30 is settling in

It's been a week since I turned 30. I guess I feel pretty much the same except for the fact that along with 30, my birthday brought swine flu to the family (Ryan and Luke) so my first week of being 30 has not felt so flirty and fabulous as has been advertised by many of my friends who have expereinced this coming of age before me. Hopefully it gets better. I am determined make my 30's the best decade of my life so far. I guess I should start that with less complaining...eh?

a BIG THANKS to Mark & Jeff for the yummy birthday dinner and cake

(I mean really, who else has brothers-in-law like these two?)

Stay-cation

Three of my 5 beautiful sisters + myself + one darling little 2 year old all decided to have a little get away. It will be the first of many more to come (hopefully the next one will include the 2 Texas sisters and the 1 Mother and 1 sister-in-law from the land up north). We had a great weekend in Park City full of shopping, eating, swimming and most of all laughing and listening to one another. Other than our husbands, there are no other people in the world in whose company we can more fully be ourselves. We can compare thighs, behinds, hair, wrinkles and more and laugh and laugh. Only sisters will tell you what you really look like in a pair of skinny jeans.We share a bond that can't be described. They make me feel safe, loved and welcome. In the words of Dash from The Incredibles "I love my family."

One gut-busting moment: Our solution to Jolea's hair woes...Carrie's extensions.

Meet JOlea DIRT. We laughed till our sides ached.

Magic...by Michelle

Turns out, my beautiful and talented friend Michelle is also a magician. That is the only explanation as to how she could have managed to get so many great pics of this circus. Thank you friend for offering your magic skills. These are a very few of my many, many favorites.

Halloween

I wish to thank...

• whomever donated the $6 pair of Rocky Mountain cowgirl jeans and the American Flag star shirt to the D.I. ( all of you who were wondering if I pulled this out of my closet from high school can rest assured that my western wear was not this hideous)
• Deseret Industries for the cheap costume
• Walmart carrying all the right rhinestone embellishments

• And a big thank you to Jolea, my Halloween idol, for supplying the hot rollers, tiara, cowgirl hat, and for finding my DI Rodeo Queen attire. You make it fun for me every year we get to embarrass our husbands

To date it was the most uncomfortable costume and most unflattering costume I've had. Ryan was so repulsed by the jeans that he actually used the word "gross" in describing my attire. He says that the waist of your pants should never connect with your chest. He would be right. And any jeans that can make your behind look 3 miles long shouldn't be allowed. He strongly encouraged my not to wear this costume to his work...for his sake and mine.

To 75% of the Lehi population, I apologize if you were offended. I know I live in Rodeo town USA. It was all in fun.

Other Halloween highlights:

Watching Max trying to walk in a boot with a heal and chaps

Up from his 2 houses last year, Max does then entire loop of trick or treating

The after-party at Joela's- Halloween Ham and the trimmings

Jolea- the Mexican Man & Ryan-the old, Mexican woman

Baby Nacho Libre

HallowsEve

This cowboy is ready to blaze the trick or treat trail

Every year I get to dress up my little boys (and myself) and go to Ryan's work for trick or treating. This year we decided to go as Cowboys & Cowgirl as Max is really into horses and as a cowboy hat is about the extent to which I can get Ryan to participate in Halloween. Loveless family meets the wild, wild, west

After Ryan saw my costume for Halloween he hinted that we would rather I forgo the Rodeo Queen get-up for his work party and opt for Cute Cowgirl Calli, instead, which I obliged.

The 'Cute Cowgirl costume' and two very handsome little cowboys

Max really was very particular about the candy he picked (seriously he spent about 1 minute at each bowl..and there were many, many bowls). He ended up with about 1/2 a pumpkin full of Starburst, which we had no idea he had such an affinity for.

My little buck-a-roo with his horse

Max was very afraid of all the "spookies and scaries" this year as he called them, but Xango did a spook ally this year and we figured it couldn't be that scary So we took Max through. He held onto Ryan for dear life for the whole 2 minutes it took to walk through and was very happy to leave the "scaries" behind.

Chaps, six-shooters, boots, vest, hat, horse...ready to go!

After 2 hours of all this with 2 little boys who hadn't napped we forewent the Ward trunk-or-treat and called it a day. After all...Halloween was less than 24 hours away!

The chubbiest little cowboy...he loved his hat!

Every Hallows Eve, we sit for Jolea & Ryan so they can go out and enjoy their anniversary. So we rested up for a few hours and then went and grabbed a Halloween pizza to enjoy with the Beatty kids. We had lots of fun...and we think their parents enjoyed celebrating 11 years together without the kids for a night.

Getting Spooked

Just a few fun things we did to get in the Halloween spirit...
Ryan had to work late a few nights at Xango convention so Max and I made some Halloween sugar cookies.

Last Monday for FHE we went to the little pumpkin patch down the road and let Max pick a few pumpkins for carving. We bought them from the nicest old man whose granddaughter who lives with them and grows the pumpkins year after year to pay for her ballet shoes. When we learned she was picked to play Clara in the Nutcracker this year, we came back with about 12 little pumpkins. How sweet!

Then we headed to Jolea's house for a night of pumpkin carving and fun!

Ryan always wanted to carve pumpkins like this...after about 2 1/2 hours, this is what we came home with. Pretty Spooky! (Ryan's are the good ones.)

The Witches Are Out

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Gardner Village to show Max "the nice witches". He informed us that there is no such thing. All witches to him are scary & spooky and he only wanted to see them from a good distance. He loved the petting zoo of course...which led to a total meltdown when it was time to say good-bye.