Mckell's Lucky Weekend

This must have been Mckell's lucky weekend. She got one award after another. It started on Friday, with the school awards assembly. Mckell was one of several students who received an award. Her award was for being a wonderful student and for being a classroom friend to all. We are so proud of her!

As part of Mckell's award, she got a certificate, a book, and a fun wristband.

Then on Saturday, Mckell's first grade won first place for the video they made for the Cammi Awards. Their video was called "We've got it covered". It was a drug free video, and she was so excited that they won first place.

But her lucky streak didn't end there. On Monday, the school had their Reflections assembly and Mckell's artwork was chosen out of a big group of kids to move on to council level. In fact, hers was one of two chosen out of 20 or so other entries to move on. She was sooooo excited. Everyone got a fun medal with their names on it for participating in the Reflections contest, as well as a certificate, and a free pass to Kangaroo Zoo. But those lucky few, whose work was chosen to move on to council level, also received a trophy with their names on it.
She was so proud of her trophy! It is sitting on our mantle, and anytime someone comes to our house she takes them over and shows them her trophy :) And I think Hunter was secretly a little jealous that Mckell go t a medal and a trophy. I tried my hardest to get him to do something for the reflections contest, but he just kept saying "Not Interested" lol. But as soon as he got home from school after the awards assembly, he informed me that next year he was going to do somthing really cool for the reflections contest :)

Deer Hunt

Dave promised he was going to shoot the first little buck he saw so he could try out these "jerky sticks", and boy he wasn't kidding. Check out this monster buck below.

So Dave had a very successful hunting season this year. He even went out this morning with Justin to go pheasant hunting and ended up spraining his ankle pretty good. He's been in bed ever since he's come home. I think his hunts are done for the year (Thank Goodness!!!)

Trick or Treating

The kids couldn't wait until it was time to go trick or treating. Although about a half and hour before it was time to go, Hunter talked Dave into making him a new costume. A scary costume. They made a hatchet, ripped up a pair of Hunters pants (his good pants I might add) and got him all decked out in a scary costume. It was fun to see them both get so excited as they were putting things together :)

After trick or treating in our neighborhood, Hunter insisted that they drive over to his teacher, Mrs. Wehr's house, because she told the kids she gave full sized candy bars. They also had to stop by Grandma and Grandpa Wangsgard's house to see how they had it all decorated up for Halloween.

While Dave and my Dad were on the elk hunt, my mom had just gotten the mummy out and put it in her living room. The mummy makes grunting noises like he is trying to talk but can't because his mouth is covered. I made the joke to Lexi that the mummy was really Grandpa, and that Grandma had tied him up because he was in trouble. Since then whenever she went over to my parents she would go say Hi to Grandpa (the mummy), give him hugs goodbye, and stuff like that. On Halloween night, my parents had the mummy out on their porch. As we walked by the mummy, he started grunting which made Lexi jump. Lexi turned to the mummy and said, "Grandpa, you scared me!" So we had to get a picture of Lexi with both of her grandpas, lol.

Halloween

I LOVE that at the kids school they get to dress up for Halloween and have a parade through the school in their costumes (their last school didn't do that). My kids have had their costumes picked out since the beginning of the summer. Hunter was going to be Harry Potter, Mckell was going to be Cruella Deville, and Lexi was going to be whatever I put her in. She is easy. We had all the costumes ready, which was good, because me being sick there was no way I was going to try to put together anything. So I felt pretty good about Halloween. Well, that was until a couple of days before Halloween. Hunter decided he wanted to be something scary, and Mckell decided she wanted to be a vampire. I told them both no, they were going to be what they originally planned. But 2 days before Halloween, I had to go to Walmart and get one thing for Mckell's costume that we'd forgotten, and I caved. I let Mckell get a vampire dress and be a vampire. Hunter thought this was totally unfair, because I was still making him be Harry Potter. And to be honest it was really unfair, but Grandpa Ropelato made a special trip in New York to get Hunter the Harry Potter tie, so I told him that was what he was going to be :) Also, Hunter had a 3rd grade program right after the Halloween parade and he was playing the part of Alford Hitchcock, and I thought the Harry Potter costume went well with what he was suposed to wear for Alford Hitchcock. So for the school parade Hunter was Harry Potter, Mckell was a vampire, and Lexi was Snow White.

Mckell with her first grade class. I LOVE that her teacher is always taking pictures of the kids and sending them to us parents in a slideshow. These are some of those pictures. Such cute backgrounds.

After the Halloween parade, the 3rd grade put on a Halloween program. It was sooo cute. The program was called "Ghostilocks and the 3 Vampires" The kids sang cute Halloween songs, they had fun parts, and they even danced to the music. Hunter had a really long part as Alford Hitchcock, and he did an excellent job. We were all so proud of him.
Hunter had quite the support group there to watch him. Of course, Dave, Lexi, and I were there. But he also had his Grandma and Grandpa Wangsgard and Grandma Ropelato there to see his part. He is so lucky to have such GREAT grandparents who always are there to support him with his activities!!!!

Carving Pumpkins

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but this year it has kind of come and gone without us really getting into it like we do in other years. I've really felt bad, like my kids are being neglected, but I promise I will make it up to them next year. :) I am lucky to have such good neighbors who have come and gotten my kids and taken them to the several neighborhood Halloween parties. It made me feel better to know that my kids weren't totally being left out of all the fun just because thier mom was sick. The first actual Halloween activity that we have done as a family this year was just 3 days before Halloween. It was pumpkin carving and caramel apple making and Grandma and Grandpa Wangsgards house. We all look forward to this. It is fun to get together as a family and get our pumpkins ready for Halloween.


I don't know how I missed getting pictures of Mitch and Toni, maybe it was because they took too long trying to decide how they wanted to carve their pumpkins, lol. They look through books and on the internet before they decide what to do. They do carve really good looking pumpkins though :)

Hunter's First Haunted House

I LOVE going to haunted houses and getting scared. I've been looking forward to Hunter getting old enough that I could take him. Well this year he is old enough, but I couldn't take him because I've been soooo sick. He did however go with some of his friends to the Haunted Hollow and had a blast. Although of course he said it wasn't even scary, lol. 8 years old and already trying to act tough.
Davis, Kaden, Hunter, Nate, and Britton
When my dad found out that Hunter had been to a haunted house, he of course had to get in on the action. He took Hunter to Castle of Chaos. They tried to get Mckell to go too, but she was having no part of that. So the 2 of them went. My dad said that Hunter did good until the very end when the chainsaw guy came after them. Hunter let go of grandpas hand and left him in the dust, lol. My dad couldn't believe Hunter would leave him all alone, hahaha. I guess grandpa better be quicker next time :)

The Elk Hunt

Warning!!!! The pictures in this post may be disturbing and gross you out!
Over the past year, we have run out of elk roasts (which our family loves) so I told Dave his job this hunt season was to get an elk to stock up our freezer again. Well he not only got one, but he got two elk (yes he had 2 tags). So needless to say, our freezer is now busting at the seems and we even gave alot of the meet to others who went on the hunt with him. They had a pretty big group on the elk hunt this year. Dave, Marc, Jeff, my dad, Scott, and Justin. A guy from the ward Dave is over and his son meet up with them, and they also meet up with Dave's hunting buddy Jared and some of his friends and family. They had a good time.Dave thinks he's such a good hunter. This cow elk was shot 150 yards up the mountain, and it slid in the snow, all the way down the mountain right to the four wheeler trail. Dave tried to convince me he planned it that way. Hahaha, he isn't that good :)

It's a good thing Scott, Marc, and Justin were there to help Dave get his elk out. Thank Scott for keeping Dave under control around my Dad, hahaha.

The Pink Unicorns

Mckell lucked out this year to have her aunt Randee and "aunt Hilary" be her soccer coaches. She had so much fun playing soccer and has gotten her aggressiveness back :).
At one of Mckell's first games, Natalie Redd, a mom from the other team got some really good shots of Mckell playing. I told Natalie that she needs to start coming to all my kids games/activities and take pictures of them. Her pictures turned out way better than mine ever do :)

The Golden Dragons

Hunter has LOVED playing soccer this season. He has a really good coach, who has taught him a lot. Hunter has really gotten to be quite the soccer player this past year. He runs fast, isn't afraid to get bloody, and isn't afraid to get right in the middle of the action. It was really fun to go and watch him play.

Look Who's 3!

My baby girl is 3! I felt really bad for Lexi this birthday. As I said in my last post. I've been really sick because of this pregancy and I started throwing up about a week before Lexi's birthday. So I felt bad that I didn't go all out for her birthday, but I'm sure glad both of her grandma's stepped up and made here birthday GREAT! I'm sure they probaby thought I was a slacker, because neither of them knew I was pregnant at the time, or that I was sick. I just said I wasn't feeling so well, so I'm sure they were wondering why I wasn't doing more for her birthday, lol. I had good reasons.
Since Darinda, Jocelyn, and Lexi's birthdays are only a few days apart we did a big birthday party for the 3 of them. We had last swim party of the year, dinner, and roller skating up at Jerry and Darinda's house. Darinda bought all the grandkids rollerskates, so they had fun learning to skate on the basketball court. There were many falls, but it was a good thing grandpa had his high jump mats out, so the kids had something soft to land on when they fell :)A few weeks before Lexi's birthday, Darinda and Lexi were at the grocery store and they went over by the birthday cakes. Lexi saw a cookie monster cake and wanted that for her birthday. Darinda was so sweet and got it for her. Lexi loved it!
The next evening we celebrated Lexi's birthday with the Wangsgards. My mom did the dinner and everything, I provided the game, lol. That was easy. We played the candy bar game, which is one of our families favorites.
Although, after playing I realized that Lexi hasn't played it before because she wasn't very happy when the candybars were no longer on the table. She didn't realize that the game was still going and you got to take candy bars from other people, lol. She had a bit of a melt down :)
Once we got her calmed down, she enjoyed the rest of the game :) Happy Birthday Lexi! I can't believe you are 3 already. Time goes by way to fast!