Hallo-ween

Tonight we went to the church park for a Halloween party. We took 2 of our neighbor boys with us, Carlo & Jacob. 

Clayton was a hobo, Porter was a cowboy & Marlee was a chicken.

 

Chili & Cornbread dinner

 

Marlee had so much fun climbing on the massive tires.

 

Marlee is such a poser…she loves the camera. Her & Haley are the only girls in their preschool group.

 

Flying chicken

 

Marlee really loved this whole trunk or treating thing.

 

Oh look, it is the boys with our neighbors. I hardly saw them all night. I think they went around for candy like 7 times.

 

Marlee was amazed to see princess Snow White. I think we need to take her to Disneyland:)

 

This guy (not sure who he is…he is in the other ward we combined with) was determined to get his picture taken, so I let him know that Laun would love to have his picture taken with him. Then he asked me to take a solo picture of him, too.

 

Marlee totally cheated at the doughnut game, she grabbed it with her hands right from the start.

 

Love these two like crazy.

 

The kids got a ridiculous amount of candy. Clayton collected his in a kitchen pan, but I couldn’t ever manage to get a picture of him.

 

Marlee & her buddy Brigden (also in her preschool group), aka chicken & elephant. I swear these 2 have a crush on each other.

 

Now we have way too much candy in our house. I couldn’t manage to get a picture where all the kids were looking at the camera, one was always eyeing the candy. The kids had a great night.

visitors

Laun’s Aunt Michelle & Mom Lucy came in town today, we were so happy to visit with them. Michelle shared all these great memories & stories of Laun’s dad Michael. There was lots of tears. I loved hearing all these wonderful stories about Laun’s dad. I hope we see Aunt Michelle more often, especially since she lives in Show Low now.

 

Marlee really felt that she should be in the picture, too.

the archives

I found orange pictures of both Porter & Marlee…they are both almost 3 in these pictures. I guess cuteness runs in the family. Sure wish I had orange pictures of Clayton.

target practice

These boys were fighting all day & then I come out to find this:

These 2 love shooting the blow dart gun. They are using a manure bag as their target, nice.

Can you spot the difference between these two photos?

Hint: Marlee got into the googly eyes.

dove from above

Clayton took the dove he got & took the meat off it all by himself.

 

And then the boys made a fire.

 

Then Clayton breaded the dove meat all by himself & Laun cooked it.

 

The end result:

 

And as Clayton calls it, Dove from above!!! He made up & wrote down this recipe all by himself. If this kid put as much effort into his homework as he did into his hobbies, he would get straight A’s for the rest of his life.

home cookin’ by Laun

Laun is one of those guys that can do anything & cooking is no exception. This man can cook & we are well tonight.

He made breakfast for dinner…sausage egg breakfast sandwiches, homemade biscuits & hash browns.

 

He also breaded & cooked up the cottontail that Clayton got yesterday.

Black Hills

Laun always manages to find something fun for us to do on Saturday’s. Today we went to the Black Hills to hunt, hike & just be outdoors.

Here is my view from the truck of the boys on the lookout for quail.

 

On the run again:

 

Only Laun got a quail.

 

Then we drove to a hiking spot & Elderberry pretty much looked like this the entire time.

 

We went on a great hike.

 

The lighting was awesome the entire time we hiked…perfect for pictures.

 

Daddy’s girl

 

We went to an old mine to see the baby owls, but they weren’t there anymore. Wish we knew where their new home was, I would have loved to have seen them. The boys so them on their last  hike.

 

I held Laun’s gun for part of the time, since he held Marlee for so much of the hike.

 

Then we set up our camera on a rock to take some pictures, since I left the tripod in the truck.

No Clayton, we do not need any guns in the family picture:)

 

The picture turned out great, especially since I put the camera on a timer & ran in.

 

I love when the moon is out before the sun goes down.

 

Clayton requested that Laun take this picture-love it.

 

A couple failed attempts at getting some more family pictures.

Porter is hiding behind me & we didn’t get the moon in the picture like we wanted.

 

Second try- Porter is making some strange pose, Clayton is blocking the sun from getting into his eyes, Marlee is looking at the ground & our dog Elderberry was bugging Laun (probably because he got cacti in his mouth for like the millionth time…that dog never learns).

 

The girls

 

Love this man. This picture totally reminded us of our engagement picture. It was on a hike, around the sun going down & similar lighting/coloring. The only difference…we both weigh more than we did in that engagement picture almost 12 years ago, ha ha! So glad Clayton took some pictures of us.

 

Not sure what we are looking at or smiling at, but I love candid shots.

 

The boys did some shooting. Marlee wanted to know why she doesn’t have a gun.

 

What do you do when a gun is too long for you to shoot? Put it under your armpit of course. I love how Porter doesn’t let a thing get in the way of doing what he wants.

 

We finally spotted our truck, almost done with the hike.

 

Rock person & Porter

 

Loved watching the sunset.

 

We had a barb wire fence to cross on the hike, here is Laun climbing over it.

 

The kiddos & I

 

It was so beautiful out. Love going on family drives.

 

Laun spotted a cottontail & all the boys booked after it.

 

Clayton tagged it & Porter started crying because he has never shot an animal before. Laun calmed him down & told him he’d get a chance. This picture is blurry, but Porter’s devastation cracked me up.

 

Here comes Clayton running back with his cottontail. It really wasn’t that dark outside, but my camera always seems to make it look darker than it really is. Anyways, Clayton was so excited.

 

Clayton said he will always remember this day, when he got his first rabbit. Holy Cow…he is one handsome boy, almost young man.

 

Marlee just sucked her thumb while the boys were running about.

 

The sunset was awesome.

 

Minutes after Clayton shot the cottontail , Porter spotted a huge jack rabbit. He shot once & that sucker was gone. I am so impressed at what good shots my boys are, such studs!

 

We all got a good laugh at how huge the jack rabbit was compared to Porter.

 

Here Porter is freaking out because the jack rabbit is so heavy & he was afraid he was going to drop it.

 

The boys with their animals. We all thought it was funny how the taller you were the smaller the animal was that you shot.

 

I think my brother Andy said it well when he refers to Porter, “Not only is my rabbit bigger than my brother’s, it’s bigger than me!” Ha ha, so true. Such a fun  Saturday!