Random Pictures

This is how we had to squeeze into the auto rickshaws everyday! Carter loved just sitting out on the balcony and watching the "vroom vrooms" in his words :)

This is a power pole that is directly across the street from my family's house.

One day while we were in Rajimundry, our driver took us around the village and Eric showed us around his old area. While driving down the street, we passed this truck that had two elephants in it! And yes they were live elephants! It was crazy!

On Christmas day, we went to a Hindu wedding of a relatives. It was amazing! Apparently, they plan their wedding time according to the stars. So that is why there's landed on Christmas day. The couple sits on this platform and their family sits around them in a tight circle. And then the hindu priests sit in front of them and chant these things. There is loud music playing the whole time. And then the guests could come up and bless them with the rice on their head. This marriage was an arranged marriage.

One of the nights, we all of the sudden heard these loud bomb like noises outside our door. So we ran out and saw this parade of people standing right in front of the house. It was some kind of hindu holiday and they all walk around without shoes and carry these candles while some people play the drums and others dance around in a circle.

And this parade went all the way down the street.

And they would dance and light fireworks (the big ones! You know..the kind that are illegal here) and make there way through the whole neighborhood. At the end of the parade line was their God that they were worshipping.

Think Christmas!

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Halloween

Halloween this year was a lot of fun

Bella and Boston helping me with my costume.  We love our Bella!

The finished product.  I was pretty proud of my costume this year cause it was the first year I actually put some thought into it.  Every other year I just throw something together last minute.  The young men and young women put on a carnival for the primary kids and it was a total success.  I was in charge of the donut eating contest.  The kids loved all the activities and all the candy they got.  The costumes were adorable too!

The annual family Halloween party.  We had it up in Logan this year and had a blast like always!  The kids loved the balloons on my costume.  That's why a few are missing.  They had too much fun playing with them and then a couple popped in their face!

Andersen family.  The bubble bath was my favorite!

Krystle the fairy and Anna the beautiful princess warrior!

My amish husband and Mufasa!  Thanks to my neighbor Carie for letting Boston borrow this costume.  She made it for her son when he was 2 and he's 13 now but still had it.  So when I mentioned to her that Boston wanted to be Mufasa from Lion King she said she had the perfect costume and it really was perfect!  He was so darn cute!

Last year the Kendalls invited us to trick or treat at Lee's and it was so much fun we did it again this year and with the Abbotts too.  We could hardly keep up with Boston and Hunter cause they were running through the store so fast!  Aren't they adorable!  And yes Boston is in flip flops because as we were finding shoes to leave, I found Carter in the bathroom playing with Boston's shoes in the toilet...yum huh...

My sweet little puppy!  So then we headed over to the new library in South Ogden with the Housers.  They had a really cute party going on with lots of activities.  The kids didn't have much attention to do the crafts but they did fish and golf.  Then we found a room that had these weird lookin pillow/chair things and that was the highlight of the day for them.  I couldn't get a decent picture of them all because they were too busy running around!  But they had fun and that was all that mattered!

The night before we went to my parent's trunk or treat and Boston loved that!  I did too:)  It was so nice to have all the cars so close together and get lots of candy in like a half hour!  Boston got it this year so he was loving it.  I wish I had a video of him saying trick or treat.  He said it in the sweetest voice and then thanked every person that gave him candy.  Love him!  And Carter had a blast running up and down the parking lot until he tripped and fell.  So on Halloween night we headed over to my parents and then to Ryan's parents.  Boston loved handing out the candy to all the kids.  He called himself the candyman!  I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween!  We sure did:)  Oh and welcome home David Bailey!!  He's been in Alaska for the past two years serving the Lord.  He's home now and gave a wonderful talk today in church.  I love the spirit fresh missionaries have when they come home.  It's wonderful!

Pictures

My friend Kaylee is awesome!  She is one of the nicest people I know and is the best example to me of living a life of service.  Service to her children, husband, friends, church and even people she doesn't know.  She is talented in so many ways.  She is very crafty, thrifty, a wonderful decorater, an amazing cook, makes awesome jewlery and most importantly a wonderful mother, wife and friend.  One of her newest talents is photography.  She recently got a new camera so I asked her to take my boys' birthday pictures. (even though their birthday was back in August...but better late than never right?) We did them on Monday and she got me all the pictures yesterday!  I LOVE them!  My boys were kind of crazy for her but she got some amazing pictures of them!  There were so many to choose from but these are some of my favorites!  Thanks Kaylee!  You're the best!

We were only able to get a couple of pictures with the balloons before the wind took them away!

9.25.10

It's running season!

Eric ran the Top of Utah Marathon and did awesome!  He beat his last marathon time by 8 min!  

When he was done running, we kept asking him how he felt and he said he felt great!  We couldn't believe how good he was doing right after.  He was happy and all smiles!

All the runners could get a 15 min massage and he surely didn't pass that one up!

This was a big race Dustin had in Murray.  He came in 16th out of 3000 people!  Way to go Dust!  You totally deserve it!

Dustin is the SBO President at Weber High this year.  So for the homecoming dance my parents were supposed to chaperone.  My dad was out of town though, so my mom asked me to go with her.  It was so much fun.  The dress styles definitely have changed since I was in high school. I don't ever remember short prom dresses.  I'm not sure how much I like them to be honest.  It doesn't feel like it was that long ago I was there, but really it was 8 years ago!!  I feel old!  But we still had a blast:)

So any of you that know me at all, know that I am totally NOT a runner.  But my friends called me up and told me they needed an extra teammate for the Dirty Dash.  They said it was an obstacle course through mud.  So I said what the heck, that sounds like fun.  So I told them I would do it.  Then I find out it's a 10k race/obstacle course through mud.  So we trained for the 2 weeks we had to train before the race and man did it kick our butts!  But we had SO much fun doing it!  Here we are the HOT PINK LADIES.  Dont we look good!!

I thought the race was going to be pretty flat and like just in a circle or something.  But this muddy hill was the very start of it.  And we ran up it.  Probably we should have saved our energy, because pretty much the whole first half of the race was uphill.  it was SO hard!

Most people didn't know what this race was when I told them about it.  But it's a pretty popular race!  People go all out and put on crazy costumes and just have fun doing it.  So here is the crowd at the starting line.

This is how thick the mud was at the starting hill.  And it was even thicker than this throughout the race.

Pulling each other through the mud hill, trying to keep from our shoes getting sucked into the mud and off our feet!

Climbing over these walls was only one of the obstacle courses.  We had to run through an artificial snowmaker blowing water through it (we could hardly breathe), then we jumped over haybales, and climbed through tunnels.

This slide we went down was close to the end of the race.  We had to cross little rivers, walk/attempt to run through a football field of mud, and run through tire holes.  And at a few of the obstacles, there were people with big, high pressured hoses squirting you.  At the wall, I got stuck on top and the guy was squirting the hose straight at me and he wasn't gonna stop until I got down!

This was the last thing we had to do.  It was a big mud pool.  Gross!

And here we are finally at the finish line!  Jaisha, Kate, Me, Melanie, Nikki.  Way to go girls!  We did it!  And even though it kicked my butt, I can't wait to do it again next year!

So my brother Dustin had a big, important race in Boise the same day.  My family told me they were going up to watch him.  I totally was fine with it because it really was an important race for him.  College scouts were there looking at the kids and everything.  (He did awesome by the way)  So I wasn't expecting them to be there at all.  So I get up there and as I'm getting ready to start the race, there they were!  They said, we always watch Dustin run and since this is pretty much the first race I've done in all of my 25 years, they wanted to come watch me.  I was so surprised and glad that they came to watch.  Eric was kinda wishin he was doing it with me:).  Thanks family!!! I love you all so much!  You are always there for each and every one of us kids!  Definitely the best family ever!!!  And isn't my hubby the best?  He came to see me also, instead of going to the BYU game.  That's true love! 

By the way...we've been loving the warm weather and on any given day, you can find these two boys doing this on the back porch.  I love my boys!!

Our summer

We have had a crazy summer as you may have guessed from the lack of posts.  But it's not entirely my fault.  The only working computer we have goes to work everyday with Ryan.  But any how, here are a few pictures from our summer!

After Travis left on his mission, we decided to have one last outing with Boston's "other uncle" Jon.  So we all went to the zoo and had a blast even though these animals ended up with Boston's football thanks to Dusty:)  It was pretty funny!

Our next adventure was a family vacation to Disneyland.  These two characters are Boston's favorite so he was in heaven!

And what's Disneyland without seeing Mickey?

After Disneyland we headed over to San Diego and met these cuties there.

We got to ride these around Mission Bay and it was a blast!  They are so easy to maneuver around.  While we were there Dan and Brit announced that they are having a baby in Feb!  Congrats you guys!  We love you!

Then in July, Ryan went to Lake Powell with this crazy bunch!  The young ones can't go anymore so I stayed back and let Ryan go since this is his favorite trip of the year.  And he had a blast!

While Ryan was in Lake Powell Boston started swimming lessons with his little friend Remy.  It was so much fun (for me anyways) to get to hang out with Kaylee and her cute little family everyday for a couple of weeks.  Boston on the other hand had his days of enjoyment in the water but most of the time wasn't exactly thrilled to be at lessons...see pictures below...you'll see what I mean.  He would rather be at grandma's pool and doing whatever he wants!  Selene and Carter were the spectators.  Isn't Selene just angelic?  I wouldn't be opposed to them being married one day:)

This picture cracks me up.  This is usually how it was.  Boston sitting in the water refusing to do what the rest of the class is doing and Remy (in the green) running around in her own little world.

Doesn't he look thrilled?  For a while I thought I was wasting my money but by the end he actually did become a lot braver than I thought he would.  He now will dunk his face under the water and actually laughs when he gets splashed and he even jumped off the diving board at his grandma's house.  So all in all I think it was a success!

Then August came and we went to the fair and saw all the little goats and lambs and horses and cows.  Boston and Carter loved seeing all the animals!

Then one weekend my family decided to go for a little overnight camping trip.  So we drove up to Mantua to find that the campground was full.  But thanks to Taron and Melanie for letting us use their property we were able to still camp.  It probably was the funnest we've ever had camping.  We brought up the kanacks and rode around the lake, then went back to the campsite and had dinner and played games and just had fun being with family!

This is Boston's last day being 2 and Carter's last day before turning 1!  Aren't they just so dang cute?

The happy birthday boys!

All of the boys' fun gifts

Boston doesn't really know who Spiderman is, but one day we made mac and cheese and there was a picture of spiderman on the box and since then all he wanted was a spiderman birthday.  So my artist husband drew the design with a toothpick and I colored it in.  And we thought a number one cake was fitting for Carter.  They turned out pretty cute huh?

This series of pictures cracks me up!  Am I gonna get in trouble for touching the cake?

Oooh that's kinda squishy...

I'm still not getting in trouble?

This is kinda fun...

pretty much demolished!  Way to go Carter!  He wasn't scared at all.  He loved every minute of it!

Boston and Carter enjoying all of their gifts.

I am the luckiest woman alive to be so privileged to be these two little boys' mom.  I love them SO much and just can't imagine my life without them.  It was kind of an emotional day for me because I feel like I just blinked and just like that Boston is 3 and Carter is 1.  Where did all the time go?  Thank you Boston and Carter for making my job as a mother so easy.  I love you both so much and will forever and ever!