Happy Halloween!!!!!

So, we had a great Halloween. Dallas Jay was a cowboy, I know...stop the presses, never would have guessed that one, right? Liz and Jordanne sewed his costume, they made a set of chaps and a vest. It turned out great. He wore Uncle Andrew's scarf, and of course, he had his pair of six shooters! Sofia went as a bumble bee, which suits her personality, sometimes she's really cute, but man, when you piss her off, she'll sting ya! Jyl dressed up as a mom and I dressed up as a football player, which, I found out via Dallas Jay's instructions, was not correct. So, Saturday, I, also, was a cowboy! We even got Winnie a scarf and she was our cowdog!

Friday night we went up to Loveland's shop and had a huge Halloween party. It was great. There was hay bales all set out, and the kids ran and played. We had homemade soup, and then after the dinner, we sat around the hay bales and
the kids did a trick or treat walk. I must say, Liz and Steph looked great!

Saturday was a busy day, as we know no different around our house! We woke up and went out to the farm, Dallas Jay, Winnie and I helped Jesse and Dallas Sr. put a new gate on at the cellar. Evidently, there's some harvest workers that think it's OK to run their potato truck through a five-bar gate, turn around in the cellar, and then run it over on the way out. You know, in case they missed completely demolishing it at 30 mph! Dallas spun cookies on his power wheels four wheeler while we worked. Sr. taught junior how to crawl under a fence, and he brought home enough dirt in his clothes that we are going to have an increase in property taxes this year [accountant's joke].

Then it was up to drop off Dallas Jay at Grandma Baileys as he made sugar cookies with her and Aunt Steph. Mighty tasty! We then met some friends downtown and went through the slowest trunk or treat you've ever seen. It was probably 1,000 people, walking around two blocks to get candy from 6 stores! But, it is always fun to see Dallas Jay with his soccer buddy Cambell. What can we say, good company makes the time fly! Grandma Cha-Cha stopped in and walked through the madness with us.

Then we went to our trunk or treat at our church. It was great. Heidi and Scott showed up with Dallas' play buddy Emma. I wish I had the camera on me, because those two are so cute together. W e got to see a lot of our friends, and it was fun to walk around with Dallas. He was really more interested in playing with his friends than he was getting candy! We had a good time seeing all of our friends dressed up.

Then it was back up to Grandma Bailey's for the traditional Halloween Pizza and candy. It was fun to see Reese in her Duck costume. So cute.

So, Halloween is over, now it's time to put up Christmas lights...oh man, I can hear my Dad saying, "You ready Rusty?" Yes, that's right, it's Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which, Jyl has outlawed at our house. It's not my fault that she is not more closely drawn to the finer points in life!

We had a great time with our friends, but now it's back to work for me. I have to get going on my studying for my CPA exams. I've got one in November, and one in January. So, if I'm a little incognito for a while, you'll know why. I was about to say that if I was a bit cranky....but, we know that I'm that way naturally! Hahahaha.

On to Thanksgiving....the best holiday of the year! Turkey, football, Turkey, parade, Turkey and...stuffing!

Happy birthday Dallas!

Yeah! Dallas Jay turned four! He is growing up so fast. We celebrated with chocolate cake and ice cream and then spent the weekend in Island Park. It was really fun. Dallas loved all his fun presents. We took him to Yellowstone and saw some beautiful elk and bison. It was really cold, but it was fun to see old faithful. As we were driving and Dallas kept questioning what we were doing every four minutes (must be something with the age haha), we kept telling Dallas that we were going to a national park to see the animals. He was first disappointed in the fact that we weren't going to a giant playground and then was disappointed when it wasn't like seeing animals at the zoo. Oh well. What can you do. So... we took him the the bear and wolf preserve right outside the gates! They have bears and wolves, like the zoo, and a play ground! Perfect! One of the most fun things was sitting by the fireplace in the morning and watching the snow fall, a lot of snow on Sunday. Dallas and Ace went on a bike ride, prior to the snow, and Dallas is almost as fast as Ace. He is fun to watch! So happy b-day to Dallas.

Way to go Dallas!

The one day that Ace and I decide not to take the camera to the soccer game and Dallas makes 5 goals! Of course! He did so great today. The one thing we do have to work on with him though is that as he runs he likes to watch his shadow! We've got to get his head up when he runs! It's funny he has a huge cheering section and luckily he listens to his coach on his field and not his ten coaches on the sidelines. Jesse and Brooke took to teaching D the rougher side of soccer. He tried to be a little more aggressive at practice and made a kid cry (which this kid cries all the time) so now he's a little timid, but today I think he had a good balance of being assertive and not overly aggressive. He's so much better then his mom.
He is riding his little bike everywhere and loves to pretend that he is popping wheelies. He's getting more and more brave and I am afraid that one of these days he is going to do it for real. I was proud of he and Ace they took a lot of time out of their Saturday to help with several projects for friends and the church. Sometimes it's hard to help when you have your own things you need to do, but they had a good attitude about it.
Sofia is growing so fast. We went to the doctor for her shots and she is in the 96% for height and 75 for weight. She's such a long stinker. She finally broke a tooth. I am so happy! She is seriously the drooling queen. She is a fun kid. It's fun having mommy daughter time when Dallas and Ace are doing Daddy son things, which is a ton at our house. I watched a show the other night and the girl said that she only wanted to have four boys because she wanted to be the queen of that household. I felt bad for her because that mother daughter relationship is so special. Even though Sofi and I don't talk yet she is just my sweetie. [this is Ace, and I'd say that's 100% true because Sofi is so attached to Jyl, it's alarming. She so much as sees Jyl walk by, and she freaks out if she doesn't come over and pick her up, and that's even with my holding her. I'll have to work hard to ever get her looking my way once in a while! Okay, here's Jyl again].
I love the fall. It is one of my favorite seasons. I always loved it when I was younger because I was one of those dorks that loved school. I love being social and truthfully I like to learn. It also meant a quieter time at our home, once harvest was over, and we were so close to going skiing it was almost unbearable! Jesse and I were reminiscing about working harvest and some of the funny things that we did. I was always stuck picking clods and looked forward to every moment when Jess and I could work together, but he usually was doing something for my dad. We were talking about that time that I was told to push a button on the table and my cousin Doug was working on the table with my dad and our friend, Doug Brenchley. Well either I pushed the wrong button or I pushed it at the wrong time and I managed to brake Doug's arm. I still feel really bad about that one! Sorry Doug. After that I didn't push anymore buttons!

Dallas's first game!

It's true! Dallas has started playing soccer this year for the first time. So far he likes it. He likes to move the ball with his hands to where he thinks it should be, he likes to fall like he's rolling off the horse just like uncle Andrew and he can't stand still. It is so funny they are standing on the o line getting ready to kick off and he's out there dancing. He totally cracks me up. It was great watching him play with the other kids. He had a lot of supporters this week. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Bailey and Miss Stephanie. Steph was so funny she was the soccer aunt and cheered Dallas on. It was so fun to listen to her advice and she was always helping the kids to remember which goal was theirs and which one was not. She is a true sports fan! Enjoy the pics!

p.s.

Ace being the kid at heart he always is gave me my Christmas present today! He is so funny. He gave me a laptop and photo program! He said it was so we could be connected while I'm a single parent (for those of you who don't know outside of the accounting world, you might call it tax season)! He is the greatest ( see post below).

Ace is ten years old!

Ok so for those of you who know Ace he's not really ten, although if you mention fishing, football, or fourwheeling he might act like a ten year old!! haha! Actually today Ace has been a member of the church for ten years now. He reminded me of that today and I had totally forgot and felt like a jerk! It was a huge change for him, it just didn't feel that different to me. He was, is such a christ like person that all he needed was the information, the plan, and he already had all the attributes in spades, that by the way I am still working on every day. So here's to you Ace, the best husband a woman could ever want. Thanks for always being there for me and for being the man you promised to be the day I married you. I love you.

Camping in Stanley '09

This year was a great year in Stanley. Dallas got to go up early with his Nanna, his great grandparents, Aunt Susie and cousin Landon. He loved it and Ace, Sofi and I totally missed him. We missed hearing all the fun things he says and all the interesting things he finds to do. He is a huge part of our family and we just didn't feel whole without him. I know he probably missed us a little, but I know he had a ton of fun fishing with Grandpa great, he caught many many fish with the guidance of his wonderful grandpa! Thank you grandpa! He also went swimming in Redfish lake and was loved and taken care of so well. Thank you to all who took him. We love you! Later that week Ace, Sofia and I went as well. We camped in a tent and enjoyed the 30 degree nights! We finanlly got sleeping arrangments figured out on the last night. Ace did some fly fishing and we all did the fun fishing and fourwheeling! With the great food and company it was a trip to remember!