Halloween

The kids loved carving their pumpkins. Look carefully at the pumpkin on the right. Cole loves the Yankees (mostly because Ron loves the Red Sox) and since they were playing in the World Series on Halloween, he thought it would be a great jack-o-lantern. I'd have to agree. :)

Both kids went as China children. A special thanks to our fabulous neighbor who bought these outfits on her trip to China this past summer. Unfortunately, Cole left in a flurry with one of his buddies before I pulled out the camera so I didn't get a pic of him.

You can kind of tell by the look on her face, she didn't like the feeling of digging out the seeds and slime. She did like cutting though - she made me extremely nervous!

On the other hand...he LOVED the goo!

HOPE YOUR HALLOWEEN WAS FABULOUS.

Happy Birthday Ron, 29...again!

A few weeks ago I got a brainiac idea to have one of our local pilots take Ron for a spin in their plane for his birthday. It turned out that he ended up riding with a guy in this plane and doing all sorts of fun tricks in the air. It was a great surprise and I know he totally enjoyed it by the grin on his face. HAPPY BIRTHDAY sweetie...I love you!

Black Island Farms

Every year we enjoy going to Black Island Farms. It's such a fun place for the kids to play and also a great family field trip. This year, we had a HUGE group from our community take the trip out there all together. It was great. We had the day off school when all of Weber and Davis County was in school so there weren't that many people there.

The North wind made it VERY cold.

We had such a fun time and I saw a handful of students from my school class there. Everyone had a great time together.

Sweet Six (Going on Sixteen)

Time flies when you have such a fun girl like this...can't believe she's 6! Unfortunately I had Parent Teacher Conferences, but that put the ball in Ron's court and he did a great job running with it. They enjoyed a great daddy daughter date at Red Lobster and she LOVED the crab legs.

Harvest Carnival

Our community had a VERY fun Harvest Carnival and Chili cook-off. There were about 20 rooms with different activities and an awesome Spook Alley. You'd think that Cole would want to dress up as something other than a football player, but NO...he hasn't had enough. The balloon room was a fun idea. They sure were loud when they popped though. Luckily they only lost a few of those honkin' big things. Cayli liked wearing her outfit from China. We probably should've invested in some black hair paint.

Wangsgard Gathering

As our families get bigger and lives get busier, it's so hard to get everyone together. My Aunt Annette decided to get us all together again. We didn't have a large turn out, but it was GREAT to see those who did come. Here's a few pics of some of the fun activities we did.

Ron just LOVES me and my camera - OK, not my camera...he just humors me.

What a sweet guy!

Cayli totally loaded up from the pinata. Notice the bling on her shirt. We spent the morning at Cole's 2 football games and I told her if she has to wear a football shirt, we'll make it look good.

Oh, my dad. What a great guy. I feel so blessed to have a dad as amazing as him.

Cole LOVED getting back to his baseball swing as he tried to break this pinata. He eventually did break it for all the little ones and OH, you should've seen the candy! What fun.

I'm Going to Try to Be Better!

I love the honesty of my darling cousin Lori. We were laughing about blog stalkers, Facebook happenings and she expressed, in a sweet way, her disappointment in me that I never update my personal blog. Well, I'm going to re-commit to it. I will try to update my blog as often as I update my classroom blog. Thanks Lori :)

Labor Day BBQ

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Littlest Angel

Cayli and her friend Alexa have been dancing at Imagine Ballet Theatre since the fall and they were able to perform in their production of The Nutcracker. What a fun experience for them. For each performance the dancers were expected to arrive and depart the theatre in dresses. Don't they look beautiful?! (Sorry I caught you with your eyes closed Alexa.)

I didn't think to take photos during the dress rehearsals so I only have these images from my camera phone - UGH! No cameras were allowed during the performances. I've circled our "Littlest Angel" in each pic. I'll do better next time. IBT brought in a few guest dancers - boy, they AMAZING ballerinas! It was fun that Cayli was able to rub shoulders with such beautiful dancers. In all, they did the production 7 times in 2 weeks. It was quite the hectic schedule, but well worth it. Thanks IBT for such an amazing ballet program!

Haul Out the Holly!

The kids had a great time decorating for Christmas. Yes, Ron was out on the roof trying not to fall off the ladder while putting up our Christmas lights. He had a few close calls and unfortunately I missed those "kodak moments" so I can't post them. I'm sure you can picture the images in your mind and giggle a little like I did when he was explaining his near death experiences to me. Hahaha - we appreciated his sacrifices though cuz the house looked great all lit up. :)

Thanksgiving @ Niederhauser's

Make a Smilebox photobook

Thanksgiving @ Omi's

OK, so I'm a dork...I love to bake! This is my favorite thing to make for Thanksgiving. I think I've made it every year for the past 8 years for both sides of the fam. I can never make just one pie though - that's too boring. I usually pair this with Ron's favorite Black Bottom Banana Cream and a great Chocolate Raspberry Cream. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving with out LOTS of pies.

My kids' favorite food is ham. Mom always has the best spiral honey baked ham. I swear they eat it like candy. They had lots of fun playing with their cousins and Omi's cute dog Boots.

Ron and I have lots to be thankful for this season. We really were SO blessed in everything that went along with our move: our home sold quickly last spring to a darling couple that all our old neighbors really like, our new ward and neighborhood feels like "home" already, I got back into teaching at a great time and at a great school, and our kids are adjusting well. Happy Thanksgiving.

A Glimpse of Lauren

OK, how cute are they?! This is my darling niece and her boyfriend. She just sent me these pics. They have a friend who is a photographer and wanted to get a little practice so Lauren and Adam were his guinea pigs...are they darling! I just had to share.

Cub Scout Space Derby

This was the first time we've participated in a Space Derby. Cole did almost all of the work and was very proud of his accomplishment. His Spaceship didn't exactly speed down the line, but it was a fun experience and great bonding time for him and Ron.
His spaceship is the one on the right.

What a cute kid! I'm the luckiest mom to have such a great son. Bud...I love you!

Veteran's Day Assembly

Cole's 3rd grade classes sang a beautiful song for Mtn. Green Elementary's Veteran's Day Assembly. He really did a good job...right there on the front row where Ron always remembers being. (hahaha) My class sang Proud to Be American and then the whole school sang Armed Forces Medley. It was a great assembly. I'll see if I can get the video of my class singing - they're so cute! I'm a little partial though. (FYI...that's not Cole's teacher in the photo.)

Fall Soccer

Cole has played soccer since he was 4 and just loves it. These photos were taken by Jacob's mom. This was their last Fall game and they are a great team. Cole usually plays on the left side as a forward because he's got such a great left kick and is quick. He's now playing indoor soccer and also futsol. I'll get some photos of both games and post them...they're fast moving and WAY fun. I like the games a lot better because we don't have to worry about the weather! :)

All six of these boys grew up together in the same neighborhood, same ward, same school and same soccer team. How fortunate Cole is to have such good friends that all know how to have a great time and be good examples to one another!

A Glimpse of Halloween

What a fabulous Halloween. Cole and I didn't have school so I got to take Cayli to school and help with her classroom party...how fun! Cole hung out with Ron most of the day. Boy, it couldn't turn dark fast enough for Cayli! She was getting a little irritated with the sun that it wouldn't speed up the process. :) She had been in her costume all day and couldn't wait any longer to go trick-or-treating. As I type this the kids are out with Ron and I am home handing out the candy. I have had some visits from some of my school kids and my neighbors, but other than that it's been a bit quiet. The space between all the homes up here is a little more than I think most trick-or-treaters like. Like my kids...I think they'll all end up down in Phase I where there's more homes that are closer together. There's something about efficiency in candy gathering that entices them all. hahaha HAPPY HAUNTING

Cayli's Birthday Slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Cayli is 5!

Cayli's birthday was a VERY busy day. We all had work and school AND a Halloween carnival that the Young Women were in charge. I felt bad that we were so busy so after we cleaned up the carnival we headed down the canyon to get her some ICE CREAM (costumes and all)!

These notes from Ron are just priceless! He had to leave out of town the day before her birthday and was just feeling horrible that he wasn't going to be here. He placed these notes all over in her closet so she would see them on her birthday. (She had spent the night at her Omi's so his timing was perfect!) You can tell by these cute sayings how much they tease each other. Cayli loves that she is growing up and getting bigger and she also knows how much Ron doesn't want her to grow up. She teases him all the time about it. He's the BEST father...I just love him!
Finally! The Saturday after Cayli's Birthday she had a costume-birthday party and had lots of fun with her friends. We made bracelets, played pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern, walked to the park and played, and then let the girls loose with a baseball bat and a pinata. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Princess...we love you!

A Glimpse of October

Every year we visit Black Island Farms before Halloween...the kids LOVE it. We had fun watching them explore all the great slides, mazes, farm animals, games and having a good time with each other. Cole navigated us through the 3 corn mazes and actually did a great job! He had a great sense of direction. Our favorite part was taking the tractor ride to pick out our pumpkins. I think the pumpkins we chose this year weigh more than all four of us combined. I don't look forward to making jack-o-lanterns! :)

A Glimpse of Black Island Farms