Happy 14th Birthday Kyle!

Happy Birthday Kyle!  

Kyle turned 14 on November 19th.  He is growing up so fast, I can hardly stand it!  Here he is with Ziggy!  What a good looking kid!  (The dog is kind-of cute too.)  :)

Kyle did not really know what he wanted for his birthday, so I took him to Target a few days before and he picked out a Batman watch and a treat.  (And that took forever!)  HA!  So we gave him a Target gift card so he could go back another time and pick out something else (when we have a couple MORE hours to shop). :)

A close up of his watch.  Brandon would be so jealous! :)

Kyle didn't want a cake for his birthday treat.  He wanted chocolate covered peanut butter balls.  Fine with me!  YUM! :) (Don't judge the cook though...baking is NOT my specialty.)

And I don't know why this picture is so yellow, but here it is anyway.  

We love you Kyle!  We are so grateful that you are part of our family!  It wouldn't be the same without you!  Happy Birthday son!

Halloween activities 2015

We all went to Dallin's Fall concert at Cottonwood High School.  It's always the funnest concert of the year.  Amber, the director, always changes costumes like 8 times throughout the night.  It's pretty crazy, but cool to see. 

Dallin played the piano for a couple of songs...and he wore Todd's old martial art's uniform from when he was in high school.  It even had "Jones" sewn on the back.  Dallin looked pretty awesome in it and it fit him perfectly!

And that is Zach Wall on the far left in the "Where's Waldo" costume.  So funny and clever!  I loved it!  He is amazing on those drums!

Dallin played the xylophone for some of the songs too.  There are several piano players, so he has to take turns with them...

And then Halloween came...and went. :)

Kyle was Batman.  (Brandon would have loved this!)

Jacob was a Grim Reeper....but he wasn't too scary! :)

Here's Eric in his Spiderman hoodie.  Who says you're too old to dress up? :)

And here's Dallin sporting the martial arts uniform doing the "karate kid" pose.  Ha!  Funny kid!

My wonderful and amazing boys!  I love them so much.  (We miss you Brandon!)

Here's Jacob for crazy hair day!  This wig is hilarious! 

On his way to school...

And one more...a close up! :)

And here's a picture of Jacob in his LAST Halloween parade at Arcadia Elementary.  That is just crazy talk! :(

October was a fun month packed full of great Halloween activities.  Now onto the holidays!  Before we know it, it will be 2016!  Oh help us all! :)

Would you like to buy a sword? $1 each to a good cause...

For one of Eric's classes, he had to come up with a product to sell, but it had to be made from supplies he already owned.  And he couldn't just sell one of his old toys either.  It had to be something that people would want, so it had to have value.  He spent several days wondering (and worrying) about what he would sell.  Finally on the last day, he and Todd came up with the idea to make wooden swords out of paint sticks.  It was actually pretty genius. :) 

He made 5 swords, spray painting each one a different color.  Pretty cool, eh? :)

Then Eric took pictures of Todd and Kyle fighting with the swords and posted them on social media.  He advertised to all his friends that he was selling them for $1 each.

Who wouldn't want one of these???

We had a ward social that evening and he decided to bring them to the party to see if he could sell them.  Of course, lots of the kids wanted them, so the parents didn't have much of a choice. HA! :)  By the time the party was over, Eric had orders for 5 more swords.  Pretty cool!  

I don't know if Eric will actually have time to make them, but it turned out to be a fun assignment and a good experience for him.  Maybe he'll have his own business someday...you never know. :)  Good job Eric!

Dallin and Emma--Monster Mash 2015

Here's Dallin waiting for his date, Emma, to pick him up for Monster Mash.  And by the way, Emma's dad drove for the evening. :)

They dressed up as 1920 gangsters.  They both looked really cute! :)

Emma and Dallin

After Emma (and her dad) picked up Dallin, they went back to her house for dinner.  They doubled with another couple, but I don't know who they were. (Oops!)  Then they were driven to the dance and after it was over, they went back to Emma's and watched the movie, Poltergeist.  SCARY!  They weren't able to finish it, but I know Dallin had a lot of fun on his first date!  :)  I'm sure there are many more to come...Oh, give me strength!  HA!

Dallin got asked to Monster Mash! What?

But first, here are a couple of pictures of Eric on his first day of school.  :)  He is currently attending LDS Business College!  I can't believe I have a returned missionary son in his second year of college!  UGH!  But he's so cute! :)

Some things never change...

So Dallin got asked to Monster Mash!  We were all just having a quiet evening at home when suddenly Dallin received a message from one of his friends, telling him to go look at the moon outside.  "Okay, I will."  And he did.  And this is what we found on the front porch...

It's kind-of hard to tell what it is from the pictures, but it's Luke Skywalker and that crazy animal from the movie, Star Wars.  It was all on a big poster with a secret message that had to be decoded...it was pretty cool!

Here's a close up of the key to solve the message...

The message said "Monster Mash?"  And then it was signed by Emma Jones

Dallin was pretty excited.  After all, he had just barely turned 16 the week before! 

This is how Dallin answered her back.  We didn't have a lot of time to spend on creativity, so I told Dallin that every girl loves flowers, so he came with me to the store to pick some out. 

Pretty, huh? :)

We also got a pack of donuts and put this on the top..."Doughnut" you know?  So cute, huh?  :)

And then we bought some glow sticks and made them into light sabers and Dallin drew this picture of Darth Vader.  Amazing!  On the back of the picture it said, "You don't have to 'force' me to go to Monster Mash with you.  I'd love to."  It actually turned out quite well, if I do say so myself.  And it was all accomplished in one evening!  

Here it is all together...

                

Whew!  Now wait a minute.  Are you saying that Dallin will be going on a date now?  "But who's going to drive you?" I asked.  (Neither one of them has their license.)  HA!  I guess we'll see what happens!  In the meantime, I can't believe that my third son is old enough to date! UGH! :)  I'm getting so old...