Halloween Fun

This year was our first year carving pumpkins. Brecken was so excited. Nana B even let us use her white pumpkin to carve. It came out really neat. Brecken wasn't so hot on digging out all the gew but he at least tried.

He let Dad do all the hard work.

Here are the boys on Halloween with their pumpkins. They loved them.

This year Brecken decided he wanted to be Handy Manny. He saw this cheesy costume at Target and wouldn't be anything else. Luckily Tom decided to make the costume. It turned out really cute. Tom made all the tools with eyes and mouths. After seeing Brecken get all these cool tools, Karsten ditched the Spiderman idea and wanted to be Handy Manny too. Brecken was a little upset but we explained that Karsten wasn't Handy Manny, he was Handy Manny Jr. He was okay with that idea. Here are the boys with GG. Everyone at GG's place loved the costumes.
Karsten loved all his tools especially Dusty!!We all had a great Halloween!

Baby Boy #3!!!

For those of you that didn't know, we found out yesterday that we are expecting our little boy number 3! Who would have thought that I would have three boys. We are so excited.

Before the ultrasound, I really thought we were having a girl. Only because Brecken insisted that we were having a girl. He said he needed a little brother and a little sister. Since he already had a little brother his little sister was on the way. I thought he was right. You know how they say little children have that intuition.

A few days before the ultrasound, I began thinking we could actually have a boy. It would be weird to have three boys. I do know how to raise boys so it wouldn't be to hard.

After the ultrasound, I was a little surprised but so excited. I had to figure out how to break the news to Brecken. I came home and told him he was going to have a little brother. He kind of gave me a blank stare. Then he said, "Now I will have two brothers and a little sister!" Hopefully one day he will get his little sister.

It was so funny going through the ultrasound pictures with the boys. We had a few 3-D shots and regular shots. You could actually see a real baby. Ultrasounds have really come a long way, even since Brecken. The boys favorite picture was the one of the baby's pee pee. They just laughed and giggled and kept saying, "Its his pee pee!" Karsten even saying, "I see pee pee picture." It was so funny.

We are so excited for our new little baby boy to come into our house. Can't wait until March 31st!

Family Photo Shoot

Last week we had family pictures with my Dad and his wife Mary and my sisters. The day before, we found out Karsten had double ear infections. He hated all the pictures. These are the best pictures we got of him. He cried through the entire photo shot. The only family picture that Karsten was looking in and my Dad is making a funny face. Oh well, what do you expect when you have fourteen people including five children. Here is Brecken with his substitute brother, I mean his cousin Hudson.
We did get a lot of fun photos of the other cousins. Here's Nichole's little girls, Kylie and Jacey.

I love this picture of Jacey. Isn't she so adorable!

It is too bad that our photo shot did not work out the way I wanted it to. We will always have the memories.

Fun in the Irrigation

Tom and Reuben decided to irrigate. The boys loved playing in the irrigation.
I love this picture. Here comes Brecken!
Karsten wading through the water.Little Catcher even got to play in the irrigation.
Uncle Ty is so cool. He even got in and played with the boys. The boys played soccer and had lots of fun. Until Karsten got bit by about 20 ants. I felt so bad. I have no idea where they came from. He got to play in the hose naked. Therefore, Brecken thought he needed to be naked. (I couldn't catch these embarrasing moments because my camera died.) The boys had a great time. They even got to walk home naked. A boys dream come true.

Its Been A Long Time

Brecken started soccer last week. Brecken and Zo (his cousin) are on the same team.Brecken has mixed feeling about soccer. He seems to love it until he has to go in and fight for the ball. At this age, they only play three on three. There is no goalie. Just get the ball and head for the goal. Brecken did a lot of pointing to his other team mates telling them which way they should dribble the ball. We will see as the season goes if he likes it better or not.
Here he is warming up. He is all excited.
Here they are getting in some warmup kicks. The game was hilarious to watch. The kids had no idea what they were doing. We have several weeks to work on that.

On a different note, Karsten turned 2 a few weeks ago. He thinks he is four like his brother. He threw an all out fit because he did not get new soccer shoes. When he is old enough he can play. He is actually really good at dribbling the ball.

Here he is in his batman outfit. He loves to dress up and chase everyone around with his sword.

Isn't this little knight adorable!

Ten years ago today...

Aaron tagged me so here goes (geez, I wish this were freeze tag instead).

Ten years ago I was...
Living with Lorin Ethington, Jordan Lilly, Monte Overton, Lucas Nunn and random other dudes that would crash in our one bedroom apartment in an old hospital. We had bb gun wars inside and had an old washing machine with a tv on top of it that we would shoot at with .22's through the bedroom window. The shells would melt into the carpet. I had graduated from Heritage Academy, but all my friends were in their senior year, so lunch at Chandler High was a regular thing for me. I was probably taking classes at CGCC or something, but didn't take them seriously. I was skateboarding everyday for at least a couple hours, often driving the 70 miles round trip to the Phoenix skatepark. I was delivering pizza at T.C. Luigi's driving a crappy little orange truck that my brother gave me. The thing was like a little tiny mazda with a camper and it looked like it had been rolled a couple times. It actually threw a rod one night while I was out on a far delivery like 10 miles away from work out in east jeebus nowhere. This was in the days before cell phones and it was 10:3o at night, so I had to walk 4 miles to a pay phone and called Jordan to come pick me up.

Five things on my "to do" list:
- Plant my fall crops (check my BFF blog for details).
- Find a good, cheap tractor to buy so I don't have to worry about my uncle loaning out mine.
- Convince Natalie that a Vespa would be a worthwhile investment due to the cost of gas.
- Figure out how to convert the old horse barn into a hip retro-modern home.
- Start making money so that I can afford numbers 1 through 4 on this list.

A snack I enjoy:
Pickles, but I'll settle for just about anything salty.

Five I'd do with unlimited money:
- Completely restore the old hospital.
- Get my Dad the care that he needs (Screw the insurance companies! They've ruined the American healthcare system! Don't get me started!)
- Buy a homestead in the middle of nowhere and live completely off the grid. There's freedom, right there!
- Go to Italy and become a certified Vespa mechanic just for kicks, then buy everyone I know a scooter and start a scooter club.
- Get back into promoting local music

Places I've lived:
- Chandler bred, Chandler dead!
- The historic Goodyear Hospital (twice and maybe again in the future)
- Somerville, MA
- Southy (South Boston, MA)
- Mesa
- Home again

I guess that's it. I'm gonna break the chain and not tag anyone. Sorry, but it really is too much of a commitment for me. I mean, then you have to go read the posts of people you tagged to make sure they do it, comment on their post, blah blah blah. How about if instead of you writing a whole bunch of crap, everyone who reads this just leaves a comment about something that you and I have in common, or just something that my post reminded you of. That sounds easy enough.

I'm starting a garden club....

for guys, aged 20 - 40. No ladies! Okay, not really, but that is what it felt like yesterday when I taught Elder's quorum. I found out a couple weeks ago that I was teaching, but was never given a topic. At our presidency meeting I finally asked what I was supposed to be teaching on. I was informed that since it was a presidency choice I could teach whatever I wanted. That's a loaded gun, right there! Now, there are a million different topics that I could have taught, but I wanted to try something different. So, I taught the Elders in my ward about gardening. Don't worry, it came straight out of a priesthood manual and I backed it up with conference talks, scriptural references and primary songs, so it was legit. Not only that, but Natalie overheard one of the guys in class tell his wife that he was going to start a garden. Then today, Reuben and I helped another brother in our ward pick a good location and give him some tips on getting started. Sounds like the lesson was effective too. I think it is awesome that so many guys around my age are interested in gardening, or, as I like to call it, micro-farming (sounds not quite as gay). I have to give props to some of the guys who have always done it. Fortunately, it is "cool" now, so you don't have to hide anymore. Greenthumbs and greenhorns, stand and be proud! Even if you don't know what you are doing, but are interested, come join the club. So far, we meet at church on Sunday and through the occasional phone call. Let me know if you are interested.