Happy Halloween!

Here are our pictures from Halloween day and parties throughout the month. Also - no costumes were allowed at school, but since it was the 50th day of school, Luke's class dressed up 50s style.

Happy Halloween!

Medusa

            

This kid cracks me up!

Cool Patch

Doing the single parent thing, my schedule has been insane. I'm not gonna get into all the crazy details. BUT, my goal during this deployment is to make sure the kids don't miss out. Halloween decorations went up and favorite treats have been made and costumes have been created. One thing I wanted to make sure happened was a trip to the pumpkin patch. This is something I loved doing as a kid. Last year (with Matt home) pumpkins were bought from the grocery store. Not this year my friend. Would it have been ok? Yes. Would my friends look down on me for getting a pumpkin from the store instead of a patch? Heck no. They get it. BUT, I would be bummed. Some of my favorite memories as a kid are the things my parents did to make the holidays special. Traditions to make this time of year stand out and be special and different from every other day. So, after a day full of soccer games - finishing at 4pm - and the last saturday in October, we made the drive to Cool Patch Pumpkins. This place is a lot of fun. They are in the 2007? Guiness Book of World Records for having the world's largest corn maze. Matt and I went on a date to the corn maze last year. It is huge and took over an hour and a half (and a few cuts through the corn rows) to get through. Lots of fun.

You pull in and park in a huge field/parking lot, pick up a wagon near the entrance and start picking pumpkins on your way in.

Maya was so happy to finally not be too big to ride. 

I pulled the kids back to the main area of the patch. Lots of yummy treats and fun hay bales and this is where you buy tickets to the different sections of the patch (hay rides, kids zone, maze, etc) and pay for your pumpkins.

So, I bought the kids tickets to the kid zone. They have a track for big wheel tricycles and a giant straw hill and a huge corn pit. My kids played in the corn for over 30 minutes and loved every second of it. We will definitely be going back with Matt next year.

corn angel

To top it all off, on our way out they were launching pumpkins out of a canon. Awesome!

Christmas Together

More pictures and stories of our adventure to New York will follow, but this is how we spent Christmas with Matt. It's not the same as having him right here, but I am grateful for modern day technology and how that allows us to see each other every day (that the internet is working).

Halloween 2011 (Home)

Maya's pumkpin is on the left and Luke's is on the right. Both are their own designs (and Maya cut hers all by herself too)

Pumpkin guts!!

Halloween made a comeback this year in the Wilde household (though a big piece of the fun was missing - wish you were here to see all the cuteness, honey). Last year Halloween was on Sunday and so the kids didn't trick-or-treat (but they had a lot of fun handing out candy). This year they hit 2 different ward Halloween parties and got to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood to their heart's content (or until their candy bucket was full to the brim - Maya).

This year was Seth's first Halloween that he actually participated in. He's 2-1/2 now and pretty dang cute. He was a dinosaur. It was actually a costume that I made for Luke when he was 2 but he wouldn't wear it. So I was very happy that Seth loved his costume. I pulled it out on Friday afternoon to make sure it would fit and Seth was as happy as could be. He especially loved his tail. It was funny watching him try to reach behind himself to grab it. No chasing it like a dog though. Once he had the costume on he was ready to go. He actually walked out our front door (2 in the afternoon) all by himself declaring that he was going to a party. No concept of time yet.

My little witch, Iron Man, and Dinosaur

Tonight is Halloween. We went with some of our friends that live right here on our street. Seth was so funny. After each house he was so excited about the candy that he would come running to me shouting "Mommy! I got treat!" in his cute little high-pitched voice. That happy little voice tugs on my heart strings like nothing else. Unfortunately at the first house he was a little too excited and running a little too fast and totally wiped out face first on the driveway. But I turned it around by not even mentioning the fall (the big cries were starting) and just excitedly asked "what did you get? Show me!" He instantly forgot that he fell and proudly showed me his bucket. It is so fun watching the first-time excitement of a little kid on a holiday. He loved walking with the other kids and seeing the decorations. And he was so polite at all the houses wishing everyone happy halloween and saying thank you. We tried to get lots of pictures for Matt. That was the only thing missing this evening. So here are our halloween pictures (the ones that seth didn't delete off my ipod at least - that wasn't so cute of him)

Happy Halloween!

(Thanks Marlina for taking pictures!)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, Everyone! It turned out to be a beautiful even though it started out gray and drizzling. Maya and I had fun yesterday shopping for Easter dresses. The talks at church were beautiful as was the music. The kids enjoyed waking up and having to find their Easter baskets which the Easter bunny hid. They were full of all kinds of goodies. After Easter dinner we went out and had an easter egg hunt. We used my parents idea and put numbers on the eggs and assigned each kid a number. That way the 2-year-old will find as many eggs as the 8-year-old. The kids had a very exciting time finding the eggs. We emptied the treats into their baskets and took the empty plastic eggs upstairs to the toy room to play a game with them. The video of the ensuing craziness is in the previous post. Love and miss all of our family on these holidays!

Happy Easter!!

All Hopped Up

Happy Easter!!

The week before Christmas

The Monday before Christmas we took a little trip to Madera to visit some family. It's always a blast visiting Uncle Alan and Aunt Gina. I don't know if the kids like jumping on Uncle Alan or playing the Wii more, but either way it's a good time.

One morning there my niece saw a whole bunch of fire trucks and police motorcycles by the firehouse. Something was up and we figured Santa was involved so we decided to check it out. They had headed over to the Children's Hospital to visit the kids there. Maya and Luke had a whole lot of fun checking out the fire truck and talking to the firemen. Santa was even hanging out there and the kids got to say hi.

After checking out the truck we headed into the main lobby of the hospital where Smokey the bear and Sparky the Dalmation were hanging out. Smokey the Bear wouldn't take no for an answer from my sister-in-law and chased her around until he got a hug.

We made lots of goodies, survived the holiday rush at the mall, and stayed up way too late talking - happens every visit. It's so nice to be close to family, especially to visit during the holiday - helped make it feel a little more like Christmas.

We got home late Wednesday and got ourselves ready for a party with friends the next day. Christmas eve was just our little family. We played games, read the Christmas story and sang Christmas carols. Then we all snuggled together and watched a Christmas movie or two with the kids. Then it was time to get ready for Santa to come. The kids didn't want to stay up too late (and they didn't want Mom and Dad to stay up too late either) because they know that Santa won't come until everyone is asleep. So we set up some milk and cookies for Santa and some snacks for the reindeer and tucked the kids into bed. Matt and I stayed up a little longer so I could watch "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time - fun movie.

Maya came down at 4 am (I told her she couldn't leave her room until then and she couldn't wake us up until 7am) and set up a little bed on the couch next to the tree. I remember doing that as a kid. So magical and so exciting. The reindeer left some tracks and a little mess in our entryway, but that's ok.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. The only damper was Matt and I had to prepare our talks that we were asked to give in Church the next day, so instead of getting to relax and play with all the fun new toys, I was stressing over preparing my talk. It went well, and it was so nice to come home from church and finally feel relaxed. I even fell asleep on the couch and took a long nap (and I don't take naps).

Hurry! Quick! Would everyone just look happy for one picture?!?

It's been a very busy Christmas season (is there any other kind?). A little over a week until Christmas and I haven't even started our cards yet. No homemade cards happening this year. I'm gonna have to plan further ahead next year. . .Ha! Like that's gonna happen.

Anywho, we had ONE single night in our busy schedules to get a picture taken. A small window of time. Matt had taken the kids out to shop for gifts for me - can't argue with that. They got back a little after 5. The problem? Maya and I have to be dressed as angels and ready to leave by 5:30. That gives us less than 30 minutes to get everyone in somewhat coordinated outfits and set up the camera and timer and try to get a few decent shots (With little kids this is difficult and usually time consuming) then get Maya and I changed again and out the door. Mission Impossible?? Oh no, I was gonna make it happen one way or another. We got lucky and got some decent family shots right off the bat. The did have to try and keep Luke from doing silly shots. It seems to be the only kind he know how to do.

So for your pure entertainment (and my embarrassment) and our family journal, here's the silly shot we took in an effort to get it out of Luke's system and get a nice smile out of him. Please ignore the armpit stains on my shirt (luckily I had sewn the whole that was there earlier that day) and my undergarments hanging out as my arms are raised. I do realize I'm pointing these things out to you, but please ignore them. At least Seth is enjoying it.

Once we were satisfied with the family picture, I wanted to get one of the kids. So we tried. . .and tried. . .and tried. And when I realized I was starting to get frustrated and angry with the kids for not sitting still (since when does a 20-month-old sit still) I gave up. And with our Christmas cards I decided to go with realistic shots. This is how my kids are. If I had time to post all the shots it would make you laugh cuz it catches each of their personalities. So, no perfectly posed children, but they're still pretty darn cute. Even Luke and his super-hero punch pose.

After Maya and I left, the boys had a little more fun with the camera.

Merry Christmas!!!

Ward Christmas Party 2010

Our ward had a Christmas party the first weekend of December. The primary acted our a nativity while singing Away in a Manger. Maya was very happy to be an angel. (The tallest one.) Jen got to participate by singing Christmas Chopsticks (Twas the night before Christmas rhyme sung to the melody of chopsticks). 6 women singing this very fun song in harmony with a little bit of silly choreography was very fun (and difficult to keep a straight face). It was nice for Jen to get out from behind the piano and have an opportunity to sing. All in all a very fun night.

Labor Day in Vegas

Matt actually had the holiday weekend off (I'm still getting used to him being able to have time off. It's always such a great surprise and it seems to happen a lot these days. I love it!!) so we headed down to visit my brother and his fam in Las Vegas. Two other brothers and my youngest sister also made the trip out and so it turned into a Crop family affair. We had tons of fun. The kids had a great time. We adults hardly saw them because they were all having such a great time together. I wish we were closer to family and able to see them all the time. Amidst all the great talking and hanging out, there were lots of fresh baked cookies and See's chocolates, Nertz! and BYU football.

Of course Vegas is HOT so we headed to the Air Force base to enjoy the pool.

(Me, my sister-in-law Rachel, and my sis Kendra with Ryan and Julia on the laps)

(Silly faces of course have to be made for the camera. Maya, Jules, and Ashlyn)

(Caden, Brayden, and Luke)

(My favorite pic of the weekend)

(My brother Justin's family: His wife Rachel, and from left to right - Caden, Ryan, and Julia

Thanks for letting us invade your home for the weekend!)

(My brother Jared's family: His wife Tiffany and the kids from left to right - Brayden, Ashlyn, and Brinley)

(Left to right: My sis-in-law Miranda, my "little" brother Adam, and my little sister Kendra. . .

and yes, that is my very mature brother and doctor in the background with a toy lightsaber)

And here is my little fam - I think you know who we all are by now.

Had to get a shot of all the little cousins. This is only a small portion of all the cousins my kids are blessed to have. Like I said, I wish we could be closer. So much fun to be had.