Midway Ice Castle

The kids enjoyed getting together with cousins and venturing out to Midway to see the Ice Castle there. It was a pretty ingenious structure made from sprinklers and lit from within with changing colored lights.

Letter from Santa Claus

Merry Christmas, Blumers!

Thank you for the wonderful treats you left for my reindeer and me. They will help keep us energized throughout our long journey tonight. And thank you for the wonderful spirit I feel every time I enter your home. I can tell you are a happy family and you love each other very much, even though you sometimes forget and fight or argue. That's why I love Christmas so much - everybody looks for nice things to do for each other, ways to help each other, and presents to make each other happy. I'm sure that if you try really hard you can do what Mr. Scrooge promised to do: Keep Christmas in your heart all year round by treating each other with love and kindness.

I know that Blumer Family has had a very busy year. With school, preschool, Sunday School, soccer, basketball, softball, bike rides, and lots of good, hard work around the house, you are all growing, learning and staying busy doing good things. But I see that 2014 will be an even busier year, because you have a new baby coming in March! How exciting! I look forward to getting to know him, just as I've gotten to know each of you.

Well, I'd better get back to my work. I do love my work! So, Cody, Levi, Ashby, Paige, Tara and Brian, HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Love, Santa Claus

Photo shoot

 LEVI

 ASHBY

 PAIGE

 CODY

 We were all wearing white, black and red! Had to try for some group photos.

Our attempt at a family picture before heading to church. Should have known better...

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

The kids have been singing that song over and over for several weeks now. Every time someone sings it, Levi stops them, saying, 'no no its like this.' And then he sings it in a deeper scruffier voice.

Here are some of the things we did this Halloween...

Ward Fall Festival

Pumpkin Carving

I always get stuck doing the dirty work.

Paige's clown pumpkin design

Ashby's own design

Date Night Halloween Party

We were trying to dress up like Juno and Pauly Bleaker.

School Costume Parade

 

Brian dressed up like a minion for work. :)

 Jack-o-Lantern Pizza Dinner

Trick or Treating

 Cody would not wear his cute skeleton costume again. 

As soon as he saw it, he started screaming. 

Luckily we had this giraffe from when Paige was 2yrs old.

Candy sorting and graphing

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Leaf Jumpers

Gender Ultrasound

Yesterday we took Paige and Ashby out of class and we all hopped into the car for a family outing the doctor's office. The kids were so excited, of course, telling everyone they passed by that we were going to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl.

Paige has been pretty vocal about hoping the baby was a girl. Brian felt strongly it was a girl. I figured it was about time for a girl. Levi said he wanted a little sister. Ashby was adamant it was another boy. And Cody just says Woohoo.

We thought viewing the ultrasound together would be a fun experience for everyone (though we knew it would be a lot of work for us - well, mostly Brian. I just had to lay there).

The room was tiny, and it was very dark. The technician began her job looking around at things, and measuring things, and finding all the organs....and it was all pretty boring for the kids. We tried to make it exciting, but they mostly just wanted to go back to the waiting room and finish the movie.

The baby's legs were tightly closed so the technician did some jiggling and kept looking around. Eventually she found a pretty good shot and felt very confident in her analysis. When all the kids were paying attention she tried to describe and point (but who can ever really tell what's going on in those pics) and finally wrote BOY!!! on the screen. 

 

Paige stood there silent. Ashby read the screen out loud to everyone and hooted and hollered. I probably just laughed (I've been laughing a lot the last day). When asked what she thought, Paige slunk to the floor against the wall.

When things had calmed down a bit Levi suddenly started crying and shouting hysterically, "I hate you Ashby!" 
I was so confused, Ashby wasn't even standing next to Levi. "Why do you hate Ashby?" 
"Because I wanted it to be a girl and he wanted a boy! Its all Ashby's fault!!"

Poor kid. He definitely took the news the hardest.

So, we get to have another boy at our house. I can't complain too much, they're pretty cute boys.

Provo River Halloween Cruise

What a great night for a Halloween cruise!

Glad we went before it turned really cold. 

I'd always wanted to take the family on the cruise down the Provo River, so we finally decided to go for it for our FHE activity. It was pretty fun and leisurely.

We listened to ghost stories and looked at a hundred carved pumpkins reflecting in the water.  

 There was even a pirate that tried to board the ship to pillage our pockets, but instead gave treats to all the kids.

Nice night for an Owlz baseball game

Mesa Favorites

Its been 5 years since I've been to Mesa - the town I grew up in and called home for 20 years.

There were several things on my list of must-dos while we were visiting.

Mesa, AZ temple visitor's center

City Cemetery to visit my Mom's grave site

 Bahama Buck's - seriously just as good as I remember!

Swim time at a city pool to cool off

Visiting the ol' homestead on Lyn Rae Square

We were lucky that our childhood home is for sale right now and the realtor lives across the street. So we arranged for a walk through. Four of us kids took advantage of the opportunity. We hadn't been home for 7 or 8 years since Mom and Dad sold it.   

All the cousins certainly made themselves at home in the backyard. 

It was a very strange experience to be back home and know it isn't our home. I found my name I engraved into the metal door knob when I was 5, we cried and reminisced about our favorite parts of the house, and we took our first-day-of-school picture by the front doors. 

Dunkin' Donuts 

Krispy Kreme just doesn't compare. 

And our favorite restaurant Gecko Grill

I've been dreaming about their Southwestern Shrimp Burrito for over 5 years. Dream come true!

We had a great time staying at Tasha's new, lovely home in Mesa and visiting with them. We also got to finish the trip with a family BBQ and swimming at my sister, Gayla's house. It was a great trip, and was even worth the sweat from the heat. ;)