Time Out For the "Carter" girls!

I tell ya, I am one lucky girl these days!  I have been SO so lucky and blessed to have wonderful visitors come to my home.  I just love it!  Many months ago I had a dream to have all my sisters, sister-in-laws and mom come join me for Time Out For Women.  I LOVE this event and was so excited to learn that it would be in St. George.  Then the thought occured to me that everyone could stay at my house for the weekend.  I only thought it was a dream and was just expecting a few girls to make it.  Wow, was I wrong.  It all worked out so perfectly and now we have all agreed to make it an annual tradition.  I have to thank Dad who helped me get the ball rolling in the summer time.  He came up with a plan and got everyone thinking and we all made it.  Whew..it's hard to get away from home and make sure all your little ones are cared for.  So, thanks ladies for making the effort.  It was sure worth it.  I was so very happy when I saw that white sequoia full of beautiful women pull up to my house.  Was it real, you were actually at my house?! (many of these girls travelled all the way from Canada, an 18 hour road trip one way)

My sweet girls: Mom, Laurette, Jenny, Cynthia, Chelsea, Martha, Lori and Moi

We were lucky to meet Kenneth Cope after.  He has amazing talent!

This was a unanimous vote, Hilary Weeks was our absolute favorite.  She was in charge of the Fri. night session and was funny, spritual, and lovely to listen to!  Her new Christmas CD is wonderful!

I would love to see Lyndsi Houskeeper as a Time Out performer!  Lynds, you would be so amazing!  It was fun to have you meet my sisters and come join us on Friday!

Not only did we attend time out, we jammed in so many other activities like a giant sleepover, good food, shopping, a trip to Vegas to pick up mom, and a ridiculous movie!  We were gone for 13 consecutive hours on Saturday.  SO cool!  Thanks husbands for letting us get our girl time.  Five out of the 8 men were sick.  So sorry guys.  We were just glad that it wasn't us! :)

Such goofy girls!  Jenny, you win the prize for your crossed eyes face...SO hilarious, LOL!

I can't wait for next year girls.  What will it be, Logan or Salt Lake?!

It's surely the Sheers, yay!

Following our fun Halloween weekend, we were SO lucky to have the Sheer family follow us home.  That's right, they took off days from work to come visit US for part of their trip.  Wow, we were flattered and excited as ever!  It was so fun to have them here for a week and get to know Berkley and Corbin a bit better!

Here we are introducing them to the ever so yummy 25 main cupcakes..mmm..we just can't get enough!

A FHE spent at Pineview park in the tennis courts playing, "what time is it Mr. Wolf?"

A morning spent at the airport.  Evey LOVED it, especially when she saw a helicopter!  Poor Ella stepped in an anthill and got a few nasty bites..so sad.

A lot of other hours were spent on the trampoline.  That was probably Corbin's favorite place and Uncle Andrew who was the supervisor was so good to let my girls join in too.  Chelsea also played some fun games with our kids on the tramp.  That's what I love about Andrew and Chelsea, they spend quality time with the kids even though they are so busy raising their own. 

A lot of the adult hours were spent on shopping, he he!  At ROSS!  A fabulous store in which Chels and I created some great memories.  Too bad we didn't capture a few moments on camera!  After 4 trips to this store we ended up with some great hoodies, a few shirts, and a lot of laughs.  I'm sure the workers wondered what in the world we were doing..oh well.  It was SO much fun!  Curtis and Andrew played video games and more games!

There were some very entertaining moments given by Berkley and Evey, the 2 youngest.  Berkley loved to tease Evey.  She would grab her blanket and run or grab Evey's blanket, come super close to Evey and pretended to offer it, then quickly run off.  It was just so funny!  Ofcourse Evey would scream and cry.  By the end of the week Evey took matters into her own hands.  I heard Berkley crying so I quickly ran into the girls' room and found Berkley sprawled out on her back with Evey victoriously kneeling on Berkley's stomach while holding her beloved pacifier up in the air.  I just felt like Evey was getting revenge.  Ha, what a sight.  Ofcourse I felt bad for Berkley and quickly removed Evey from the situation but oh those 2!  We had some great laughs thanks to them!

Thanks Sheers for coming.  It was a grand time had by all!  Love you guys and your cute cute family!

Halloween Festivities

We were so lucky to spend Halloween in Kaysville this year.  We had one giant party at the church with the Hasslers, Carters, and the Sheers.  It rocked!  Thanks you guys for organizing it!

The Halloween cousins!

The lady party guests:  the hero, the tragic fire rescuee, the hippie, and hula girl

Stay very still and quiet for this game of "keeper of the keys", SO fun!

Yummy krispy cremes on a string!

Eager trick-or-treaters!

This was the adults favorite part.  After the children were in bed we enjoyed some delicious ribs done as a specialty by Mike on his wonderful new smoker...mmmm..these were to dye for and I don't even like ribs! 

Thanks Hasslers for letting us stay and showing us a grand time.  Halloween 2009 was a great success.  We can't wait for 2010!

Introducing...The HEROIC HANCOCKS!

Here is our famous Super Hero family ready to save the day.  The "H" on our shirts stand for "Heroic Hancocks".  We all have the first letter of our hero name on our individual belts.  Each of the kids helped pick their own super hero character.  I must say that they were very creative and came up with some great powers!  Happy Halloween 2009!!

Thanks Uncle Mike for taking these great family pictures.  We appreciate your talent and your camera!

The ELEMENTETTE sister trio..the girls who control the weather:

       This is "FLAIR".  Her special power is with fire.                                                         

Here is "STORM".  She can control the wind.                                                                  

Our girl "RAIN".  Her specialty is with water. (the girls requested to be hot pink and black)

        Onto the BROTHER heroes:

             Meet "SPLITTER", the hero who can clone himself.                                            

     This is "SHIFTER", a shape shifter who can transform into anything or anyone.

Finally, the PARENT heroes:

       "PORTIA", the super mom who can teleport anywhere in the blink of an eye.

             

"ENERGON", the super dad who uses energy force fields to protect his family.                         

                         

Cheesy or what!  Ofcourse I consider cheesy as my middle name.  I love this kind of stuff.  I had a lot of fun with the end result.  Doing the creating was another story.  I do wish that I had the teleporting power because then I could see all of my far away family members whenever I wanted..hmmm maybe one day when I have my own world!

Oh ya, we got lucky this year and won "best dressed family" at our ward party and "most creative" at a couples costume party.  So much fun..that's why I do it, right, so I can win...he he!

A "Han-keeper" Halloween Family Night!

How fun is Halloween!  With all the dressing up and festive activities to participate in, what more could a family want!  We invited our sweet family, the Houskeepers over for pumpkin carving and cookie decorating!  Since we hang out with them a lot we thought it would be fun to merge our last names together!  Thus, the Hankeepers! 

Thanks for coming guys!  Ofcourse we had a blast!

100 BIRTHDAY Bucks!

On October 2nd Caden was one lucky and happy 9 year old boy!  A month previous to his birthday he requested to receive a 100 dollar bill for his gift from us and it came true for him! I love to make birthdays an ALL day celebration.  A way to do that is give him the meals he wants and give him a day off of homework, chores, and piano practicing.  All my kids just love it! 

A morning filled with tinfoil presents

His favorite breakfast..for lunch Ella, Evey and I went to the school to eat with him

Below we have one rich boy!  We wrapped the money up in a very large box and put Curtis' heavy shoes in it to be sneaky.  When he discovered the shoes I told him that he was to save them to use on his mission..ha..he actually believed me for a second!  Then we reassured him to look further and there was his sweet sweet green discovery.  His face said it all with bugged out eyes and a jaw dropped to the floor.  Too bad it wasn't captured in a photo!  Absolutely priceless!  He had a hard time breaking that $100 dollar bill but got some great things for doing so.  He actually still has about $20 left.  Way to go Cade!  Oh ya, it helped that he got an additional $75 from friends and grandparents.  No wonder the kid was in heaven!

Here is a cute party guest, Liam testing out the light saber

and even more party guests

Our children seem to be following in Carter's footsteps by replacing birthday cake with doughnuts

We were so lucky to have the Hassler boys join us for the weekend.  It was a blast for Caden to have cousin Ethan with him to celebrate his birthday.  Also, it was a blast for us to watch Mike finish the St. George Marathon.  He did amazingly well for his first marathon..way to go Uncle Mike!  Evey was sure attached to him!

In honor of our birthday boy here are the things we love about you:

• Your many wonderful facial expressions.  We just can't get enough!
• Your happy nature.  You so easily forgive and love others and can be happy again immediately after being sad or upset.
• Your affectionate side.  The many mom hugs you give and the "I love you's" mean SO much.
• Your good attitude.  What an example you are to your family when you get right in to do a job you don't love.
• Your laughter.  It fills the room and quickly becomes contagious to others.  Love it!
• Your easy going nature.  You rarely stress and seem so relaxed.
• Your ability to play with others of all ages.  It doesn't matter to you what a person's size is or what they look like.  You treat them all the same and have fun.
• Your many wonderful art talents..drawing as your number one.  You blow us away with your creative pictures!  You sing so well on pitch and you play the piano well.  Keep it up!
• Your ability to be in your own Caden world and not even have a worry or care for what others think of you!

Everyone just loves you Caden.  Thanks for being such a wonderful boy and being a part of our family!  We love you tonnes!  Happy happy birthday until next year!

Caden's Pajama fun!

For Caden's 9th birthday he invited friends over for some pajama fun.  There were pajamas and there was fun but I'm not so sure FUN was in mom's vocabulary.  However, I am still glad to have done it for him and was glad for the end result.  Mom is not good at entertaining lots of boys.  Oh well.....

The invitation..Caden's request

and the "pillow" treat sent home to the kids..it's filled with candy

 I love Caden's classic faces..he is defintely a boy with expression!

I am so embarssed about this shameful pajama shirt cake.  It was thrown together way too quick with things I had around the house.  SO sorry Caden to have made it Christmas colors.  The great thing about Caden though is that it didn't matter one ioda to him..thank goodness.

We played freeze dance in the basement with black lights, flashlight tag in the backyard, opened presents and had cake..ya know..the usual!  We love you Cade!  Thanks for being so much fun!