Pumpkin Carving

I made the girls do their own pumpkin cleaning this year. If they are big enough to carve, they are big enough to clean it out too!

I seriously love this picture! It is exactly what all their faces looked like having to pull out the "guts" of their pumpkin! So stinkin' funny!!

 
     The finished faces! As usual, the girls wanted to name them. They are (L-R)
1. Carli's pumpkin- Curly (because of the curly mustache)
2. Mom's pumpkin- Smiley
3. Mollie's pumpkin- Freckles (Mollie put freckles all over its face)
4. Regan's pumpkin- Toothless
5. Dad's pumpkin- Butt (yes, he carved a hole in it...sorry if you're offended)

"Last Run of Your Life" aka The Zombie Run

Chad and Carli part-way through their run. Keep it up!

Carli dodging a zombie :) She took them all VERY seriously!

Darrin and Darcy prepping for the upcoming zombie...gotta come up with a strategy!

Getting tired, but only 1 mile left!

The finish line was FULL of zombies! The runners had to dodge and weave to get through them all without  losing any tags they might still have. Check out Chad's mad skills!!

Go Darcy! Check out her quick feet!

They survived the last run of their life!! Great job!

I'm so proud of our Carli! Not only did she finish the race with an amazing time (she didn't even train!) but she made it through all the zombies and finished with one tag left! 

She didn't make it through without injury though...a picture of her "flesh wound"! Tough girl!!

      The City of Fruita had their first ever "Last Run of Your Life" Zombie 5K. It was a race where zombies were placed along the course to take the tags off your belt. You start with 3 tags and you want to end with all 3. If you don't have any, you didn't survive. Not only did you win prizes for finishing time, but also for finishing with your tags! Our friends Darrin and Darcy were running it and Chad wanted to run it and (obviously) I can't this year, so Carli took my place :) They both did great! Neither one of them trained at all, but that didn't matter. They had a great run and the zombies added a whole new level of excitement!

Regan's Big Day

     It is so hard to believe but Regan is now 8, which means she is old enough to get baptized! It seemed like 2 years would take forever to pass between Carli's baptism and Regan's baptism, but it flew by!! It seems like only yesterday Regan was my shy little blue-eyed toddler who would never grow up. She was our sweetheart that always seemed "little" to me and here she is growing up to be a beautiful little lady. Unlike some parents, I've always had a hard time with my babies getting bigger. I would love to keep them small and innocent, safe from the dangers of the world. When I think of them getting older I get tears in my eyes! I will miss them so much!! I enjoy being with Regan and laughing at her silliness. I enjoy listening to her sweet singing and the songs she makes up. I love to snuggle with her and see her sweet smile (accompanied by giggles) that is always ready to show itself. I love to see her beautiful eyes smile when she grins. I love to hear her tell me about her day. I love to see her ever-giving self constantly trying to serve and make others happy.
      I know that Regan was ready to make this decision to be baptized. She is such an amazing example to others. She was pretty nervous and it didn't help that she was singing a solo during the program, but she did perfect!! It was a beautiful baptism! We had so many people make the trip up to help her celebrate this wonderful day! It was such a great time and we appreciate everyone who came! Congratulations Regan...we are so proud of you!

The 3 girls...what a happy day!

The whole crew

Some of the highlights of the baptism...
    1. Regan's hair being so tight she got a headache! Poor girl thought her hair was being ripped out of her head. It looked absolutely beautiful! One of our friends did her hair as a gift to Regan for her special day, but she is such a tender-headed kid, she couldn't wait to take it all out!

     2. Being baptized with one of her best friends! Regan and Helen Latteier have birthdays only 2 days apart. They've celebrated birthdays together for the past 3 years, so it just makes sense for them to share this special day together! It will be a memory they will have forever.

    3. Sam thought he lost his wedding ring in the grass immediately after the baptism/confirmation. Everybody joined in to help him search for it. Funny enough: He actually left it at our house by the sink in the bathroom :)

    4. Grandpa Whiting brought up Regan's favorite thing: the Candy Cannon! It is an actual cannon my dad built that you fill with gun powder, newspaper wad, and loads of candy (no chocolate because it melts, and nothing with a stick because it becomes lethal). The cannon is lit and it literally shoots off candy through the air! It is so much fun, but really loud! We were waiting for the cops to be called :)

    5. As I said before, we had a TON of family come for the baptism and lots of friends come to the dinner afterwards. We didn't count, but the food we had catered was estimated to feed about 100! It got dark pretty early, so our little house became FULL of friends and family :) It was crazy but we won't forget how fun that night was!

 Congratulations Regan! We are so proud of you and your wonderful decision. We love you so very much!

"Baby Blue"

I think that the majority is voting for "boy" :)

Cupcakes ready to reveal the results! (Hint: I put the BLUE bird as part of the decor, but nobody noticed!) 

The results to the "Wives Tales" game

We wore what color we thought the baby would be as a family too! Chad thought it was a boy, but wore pink to the ultrasound so he wouldn't jinx us! :)
 I'm the only one who had lips instead of a mustache!

All 3 girls said they KNEW it was a boy!! I didn't believe them.

I was fully convinced it was another girl :)

Look at all those mustaches!

Time for the big reveal...1, 2, 3!!

BABY BLUE!!  It's a BOY!!!!!

In case you can't decipher, this is his little body

This is a picture looking at his face. He was so wiggly! He loved to stretch out his arms too! He has a hand up on his forehead and another one down by his chin. 

     Since this will be our final baby (and we haven't had a baby in over 6 years!)  I decided it would be fun to  have a "Reveal Party"! Usually Reveal Parties are to reveal the gender of the baby to everyone, including the parents, but we REALLY wanted to take the girls to the ultrasound. We knew that they would want to see the baby on the TV screen and they wouldn't be able to wait to find out if its a boy or girl...so we found out and I threw my own party to reveal to some of my close friends and the family in town (or coming in town) for Regan's baptism.
     Everyone was instructed to wear either pink or blue (whichever they think) and cast their vote when they came in. We played a couple games and then went straight to the cupcakes for the reveal! The group took their cupcake, counted to 3, and we all took a bite...the filling was BLUE!! IT'S A BOY!!!! I am still in shock! After all these years of trying/hoping for another baby, I never in a million years thought we would actually have a boy! When I pictured us with another baby it was a 4th girl :) The party was only about 45 minutes and was so fun!
     We can't wait for this little one to join our family!! We are all so excited (especially Chad! He is on cloud 9!!) We feel so blessed and hope he will continue to grow healthy and strong. We've had a lot of baby "blues", but it will be a whole new experience having a baby in BLUE!!

Birthday Celebrations

Regan- 2nd grade
(ps- like her nails? She wanted "halloween" colors!)

This is Carl Bob...or Carl Vector...or Josh Turner...not exactly sure :)

 

   

My little Regan- 8 years old

      Regan didn't just have an ordinary birthday this year, she turned 8!! Birthdays are a big deal to me so I try to make it as special as possible to our girls. Regan had some extra special birthday celebrations! We started her day with an idea I stole from Pinterest :) Carli and Mollie were my lovely assistants in saran wrapping balloons to her door so when she opened it, the balloons would fall on her...it was awesome! We waited in the hallway while Chad knocked on her door (her door is usually open) to wake her up. When she opened it and the balloons fell, it looked like she might pee her pants! It completely caught her off guard! So much fun!
     We had a great breakfast of biscuits and gravy (her favorite!) before sending them to school. I had talked to her teacher about bringing in a treat to help her celebrate with her class and asked Regan what kind of treat she wanted to bring in. Her request: Doughnuts WITH sprinkles :) I bought out every sprinkle doughnut City Market had that morning! Her class was adorable and she was nothing but smiles!
     As soon as school was over (it was Wednesday early release) we took the girls into town for Regan to pick out her present...a fish!! She's been asking for a beta fish ever since Carli got her fish 2 years ago. We decided she was old enough to be able to care for one properly. My favorite part was listening to the girls trying to come up with what to name it :) So funny! We then picked pumpkins, went to soccer practice, had popsicles with her team, and came home for dinner and birthday singing. Most kids want to blow out candles on a birthday CAKE, but not Regan. She wanted a birthday RICE KRISPY TREAT instead :) It was a whole day full of birthday celebrations! What a great birthday for such a sweet girl!! Happy 8th Birthday my sweet Regan!!

Pickin' Punkins

Carli (aka Chuck)

Regan 

Miss Mollie 

Mom with her baby belly :) 

Chad HAD to have this "butt" pumpkin...he saw this thing from pretty far off and said it was calling to him!

So gross, but so Chad!!

     We made an early trip to the pumpkin patch this year (or as Mollie calls it, the "punkin" patch). Last year we went later in the month and there weren't any left! The weather was beautiful so it was a perfect time to go. The girls had fun running from row to row trying to figure out which was the BEST one! We all got one to carve and some extra for decorating. I wanted to get a picture of my pumpkin with my baby belly to show how big I've gotten so far, but it didn't really work :( Chad's did though! He got  what the girls refer to as the "butt" pumpkin because it literally looks like a butt! He saw it as soon as we got there and just HAD to have it! Such a dork! Fun family time pickin' punkins!!