IHOP- Year 1

Cody was on the roof of IHOP doing a service call when I called him and told him that we were getting Mason and Chloe, FOREVER!! Now every time he drives past IHOP that's what he thinks about. That being said, Sept. 26th is the anniversary of the day we got Mason and Chloe and we decided what better way to celebrate than to go to IHOP and eat!!

 Mason super excited to be here, literally!

 Chloe kept looking at daddy and saying "cheese" everytime

 Gavin

 This was the actual IHOP who's roof he was standing on. We were there late so the picture is pretty dark obviously. Next year we'll have to make it closer to our real dinner time.

The reason why we were late!!

Cody spent the day getting my parents house ready for their new propane furnace, but this BEAST was in the way and gave him a run for his money!! It barely fit through the doors and left a trail of black soot along the way. Cody was sooo dirty by the time we left. I put towels on my seat and he stripped at the back door of our house to go shower.

Salamander

Cody was down in my parents crawl space mapping out how he  is going to run the gasline for their new furnace and he found a salamander. At first he thought it was a snake because he could only see it's head but luckily it was just a friendly non-biting salamander.

 Gavin was super excited! So excited that I got him away from his favorite airplane game on grandma's Wii

 Chloe didn't know what to think at first

 Then she wanted to give it a kiss!!

She kept calling it a "bug"

 Mason copying Chloe by trying to kiss it before mom intervened

 Chloe petting it

We put some water in the truck for him

We put him back to go find his family when we were done, but the kids sure had fun playing with him! I love unexpected things like this, it reminds me of when I was a kid and we would find salamanders, frogs, mice, etc.

Pinterest Strikes Again!

I Love Pinterest!

My creative mind is not so creative anymore so I love having it to get my creative juices flowing again. I loved both of these wreaths that I found on Pinterest:

I really liked the black and orange together, but I also loved the eyeballs, they were fun! So I combined them, added a little extra pizzaz and VIOLA!!

My version of the wreath!!

I wanted the wreath fluffy and I liked this orange ribbon better than the other and when I found the colorful eyes I got all giddy in the isle!! I love how it turned out!!

59!

Sunday was my dad's birthday, he turned 59!!

 Blowing out his candles with some help from Mason

We all pitched in and got him a new helmet for riding his motorcycle, snowmobile and maybe even his riding lawnmower (not really)! It has all sorts of crazy features that I didn't even know helmets had, pretty amazing.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Next year is the BIG

60!!

Great Grandma Gallup

 Gavin, Mason and Chloe with their 89 year old 

Great Grandma (Eva) Gallup

 I loved watching the interaction between Chloe and Grandma

 Warming up to her

Cody's siblings and Mom with Grandma 

(They made me fill in for Cody)

Back Row: Maycee, Sadie, Cassie, Connelly, Kaylee, Evan (baby), Chloe, and Teri

Front Row: Lukas, Grandma Eva, Cherie

Rub-a-dub-dub Cousins in the Tub

 We did Mohawks again!

We put Megan in at the last minute and she was having fun until Chloe splashed her literally 1 second before I took the picture

Gavin, Madisen, Mason, Chloe and Megan

Random

 I love that Mason wears his sunglasses upside down

 The stroller is Mason's new toy, he wants to push it everywhere and he doesn't care who is in it

 Chloe loves it because she is usually the one getting pushed

 My niece was in Chloe's crib so I put Chloe to "sleep" on the extra bed in her room. This is what my sister found when she went to get Megan to take her home. Apparently Chloe wasn't sleeping after all!

My messy messy girl!

Eastern Idaho State Fair

Yummy Yummy Ice cream!

The Turkey - by Gavin

Who doesn't love fair food?

Let the rides begin!

Gavin had all kinds of rides picked out to go on, but unfortunately he was too short to go on a lot of them. We did find a Ferris wheel that he was tall enough to go on

Up Up and Away

Hands up!

Look at those smiles!

Happy Boys

L-O-V-E all my boys!!

Mason & daddy

Proof that Chloe & I were here too!

Shark Attack!

We heard there was a shark show & couldn't leave without letting the boys see it

Gavin milked this cow no problem but refused to milk a real cow when he had the chance too

 My little farm boy

Mason & Chloe kept trying to kiss the goats and Mason really did get kissed by one of them before we left

Gavin was obsessed with the tarantulas at McKee's and he wanted to hold one really bad, but was too scared. Then the man said, "let's have your mom hold it first and then you can." I have never been soo scared in all of my life!! I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest it was beating so hard and fast, but I held it to be brave for my little man!!

Surprisingly it was really soft, but it still freaked me out!

My Brave Boy

Now the only problem is he won't stop talking about it. He told me he wants to draw a picture of it so he can send it to Santa with his letter. That way Santa will know exactly what he wants. Good thing Christmas is months away, maybe he will forget about it! Cross your fingers!

These are 2 of the 30+ pictures that Gavin took of the Zebu

Gavin said his favorite parts were the Ferris wheel, tarantula and sharks.