars.  It was a fun night!!

My neighboorhood is sooo pretty during the Fall.  I took these pictures one morning on our walk to take Wesley to school.  Just a few weeks later most of the leaves were gone, and there was snow on the ground!

our house 

the view from one of our hikes, about 4 min from our house 

We were shopping near petco one day, and I asked the little boys (Wesley was in school) if they wanted to go and look - just look - at the animals.  We love going in, and Blake has the most fun looking at all the little creatures.  We walked in, and I immediately spotted the fluffiest hamster I've ever seen.  I fell in love!  :-)  It was time for us to get another pet, and a hamster seemed like the perfect one.  Chase was so gentle, and careful as he held our new fluffy pet all the way home.  He helped me set up his cage, and after Wesley came home (he was sure surprised!), we decided on a name - Mr. Higgenbottom, or "Higgy" for short.

Chase goes to speech therapy at Wesley's school for 20 min once a week.  Now that its too cold for Blake to play on the playground, I try to keep him happy by bringing toys - or food, and we sit on the chairs, and watch the kids go by.  We also like to walk around, and look at all the displays for each classroom, and the cute artwork the kids have made.  He is my little buddy!

It is a lot harder to keep the boys entertained during the Winter in Utah with the cold.  They live outside when it is warm, and while they still play outside a little bit, it only lasts 10-20 min before they get too cold.   If the boys had their way, they would watch TV all day.  I do let them watch it before school, and also a little bit after school.  However, it is a lot of work keeping them busy with other things.  A few of their current favorites are:  Blake loves to paint, Wesley is loves doing experiments, and Chase loves to pretend, play dress up, and build things.

One night Wesley crawled into a box and fell asleep.  He LOVES sleeping anywhere except for his bed.  He often sleeps in his fort, or under his bed, or on the floor if I let him.

A favorite place we love to go for dinner once in a while is to the Thanksgiving point cafe.  It is cheep in price, but pretty good quality.  The boys love it, and we like it too.  They also have an ice cream parlor, with VERY CHEEP, but AMAZING ice cream.  It is a lot of fun!!