Even though we had snow in early October, November 5th was Griz’s first snow… She wasn’t too sure about it at first but then started playing and really enjoying it. Cub just watched her, you could just imagine Cub looking at her and saying “kids” while shaking her head… lol … Griz kept taunting her to play, it was cute and the boys and I were laughing and enjoying watching them (from inside). The boys wanted to go out in it so bad they emerged upstairs with their snow boots on over their “footed” P.J.’s. Never a dull moment around here…lol

So the day after Halloween we hosted a Daddy Daughter Dinner for our Activities Day Girls. We were originally going to have a Halloween theme, but the girls all decided that they wanted to have it be an 80’s theme. They thought that their Dad’s would like that better and that their mom’s would enjoy helping them get dressed up. I think that they were right on both occasions. Everyone seemed to have a really good time and enjoyed themselves.

(When did the 80”s become the oldie’s? Wasn’t that our parents time, the oldie's? What happened??)

It was good to see the girls interact and COMPETE (wow there was some real competition there lol) with their Dad’s.
We had them write for each other: My Dad/Daughter is Dad/Daughter of the year because:… (they filled in the rest)
At the end we had them read them to each other, it was a great ending to a great night.

Chris had quit the Birthday shebang!! It was a fun filled weekend that started on Thursday at Joy School. He got to wear a crown that he decorated with Spiderman stickers. He took cupcakes that he picked out. Some had orange and some with black icing. The kids that ate the black ones had green all around there faces; it was hilarious except for that night, wow that did some tricky things in the bowels…lol YUCK! He had so much fun with the whole day!

Then on Saturday we had the FRIEND’S Birthday Party!!
We ate pizza rolls, played toss in the pumpkin that Frankenstein was holding, made goodie bags, sucker spiders and ghosts (thanks to the ward carnival), and musical dots. Everyone had a great time and Chris was so happy. I still smile when I think about the day.
Thank you Jennifer and Lisa for all your help that day!

And all his friends for the great gifts!

Our Family Party was on Sunday on his actual Birthday. We had Dinner all together at the table (I can only get that to happen on holidays and special occasions), CHOCOLATE cake he asked for, and then everyone’s favorite OPENING GIFTS! He got to open his gifts from all his family. He got p.j.’s and clothes from Grandma Nielson, he didn’t’ take them off for ever!!, Mickey Mouse shirt and movie (his favorite) from Grandma and Papa Johnson, Thomas the Train books from Uncle Chris, aunt Roxy and cousin Ty. From us here, we all got him BATMAN stuff…he was in 7th heaven!!.. He hasn’t stopped playing with ANY of it!!... I don’t think that he’s touched another toy since his birthday!!
THANK YOU to everyone it was DEFINITELY his best birthday ever!!

He called Grandma Nielson at bedtime to let her know that he was wearing his new P.J.’s to bed that night. He told her all about the night, “showed” her that he was wearing his P.J.’s lol. He was very talkative that night. Mom and I had a good laugh. How could you not be grinning from ear to ear, he cracks me up!! (most of the time…lol)

This was the day after his Birthday… the two of them played forever!! And then crashed together!! :) we are so lucky that they are such good friends, just like brothers should be. I hope that they remember that for the rest of their lives and never let anything break them apart. I hope that they have learned that most important lesson. As our mom use to say… “you always have your family, when everyone else is gone they will always be there for you”.

I hope that my family knows that I am still here for them and love them dearly.

Do you remember our Plumbing Issues Well they got worse. It got to the point that I wasn’t able to use the washer at all. Then I wasn’t able to use the Dishwasher without flooding the basement. I was able to use the Kitchen sink as long as I didn’t let much water down at a time, then guess what… yup you guessed it, NO more Kitchen sink either. So I was doing dishes in buckets and having to make sure that no one used the water in the sink. We broke down and called a Plumber out. I thought that all we needed to do is “snake” the pipe….NOPE!! He let me know that the pipe was broken, a $1600 -$2600 quote to fix it and a charge of $135.00 for finding it and I still had no use of my utilities. Let me tell you, we (all of us) have come quit accustomed to these “Modern Miracles”. I just told myself the PIONEERS had it worse than this, so we can do this!!

Chad’s brother Chris (we have BIG Chris and LITTLE Chris when he’s here) is a plumber and he came to our rescue!!!!....
THANK YOU CHRIS!!
I called him and asked him what we should do and if this was for real. He assured me that it was and that his company would have charged us $3600. Well Chris came out at the end of the week, from Colorado, and FIXED it for us!!!... Our Neighbors and Steve all pitched in and helped with what they could and we have our utilities working!!.. WHAT A RELEIFE!! We seriously could not have done it without him and a special thanks to Abe our neighbor (you’ll see why in the pictures).

So we had everyone come over that night after the school carnival for homemade chili (a small thank you from us) and then headed over to the church carnival. We were so excited because Ty (Chris and Roxy’s 2 yr old son) got to go with us. We all had a blast and then went and checked out the haunted house where Frankenstein SCARED me to DEATH!! (I even hit my head on the steering wheel) while ALL the boys laughed at me A LOT!!... it was a great end to a very long ordeal.

The dust and mud was EVERYWHERE!!

Wow can I remember back that far???... I know that it was a busy day from 7am till 11pm… just like everyone else. What I didn’t’ get a chance to post about I guess, was that Chris and I surprised Jimmy for lunch that afternoon (he thought that we were coming over after lunch) we stayed for the Halloween Parade and then the Class Party. Can I say I was dreading and “totally” nervous as could be in anticipation of what Chris’s behavior would be at the party, but he was AWESOME!!... Thanks to Mrs. Nuttell letting him play with the class toys, he went over to the corner and played all by himself quietly and never disturbed anyone!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!..ANY of his Joy School Teachers wouldn’t… LOL!! But he did, and when the class was cleaning up he cleaned up the toys that he was playing with and put them away no mess, no fuss. He is always good at cleaning up, but I didn’t even have to ask him. I was so proud of him!! :) Mrs. Nuttell even sent him home a special treat on Monday because he did so good.

Ok so now I just have to get him to do that and behave that way at Joy School… not sure how I’m going to work that magic yet, but I’m trying!! To all my Joy School Mom’s: THANK YOU for your patience!! I can say that he is learning and can tell me what the teachers taught each day. He LOVES each of you very much!!

Jimmy's School Parade and class Party
Joy School Halloween Party
Church Halloween Carnival

WOW WHAT A HALLOWEEN SEASON FOR US!! And we SURVIVED!!

ok so I'm not 5 weeks behind...lol I'll be posting this weekend and my goal is to be all caught up again :)... I"ll try and not bore you too much. :)

Just wanted to let those of you know that watch our blog, and aren't a blogger, that I have reset my comment settings. I didn’t realize or forgot that when I first set up the blog, I had it set that you had to have a Google account to leave a message. So now any of you can leave a comment on the posts. If someone that we don’t know leaves a comment it might not be approved.

We love our family and friends and love hearing from you. We are so glad and lucky to have so many good people in our lives.