Lots and lots of Snow

Winter came early to Utah!! A November snow storm dumped 7 inches one week and the next another 13!!! And cold, brrrrrrrrr.

The blocked kick heard throughout Utah

I finnaly got my way and went to the last Utah football game. It was against BYU. It was supper cold but a lot of fun.



After the blocked punt that won us the game I even got to storm the field for the first time ever! Wahoo! Go Utes!

Over the Hill! Or at lease climbing to the Top

I turned another year older. I swear I woke up this morning to a gray eye brow! Seriously! My gray hair line as officially moved to the bang area, and will no longer be hidden by the bi monthly coloring job.

But besides that I had a good day. JD and I had a yummy dinner at my favorite Rodizio Grill and then spent the night a hotel near the Gateway. I wasn't feeling too well, and ended up staying awake most of the night coughing, so the next day the family let me take a 2 hour nap. You know you're old when you are thrilled to be able to take a nap in the middle of the day.

Later that night I blew out the candles on my apple pie and we munch down the carmel apples that JD and the kids made me.

Thanks guys for a great day!

The Boy Who Lived!

I was so super excited when JD surprised me and my kids with premiere tickets to the new Harry Potter movie. We were able to see it earlier before the midnight showing. I'm pretty sure I was more excited than the kids. We arrived 2 hours early. So we wandered the mall, ate ice cream, looked at the real owl that was walking around and played inside the children's museum for a bit. Then we grabbed our popcorn and drinks and headed to the movie!

I just love the world the Rawlings has created.

Happy Halloween!

We battle the rain and cold to trick or treat in this year. The kids are all older now and we were able to cover a lot more ground this year in less time. They made out like bandits since the rain kept more people off the streets, lots of houses gave them handfuls of goodies.

I won! I won!

I was so excited when I recieved an email that I had wone "Her Secret Symmetry" by Audrey Neffenegger. I loved her book "The Time Traveler's Wife" and couldn't wait to read this for a spooky Halloween read. It came one day before Halloween, and turned out to not be as spooky as I was hoping. Actually it didn't turn out to be as good as I was hoping either.

Sick kidos

The week before Halloween was rough for the Rex's. More throwing up than one mom can handle.

All my bowls were divided out amoungst the sicko's. They were carried around and slept with by the whole clan. Good times! Thanks ward party for the extra special treat.

They finally did what we said!

JD cleaned out the hot tub....Well, he turned his duties over to Avery and Halle. I assumed he gave them instructions on how to do it. Little did I know they use dish soap to clean the bottom of the empty hot tub. And a lot of it. Which they didn't rinse off.

So, when JD filled the hot tub up with water and turned on the jets, here's what we got.

Emergency preparedness drill

Our kids school took part in an emergency preparedness drill. The tosh hospital and 2 fire departments were involved. Parents had to come to the school and find their children out in the playground/field and sign the children out. Just like if there was a disaster. They filled part of the school with smoke to give the fire men a chance to work in real live conditions. Some of the kids were given fake wounds and have to be triaged and actually were taken by ambulance to the hospital. My kids weren't chosen for any of these escapades, to their dismay. It was a crazy sight to see though.
Fire men are so cool!

The array of ambulances and firetrucks.

The poor people driving by that didn't know that this was a drill! There were kids on gurnies everywhere covered in sheets! Just crazy!

Utah in the fall....

The two little ones and I took a drive up the canyon to see the fall leaves. The higher we went the brighter the colors. These pictures can't do it justice. The leaves were so bright yellow the mountains looked like they were on fire. It was breath taking.

Panda-rific!

Now that it's just me and Carson some days, I like to treat him to some special one on one time. This day I asked him if he wanted to go to lunch. I offered to go somewhere healthy and he responded with "Is orange chicken healthy?" I assured him it's healthier when he shares it with me. So we drove over to Panda Express to share some orange chicken. As we're walking into the store he looks up and me and says, "this in Panda-rific!" Oh how I love this little guy.

Craft time!

For a slow afternoon craft, me and the kids decided to make our own crayons. At first the kids thought I was crazy. But in the end they were so excited with their multi colored crayons, they walked away thinking I'm a genius.

We started by finding all the old broken crayons and removing all the paper. Then we broke the crayons up into small pieces.

The kids then picked out the array of colors for their new crayons and we placed them in a mini cupcake tin. I turned the oven on low and placed the tin inside. We baked them for about 10 minutes until they were all melted down. We took them out and put them in the fridge to set.

..............and waaa laaa, we have new mulit colored crayons.

And happy kids!

Quality time with mom

As a last ode to summer I took my little man to Wheeler Farm for some pictures, animal petting and exploring. We had so much fun, just the 2 of us. We haven't had much time to spend one on one, since, well, since he was born. So now with Halle in school we get to spend more quality time together. On the way out he was holding my hand, swinging my arm and looked up at me and said, "mom this is the best activity we did all summer." I ask why that was and he said "cuz it's just you and me." Then he finished with, "do you think we can do this every year before school starts?" I smiled and said, "of course." But, really how many more years will my little guy want to spend alone time with his mama at the farm? I want to cry each day this little boy grows older. I am holding on to his childhood so tight, I don't what I will do when he finally out grows me.

Easton is 10!

I am the mother of a 10 year old!!!

My Easton where to start? The child came into this world 10 past his expiration date kicking and screaming. He never slept through the night until he was 2 and was given a real pillow top mattress to sleep on. He never like to play with trucks or blocks or toys of any kind. He loved to read books, throw balls, watch movies and the computer. In ten years, not much has changed.

This boy taught himself to read at age 5 by playing on the internet and hasn't stopped since. He LOVES to read. I think more than anything else in the world. We have a little contest to see who can read the most books. He read 12 books over the summer and is now diving into the Lord of the Rings. I'll let him win me on those.

Easton is a highly intelligent child. JD and I are pretty sure that he will be smarter than us by age 12 (if he isn't already). I see Ivy League in his future ( and big $$$$ in mine).

He excells is most everything he sets his mind too. Baseball, football, school, anything he tries at. EXCEPT, cleaning. Easton is the messiest child I have. The boy cannot find a garbage can, laudry basket or sink to save his life. He can tell you 10 animals that live in the african desert that start with the letter "T" but can't remember that he gave his football jersey to his coach to have his name put on the back of it until we've searched the house over for 90 minutes. He reads on an high school level, but can't figure out where he put the book that he set down 2 minutes ago.

I love this boy dearly and hope he knows that he is a very special person to us. I have loved watching him grow the past 10 years and can't wait to see where the next 10 take him.