Gavin Loves Snow!

Morning Surprise!

After a dreary election night,

I had the pleasure of waking up to this.

And this.

My pumpkins were the least excited.

I think they have finally had enough.

Coming to Terms with the Election

It is going to be a VERY hard term for whoever is elected President due to the state of the economy, unstable foreign policies, problems with our national security and environmental issues. With that being said, I am coming to terms with being okay with whichever way the election goes. But I have to express my thoughts before I know who won.

Obama is so far left on environmental issues. Many of the policies that he has introduced should scare you senseless and make you wonder what exactly is his idea of America. (If you are not afraid of our country moving towards Socialism, then please stop reading.) Topics to research: bankrupting the coal industry (where America gets 80% of our electricity), unions monopolizing business via the card check bill (1937 can we say depression within a depression).

I am very nervous for a filibuster-proof Senate. This will be a very scary situation if democrats or any one party rules the senate. Here is a great article with Sen. Orrin Hatch and Glenn Beck that I think all can appreciate. Here is another one with Gov. Mitt Romney.

Here is my hope: If Obama is elected as President, the country will come swinging back to the right for correction after his 4 debilitating years and then Mitt Romney can finally step up. So I can deal with Obama winning. And yes, I voted!

For the record, McCain has to rethink cap and trade and a couple other things before I'm really even liking him too.

Halloween Fun!

This was my only picture from our ward Halloween parade/party. Daddy was working so it was just me and the kids. We had a great time. There were lots of activities including: a cake walk, fishing game, cookie decorating, face painting, bean bag toss, crafts and a caramel fountain for dipping apples. My little elephant surprised me with his magic talent of a perfected disappearing act. He ran off a couple of times which almost gave me a heart attack. One time I couldn't find him for about 3 minutes (which was like an hour in my head as I was racing through horrible scenarios). He just wanted to go outside in the pitch black night, where no one else was, for no apparant reason. It was a little crowded in the church. Maybe he needed some air. No matter the conversations I have with him, he just doesn't get that wandering away from mommy is dangerous. We'll have to work on that! Gavin loved seeing his friends in costumes and loved all the treats!

Here is Gavin with his skull face paint right after I told him he had to go to bed

which explains his pouty lip.

We had a costume day for our Mommy and Me group on Thursday. Gavin and Jackson were cowboys. Jackson would not let me get a picture of him. So I just have these of Gavin.

These are his two choices of smiles for me:

Wide open mouth or

this one

The thing that I loved about Halloween this year is that it was my first real Fall season. The air is cold and crisp and the leaves just started to really change colors and they are absolutely gorgeous.

It sprinkled on and off while we were out trick-or-treating, but we were having such a great time it was fine. We went with some friends in the neighborhood who have older kids and we were running to keep up with them the whole time. I put the kids in the jogger and then took them up to each door. We had to skip a few houses to stay caught up with the older kids. Gavin was doing great running between houses to stay caught up, it was so adorable. It was funny because Jackson would get really upset if I didn't take him up to each door (which I tried for reasons of time constraints). He really liked trying to say "trick or treat" & "thank you" and watch the candy drop in his bucket. He also did not want to let go of his bucket all night. For Gavin, this is the year we had to work on taking one treat only. One of my friends was passing out full size candy bars and play-doh and Gavin just swept a few of each into his bag. My greedy little guy. Lance was working, but at 7:45 he called and asked where we were. He got off early and was able to go to the last few doors with the kids!

Here we are trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Jackson is a monkey, Gavin a cowboy and I was Jack Sparrow (kind of).

I just threw something together.

Gavin & Jackson being Sweet Then Silly

This was recorded at my grandmother's new home in Alpine. My mom was here and we went to visit my dad's mother. Ignore the converstion going on. The kids were really cute in the beginning then Gavin started being silly, (he forgot his manners and then he was showing off).

Random recent pictures

This was a really sweet moment between my boys.

A spaghetti-night with a 1 yr old. Need I say more?

d

Gavin's not quite as messy spaghetti-night. Still all over everything.

dd

d

Jackson hilarious devilish face.



Cowboy Gavin again this year. He just loves Woody.



Daddy's lil' Rebel.

Pumpkin Patch, Scratch

Okay, I just have to say that our pumpkin patch experience (which is usually such a joy) sucked this year. Unbeknownst to me I happened to choose the Pumpkin Patch from hell. It was literally a pumpkin patch (where they had been grown), and they were so far spread apart and most were rotting. The kids had on their new halloween shirts ($1 at Old Navy) and Jackson fell right away and was covered in dirt. I picked him up to comfort him without thinking to brush him off and my white sweater was then covered in dirt as well. There was nothing fun for the kids. And it is only memorable because I hated it. So next year I will travel far to find a good pumpkin patch. Here are some scary moments:

Here is the pumpkin Jackson wanted.

Looks like it's already been carved buddy.

Best shot of the boys.

Family shot on the only thing out there besides rotting pumpkins and dirt.

I'm all dirty and you can tell I'm loving it.

The boys are thinking they got jipped.


Jackson my little Pigpen from Peanuts.

Carving Pumpkins

So I was so excited to carve pumpkins today with the boys. Gavin was excited too. I cut off the top and told Gavin to put his hand in to pull out the pulp and seeds and he looked at me like I was crazy. I shoved my hand in and showed him what to do. He saw my messy hand and told me, “No way! It’s too dirty mama.” I have no idea where he got this prissiness from. I mean I did teach him how to enjoy digging in the earth this summer. He’s not afraid to pick up worms or bugs. But then after a few minutes of cleaning out the pumpkin by myself I finally resorted to wearing some latex gloves. So again I have no idea where he got this prissiness. :)

Watch the video below of Jackson to see how he reacted.

Jackson's Pumpkin Arm

Visit From My Family

Me & Jackson (candid)

Me & Mom

Pretty Patti (candid)

Keldon pretending he's Gavin (candid)



Handsome dad - Brad

Playing before their family picture.



Lance - What a hunk!

Messervy family photo.

There's something you can't see though. So let me zoom in a little.

There. Can you see better?

Yes. That IS saltwater taffy stuck on my husband's

front teeth for our Christmas family photo.

He's sooo funny.

Candid shot of my cute and still in love parents.

My mother came for a great visit for the last 11 days of September. It really flew by! The kids had so much fun with their grandmommy. Gavin was really close to her before we moved and I think he was a little traumatized and didn’t understand why we couldn’t see her more often. So when she finally came he didn’t want her to leave his sight for fear he wouldn’t see her again. He would get a pouty lip at bedtime, not sure that he could trust me when I told him she would still be here in the morning. She showered them with lots of love and special little gifts. She even had Gavin go on a scavenger hunt all over the house for a teddy bear which he loved! He wanted to do the scavenger part over and over.

I put my mom right to work when she got here by spending the day canning peaches from a tree in our backyard. They were so delicious. Too bad fruit ripens all at the same time. It would be so great to just go out and pick a perfect a peach whenever I wanted one. Oh wait, I’m not in the Garden of Eden you say? Well, anyways I am so thankful for the wonderful fruit I did get and for my mom’s expertise at canning. It’s not as hard as I thought, but still can’t do it by myself with 2 little ones needing something at the most inconvenient moments during the process. I love having fruit trees and always want to grow them wherever I live! We also did lots of spontaneous shopping. I did more window shopping than anything, though my husband doesn’t believe me.

Honey, Tai Pan really won’t take back all of the holiday decorations I bought. That’s just their policy. And of course I didn’t plan that intentionally!

It was such a relief to have help in the evenings and nice to have my mom there to talk to. I usually don’t see Lance until after the kid’s bedtime so you can imagine my joy to have my mom visit. I think she was probably exhausted by the end of her trip and was singing praises to only have a senior at home still. They’re almost empty nesters! The last couple of days my brother Keldon and dad drove up as well. They took Keldon on a tour of BYU one day and visited my sweet grandma Hatch who recently moved nearby to an assisted living home another day. We didn’t get to see them long enough, but it was so great to get our fix. Thank you for visiting! We had so much fun and love you!

SuperKhakiFuturisticExtraBaggyDockers

I attended a spoof play this week to the city’s local Desert Star theatre. To my delight I found that it was a dinner theatre setting with the ambiance and decor of a western saloon which was completely unexpected! The play was “Scary Poppins” (Mary's bitter sister) and she really was scary (and great). The cast was hilarious and I just loved this guy that played “Jack” that reminded me so much of Chris Farley. It was a fun night and the kids were great for the sitter which made it even better. It made me really miss doing theatre, but I also realize there is not time in my life right now while I have my really little ones and Lance is going to school. There's a time for everything!

NOTE TO SELF

NEVER, EVER, ever feed the kids sticky rice

unless spoon feeding them every bite or eating in a house other than my own.

I am still getting invisible pieces of rice stuck on my feet a day later.