Halloween Hangover

I love Halloween. I think I may even like it more than my kids.  I love to decorate and make lots of spooky treats.  However, this year I am so glad it is over!  It seemed to go on and on!



The festivities started Tuesday night when we made caramel apples for Ryker's school party on Wednesday.  He brought home A LOT of treats from that party and I hid them in the laundry room so he would not eat too many and get sick.  

Fast forward to Friday.  I was busy. Took Lancer to school, came home, cleaned up and then worked on Lancer's costume.  Ryker was having hot cocoa and playing in the playroom.......So I thought.  He was pretty quiet, so I knew something was up.  I went downstairs and he had found his candy.  There he was in the family room, dancing around scattered candy wrappers and a big puddle of spilled cocoa. I had just been up until 2 am the Monday before cleaning that carpet.  So I was not in the best of moods.  I was scared that he was going to get a tummy ache, but I had to hurry and get him ready to go pick up Lancer from a half day of school, and then take Ryker out to Layton for a birthday party. 

Sharks love birthday parties!

 After he went to the party, we were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch.  But when I picked him up he was really whiny and said he had a tummy ache (big surprise), so we ended up just buying some pumpkins at the store and then staying home for the night.

Instead of getting sick from eating too much candy, he ended up getting my cold and having asthma issues.  I am so thankful that our pediatrician set us up with a nebulizer in August.  It makes his asthma so much easier to deal with. Anyway, Saturday he ended up sleeping on the couch most of the day.  By the time it was time to get dressed for trick or treating, he was feeling better and ready to go.  However, he did say he didn't want anymore "junk".  

Showing family all the candy we were
giving out

Lancer went as Eddie Munster this year.  I love that my kid likes to have fun and original costumes.  I spent hours on the costume, and I think he looked pretty good. 

He even had pointy ears



 

He loved making people guess who he was, and it was amazing how many people knew!  As a tradition, we used to go to my Nana's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating, but since she has gotten older and my grandpa is gone, now we have her and my parents over to our house.
This year it rained and Lancer's black hair ran down his face and smeared his make-up. Rain or not, nothing was stopping that kid from getting his candy.  We braved the wet weather and stayed out for a couple of hours.  He got a lot of candy, but since I hid both of their bags, neither one of them has asked for any candy.

Richie got really into handing out treats this year.  He sat on the porch with his mask on, looking pretty scary.  When Lancer saw that, he immediately took over scaring the neighborhood kids.  Even though I thought Richie had totally bought too many bags of candy,  we had more kids than last year and ended up giving it all away.

By Sunday, we were exhausted.  One more Halloween is over and I am glad.  My kids told me they already want me to start on next years costumes.  I think I will wait until after Christmas.

The Duke Boys...

So Lancer had not heard the story about Ryker watching the Dukes of Hazzard.  So the other day we were on our way home from school, Lancer starts this conversation with me.

Lancer "Mom, how hard is it to change my name?"
Me "I don't know, like from Lancer to Lance?"
Lancer "No, I mean change my name to something else."
Me  "Like what?"
Lancer "Bo"
Me "Bo?"
Lancer "Yeah, you know, like Bo Duke"
Me "You are not changing your name to Bo."
Lancer " Yeah it would be awesome. Then we could change Rykers name to Luke."

Seriously?  Come on.  Although if it would mean they would finally get along, I will not let them change their name, but I may consider buying a 68 Dodge Charger.

Note to self......

5 year olds probably should not watch The Dukes of Hazzard.  While canning tomatoes this afternoon, I turned the TV on to keep Ryker busy.  He was watching a old episode of Scooby-Doo.  A while later, while my hands were deep in blanched tomatoes, he came into the kitchen and told me he wanted to ask me a secret question.  I bent over and he whispered "Can I drive your car?"  Whaaaaaatttt?  So I said "Yes Ryker, in 11 years you may drive my car." He thought about that for a second and then said  "Well I'm bored. Can I shoot my brothers BB Gun?" 

I washed my hands and took him out of the kitchen. Then I saw he had switched the channel and was watching The Dukes of Hazzard.  It was paused on a part of the show that looked kind of like this......

I am in so much trouble when these boys are old enough to drive.

YEEEEEEE-HAAAAWWWWW!!!!!

Lancer is 9!

This week we celebrated Lancer's 9th Birthday.  I cannot believe how fast time flies.  It seems like only yesterday he was born.

One day old. He looks thrilled to be wearing that hat.

A few things about Lancer that you may or may not know.
Lancer has three nicknames.  1.Toad, which my grandpa started calling him when he was born.  2. Lance, which he prefers his friends call him., and 3. Eggyball, which is what he used to call Easter eggs when he was little. (Shown in the video below.)

Lancers favorite thing to do is to hang out at the Ranch. He likes to ride horses and help my dad work, or take walks with my mom.

Riding his buddy Moose. Thanksgiving 2007

Like Ryker's birthday, Lancer's big day has lasted longer than 24 hours.

This year, his class held a celebration of life for him and Richie and I got to go.  It was so fun to tell stories of his childhood and to watch each kid to tell him something nice for his birthday.  One little girl told him "I like that you are so good at tether ball." I started laughing. All I could picture was Lancer outside playing tether ball, looking like Napoleon Dynamite.  In the 4th grade, however, I guess that is quite a compliment.

Since Lancer's horse died last month, I decided to make him a horse cake.  It was a surprise and he loved it even though it did not look that great. Horse cakes are REALLY HARD!

It kinda looks like a horse, right?

 For dinner he wanted "Chicken legs, just like they have at the Maverick." I was not sure what he meant, but  finally I figured spicy fried chicken would be close enough. It was for him  We also had corn on the cob, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Spice Cake+ Lime Ricky Ice Cream=Yummy!



Lancer got some clothes, a new wii game and an i-pod charger/alarm clock. Pretty nice birthday.

Happy Birthday Eggyball!  I am so proud to be your mom. You are a wonderful kid!

  

Boogie Boarding in Hawaii, March 2010



Ryker turns 5!

I cannot believe that my baby is 5!  Having Ryker has been an amazing experience.  When I first got pregnant with him I was so incredibly sick.  I lived on vegetarian pizza and pickles.  Then after 5 months it all the sickness stopped and it turned great.  On more than one occasion I had to go to my docs office because I could not feel him move, he was just so quiet.  He was also so much smaller than Lancer was, but I unfortunately, was still the same size.



The morning I had him.



The quiet stopped the minute he was born.  Since that day he had been on the go non-stop.



The day he came home from the hospital. 

We nicknamed him Goonga. I'm not sure what it means, but it is from the movie Caddy Shack, and it just seems to fit him.

 He reminds me of Fudge in the Judy Blume books. No baby proofing could stop this kid from getting into things that he should not.  You name it and this kid has probably done it.  He keeps us on our toes.  But he is also such a sweet child who fills our days with laughter. When he is at school, or visiting grandparents, our house seems so empty and I miss him instantly

If you are feeling down or sad about anything, he knows just what to do to make you feel better.  On more than one occasion, Ryker has made a grumpy waitress or random stranger smile or laugh with just a look.

 

Ryker did this at the baseball game and even the grumpy guy behind us laughed.

He has been excited for his birthday for a long time.  Like most of our birthdays, it lasted a lot longer than one day.

So right before Ryker's birthday, Lancer came home from school with a nasty tummy bug. Since it was a weekend, he was up at my parents house.  My mom told me not too worry( cuz I do!), he seemed to be OK and she thought it was fine for him to stay.  He seemed better the next day, and so we went on with the birthday plans.
So on the birthday, Ryker told me what he wanted me to make for his dinner. Homemade chicken noodle soup, his favorite rolls, and a SpongeBob birthday cake. Seemed easy enough.  First I made the cake and it was harder than I thought! I think it was too hot in my kitchen because the icing would not set up and my homemade noodles kept sticking together and I had to make a last minute trip to the store to buy frozen ones.  Finally we packed it all up and headed up to my parents.  I had put the cake in a cake box and held it on my lap in the car.  I guess I held it too tight, because by the time we got there, SpongeBob's face was pretty much unrecognizable. Good thing I took a picture of the cake before I ruined it!



SpongeBob before the accident.



Before dinner, Ryker played around and fed the animals.  I made him wait until after dinner to open presents.
While we were eating, my mom commented she did not feel well and thought she was getting Lancer's bug.  I tend to  freak out at the thought of anyone being sick,  and the possibility of anyone else getting sick that I panicked and forgot to take any pictures of my little one opening his presents!



Ryker getting really excited at the thought of cake

 Happy Birthday Goonga!!! I am so blessed to be your Momma!





First day of Preschool this year







Red Rocks, Rivers and Receptions

I know it has been forever since I posted, but it has been a crazy couple of months.

School Started...



Lancer starting the 4th grade



 

Ryker's first day of Preschool

Weddings and Baseball Games...

Our niece Alyssa

 

Bumble and the boys

We have also been prepping for ski season (See ya Snowbasin Alpine Team, The Rouglah's are headed to Snowbird!), Hubby is changing work, yard work, canning,etc. We needed a break.

So last weekend we took a trip to Moab to attend our friend Justin's wedding. We left Ryker at home with my parents and took Lancer, getting some quality time with our (soon to be) 9 year old.

Richie has been in the process of changing companies and so he was pretty stressed out.  He was weighing different options, and I hoped he would be able to "check out" and have a good time.
Friday morning about 36 of us along with the bride and groom, headed out for a day long river rafting trip.

36 people crammed in a old school bus-
Brought me right back to high school

I had never been on one before and it was so much fun. I can't wait to do another one again soon. Lancer loved it, but wished the rapids were higher. He really wanted to fall out of the boat. The guides of our 4 rafts fixed us an amazing lunch, and then guide taught lancer how to row the boat.

Lancer and Jay our guide

After a long but awesome day, we headed back to the hotel. When I called to check on Ryker, I got some horrible news that definitely put a damper on the day. While Ryker and my mom were feeding the horses that morning, they found our old horse moose had suddenly gotten very sick. The vet ended up having to come and put him to sleep. I was so sad that I wasn't there to say goodbye to him. I was even sadder that I had to break the news to Lancer that his best buddy was no longer with us. He took it as I expected. Let's just say he kept his sunglasses on for the rest of the night, and kept asking the waitress at dinner for more napkins. We talked about doing some kind of memorial to Moose, which Lancer liked and made him feel a little better.
Then next day we went to Arches National Park.

Delicate Arch

 We hiked around looking at the amazing scenery, but Lancer was not into hiking around for very long. We just wanted to get back to the hotel pool! I could have stayed there all day, but we gave in and left early so Lancer could swim and I could start getting ready for the wedding.



The wedding was very beautiful but HOT!!! Richie and I wore matching clothes by total accident.

Mr and Mrs Rouglah

Right after the ceremony we went and changed our clothes. Did I mention how hot it was?  After some fish tacos we were much more relaxed and ready to get our groove on.  

 Lancer seemed to be channeling John Travolta  because that boy danced. He was dancing on rocks, dancing on chairs, and dancing with all the ladies. He even did some dancing air guitar!  He seemed to entertain everyone.

The best part of the trip was that that my hubby got to get away from the stress of work and spend some time with his good friends. Since he has moved from SLC, he does not see these guys very often, and his good friend Frank recently moved to Moab to open a new sushi restaurant. Frank was able to come to the wedding and I was so glad to see Richie having such a good time.

Richie, Frank, and Johnny





Our Summer Vacation

It has been a busy summer at our house. We have been to Montana and Yellowstone, baseball
games and zoos. Did I mention how much time we have spent in the water? Between swimming lessons, pool parties, and boating, we all are a dermatologists nightmare.

Lancer found his dream car just outside Big Sky, Montana.
(No really, this IS his dream car!)

We had some awesome buffalo burgers at the Corral in Big Sky, Montana.

Spent some time with our cousins in Billings, Montana.

Did you know Bears in the Billings Zoo like White Cheddar popcorn?

Slip-n-Sliding in our backyard.

An indoor water park in Billings, Montana.

Swimming at a friends house.

Lancer on the high-dive at Dr. Iverson's pool party.
(I won a sweet snow cone machine at this party.)

Tubing on grandpa's boat.

The Summer is only half over. I think more swimming is in our future.