FHE: Carving Pumpkins

Tonight for our Family Home Evening activity we carved pumpkins. This is always fun, because eventually Livvy cries because her pumpkin isn't perfect, Harris is more interested in watching The Great Pumpkin, and I break out in hives. (I'm allergic to pumpkins) But what would Halloween be without carving pumpkins?

Can you tell who is carved into the pumpkins?

Chet's Inaugural Post

So, Jaime pointed out to me that our URL is chetandjaime.blogspot.com and that there was some serious lack of chet. At first I thought she was swearing at me, but then I realized she meant she wanted me to add a little. So, keeping with the theme of this blog I will limit my posts to anecdotal updates on our regular family life. (I will save my other rantings about life, philosophy, religion and politics for my personal blog, soon to come of course)

Today, Harris and I had some father/son time while the girls went out and purchased a new sunday outfit for Liv.

Harris absolutely loves dinosaurs, he always has. His favorite books have always been fact books on dinosaurs. He likes stories (Dr. Suess etc.) but absoutely loves to sit and hear facts about all sorts of dinos. His favorite is a little known carnivorous biped named Coelophysis. Why exactly he has picked this as his favorite I don't know, but he always picks it out in the various dinosaur books we have. I wonder why he shuns the more "commercial" dinosaurs like T-rex and Stegosaurus and think this may indicated some sort of tendency to root for the underdog.

Anyway, Harris and I spent the majority of the morning reading various facts about dinosaurs and decided to spend the afternoon at one of Harris' favorite locations, "The North American Museum of Ancient Life". For those of you that don't know, this museum is a huge dinosaur museum in a local location called Thanksgiving Point. We did many cool things at the museum today; we ate lunch at their cafe (Harris had dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets), we viewed the various fossils, we spent some time in their erosion exhibit where Harris got the chance to play with sand and water, (see below)

and he also had the chance to "dig" for fossils in the fossil dig exhibit. (see below)

 
We had a great time. I love being able to spend some one-on-one time with the boy. (I am currently in the planning phase for a daddy/daughter date, more on that to come)
Once we finished up at the museum we weren't done yet. Thanksgiving Point is also hosting a seasonal attraction called, "Cornbelly's". Cornbelly's main attraction is a huge corn maze shaped like David Archuleta (awesome, I know) but also has lots of things for kids to do like this giant jumping pillow thing (see below)

And this crazy room chock full of popcorn kernels (again, see below)

Yip, an ocean of dried corn...

Anyway, by the end of the day (around 3 in the afternoon) Harris was exhausted. The problem was that we still hadn't done the actual maze yet (you know, the main attraction) and I was quite determined that we do it (heaven forbid I wouldn't get the chance to get lost somewhere in Archie's left nostril...). So, this final photo I offer to you was the reaction I got from Harris and will officially end this post, enjoy.

Chrys EMO?

In my post yesterday I referred to Chet's little brother, Chrys, as "emo". Since that post there has been some question as to whether or not he really is. Here are the reasons why he may or may not be "emo".

EMO

1. His love of black clothing.
2. His love for the lead singer of Paramore.
3. His love for guyliner.

Not EMO

1. His love of Disneyland
2. His love for my kids.
3. His love of Disneyland.
4. He recognizes that the previous post, calling him "emo", is a joke.

Chet's Nana and Snow

Ever since Olivia was born, we have gone to the Robinson's once a week for family dinner. Having a weekly dinner has given our kids the opportunity to form close relationships with their grandparents and uncles. Even their "emo" Uncle Chrys enjoys playing with them. :) Seriously though, my kids looove the time we spend at Papa's and Grandma Wendy's.

This week's dinner included a special guest, Chet's Nana, who was visiting from California. Nana used to live with the Robinson's but moved back to California about a year ago. We had a great time visiting and catching up. We miss her and it was good to see her. Love you, Nana!

Also, we had our first official snow storm on Saturday night. The kids were so excited. Harris wanted to build a snowman. I had to explain that there wasn't enough snow. He was mad, but it was all melted by the time church was over, so he got over it. I don't think I am ready for the cold. I am, however, excited for all of the fun holidays coming up! We even got our Christmas lights up on the house! We didn't do it. We have Lights Up do it for us. It was either now or not until after Thanksgiving. Since we will be out of town after Thanksgiving it had to be now.

Happy Holiday's! ;)

Field Trip

Today I went with Olivia on her field trip to the North County Equestrian Park. We had a great time. We got to go to different agricultural stations and hear from USU FFA students. I actually learned some things. We got to watch dogs herd ducks! "Why ducks?" you ask. I have no idea! It was so cute though, and the kids thought it was hysterical!

It was also great to be with Liv. It is fun to see her interact with all of her girlfriends. Boys, fortunately, are still "ehh". However, there are two boys (Kobe and DJ) in her class that won't leave her alone. It makes her crazy! For example, when we sat down to watch the herding demonstration one sat on each side of her! (pictured) Then during one of the stations, when I was standing with Kobe and his mom, Kobe said to me "I wish Olivia was in my group." It was funny.

UPDATE

Harris is fine, but looks like he got punched in the face now. There isn't a bump anymore, but the bruising spread from his forehead to his nose, eyes and cheek. Poor baby!

Our Family Hobby

For those of you who know us, you know that we LOVE Disneyland, and know that we go as much as possible. One of our favorite things to do there is to find characters, the more random the better. I decided that a slide show of all the characters we have seen over the years would be fun. There are some of the same characters on there more than once because, depending on the time of year, and where you see them, they have different outfits on. There would be more, but on our trip there in January I accidentally dropped the camera and broke it. Which was really sad because we had seen several characters that we hadn't seen before or since. We look forward to our December trip because there will be a new character greeting spot where you can meet all the Disney Fairy's! So check back on the slide show for character updates!

OUCH!!!

So tonight was Sunday dinner as usual at the Robinson's, until Harris decided that his bar stool was a "swing". Needless to say he fell off and the stool hit him right in the center of the forehead. After the initial shock and the crying that followed he felt fine. He didn't look fine, but he felt fine. Except when he went to bed he said "Mommy my bump hurts so much." :( The pictures are a progression of "The Bump" as the night wore on. I think that if it doesn't look better in the morning I will take him to the doctor though.