Happy Halloween

Just wanted to share a few photos of the boys from Halloween, and a photo
with them all dressed in their new church outfits.

The boys really enjoyed Halloween. They dressed for our ward party a few weeks ago,
and at school, and once again on Halloween day.

 

 

 

First Day

Today my little boy went away to Kindergarten!  I can't believe how fast time flies.  I've been asked by many if I was struggling with letting him go to school, but I was super excited for him.  Even more awesome was when he lost his first tooth this morning before school.  It's been loose for over a week, but he was scared to wiggle it.  Now he knows it doesn't hurt so he's wiggling the 2nd one that's loose too.  I felt a little lonely walking out of the school when I dropped him off, but not sad.  Derek missed him.  It was the cutest thing to see him run to Jacob and give him a big hug when we picked him up after school.  Jacob was a little bummed that he couldn't ride the bus home, but I told him next year he can.  It is so fun to see the boys growing and changing so much. 

Vegas!

We decided to do a Winn Family Vacation this year to Vegas!  Originally we wanted to do a cruise, but plans change I guess.  We really had a good time, we took 4 days off and drove down.  We stayed in my parent's timeshare which was really nice.  We had a full kitchen so we bought groceries for breakfast & lunches, then had a BBQ on our last night.  It was so fun!  We went to the Bass Pro Shop (as usual) because I love their aquarium and the kids love fish. 

Then we all went to the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur.  We took Jacob when he was 10 months old, so we figured Derek would be fine.  He was.  He sat with Grandma and drank her Sprite all night long.  Jacob was actually scared a few times, he's old enough to understand when it's scary now I guess.  He wasn't too thrilled with the fire parts, but he liked most of it. 

Saturday we headed out for some mini golf which was fun except for the heat.  It was a record high that day at 112! I ended up quitting early and taking the kids inside to cool off, but I was the only one to get a hole in 1! I'm very proud of myself.  We decided after that that INSIDE activities are better, so we went to a car show.  It wasn't great, only 1 room of cars, but it gave me a chance to sit down and give the kids a snack, so I didn't mind. 

After lunch, we took the kids swimming while the guys went to a gun store.  They loved the water.  Jacob is still nervous about it, but he's getting better at swimming.  I wish I had taken my camera.  Derek was adorable.  He really got into the splashing by the end.  We had dinner at Benihana's that night and it was fabulous! 

Sunday we relaxed a lot.  Mom, Jacob and I went to a craft room in the timeshare and made bracelets.  Then we all went down to the M&M store.  Mom has always wanted to go there, I never had been either, so it was fun.  The last thing we did was go to an indoor Indy Car racetrack.  I couldn't race being pregnant, but the guys and Emily did and it looked fun!  We had a BBQ back at the pool and games that night.  It was a good trip!

That's Dustin! He came in 10th overall! Good job Honey!

Dad and Matt coming around the corner there.  Matt was 4th, Dad 7th!

Emily in this one with Dustin right behind her!

Jacob is 5!

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My little boy is 5!  I can't even believe it!  This is kid is such a live wire.  He just finished his year of preschool and is super excited for Kindergarten this fall.  He learned a lot in preschool, I am really happy that I decided to enroll him this year.  Jacob says the best thing about preschool was singing the Nephi song.  Jacob says the worst thing about preschool was sitting by the girls. 

 

Jacob is such a crazy.  We love him so much.  He says some really funny things sometimes.  My dad took him on a ride in his new side by side OHV and he told Aunt Emily that he "makes this look good." Then he told Grandma "hop in Baby, let's go!" Another time, riding in the car he told us "today a girl told me happy birthday and I couldn't take my eyes off of her."  What a card!  He loves his baby brother, even though Derek usually wins their battles.  He's also the first one to say he's sorry for being so stubborn.  He's a sweetie when he wants to be.  

 

We moved the same week of Jacob's birthday this year, so we had an easy night of pizza and cupcakes.  Then we celebrated his birthday in our new house a week later.  We had a Pirate Party!  Arg!  This boy loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates and we had a great time!  We made hats and parrots, eye patches and had a treasure hunt for the kids.  We had the fun balls out again and the kids loved those.

 

 

For Jacob's cake, I tried really hard to make it look like Jake's ship Bucky, but it came out a little retarded.  I was really excited about the sail though.  This was the first time I used sugar paper.  It worked even better than I expected!  No one tried to eat it, but then I didn't think of telling anyone to try it at the time.  I'm sure Matt would have.  It was also tricky to get brown icing to look like wood without fondant or chocolate icing.  So we made do.  I did use fondant for the rails and the windows on the ship, and the balls that I did around the base are all fondant.  It was a fun cake, even if it was a little tricky.  Jacob helped me with the cannon, we had to use a lot of toothpicks to get it to stay up.  

 Here's Derek walking the plank, he got a kick out of that.

My birthday boy!  He loved getting to wear his Jake costume again.

Derek and Uncle Matt sporting pirate bandanas. If I had known the kids would like these bandanas so much, I would have bought more!

We had a treasure chest piñata at the end of our treasure hunt!  It really was a perfect game for the kids.  I did about 5 clues around the yard with pirate prizes, then candy at the end. 

I stole this idea off of Pinterest, but then they also had the same idea on Disney.com.  It was awesome, Disney had a ton of free printables for birthday parties, I just ran copies of everything! I really loved these pirate boats though, SO easy!  Blue jello and oranges! 

Derek was really interested in helping Jacob with the presents, it was adorable.

 Happy Birthday sweet boy! Mommy and Daddy love you!

Our New Home

 It's official! We have finally moved into our new home! This is a big step up for us, a house that is nearly twice the size and at least 60 years newer than our last home.

 

 

One of our favorite things about this new house is the play room for the kids. There is a crawl space underneath the living room floor that was originally unfinished. Most people would simply use this space for storage, but the previous owner decided to turn it into a kids play room. They added a tiny door to get into the playroom, put down a foam puzzle mat covering the entire floor, and even added a motion sensor light in the room so the kids don't have to worry about turning the light on and off.

The best part about this room is the kids can keep all their toys in one room, and keep the rest of the house clean.

 

Easter!

I love holidays! Pretty much all of them.  Easter is one of my favorites because it's a wonderful time to think about our Savior.  Being in the Spring, it just makes me happy!  This was the first year Jacob really took much of an interest.  We kept hiding eggs so he could find them all over again.  Derek was actually pretty good at the egg hunt, he would go right along with us picking them up and putting them in his basket.  He's all about putting things in their place.  The boys also got this giant ball thing that they can roll in all over the grass and had a blast in it all day.  We were blessed with beautiful weather so we relished the time outside.  With the move coming up, we haven't had many days to really relax and so Easter was a wonderful day for our family.

Fine Motor Skills

Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas season this year.   Jacob was so excited for Christmas that it was impossible not to feel the joy of the season.  Derek didn't really have any idea what was going on, but that didn't matter. We went to the Festival of Trees together and it was so fun to see the many different themes and decorations.

Jacob was so excited to see Santa this year.  He knew exactly what his wanted to ask for weeks in advance and he was ready!  I made Derek and Jacob Candy Cane hats that I wanted them to wear and Jacob was literally bouncing in the line to see the big guy.  As you can see from the picture, Derek was less than thrilled about the experience.  He got progressively more red-faced and teary after this picture was taken.

Christmas Day was a wonderful relaxed holiday for us.  We stayed the night at my parent's home and enjoyed the day together.  I love putting the boys in matching outfits!  These were given to them for Christmas last year, but they just now fit in them.

A few days after Christmas, we left for Lompoc.  They boys did really well on the long car ride.  Jacob loved the beach and had a blast looking for "buried treasure."  His uncles were having fun burying shells for him to dig up.

Derek was not a fan of the cold or the uneven walking terrain, but he put up with us.

 Jacob wrote his name in the sand.  He was very proud of himself.

Grandpa Workman with all of his great-grandchildren.

 We took the kids up to temple square the Friday before Christmas, it was busy and super cold, but I loved seeing the lights!