Uncle Mike came home! Yippee!

Joe made this sign for Uncle Mike to see when he got off the plane. Such an exciting day! Started off a little hectic though...Steve's dad coaches the Hurricane High School football team and they had the semifinal game that Thursday in Salt Lake. Mike arrived in Salt Lake first, where big Steve and my Steve were able to see him for a couple hours and then he flew into St George where Bev, Grandma Maralyn, Aunt Barb, Uncle Bill, Joe, Lynden, Uncle Bruce, Aunt Susan and their kids, neighbors and I were able to see him.

Grandma Maralyn, Bev, and Aunt Barb

Me with the beautiful ladies

Joe coloring impatiently waiting for the plane to arrive (and pouting because I'm taking this picture)

Some of the people waiting (Mike's golf coach Kevin, Bev, Barb and neighbors)

Lynden super excited to get to meet her uncle!

Bev chomping at the bits

Joe getting ready to see if he recognizes him

Woo hoo, I went crazy at this point. I was so excited to see him. I'm pretty close with sweet Mike and wrote him to the best of my ability for 2 years...which I'm proud to say for the last year or just over I wrote him every week!! He was probably so bored of me by the time he got back!

Baby boy hugging his mama

Joe actually did really well. I warned Mike that he takes awhile to warm up to people, but he..

wouldn't.let.go.

He has to bend a good foot and a half to not take me out with his shoulder.

Party time and someone (probably me) forgot to put the gate up

Loving Uncle Mike

Day of his homecoming...My 4 generation picture...Great Grandma with my kids. LOVE IT!

Isn't she so sweet?! Just out rolling some random yard thing with Joe.

The fam

More of the fam...Uncle Bill, Mike, Joe, me, Steve, Lynden, Bev, Aunt Barb, Uncle Bruce, Grandma and Steve

My kids are so incredibly lucky and spoiled by their aunts and uncles.

One more attempt to get them all looking at my camera

Our little fam

Grandma with the kids. Lynden just like to plop herself right onto Grandma's lap and drink her bottle. It was precious and helped Grandma since it's hard for her to lift little munchkins.

Our sweet hippie babe getting out some energy before our long car ride back

Taking a ride in the Honda Pilot. Joe doesn't forget about that thing. He asks for a ride every time we go there and usually asks daily

Lynden got a ride too, but she wasn't as big of a fan as her big brother was

And can you tell who our family is rooting for?! Joe is full on pouting that he has to leave so he's refusing to smile & look up. Go bears!! So glad Mike is home!

Happy Halloween!

Before trick or treating with his friends (he's embarrassed I'm taking a picture)

Joe, Parker, Jaycee, Cooper, Pierce, Kylie, Cole, and Taylor

Our muscular Iron Man2 and our ladybug

Done saying cheese and ready to go

Jaycee will still say cheese as the locked in babies are wondering why they have to be locked in

Lynden in all her foofy glory!

At the trunk or treat with Scott and Jaycee handing out candy

She can still crawl with the poof

I love it!

Cutest Iron Man ever. Miss Carrie asked him to make a muscle pose and he did not change it or move a muscle :)

Bean bag toss

Happy Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins

At the pumpkin patch Joe picked out the largest pumpkin he could find. Keep in mind that I was with a friend and her baby and had my 2 by myself. You took a hay ride to the pumpkin patch, picked your pumpkins, rode back with them, and were by yourself with your purchase. I usually swallow more than I can chew anyways. I let him get the massive one and he wants one for Lynden and daddy. I convinced him mine was the one at home he'd made at preschool and off we went with 3 pumpkins. *side note-I don't know why Joe loves those glasses, they were baby sunglasses and the lenses are obviously gone and he likes wearing them still :)

Our kids do have clothes, they just don't like wearing them...

Daddy and Joe excited about what they are about to carve

This picture so describes our children...Joe being so cautious not wanting to get any goop on his arm and Lynden trying to eat the goop out of the bowl

Joe wanted Iron Man so daddy set out to carve him

Love it!

Here our are pumpkins...Lynden's, Joe's, daddy's, preschool (mommy's)

Make A Wish Train Ride

Now that I am in YW, I get to do everything that the YW do. Yay! :) Never knew how much they actually did. Long story short, Make a Wish, Primary Children's, Big Brother Big Sister, and wards of the state get to go on this 3 hour round trip train ride and our ward's YW serve the snacks, drinks, and fruit during the train ride. The night before we went down and loaded the trains and the girls got to decorate their cars. The train cars were super nice. I knew Joe would probably never get to ride a train like this so what did I do? I woke him up at 4:30 am to go with me. We stopped at a Circle K at 5 to get me a Dr. Pepper and him a bag of powdered donuts and I'm sure the worker thought, does this lady know it's still dark outside and she has a toddler with her?! Here he is ready to get going!

One of the double decker cars

He was quite the little helper getting the goody bags together.

One of my favs, Sedona. We probably would have been great friends in junior high seeing as we can be a little too honest, sarcastic and our bangs fall into our face. She constantly holds hers though so I always think she is on the phone.

Shea got spiderman painted on her face on the ride over to get the kids, somewhere between 8:30 and 9

Saying Joe has a crush on Shea would be an understatement. She played with him, let him color in her superhero coloring book and kept him out of trouble all day. Sedona and Rachel also kept him occupied when we weren't walking the trains. Imagine people walking the whole time through narrow walkways...almost impossible

Ready for the kids to come on in our green shirts, they were hideous :) I waited until the last possible minute to put mine on because I'm a really good example!

Getting some energy out before the people got on...Every group was told they could bring 75, one brought 130. There was not an open seat! Joe and I needed some fresh air after the ride.

My favorite family. This family was here with the Make a Wish program. Their little daughter had some type of leukemia (the one in the front middle) They were so sweet and I'm glad they got to ride in our car.

Joe loves helping and loves cleaning. He cleaned up afterwards better than some of the girls did!

Rachel, Shea, Emily (Rachel's sister) and me slacking because our car was done.

Joe wanted his face to be painted like Iron Man, but somehow it ended up like Wolverine and he loved his balloon snake.

All the girls and us afterward. 4:30 to 3= exhaustion. Joe fell asleep before we were out of the parking lot. He did so good! I'm glad we got to go together!