optimistic

Trick or Treat!!

We met up with a bunch of our friends and their muchkinheads for some trick or treating! :) Ms. Izzie-bizzie was with her dad in Boise this weekend and was seriously missed by all.

Earlier on in the day I was trying to explain to Elliott what trick or treating was all about... "You go up to the door... ring the door bell and then the person answers you say TRICK OR TREAT and then they give you candy!" Elliott's response.. no joke.. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! CANDY!!"

Needless to say he got the hang of it quite quickly... this year was a lot better than last year for the Eman...

Here is a picture from last years oh so enjoyable trick or treating! Haha! He was going through a phase where he wanted to run everywhere at anytime and kept darting out into the road.. so the kid leash (yup, I was one of those parents) had to be brought out which caused man tantrums of throwing himself on people's lawns.

Ahh yes.

Good times. good times.

This year was MUCH different! as you can see from the picture below...

Look out! Dino with a chain saw!

The big kids decided to get their candy on and ended up running from house to house. Trying to get as much candy as possible. We hung back with Annie and Jared.... Annie was hilarious... she was moving soooooo slow... 6 inches took us a good 30 seconds. Slow yes, but we still had an amazingly fun time.

The skeleton in towards the right of the picture above made scary noises and would talk.... Elliott was terrified of it! He wanted to abandon ship and head out to the next house.

That's as close as he would get to the door. :)

The above picture makes me laugh so hard when I see it... there was a monster type thing on their porch by their front door and it would start screaming and moaning when you would get close.. being triggered by a sensor. Well you can imagine how well this went over with Elliott.... hilarious.

Kim trying to take a shot of the three of us... First one she chopped of our heads... and the next one she cut off Elliott :)

There were very few adults dressed up. We got LOTS of comments on our costumes although people kept calling us the Rubble's. Umm.. no.. it's the F-l-i-n-t-s-t-o-n-e-s! :)

We ended the night with a haunted house...

We stayed outside while all the big kids and other parents checked it out. :) They came out pretty spoooked!

Came home had some dinner and dumped Elliott's loot out on the counter. See the crystal light in the bottom left side of the picture? One of the first houses we went to weren't ready for trick or treaters. The guy felt so bad he started pulling things out of his pantry. Some of the other kids got matzo ball soup, peanut butter... well you get the idea. Pretty funny. Couple other houses were handing out BIG candy bars. Score. I let Elliott pick a candy of his choice....

"The orange one!"

Handed him a reeses peanut butter cup...

He put it to his lips.. then said no and handed it back to me. I gave him another choice...

"The yellow one"

Opened the small package of Sour Patch Kids and put one in his mouth (first one ever)...

Yeah.. not so sure about this...

apparently not a fan of the Sour Patch Kids! LOL.

Next candy I chose for him and picked something I knew he'd love...

M&M's!!

.

Happy camper!

It's Halloween! It's Halloween!
The moon is full and bright
And we shall see what can't be seen
On any other night.

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,
Grinning goblins fighting duels,
Werewolves rising from their tombs,
Witches on their magic brooms.

In masks and gowns we haunt the street
And knock on doors for trick or treat.
Tonight we are the king and queen,
For tonight it's Halloween!

Jack Prelutsky

Big kid play date... little kid play date. :)

Ms. Izzie-bizzie got together today with one of her bff's Mary to watch Where The Wild Things Are!

I really enjoyed it! The kiddos kept making comments that they didn't think it was like their book. Over all we thought it was pretty stinkin rad!

Time for lunch... of course the girlies chose to eat at The Bird!

Then it was off to Mobius to play for a wee little bit before heading back to the house. Where my battery died on my camera.... drat. Really need to get a spare.

While we were at the movies and taking our big girls on dates the dad's were taking the little kiddos on a play date of their own at Schiene's place.

Here are two video's Aaron captured of the little ones....

Happy Izzard!

Mar-bear!

Big sister... little brother tackle love!!

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.

-Victor Hugo

XO

fabulous foto friday!! (4 for the price of 1... ok, maybe 5 ;))

I was talking on the phone with my mother in law when I looked out the kitchen window and gasped...followed by "omg... omg... that's disgusting! omg" Of course she's wondering what I'm talking about... I tell her and she laughs... and suggests I go outside and take a picture of it.

What?

Are you kidding me?

Seriously?!

Do you know how many spiders it took to do this??

I put my big girl panties on and went outside to take a picture.... and here they are for your viewing pleasure!

 

 

 

Yes... that's correct. Those are spider webs covering my entire back yard.

::::::shiver::::::

Today is my BIG brother's birthday!

(we had just finished racing down the mountain... in snow shoes... I was tired)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

If you can make a girl laugh - you can make her do anything.
- Marilyn Monroe

XO

Everybody poops. ;)

I haven't tried to push the potty training with Elliott. I talk about going potty on the toilet like a big boy multiple times a day trying to get him used to the idea. For a few months he was terrified of the toilet for some reason. When he would go into the bathroom to take a bath I would suggest using the big boy toilet and he would start to scream and yell. Alrighty, then. No worries. One of his best buddies started to potty train and that's when Elliott started showing more interest in it. Elliott would make comments... "I be a big boy like Jack!" Then one day it just seemed to click for him and he wasn't scared of the toilet anymore!! and I of course was sooo beyond excited I had to get pictures (duh ;) ). I'm sure he won't appreciate these very much when he gets older ;)

Trix cereal in the toilet for him to aim his pee at. 

After he started showing interest in it and being so excited I started setting a potty timer that would go off lots and lots... and lots during the day. Every time it would beep we would run to the bathroom to try and go potty.

I tried running water.

I tried leaving the room for a little bit.

I tried having him drink water.

I tried having him watch daddy pee.

Nothing seemed to help him get the grasp of actually peeing at the toilet. There were lots of moments like this next video:

Finally after about 5 days of timers and other helpers he went pee!! I was so proud of him!! We called the grandparents and daddy and told everyone what a big boy he was. Then he got his special potty treats he gets when he uses the potty.

We have our good days of where he will use the potty no problem and other days where he has no interest. We're in no rush. Letting Elliott call the shots on it as of now.

Today is my Grandma's birthday!

  Happy Birthday!!

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

- Jimi Hendrix

xo

Carving pumpkins! and thoughtful words.. thanks friends.

Time to carve the pumpkins! I had the kiddos draw a picture of what they wanted their pumpkins to look like (thanks cuz for the idea!) Then Aaron and I carved them.

Love how they turned out!

Good work kiddos :)

One of my bff's changed their status on Facebook to this:

"Let's see how honest FB friends are..Leave a ONE WORD comment that you think describes me. It can only be one word. No more. Then copy & paste this on your wall so that I may leave a word about you. This should be interesting :) or scary."

After I left a word on his status I changed my status to this. Since this blog is one of my journal's I wanted to document the words people used that describes me..... here goes!

Incredible.

Creative.

Friendly.

Genuine.

Happy.

Sex. (ha! one guess who wrote that one!)

Sincere.

Determined.

Dedicated.

Beautiful in every way.

Aimee.

Calm.

Funny.

Talented.

Caring.

Cute.

Beautiful.

Inspiring.

Silly.

Talented.

Crafty.

Gorgeous.

Invigorating :)

Creative.

Sunshinydeliciciorificassyaliciousgorgiomagnificerelybabalicious.  :)

Spunky.

Huge-hearted. 

Thanks friends!! You made my day :) :) 

Dream no small dream - Victor Hugo

Halloween extravaganza!!! :) <3

Pebbles, Wilma, Dino and Fred Flinstone!!

Found a killer deal on the kiddo's costumes... Izzie and I looked through hundreds of costumes online and in magazine's throwing idea's around.... we settled on The Flinstones... she was a wee bit freaked out to wear a wig (had back up orange spray just in case.. obviously from my hair)...once she saw herself in the mirror she loved it! That's a picture I wish I would have captured... the look on her face when she saw herself in the mirror for the first time... classic!

I got a killer deal on Izzard and Eman's outfits... when searching for Wilma and Fred everything awesome was incredibility over priced. I used my crafty skills and made Wilma and Fred's outfits. Fred had a wig... but someone thought it was to itchy (wuss) and refused to wear it. ;)

We invited all our peeps to our place to get their

Halloween on!

Coach, tough football player and cheer leader! LOVE this cute family!

Pumpkin farmer, adorable princess, cute pirate and a growing pumpkin! You can't tell from the picture but where the pumpkin is... her shirt is cut away and her cute little prego belly is painted... and the back of her shirt says....

E & J... cute couple!

Started the evening with some games in the backyard with all the kiddos.

 

We heart Echo!

Enjoying our yummy dinner... kiddos had a choice of grilled cheese or hamburger soup, bread sticks and corn bread. mmm.

Pebbles abandoned her wig which quickly got passed around the room. Liz rockin it! :)

Father and son zombie! LOVE it!

Eman enjoying a eyeball.

I noticed miss cutie pirates straps coming off her costume! Ms crafty Wilma to the rescue. Yup, that's how we roll in this house. Something breaks we fix it, on the spot.

Pebbles, Mickey and cutie pirate playing cards while Wilma comes to the rescue. 

Tadaa!

How cute are these two??

Pebbles and cute pirate!

 

Thanks friends for joining us for our Halloween extravaganza.

We had a spooktacular time.... looking forward to next year!

Muahaha.

Today's Positive Thought
 
Let love transform your life.

xo

Mmmmm.... food!

I love everything that goes into preparing for a gathering of friends. Love making the food. Love making the treats. Love decorating. Love being surrounded by so many peeps I care about. LOVE it all.

Planned a Halloween party for all our friends and kiddos.

The invite.

Corn bread muffins.

Hamburger soup.

Candy corn bark.

Eye ball cake pops.

Red velvet cupcakes.

Treat bags for all the kiddos invited.

Skull drinks for each kiddo. Thanks Echo.

We're ready for a seriously good time.

I deserve the

best, and I

now accept

the best.

xo

Pumpkins being shot out a canon? Yes, please.

We met up with a bunch of friends at one of the farms at Green Bluff. Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year? ;) Perfect temperatures outsides, beautiful colors everywhere you look, families together everywhere, picking pumpkins, the color orange is everywhere, smiles, laughter... it's all good.

Waiting for the pumpkin to launch.

Kiddos could have played in that maze all day.

Once we finished watching pumpkins fly and running through the maze we headed to another farm in Green Bluff to pick some pumpkins.

Check out their faces in the picture above... "No, I want to push"... "No me!"... "My turn!"... Elliott wants to do anything Izzie does... Izzie wants to do anything Elliott does.

It's good stuff. ;)

Today's Positive Thought

Think only on those things that are perfect,
beautiful, and pure.

XO

Happy Birthday NATE.... and a taco par-tay!

Today is the little bro's birthday. Yup, Halloween! Lucky.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Big 3-0!...

Now back to the scheduled post for today... Taco party at Norisada's.

w00t!

Completely freaks me (in a good way) out how much Elliott looks like Paxton. If I wasn't really paying attention I could easily mix these kiddos up.

Love this picture of Echo and Ms. Izzie-bizzie captures their relationship perfectly. They are good friends. When I pick up Izzie from the airport one of the first calls she makes is to Echo.... "HI ECK! I'M HERE!" followed by lots of squeals. It's adorable.

Jesse and Echo have nicknamed me Maybelle (I think that's right) because I'm constantly taking pictures like their Grandma Maybelle. There are probably about 10 pictures that go along with this one.... Mark announces that the paparazzi are here whenever I start taking pictures..... consensus... I take a lot of photos. Can't help myself. It's in my blood. It's a Denning trait. When I am with my family it's a running joke that there will always be six angles of one thing because we're all constantly taking pictures. I get urges constantly to take pictures of this... or that. I should come with a disclaimer.
 

Once we were back home we started our bedtime routine. Izzard and Eman each pick one book to read and then the adults fight over who gets to read it ;) . Tonight I got the pleasure. When I read... I get a bit.... animated as you can tell from the picture below.
 

Hold your own.

Know your name.

Go your own way.

xo

fabulous foto friday!! (2 for the price of 1... lucky)

The hubby had to go out of town for a couple days.... I miss him terribly whenever he is gone. (look away, here comes the sap). He's my best friend. It's a wee bit harder to smile and laugh when he isn't around. I was playing cars with the Eman (very unusual for us ;) ) when the doorbell rang.

Hmm... wonder who that is.

The look of shock and the gasp that escaped my mouth made the flower delivery person laugh.

Thanks babe.

Me love you long time. 

I choose

thoughts that

make me feel

good and

bring me joy.

xo