Thanksgiving and Trip to Utah

SO, after LOTS and LOTS of driving, we finally made it to and from Utah for Thanksgiving! IT was way worth it! We had so much fun with everyone, and are so glad that we were able to go! Plus, with teh gas prices so low, it wasn't such a hit on the old pocket book to go! The drive to Utah wasn't too bad, because we left at 4 in the afternoon, and only had to stop once to eat, and then the boys (and myself) were out and Cole and I were able to listen to a book on tape to help the drive go by faster! We made it in an astonishing 8 1/2 hours! GO COLE! We had so much fun at both of our families houses. While in Bountiful, we were able to do lots of fun stuff. We had Thanksgiving up at the Midway cabin, and had 83 people there according to my Grandfather who is the numbers man! It was CRAZY! It always is. Cole and I felt pretty proud of ourselves though, because we really didn't eat too much! You can't really though when you have two little squirts to take care of! Payton had Jell-o smeared EVERYWHERE along with everything else, and Lincoln was constantly needing more BUTTER for his roll. He is so flippin cute. Loves his butter! Cole had fun playing football, and I had a blast just hangin with the girls. I even got to see TWILIGHT which i LOVED! Of course, it wasn't as good as the book, but what movie is? What director could do as good of a job as my imagination? You find that guy, and I will go and see all his movies! I am excited for the second one, that is for sure.
The day after Thanksgiving, Cole was able to go hunting with my dad and all the dudes on the Miles side of the family and had SO much fun! He loves to do that, and I am glad that he does. He is sort of the "hunter-gatherer" type I would say! Manly man for sure. That night, we were able to go to the Jazz game with the fam, thanks to my angelic mother who stayed home with ALL FIVE grandkids! Bless her heart! Best Grandma ever...seriously! So thanks Mama.
The next morning, COle headed up to Richmond with the boys, and I stayed in Bountiful for a wedding shower for Mal and Ty! It was so much fun. We are SOOOOOO flippin excited for Mallory to become part of our family. We love her, and think that she is a perfect match for Ty (aka. the Golden Boy- love ya ty!) After the shower, I headed up to Logan and we had a wonderful birthday party for Payton, and a post Thanksgiving dinner too. We love it up there, and Lincoln was again in hog heaven because Grandpa took him on the four wheeler, tractor, and everything else it takes to do all the chores. He LOVED it! We had fun up in Richmond just relaxing and chatting and eating and everything else.
The drive back was a different story than the way here. We drove during the day and the boys were a bit cranky! They were so sick of the car, and I don't blame them! Finally, at like 8:45, 20 minutes before pulling into our driveway, Lincoln and Payton were asleep for the night! Thank heavens! But we are happy to be back home, but are looking forward to coming back in just a few short weeks! So we'll keep you posted until then! I have about a ZILLION things to do before we get to go home so we'll see if it all happens! CHAO!!!
Cleaning and playing in the leaves a little bit before we left.
While we were up at Midway, we had to see the cows, and this is Lincoln and Drew who are usually boxing each others ears! We HAD to document this for future posterity! What cute little dudes.
My sweet little boy
Riding on the four wheeler with Grandpa Smith....look at that SWEET hat! I seriously LOVE it!
The two supermodels at the Jazz game...we should be the Jazz dancers don't you think?
Watchin the game
Rock sportin his new hat for the jazz. GO JAZZ!!
All 5 of my mom's Grandbabies! SO FLIPPIN CUTE! I can't believe they were all smiling!

My little ONE year old!! WHAT!!!

So this past Sunday was Paytons BIRTHDAY!! ahh! I can't believe that he is already one! that was seriously the fastest year ever. He is such a blessing in our lives. He is the sweetest, cutest, most loving little guy. He LOVES everything around him...mostly food-thank heavens! That little guy can EAT! He LOVES his brother and always wants to be around him. I love him and I am so grateful that he is a part of my life.
For his birthday, we were actually in Utah, so we were able to have two parties with each side of the family! We got into Bountiful and had a party with the Miles side of the family where we made him a caterpillar cake and let him dig into it like it was his job! He didn't have quite the apprehension that Lincoln had, probably because he has already had so many sweets! OOPS-bad mom alert! He loved opening his presents, as did his brother who "helped" him with each one! Then we had a party up in Richmond where all of Cole's family was, and BOY was that a fun one too! He has so many cousins that take great care of him up there, and just loves them all! He had some pumpkin pie for his cake there, and loved that too! Poor little guy woke up in the middle of the night with a tummy ache, but it was worth it right? Thanks to all who were there to celebrate with us. We love you all, especially Payton!
He was so funny with his cake! He had every part of his body covered in cake, but when it would touch his foot, he would lift it up way high so that it wouldn't get all over him! :) So cute.
Munchin away!
Payton with his little present opening helper

The big man with all his loot!Opening p resents at Grandma Smiths
Eating the coveted Punkin pie...

First snow, great visits, and birthday wishes!

So, we FINALLY had our first little snow storm here in Denver for the year! If you didn't already know, I LOVE the snow! I LOVE to watch the snow fall from the sky, and I love to play in it. I also love to ski, but unfortunately, that hasn't happened in a few years. I guess that's what I get for havin babies.:) I'll skip a year of skiing any day if it means that I get to have a baby! ANYWAYS, we woke up this morning to a few things. First, Payton had barfed all over in his bed, Lincoln had pooped his pants, but it had SNOWED! So all in all, our spirits were up. Poor Payton has a mean case of the flu, and Lincoln has a mean case of the potty training blues....what can you do! So, needless to say, it is almost noon and I am still in my pajamas, and have absolutely NO intention of ever changing out of them! I have WAY too much laundry to do, and when Payton is awake, he just wants me to hold him, so pajamas it is! I guess, if you twist my arm and force me I will stay comfy all day. :)
In other news, Cole's big brother Spencer came to town this morning for a few hours! He had a 4 hour layover here in Denver before he went to SLC, so we went and picked him up, gave him a home cooked breakfast, which he hasn't had in a few months, played in the snow a little, and turned back around and took him to the airport! So we have had quite the fun filled morning!
Playin' with Uncle Spenc. Lincoln was SO pumped to play with him!
Playin with Daddy.....Sportin' the camo jammies! Atta boy Link!
Playin on the deck. It's a good thing we played when we did, because shortly after this, the sun came out and now there isn't much snow left! Gotta love Denver snow!

Also, I just want to give a shout out to my baby sister! It is her EIGHTEENTH birthday today! WHAT! My baby sister is 18 years old? That must mean that not only am I old, but my parents are as well! :) Just kidding...they are still young for sure. They just have old kids that's all! But Rachel is the best ever. She is the sweetest little thing and LOVES my kids, and that makes all the difference in the world to me. She is SO great at everything that she does, and boy does she do alot of stuff! She is such a great friend to me, and it is so much fun to see her grow up and do all sorts of new things. I love her so much, and I am so grateful for her example to me in my life! I want to be like you when I grow up Rach! Happy B-day, and go order something off the T.V. for me would ya?
High flyin on the wakeboard. Rach is seriously SO good at all sorts of stuff like this. She started wakeboarding when she was like 8 or something like that. She couldn't even hold up the board, but she surely could jump the wake! I remember after every time she tried to get up and couldn't, or every time that she fell, we would have to come around and flip her board over because she wasn't strong enough to do so herself! Quite the maniac.

Hello!!!!Rootin for the Jazz at a playoff game last year. GO JAZZ!
Of course, on the boat with the Linkster
All the Miles girls...add two more now! Rubydoo and now Mallory!
Common scene when Rach is around. The kids just LOVE her!
Happy B-Day baby Rach...we love you!

Creativity at it's best!!

The night before the big trunk or treat, we got together with a few friends and had a little Childless Halloween party of our own! Lots of great costumes, yummy food, and some stellar playing of the junior high/high school game of Mafia! It was loads of fun. Thanks Gordon's for hosting such a fun night out! Here's some pics of the fun night!

Cole and Mindy- aka Vegas' worst NIGHT MARE! We'd seriously probably clean them out...it's a good thing we aren't gamblers.
Chad and Brett East aka the Toothfairy and Calvin (and his trusty sidekick Hobbes)
John and Kara Washburn aka Clark Kent and Butterfly Lady
Jake and Dave and Steph Wessler aka Robin Hood, Wolverine (seriously!!!) and gorgeous Egyptian Lady
Taylor and Stephanie Dix in their traditional Chinese wedding garb (sorry Taylor, I know you were mad)
Jonathan and Jamie Jardine aka scary lady in black and Papa Smurph...how perfect is that!!
Chris and Anna Gordon aka hikers/outdoorsmen that are trying to hard!
Our Gracious Host Anna. That's what you GET for not smiling at my camera...now the WHOLE world can see! :)
Into a serious game of Mafia.

Halloween Fun...I know, ALREADY!!!

So, as the date draws nearer and nearer to Halloween (not my favorite holiday mind you-not a big fan of candy or scary things) Lincoln has been SO excited to be a monkey! First off, he REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to be an elephant, and I actually found a DARLING elephant costume at Costco for only like 10 bucks! It was so sweet! So I purchased the dang thing, brought it home, tried it on, and it wasn't even CLOSE to being able to fit him! BUMMER! SO, we had to take it back, and we had since had a fruitless hunt for another one. I have a monkey costume that I borrowed from my good friend Laura (thanks by the way:)) so we decided that we would have TWO little monkeys running around!
So, we had our annual trunk-or-treat party at the ward house- which is super sweet both for kids and parents! No taking the kids around in the cold, dark night...now we just get to take them to the trunks of cars- no more than 5 feet away from each other! It's beautiful! Now the kids have to wear their costumes that are meant for the cold weather in the 75-80 degree weather and get heat stroke! If it's not one thing, it's another right? Anyways, the boys had a great time! Lincoln was a little bit leary of going from car to car of someone that he didn't know and asking them for candy. I kept saying to him "Alright, say Trick-or-Treat!" He would back away quickly and say "no mom...i don't think i want to!" So silly! Payton was just passed from person to person while I walked around with Lincoln and Cole manned the car! My boys sure do have some pretty heavy fans! All in all, great party! Here are some pics of the wonderful trunk-or-treat/ward party...
My little treats in my trunk
So Payton TOTALLY looks like a monkey! Look at that cute nose! and those lips...SO CUTE!
My own little monkey
Cole was in charge of the balloon popping game for the activity, and Lincoln and some of his friends stood outside the door the whole time too scared to go in because of all the balloon popping! So silly. Maybe next year!
My friend Steph holding Payton...he wanted to be in on the popping action, but we decided that we did NOT want him to get trampled...wise choice I'd say!
SPOOKY!!!
Our best efforts at getting a group shot minus Dad
CHEESE!
Payton and his little girlfriend Sascha. All of Anna's dreams came true...she had her OWN little ladybug! And what a DARLING ladybug she made.
So the boys had had it by this time...can you tell?
Me and a few of the Hoffman girls...Haley and Katie. They are also two of my young women...SO SCARY!
Smile boys....oh wait.
Playing in the humongous leaf pile...so fun! Payton enjoyed eating them all, as he does everything!


It's nice! Now we don't have to go trick-or-treating for too long on the actuall Haloween night! We can just go to a few of our neighbors houses and call it good! Lincoln likes putting candy into other's bags much better than he likes receiving! On to Thanksgiving! :)

It's Bedtime!!

Lately, we have been letting Lincoln put US to bed, and it is absolutely HILARIOUS! You can tell that we do the same things over and over every night, because he pretty much has it down to a science how we go to bed! What a cute little guy. Of course, his favorite things to do when we go to bed are to read as many books as he can weasel out of us, and then to do the same things with songs. Lincoln knows all the words to an alarming amount of songs, and we got a few on camera, so enjoy! (sorry it's so dark...bedtime you know!)

The song that he is singing is what I sing to him everynight and have since he was born! It is the "Baby Mine" song from the Disney movie DUMBO....he is pretty close to all the right words! :)

Shoe Snatchers!!

I was getting ready for something the other day and the boys were upstairs in our bedroom with me, and it was all of the sudden quiet...too quiet if you know what I mean! Then I heard some histerical laughing and then some thumping around. I figured Lincoln was throwing Payton around a little bit, so I ran in to see what was wrong...this is what I found! My little shoe snatchers were tearing apart my whole closet! Lincoln has always had a shoe fettish, but I didn't know Payton was jumping on the bandwagon! Payton thinks it is hilarious to take anything that is tucked away into something (i.e. shoes, clothes in a basket, papers in a drawer, all of my makeup-which isn't much, etc.) and pull it out and throw it on the ground! So silly. Usually all of the shoes- well alright, not usually- but sometimes when I clean up my closet, all of the shoes are neatly tucked away into all of these little cubby holes, but NOT SO TODAY! My little shoe snatchers got to them before I could! I LOVE these boys!

STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!!

So, the new thing now is for Payton to WALK! That's right! Well, not all by himself, but he is using a little car to walk with! Also, he has shown some interest in walking back and forth to Cole and I! He is only 10 months! I had a little bit more time with Lincoln, so this is driving me crazy! It's all good though. HE is a cute little stinker. Here's a video of the little guy, and a few pics! What a cute little bugger. He isn't the sturdiest of all walkers, but he is getting better, and loves to do it! The first time that I saw him do this is was right when I was taking the video. He was in the other room with Lincoln and his little buddy Calvin (who has a gorgeous new baby sister by the way!) and the older boys were fighting over one of the cars, so Payton decided to just yoink the other car away from them, and I walked into the room with him taking a few little baby steps along with the car! AHHH!!!! So big.