~I think my husband is CRAZY!~

Last weekend, Dave is brother Marc, his uncle Scott, and his cousin Justin went on an end of season elk hunt. And they were really roughing it. They slept in tents. Can you believe it? Who would sleep in a tent, high up in the mountains, mid November? Dave! I think he is CRAZY!!! He said at one point he looked at the thermometer in his truck and it said 9 degrees. But he had a blast! They ended up getting 2 elk, so it was a successful Elk hunt. I guess that makes freezing your butt off worth it :)

Doesn't it look cold!!!

The Elk Justin shot.

~Our Family Elf, Fred~

Last year my mom gave the kids an "Elf on the Shelf" It is a cute little elf and a book telling about how he is in our home to watch and see if the kids are doing what they should. Every night he returns to the North Pole to report to Santa on our kids. Then each morning the kids need to look to see where he is hiding because he moves to a different spot each night. On Christmas Eve he returns home to the North Pole for the remainder of the year and then returns after Thanksgiving each year. Well, he returned tonight and brought presents with him. Yea!!!

We were just getting ready to watch a Christmas movie this evening when we had a knock at the door. The kids ran to see who it was and found a basket full of presents, wrapping paper, bows, Christmas candy, and our Elf Fred with a note. The kids were sooooo excited!

There were presents for all of us. We all got new Christmas P.J's, and the kids all got Holiday shirts.


Don't we look festive in our Christmas P.J.'s?

Fred showing up just topped off a great day. We ate Thanksgiving lunch at my mom and dads house, then we went and saw a movie. I think that is going to be a fun Thanksgiving day tradition that we are going to continue each year :) I love spending time with my family, and I think it is so fun starting up new traditions.

~I just wanted my hair to be like Shark Boy~

Mckell has had beautiful, thick hair since she was little. We are always getting compliments on how pretty and long her hair is. Many of you will remember years ago (Mckell was not quite 2), Dave was home watching the kids and Hunter ended up cutting all of Mckell's beautiful hair off.

Before Hunter cut her hair. You could pull it up in pony tails and it had a natural curl to it. I thought she always looked so cute.

After Hunter cut her hair.

I was devastated!!! Hunter said that he just wanted her hair to look like his (which is a cute gesture years later). I was so upset that Dave and I boxed up all of their toys and they weren't allowed to play with any of them for like a month. We stuck to that punishment too. You might think that we were a little hard on Mckell, because after all it was Hunter who did the cutting, but she was in trouble too, because she shouldn't have let him cut her hair :)

Well, I thought the kids learned their lesson back then, I mean after all, it still gets mentioned every once in a while, but I guess I was wrong.

The other day I was getting Mckell ready for preschool and as I was brushing her hair, I was noticing that chunks of hair were coming out in the brush. I was a little alarmed, but thought maybe I was brushing to hard? Then as I was pulling her hair up into a pony tail, I noticed that I could tug on a piece of hair and a chunk would come out. By this time I was very alarmed. Mckell has been complaining for the last week or so that her tummy hurts. I haven't paid much attention to it because it only hurts when she is in trouble, or it is time for bed, or time for her to do her chores :) But when hair started falling out I thought of the worst. That maybe she had cancer or some disease or something that was making her stomache hurt and now her hair fall out (leave it to mom's to over react). Well, as we got talking, it came out that Mckell had cut her hair because she wanted to look like Shark Boy. What???

Just in case you don't know who shark boy is. He is the one with spikey hair. I really don't know what she was thinking!!! Why would she want to look like a boy? She has the most beautiful hair! Now maybe I'm over reacting because looking at her you probably wouldn't notice that her hair had even been cut. She just took pieces here and there, and since her hair is so long and thick, it covers up the pieces that she whacked. But I notice it whenever I pull her hair up. On top she has several spikey pieces that I have to glop down with gel. So needless to say she is grounded. No cartoons, friends, or movies for a week. The punishment was worse last time, but to be honest, this time I was just grateful that she had cut it and that the reason it was falling out wasn't because she had cancer or some disease :)

I sure hope this is the last time we have to deal with this problem!!!

~Big Boys Trip~

Last week Dave and his friends took all the kids on a dirt bike trip, but this weekend it was just for the "Big Boys". They went down to Moab for a more advanced bike trip :) Dave had a lot of fun! They spent the day riding, went to movies, and then ended the night chillin in the hot tub. He goes with a good group of guys, so I don't have to worry about him getting into trouble :)

Dave showing off his skills :)

It really is beautiful down in Moab!

The whole group.

Dave and Kevin just got done playing a joke on another biker :)

Dave has really been living it up this past month. The first week in November he was in New York (for work), then he went back to New York in the 2nd week in November (for work), the third week he went to Moab for this bike trip, and then later this week he is going hunting for a few days. I'm starting to get a complex that he doesn't want to be home :)

He did say this trip was just what he needed though. Things have been so busy at work, that it was good to get away and have fun :) And I'm glad he came back in one piece :)

~Bad To The Bone~

Dave LOVES having a boy that he can go and do boy things with. Hunter and Dave went, with a few of our friends and their kids, to go out on a day long bike trip. They had a lot of fun. I'm glad that they can go and have these kinds of father/son moments together!

Davis and Hunter. I guess Dave told Hunter to follow Davis, so Hunter did but probably a little too close. Davis ended up crashing and Hunter ran him over with his dirt bike :( OUCH!!! I guess there is a reason why they Mom's aren't invited :) But Davis was tough and didn't even cry (that is what Hunter told me).

Hunter and Davis eating lunch. This is before Hunter ran Davis over :)

The whole gang, minus Dave.

Scott, Dave, and Kevin.

Hunter said that his favorite thing about going out dirt bike riding is getting to go fast!!! He can't wait until the next trip!!!

~Leaves~

For those of you who've been to Dave's Mom and Dad's house, you know that they have a yard full of big, beautiful trees. Which translates to a yard full of big, not so beautiful leaves in the fall :) Well we took advantage of this the other day. Grandma invited us up to play in the leaves, before the guys came and cleaned them up. The kids were so excited and had a blast running and jumping into the big piles of leaves. But I think Lexi loved it the very most. She had a smile on her face the whole time. She loved throwing them in the air, sitting in the middle of a big pile, and she even didn't mind Hunter dropping big armfuls of leaves on top of her head :)

I think Mckell's favorite thing about this was raking the leaves into piles.
Whose kid is she??????

~Family Pictures~

I don't think that Dave and I have had professional family photos taken since our wedding. I know that is sad, since we are going to be coming up on our 10 year anniversary this next year. After seeing the cute family pictures our uncle and aunt had taken, we decided it was time to get ours taken. And I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out.We had the cutest photographer, Shay Voorhees. She was soooo good with the kids and had the coolest spot to take some fun family pictures. She even came back for a follow-up shoot because Lexi was done taking pictures for the night, and I still wanted to get some pictures with her and Mckell in these little tutus that I made. Now what photographer do you know would come back another night to take more pictures, and not charge you for it. I haven't heard of any. I totally recommend her to everyone!!!

I LOVE this picture of Hunter sitting on an old rusted car. He thought it was cool, especially because the car next to him had had the windows shot out. :) Boys!!!

Love this picture and how the sun is glistening off Mckell's hair.

So if you remember the story of the last time I got Lexi' s pictures taken, you'll understand how nervous I was this time with getting her pictures taken. She cried a bit and didn't want to sit in the tall grass, but you'd have never guessed it with the pictures Shay got of her :) And Shay came prepared with a stuffed dog, that Lexi absolutely loved (as you can see). And what are the odds that the stuffed animal Shay had brought with her would match Lexi's outfit.

Sisters!!!! I love this picture of the two of them in their matching outfits!!! It is sooo fun to have girls :)

These are only a few of the pictures Shay took. I had such a hard time deciding on which ones to get because so many turned out wonderful. Before we had even seen our pictures, Dave and I decided on a limit that we would spend for pictures. Well I kind of went over that limit because I loved all the pictures :) And after all, it had been almost 10 years since our last pictures, I think I was entitled to splurge :)

If you want to check out some of the other pictures taken check out Shay's Blog at http://photographybyshay.com/blog/2009/10/ropelato-take-ii-utah-family-photographer/

~Halloween~

Hunter as Count Dracula


Mckell as a witch.

Just imagine Lexi with black cat ears and a face that isn't smudged. :) She was a black cat but for the life of us we just couldn't get her to leave her ears on and stop touching her face.

We were busy, busy, busy Halloween weekend. The kids had a lot of fun, and I think they are a little sad that it is over. We had classroom parties, our wards Monster Mash, pumpkin carving, making Halloween treats, and of course Trick or Treating. It was a lot of fun, but it wore Dave and I out :)

Mckell's cute Preschool class.

"Don't bother me. I'm working" :)

Mckell and Chloe.

Hunter and his buddies. Rexton, Kolton, Brex, and Hunter is Dracula.
The kids made bones with my mom. Mckell loved eating them.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!