Halloween

 I have a love hate relationship with halloween.  It makes me sick all the candy that is around.  I guess if I had willpower that wouldn't be an issue though. I probably shouldn't blame the holiday for that!

We spent the whole week celebrating.

First Reams had a fun costume night with games and free food samples. 













It was kind of lame, but entertained my boys while Taylor was gone for a Friday night working late.

 

Then, off to the adult Halloween party at the Pritchards.  It's so fun to see how creative everyone can be.  I have to say though, we took it all at our party.  Best costume ever by the Taylor Nadaulds this year.  We stole the idea from Taylor's siblings, but it was great.... Colonel Sanders and a chicken!

 So glad everyone is still fun enough to dress up.  We didn't get Felice to do it with us, but she enjoyed seeing all those crazy Americans on this Holiday!  Um... notice Nate wanted to wear a baseball hat under his costume (that Felice bought him one day just for fun) and his cowboy boots.  So funny.  Felice also bought Sam a cute dinosaur costume like Nate's but he opted for the dollar store ninja instead.  So be it.  They had fun though!

That is Luke:  The purple Morph.. I guess Morphs were the hot costume this year. A lot of their friends dressed up this way.  I've never heard of it, so I can't explain what it is.  I just buy what they tell me these days!

 Jake in the Orange Morph suit... I love the school parades.  I think most every student was dressed up.  Luke's school was cool, because if you didn't bring a costume, you could go get one from the Library so you could participate in the school parade.  Good IDEA!

 And a couple trick or treating photos of the boys.  They are so cute (our next door neighbors are too!).

 Jake and Ryan had a master plan to get as much candy as possible.  Next year they are typing the plan out and making a map... hahah

Luke found some cousins and ran free.  We actually had to go find him around 9pm because we were worried about where he was.  Needless to say, the boys made out pretty well with candy!

Pumpkin Carving...

This year, we decided not to mess around.  We bought the pumpkin gutter drill bit and....

...a skill saw to do the dirty work.

 We love the Franks and were so glad to go make a mess at their house instead of ours.  What a fun family night activity.  And the men even like it because they got to use their tools.  Which, really worked out to be helpful this time. :)

 Felice was very excited to get her hands on the drill... she did pretty well.

A couple pictures of the kids hard at work!

Nate just made as many holes in his pumpkin as he could.  He loved that little carver knife.  I need to remember to hide that thing, I guess. :)

And a picture with all the masterpieces.  I love that pumpkins always turn out so great.  Super fun night.  Thanks for thinking of us and always taking care of us Franks!!

Fall Break -- COUGAR RUN

To finish off Fall Break, we made it to the 2nd Nadauld attendance to the annual BYU homecoming Cougar Run.  It is the best family fun run around and CHEAP!! 

 We convinced Nina and her boys to come run with us.  Kyle stayed back with sick Graham, but I was so glad the other boys came.  Look at all these crazy kids.  Can't believe we met when we just had Jake and Carter a few months old.  Wow, we know how to procreate for sure!

Sam did awesome!  He got second in his age group for the 200 meter run.

You can see his time below as 56 seconds. WAY TO GO..

 Jake also won 2nd in his age group in the 800 meter run. 


His time is below with a fast 3:02.  That's a 6:04 mile if he could have kept it up!  He was so cute because he battled like crazy at the end and complete strangers came up to me and said, "that was awesome." "One guy said, I wish my face looked like that at the end of all my races. He really gave his all."  I was filming the race and didn't get a snapshot of the facial.  He's our competitive one for sure. Good Job!

 Luke did awesome too... he got 13th in the same age group as Jake in the 800 meter.  He really never stopped and really tried his best.  Sometimes he is tempted to give up, but he never did during this race.  I was so proud of him!!

My super stars! Above: Jake, Nate, Sam and Griffin.  To the right: Carter, Jake and Luke

The best part about this run is that it is cheap and really fun!  For 5 bucks you get a t-shirt and get to see your name up on the big screen after your race.  Taylor and I ran the 5K after the kids' runs and ran just under 23 minutes.  He beat me by about 10 seconds at the end.  Ugh... I guess it didn't help that I was only a week out from the SG marathon, but I always wish I were faster.  The course is fun because it goes the route of the homecoming parade and there are people everywhere.  They give a free blue pancake breakfast and the kids love it... If you are looking for a fun run, THIS IS IT! :)

Fall Break Fun

 We have been kind of lame since school started, but we tried to spend a lot of money during Fall Break.  Seriously, we didn't even do much, but eating out and driving to and from places added UP!!  I did get a few smiles out of the boys though.

First stop Lowes Extreme... Nate taking a little breather.

 Luke

Felice in the picture to the right. You wouldn't think you have to learn to jump, but you do.  It was so funny to watch her at first because she kept bouncing off the tramp.  She told me she felt like she was 6 years old again.  I think it's good for all of us to take a break and be 6 whenever we can! :)

Sam

Nate

 Jake on the trapeze swing.  He can do a flip off it, but I'm never good at catching great shots with my camera... so just imagine.

Then off to Heber for a sleep over with Gramie and Grandpa

The neighbors in Heber raise miniature horses as a hobby.  They are so cute.  They are like big dogs almost.  Well, they are like children for the neighbor.  They were talking to them like people and their barn and amenities were top notch.  The kids thought it was fun to go and pet them.  They could have stayed for hours playing with them.

 In the morning we went swimming back in Provo at the Rec center and then headed to the Alpine Slides for the afternoon. 

 So fun to have a pseudo daughter.  The boys love her!  That's Felice and Sam above.

Jake Luke and Nate.  Jake still has blonde hair.  I'm posting this in November (trying to catch up) and his hair is very dark now.  It's fun to see how blonde it really gets each year.

 And they are off... Felice, Luke and Jacob.

My cute little Sam and me. I love whenever I get a chance to hug these boys.  Boy are they my favorite.

My handsome little Taylor and oh yeah, that cute bug.... NATE!  he is such a funny boy.  We always fight over who gets him.

 1, 2, 3 ... GO.  The slide were super fun and not very crowded.  The kids all had a blast.

Luke above and Jake below -- they raced each other, of course. :)

 

Sam is my fairly nervous boy.  He likes to be with me always and I love it.  He only likes to play with friends at our house (don't love that so much), wants to always drive in my car, and begs to sleep in our bed.  Although I hope he grows out of this, it is fun to always have a buddy around.  

Just thinkin' of the positives, right?

 Jake and Luke trying the Jumping bungee out.  They were pretty good once they got the hang of it.  Taylor wanted to try it after the boys had so much fun, but right as he was getting in line, a bunch of kids beat him there... so he just left. :)  No patience to wait.

SG Marathon 2013

 This is one of my bestest friends from high school, Dana.  I LOVE her.  She is the most fun person you will ever hang out with.  So creative and organized and loves to get things done.  She had twins the day of my wedding.  Well, I guess it was the day of my reception and they were only 26 weeks along.  One passed away (Bodee) at 6 months after catching a virus from a blood transfusion.  The other twin survived (Danny), but was left with severe CP due to a massive brain bleed at birth.

I admire her so much in all that she does for Danny and her family.  She is a rock star.  She and her husband both are model parents for anyone.

I am so glad I know them!  I got to run most of the race with Brian and Danny!  It was the best race I have EVER run.. hands down.  This was Brian and Danny's first marathon and like 20 something overall race.  Brian does short, long and triathalons with Danny and it's AMAZING. I didn't realize how cool it was until I ran with them.

 I cannot explain the inspiration they were to me and many other runners.  It was so fun to see Danny beam as we passed people.  I loved hearing all the stories random runners would come tell Brian about their experience with CP or some other special need situation.  So many runners would just come and give Danny a high 5 and tell Brian thanks for being an inspiration.  He really was.  I was teary eyed most the race!

 I am so glad I got to be apart of Team Ross.  That was definitely the highlight of the race for me.  But it also happened to be the BEST YEAR TO RUN THE SG MARATHON EVER!!  The weather was perfect.  I was trained and I didn't cramp.  I started taking salt pills at the Big Cottonwood Marathon and I'm a complete believer for them.  I have never felt so good during a race. Or after.

 I wish I had some pictures from the end because my nephew Breckon and Sister in Law Lindsay, jumped in and kept me company.  I was on cloud 9!  I knew I was going to make my goal and I felt like I just floated into the finish line.  IT WAS AWESOME. I was so glad to have some one to talk to about it. Breckon held my water and Lindsay kept conversation going.  It was like my own personal team to get me to the finish.  SWEET.

 My official time was 3:38.  And I qualified for BOSTON.  It only took 9 marathons to reach my goal but SOOOO worth it.  I am so checking that off my bucket list and may never run again! :)  Right.

 This is what I got to finish up to. All these awesome friends and family members that came to support.  Since Dana and I have been friends for so long, she is like family.  My brothers and sister all love her too.  We had a huge "Team Ross" celebration at the end.  Brian and Danny beat me by about 30 seconds.  Dang... their fast. :)  But I was so happy for everyone that ran.  It was just a great, great day.

 And, believe it or not.  I was not sore at ALL from the race.  I told you, BEST RACE EVER.  After I had a quick nap, we went to the Dixie State football game and let the kids play around.  I guess before all the home games they have a big tailgate party and we got some hamburgers and balloons and played on the bounce houses for a while.  It was pretty cool.  Below is a picture of us at the Game... on the field basically with food to eat behind us.

Then we headed over to Lincoln and Lindsey's during priesthood session and had some fun swimming.  What a perfect end to a perfect day!

 My favorite Conference Activity is hand knitting. The boys all get yarn and make long snakes.  They don't do anything with them, but it's fun and takes a lot of time and keeps them quiet.  So worth the ball of yarn it costs to do it! You can see Luke and Jake really in to conference in the back ground while crocheting.  It's cool I tell yet.  Pinterest has helped me out many times with fun activities and parenting ideas!