Halloween

We had a halloween party last weekend and got to dress up :)  Here is snow white and peter pan 

We also had to make a "spooky" dessert.  We chose eyeball cookie balls :)  Dave was really good at making red veins on the eyes.  He said it's from practicing in his youth
Right now there is about 2 feet of snow outside, and it's still snowing.  I'm not sure trick-or-treating will be happening...maybe just to grandparents :)

"Hi HOO!" It's home from work we go...

All our work was at home lately, but we are done! Yipee!!!!  Here are some hard to see before and after shots.  And the most work you can't even see, which was the roof.  But Dave and I have successfully re-roofed, re-painted, and re-built our deck.

  Here's before (about 3 years ago when we first moved in).  I was prego with Lydia here :)

And here is after... tada!
My favorite part is the deck, we put solar lighting on the posts, and I'm finally not scared to have my kids up there alone, there's no way they could fall through or under that thing!
Now Dave has the remodeling bug, and I'm milking it for all it's worth :) 

pum'kin pickin'

We went to Anderson Farms again this year, it's so big, with so much to do, that I convinced Dave to skip work a little and come along :)  Outside the corn maze

Bored Jaxen, and Alex copying him :)
Our pumpkins... My niece Madeline always tries to find the biggest, and she found a WHOPPER this time.  My brother is making a new rule that you have to be able to carry your own...he almost hurt himself
classic picture, no matter where :)
Our kids first funnel cake...Lydia didn't understand how to eat it
I also got my own seat in the water barrel train... I was the only adult on it.  And I'm really sad I didn't get any shots of Autumn, she's adorable as always :)  Jason, Melissa, and Grandma Marty came along too, but they don't seem to make it in our pictures...

What makes us smile

I had to write down some cute stories about my kids.

  Lydia calls kleenex "bless yous".  I smile every time she says it.  She also knows the words to all the popular songs that we listen to in the car and sings them out loud.  Sometimes I am allowed to sing with her :)  (but usually not...)

Our whole family went to the $1 theater and saw "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs".  It's not a great movie, not even good.  But Alex really gets into all shows, and with the big screen he really feels like he's there.  At one point in the movie A T-Rex is stomping around the ice age looking for her kids (long story).  It's the first time we see the big dinosaurs in the movie so all the ice age animals are scared and hiding.  At one point there's a little deer (or it's ancestor) and it's trying to run, and then decides to hide.  The T-rex leans down and looks right at it (just like Jurassic Park) and Alex suddenly stands up and SCREAMS a high pitch horror movie scream.  The whole theater laughed as I quickly covered his mouth and sat him down.  We're still laughing about it now, I guess the big theater might be too much for his emotions :)

Circus

Al's preschool had cheap circus tickets, so we all went!  Here we are early, we were told you could see the animals up close...but you couldn't.  The clowns were funny though

All my pictures are bad, and I didn't get any pictures of the most exciting acts because I didn't want to take my eyes off the stunts.

They've put a lot more acrobatic acts in the circus from when I last saw it (which was when I was 7).  The focus definitely isn't the animals anymore.  They still had elephants, horses, zebras, and tigers.  The tigers were so scary that I could barely watch.  I was just holding my breath for that crazy man in the cage with 9 full grown tigers.  He's weird.

  It was fun, and really long!  We also got free comic books about elephants from the PETA guys protesting outside :)  Great day.

La Dolce Vita

We went to the Italian festival!  Every year this gets better, mostly because the kids get older :)  I have absolutely NO Italian blood in my veins, but I've learned all the words to "Funiculi, Funicula" thanks to Dave, so I feel very authentic :)

Face painting on the arm (doesn't get in your eyes that way)  Alex the dragon warrior, and Lydia the butterfly
Flag throwers, they're amazing.  But those outfits looks SO hot.
Lydia and Al also helped make "little feet merlot"  So, they stomped some grapes.  Only kids can do it, kind of like child labor except they volunteer.  I don't know how excited I am to drink (if I did drink) merlot that was crushed by children's feet.  Those feet are dirty!
They had a blast.  It looked like so much fun that I really wanted to jump in, except then it would be "big feet merlot".  Doesn't sound as tasty.
Lydia slipped and fell in the merlot :)  It was such a fun day, and a great break from everything going on in our lives.  Thank you Italian festival!

Steamboat

Labor day weekend is traditionally the Mauger family reunion.  We used to go to Moab and mountain bike, but we're getting more kids in the family and that vacation is losing its fun :)  So, this year we went to Steamboat.  We stayed in a really big cabin (more like a house) all together, so we got to know each other pretty well :)  It was a true cabin with taxidermy and antlers all over.  The owner was also kind of obsessed with santas...weird.  Anyway, here's Lydia playing on her new best friend, the bear skin rug.  (I was completely grossed out by this)

Steamboat is a tourist town, so we had a BLAST!  Here we are at the "Wild West Air Fest".
Lydia and Alex getting outfitted in town, it's cowboy/ski country.  So she's sporting the latest in pink boots and hats :)
We went to a stock dog show (like the movie "Babe")  Here's Daniel & Michelle with Steve's little guy Weston
And Steve and Kass
We also went to a bull riding competition which was SO much fun!  I had no idea.  Alex and me were screaming all the time whenever the bull would come after one of the rodeo clowns.  People did look at us weird, so Alex decided to really give them a show.  I couldn't upload the video so if you want to see it... go to YouTube and type in "Alex dancing at the bull riding competition".  It's sideways because it was taken with my cheap camera, which apparently can't edit itself :)  but, it's hilarious.  We'll show you pictures of our home when it's all painted and roofed, should be soon!

roofs and zucchinis

I did have to take pictures of us working on the roof for the building inspector, so don't think that I was blogging while everyone else was working :)  But, here are some pictures...

   Roofing we found out is not mentally challenging (except for this chimney part, it's still wrong) but it is physically hard labor.  The first day my dad and mom and the missionaries helped us, and our home teacher.  Next saturday they all are mysteriously busy... so it'll just be Dave and I until my brother wakes up (he works nights) and the elders quorum president gets off of work.  We're not too shy to ask for help :)

As hard as it was, these guys worked all day long, until the roofing materials were melting in the heat, and we all took a much needed afternoon break.  We worked late into the night with the help of a spotlight and almost finished this first section.  Dave's been working on it after work for the last few nights, it'll be done soon :)
On another note, we made giant zucchini boats!  I didn't look in the garden for a few days and was surprised to find like 5 of these guys.  We hollowed out two and raced them down the irrigation ditch.  Unfortunately Lydia's got stuck in the first tunnel and she just kept saying "my pickle got stuck, my pickle got stuck"  It was sad, but we still managed to have a great time.
That's all here now.  We hope everyone is doing well in the blogging world, and if your in town, come over to our place and hammer some nails!

Temple trip

The kids in our church planned a trip to visit the Denver temple.  It's only about 45 minutes away, but they never go because they're not allowed inside yet, you need to be at least 12.  They've seen pictures of the temple and they've seen Dave and I go, so it was really special for them to be able to see it in person.

I didn't get any pictures of the full temple (sorry) but the kids did great.  They had an outside tour of the grounds, and the guide told us stories about what certain designs on the building mean.  Here's the "brides bench" turned "boys bench"
Lydia was a little young, but she really enjoyed being spoiled by all the older girls.  Those three blondes around her are all from the same family, they're adorable :)
I hope they enjoyed this trip.  I found out things that I didn't know before too, and they were pretty reverent considering we were outside on a hot wednesday morning...

Reunion

I had a flashback weekend this past week.  First my little family went to Utah to see an old roommate of mine get married.  She was absolutely gorgeous and happy and it was an amazing reception.  My other old roommate, Jenn, was the photographer.  I did forget my camera (hate that) but take it from me that Anne looked beautiful.

   Then, the day we got back 3 of my other old roommates stayed at our house for a couple days.  It was SOOO fun!  Dave was surprised that we could continue to talk fast and loud and constantly for so long, he didn't believe it when I told him that this is how college was for me :)

  So this is our after shot, we hadn't seen each other since 2001.

Here's fall 2000, BYU football game.  I think we've all changed, but it felt the same even 8 years later...
Here's Al pushing Liz's little girl, Maddy.  Chelsea didn't bring her daughter, but we're excited to meet her, she sounds like a blast :)

These girls honestly just put a smile on my face.  I'm so glad we could all get together, and I hope we do it again before 8 years pass :)

100

 I have a friend who's blog I follow that just wrote her 300th post.  So this is my 100th, I guess I don't update nearly as much :)  Dave and I found out that we need our roof and porch rail fixed, and since our paint also needs to be done this end of summer/fall, we're going to be very busy.  If anyone wants to come over to help roof, let me know!  We need to do it ourselves unless by some miracle our insurance pays completely for a roof and rail (not likely).  The roofing companies are also charging a TON right now because demand is high...

On to more exciting things... Lydia and Alex decided they wanted snow ;)  They've been in winter clothes the past couple days, I thought Lydia looked especially stylish in this one.
I was going to post the picture that showed their white bums, to give you an idea of how tan they are, but I thought posting that on the world wide web should be their decision :) We're going to Utah for Anne's wedding (an old roommate) and then 3 of my old roommates (Chelsea, Catherine, and Liz) are all coming to visit me!  I can't wait to stay up late talking about nothing :)

"Hail the conquering hero"

10 points to whoever can name that movie quote :)  Last night at about 10 we had a HUGE storm.  Lots of hail, wind, and scary stuff.  I drove around today and found that we were on the edge of a tornado... so we were lucky.  And, don't worry, our weeds survived too...

But our toys didn't...
Nor did our tomatoes, zucchini, squash, peppers, watermelon, cucumbers, beans, and pumpkins...
Our porch didn't fare too well either...
This is the hail, it was about quarter size, but the wind made it sound so much worse!
The kids didn't even wake up, and thank goodness we weren't in a tornado or else DAve and I would have still been standing upstairs in the hall waiting for the kids to cry.  Next time we'll probably wake them up and bring them downstairs.  Now I'm convinced that tornado sirens come way too late.

track & field

My sister Nichole is in town with her family.  I might get pictures of all of them, but I at least got a picture of Simone (the birthday girl) at her party.

Al and Elijah sporting the hats, here's is happy Simone... not too sure about the hat
I also signed up Alex for track this summer.  It has been sooooo funny to watch him.  He did get Dave's competitive edge, which is not an edge at all... more like a flat field.  It would be hard to find a competitive bone in his body.  We didn't go to a meet yet because we lost all the maps, but we finally got to one last saturday.
HEre's Al competing in the 6 x 50m relay :)  He ran hard, I think he felt the thrill of it finally.  An below he is prepping for his standing long jump.  His track shirt has the words "winner winner" and then a picture of a "chicken dinner" underneath.  He's totally awesome :)
 I'll post more pictures of nikki and nate soon.  They decided to visit before they move to Hawaii, so I want to get some current pictures of them.

California

We went to San Clemente this week for a family reunion on my dad's side.  We got a beach house with my mom and dad, here's the back, all festively lit with tiki torches

It was a literally a 5 minute walk to the beach, where we spent most of our time.  Buried in the sand, catching sand crabs, boogie boarding, trying to surf, and getting totally burned.

This is the backyard of the house, yes, that's a cliff behind us, notice my death grip on Lydia :)  Here was a gorgeous sunset with my Aunt Lu
  We also went to the Santa Monica Pier and rode a ferris wheel, in preparation for Disneyland :)