Paintball Fun-

Rhett took Thoch paintballing while she was here one evening with a bunch of guys. I was a little worried about how she would hold up. She was so nervous that I thought she may chicken out, but she went through with it and had a good time.

Rhett was hiding behind something and peeked out and got shot right in the bald spot. OUCH! He came home and was covered in blood. Poor guy. He said everyone had a blast though. He hasn't been in so long that it was fun for him to get to play again. He got a couple bruises on his arm and head, but still had a huge grin on his face. I'm glad they had a good time together. I forgot to get a babysitter so I stayed home with the kids. :( Rhett had a really great time though and promised he would take me next time. They had dinner afterwards and had hamburgers. Thoch only got confused once by asking to pass the tomato sauce. She meant ketchup. :) She said some funny words and phrases here. We understood most of what she said, but a couple times it was weird. She did have a very thick accent though and sometimes I had her repeat stuff. By the end of the week I could understand her really good!

Thoch's visit-

The next day we took Thoch to see a few fun spots. We started off heading to the one of the many castle ruins of Okinawa. Thoch seemed impressed and the little ones loved getting out of the house and running around. I really worked her poor calves out. There was a TON of stairs and hills. 

I LOVE this picture of the boys. They were up at the top of these large stairs. Their expressions are priceless. Ryker looked so determined while Hunter looked a little less sure. :)

Thoch was really funny. She felt like she was in America again and she was so excited. I have never seen anyone so excited to go to the shopette with me.

She loved beef jerky, chex mix, and any american lollies. (Candy) She was just amazed at all the different kinds of sweets we had.

She also thought Halloween was such a weird thing. We tried to explain all the funny traditions with it.

Taylor is such a little heartbreaker. He loved leading the way and picking every flower within reach to give to Thoch! :)

Meet Thoch-

As I mentioned in an earlier post we had a visitor come and stay with us for just over a week. Her name is Thoch, pronounced Talk. Rhett and his companion met Thoch 11 years ago while serving his mission in Australia. They have remained friends throughout the years through email and facebook. She actually was really excited to come and meet the family while we were living in Las Vegas. She planned her trip to the states and had a great time, but by the time she made it down to Las Vegas we had already moved to Japan. We missed her by just over 2 weeks. 

When she heard we were living in Japan she decided to come over and see us and meet the whole family. It was a little weird to try and explain who she was to the kids. I sat them down and we talked about missions and where Daddy served his. We talked about baptism and that Rhett baptized Thoch. I then explained that she was coming to stay with us for a week or so. I was feeling pretty proud of myself . I felt like I did such a great job explaining who she was UNTIL Carter pipes up, "Oh so Daddies girlfriend is coming to stay with us." I quickly corrected him and explained that Daddy is married to me and doesn't have any girlfriends but me. :)

Anyway, we were excited to have her come and stay. Rhett had to work the first few days she was here so she got the kid friendly tour of the island with me and the little boys. We started by taking her to the zoo. :) A favorite of the kids. 

 My sweet little poser- Taylor took the tour extremely serious and made sure that Thoch didn't miss anything. They showed her the bats, elephants, monkeys, lions, and giraffes. He was excited to show her the crocodiles, but she wasn't too impressed with them. :) She is from Australia so she has seen many huge crocodiles way too close for comfort. She had some crazy stories to share with us. I sure love my little Taylor. He melts my heart everyday and I dread the day that he goes to school for full days. I will miss my little buddy!

 We even got to show Thoch a couple spiders. She said that Australia has some pretty wicked spiders too. We got to watch them feed the giraffes. It was cool that they were so close. :) We have fed them before, but Thoch was shocked by how close you get to the animals.

We had a fun surprise while we were there and they let us feed the hippos. They gave us some hay to throw into their mouths. It was a cool experience. I can't believe how huge their teeth are. I'm sure they could have eaten a baby whole! :)

We made Thoch stand in front of the emu because that's what she has on her passport. We teased her saying that the Eagle is way cooler!

Watching the giraffes eat. It looks like I was way zoomed in, but nope.... we actually were that close!

We couldn't let Thoch leave Japan without the traditional ride on the Hello Kitty go kart. I put her with Ryker to get the whole effect. He made sure to run her into the wall several times. Good times!

I need a new bed-

I wake up to these cute little faces every morning. Am I lucky or what?

Now if I could only figure out how to keep them in their own beds.

Happy Halloween 2011

With the help of Melanie running around like crazy in St. George finding costumes I present my "SUPER" kids.

Taylor a.k.a Batman-

 Ryker a.k.a. Spiderman-

















Hunter a.k.a. Captain America-

Carter a.k.a. Ironman-

Seriously I couldn't imagine a more "Fantastic Four."

I let the kids pick out their own costumes this year and I thought it was cute that they all came up with similar choices. It has been fun as they get older to watch the Marvel movies with the kids.

Lets take a closer look at those beauties-

I'm not quite sure where Ironman took off to. We were at the branch trick or treat and he was "too good for us."

I love that both babies had to check in their bag and make sure that they did indeed get a treat. I was a very proud Mama. They made sure to say thank you for every treat!

Can you tell that I didn't have a costume. I cut out ears and made myself into a cat. I had on black leggings with high black boots. My poor nose make up had already rubbed off in this picture, but the kids loved it.

We went over to Fabi and James' house for Halloween night. It was fun to trick or treat with them and hand out candy. They opened the gates and we had over 800 trick or treaters. We totally ran out of candy to hand out. It was incredible to see so many people. We just took the kids up the street and back. They got about 10 treats and it was perfect! They had such a great time. They LOVE Fabi.

Rhett dressed up as Michael again this year and was a hit. He had fun handing out candy with James and really enjoyed all the compliments on his huge pumpkin.

I love that Hunter is smelling the pixie stick. lol. They had me smell a lot of candy wrappers too. They had a great Halloween.

Thanks Melanie for the costume crisis help. You were a lifesaver! We sure love and miss all the Family. Hope everyone had a good Halloween! :)

Let the carving BEGIN-

Every year I say that this is the last year that we will carve pumpkins, but every year as the kids beg to get a pumpkin I always seem to cave. The reasons I hate carving pumpkins with little kids are (1) I have to do all the carving. (2) I have to clean them all out. (3) It's messy.

This year we had won that huge pumpkin and I made Rhett do it himself. :) I did the other 5 with the kids. I made them all help clean out the guts. It was AWESOME!

Check out his facial expression. Can you say totally excited to do it?!? Or maybe that's his, "You want me to what?" face. Either way... I got my way and made it a family event! :)

 Carter got that tiny thing from school and wanted us to carve it. Yeah right! He is such a little stinker. Hunter had fun picking his out to carve. He was my happy little helper.

 Rhett working hard carving away at the monster pumpkin. It has a lot less guts than I had thought it would. It was mostly empty. He picked out three designs to put on it. He didn't like the way it turned out and wished he had just made one big design instead, but people really liked it and he had compliments right and left. So many people had their kids take a picture with it at the trunk or treat and on Halloween night. It was definitely a huge HIT! Job well done sweetheart. He has already said that next year he's going to buy one if the kids can't win one. :)

 These are the finished products. I left it up to the kids to pick exactly what they wanted. Carter picked a huge letter C with a spider. Taylor wanted a T made of bones and a bat. Hunter just wanted a BIG bat. Ryker just wanted his name on it. :)

We had a fun time and this is the first year that I can honestly say that next year we will be carving pumpkins as a family. It went pretty smooth and the kids had an absolute ball when we lit them all up. What a fun little activity!

Happy Halloween!

Pictures of costumes soon to come-

Rhett's Birthday Party!

I am still a couple of weeks behind on the blog. In the middle of October, Rhett had a birthday and turned 32. We had a big Halloween Party for his birthday. It was packed with balloons, cake, games, and tons of ice cream. We like that Daddy lets us pick the theme for his party.

He had a special guest come all the way from Australia to be here for his birthday. Her name is Thoch. When Rhett served his mission in Australia 11 years ago he baptized her and they have been forever friends. She came out to meet the family and visit with Rhett for about a week. It was fun to have her here.

We had Julie make us another cake. She made the babies and it tasted AMAZING. I told her to work her magic on something "Spooky." She did amazing. Not only did she brew us up something magical in this witches cauldron- complete with spiders and worms, but it was one of the best tasting cakes ever! The kids loved to look at it and we were completely impressed with her skills. Thank you Julie! You never disappoint!

Happy Birthday Baby! You mean the world to me. I have had so much fun with you this year and can't wait to see the excitement that next year holds for our sweet little family. You are truly my best friend and I'm thankful for that daily. Thanks for always being there for my ups and downs. You are the perfect shoulder to cry on. Please can you try to tame your little monsters though. They are killing me! :)

I got up really early and posted little love notes all over the house for Rhett to find. He had fun collecting them and reading all the many things that I truly love about him. He also got lots of treats for presents. Thoch brought Rhett about 9 packages of Tim Tams from Australia and a huge thing of Milo. The kids picked out lots of chocolate for his office and a large case of monsters so the "old" man can keep up with them. I then bought him a GPS watch so he can run off all those treats. ;)

He had a really great day!

Lots more to come on our fun adventures with Thoch! :)