Happy Halloween!

Well Halloween has come and gone... It was a wonderful holdiay, despite it's bad reputation! :) The weather was perfect. Fairly warm and sunny.

We took the kids to my grandmother's church where they got to play games, bobbed for apples, ride a tractor hayride, and of course trunk or treat!

As many of you already know, Joshua's favorite cartoon character is Ben Tennyson from the Cartoon Network, so naturally he went as Ben 10 (Alien Force) He is SUCH a fan of the cartoon we actually purchased a wall decoration for him a couple of months back, and if you remember we also had his birthday party this year in the "Ben 10" theme.

Jason was dead set on dressing up as Buzz Lightyear (of course)! Jason has been going nuts, all over again, about the Toy Story movies since they came out with the 3-D verison at the theaters last month.

And then there's Elle. She didn't really have a choice in the matter, but we went with the Lady Bug theme which happens to match her nursery, and I must say, she did make a pretty darn cute lady bug!
The kids enjoyed the night trunk or treating, and we were able to make it home before it got too dark and cold. Then we spent the rest of the evening watching movies together. It was just a really fun family day.

Elle in the moring

I just thought I would post a cute video displaying how our mornings start here at the Bustos house. :)

Elle is getting so big! At her last doctor's appointment she measured in the 40th percentile for her weight, and 97th for her height!!! Just like the boys! Sigh... I thought she might be a little bit petite! She is such a cutie and SO much fun. She is the happiest baby I have ever seen, and on Sunday she rolled over for the first time! I can't believe how fast she is growing up already. :( A part of me just wants her to be my little baby forever!

Halloween comes early

It's been a pretty fun few weeks. Keeping busy with all of the activities. A couple of weeks ago we had a sleep~over with a friend of mine up in Logan. The kids had a blast playing together, and my friend and I even got in on the action. We made gourds with pipe cleaner limbs. It was pretty fun! It reminded me a lot of being a kid again. The kids got to paint the pumpkins and then chose what color of pipe cleaner they wanted for each limb. They really had fun with them, but played with them so much they had everything off before we even made it home!

We also took the kids to a carnival held by a local dance studio where they got to dress up in their costumes and play a lot of games. Robert's Craft store also had a "Fright Night" where again the kids got dressed up, danced around on the pumpkin walk, paraded around the store, and got to make and take several crafts.

We even got a chance to do some trick~or~treating early! We attended my friend's ward's trunk or treat, so the kids got a little taste of the Halloween activities yet to come. They really had fun with their friends, and the church even fed us dinner & played games inside, which was a nice treat for all of us since it was FREEZING!

Hopefully Halloween will be a little warmer! :)

So it begins...

Our yearly harvest activities have begun! I've kind of turned it into a family tradition to take the kids down to Gardner Village in West Jordan around this time of year.

I love how they decorate with all their fall decor and of course the witches!

We started going about three years ago, and though there isn't really much to do other than eating and shopping, it's still one of my all time favorites. (Maybe it's because I'm really good at eating and shopping?!?)

The kids had a lot of fun running around looking at all the different witches, as long as they didn't have to get too close, they thought they were pretty funny. And of course they enjoyed the other kids there, making friends with any other children they could find.

We splurged a little this year and after seeing the sites took the children to eat at Archibald's, the old mill that was converted to a restaurant back in 1990. We had fun reading all the history and climbing to the top of the mill. Lalo was pretty impressed that Archibald, the original owner of the flour mill, obtained 11 wives, and 48 children after he converted to Mormonism! Now that's a lot of women to care for!

Overall, it was a nice outing. The weather cooperated, and for the most part the kids did too. Hopefully next year we'll be able to take the kids on the hay ride to the witches house they have there. We unfortunately missed it this time around since Elle was a little restless, and I got anxious to leave. But there is still plenty to do on my list of harvest activities to keep us all entertained.

Summer

It's been a crazy summer! For not having anything planned, it's been much busier than I would have expected. So because there was SO much going on, I thought I would just do a quick recap of our summer events. We attended the annual sidewalk chalk art festival at the Gateway in Salt Lake City.
The kids really enjoyed the large pictures, especailly the cartoons characters!
They really enjoyed walking around, and even got to do a little sidewalk art of their own.

Then we took Elle to her first visit to the zoo. We attempted to do this early in the year, but ended up getting rained out. :(
Joshua was so disappointed that we didn't get a chance to visit the monkeys on the previous visit, so this time around we HAD to make sure we saw all the monkeys. (How appropriate, since they boys act just like them!)
And of course we had to stop by my favorites, the Zebras. The kids had lots of fun throughout the summer having playdates and sleep overs with their best friend Austin.Things were going well with all the kids, and I was recovering well from the birth of Elle until I fell off the side of a curb (don't ask) and twisted my right ankle tearing several ligaments in my foot. I was laid up for almost two weeks, so we decided to take a trip to Texas to visit family and relax a little. We ended up spending an entire month in Austin with Lalo's family! The kids had a lot of fun with grandma and their cousins. They thought it was pretty special when they got to dress up like animals with face paints. We made Elle a make-shift crib out of a laundry basket so that I could set her down while we spent time with the family outside of the bedroom. We took the kids swimming with the family at a local waterpark. Joshua especially loved the company of his female cousins, lol. (He's such a little ladies man, already!)We even got Elle in on the swimming action, though she didn't enjoy the water as much as she enjoyed just lounging in the warm weather.Unfortunatly while we were in Texas, Elle got very ill. We had taken her into the emergency room, and was told that she might possibly have Menegitis. They kept her in the hospital for four whole days running numerous test. My poor baby was so sick the first couple of days, she didn't want to even be held. But after a few days of some IV fluids and antibotics she was feeling much better and was even smiling again... even after all the testing she went through. Thankfully she was fine and didn't have anything other than a virus, but we weren't taking any chances since she was so young! Before we left we got in a few more days of play at a splash park in down town Austin. The kids really enjoyed it... though as usual Jason was upset with Joshua over something. Lol, I just thought the picture was hilarious!By the time we finally got back to Utah, Lalo had landed himself a local job up in Corinne, Utah. After 6 weeks in a cast I was feeling pretty good again myself so we decided to take the kids on their first hiking adventure up Waterfall Canyon in the Ogden Canyon. It was a beautiful hike and even though we got lost and put in a couple extra miles more than we needed, it was awesome, and the kids did wonderfully. I can't believe how well they did. Joshua walked all by himself all the way to the top which was about 4 miles (including the mile or so we had to back track)... but by the time we started heading down they were both pretty tired. I'm so proud of the boys, however I don't think I'll be attempting that hike with such little kids again. The trip down was so steep and having to carry the kids was pretty scary. Maybe I'll wait until they are a little older before we go again. :) So now we are home and the kids are doing well. Cute as ever and for the most part everyone's back to being healthy... at least physically. Elle's getting big as ever and will soon be turning 5 months old! She has even started eating a few baby foods and laughs and giggles constantly. They are all such a joy, and we've had a fabulous summer. I honestly can't wait for the upcoming month and all the activites we have planned for the fall season. Hopefully I'll be able to get pictures posted a little sooner this time around!

4th of July!

What a fun filled weekend. The fourth of July just flew by... I've been a little preoccupied and haven't had much time to post until now.
We spent the day just with the family. We picked up my grandmother early that morning and brought her back to our house. It was nice that the local parade traveled right down our street! The kids had a lot of fun, dancing along with the high school bands and cheerleaders, though I think they had the most fun collecting the candy! Lalo and Elle had to pose in the usual Texas honors. Go Longhorns! Lol. Elle actually did really well. She was wide awake fo the entire parade and then for breakfast afterwards and didn't make a peep. She is getting so alert, and will stop and stare and things so intently! Oh, she is just so cute. After breakfast we went to the Riverdale City Park where they were holding a holiday festival. They had a blow up bouncy slide, which Joshua loved, and lots of little games with cheezy prizes. We thought we we would try getting the kid's faces painted. They especially loved the idea after we saw a woman walk by with spiderman painted on her face. We let the kids choose what they wanted, and naturally they ended up as Spiderman and Batman! We hung out at the park for a couple of hours, letting the kids enjoy the playground, and after the festival, we headed back to the house for a family nap! It was pretty hot, and it had already been pretty busy! We picked up Grandma again later that evening and took her out to the Hooper Park for the fireworks. They had a live band playing before the big show wich consisted of the city's Bishopric, lol. And the kids had a lot of fun playing with sparklers. It was such nice weather and the fireworks weren't huge, but it was enough, and enjoyable, and we got a good view of it all! All in all, I have to say it was a VERY nice holiday. :)

Elle's Blessing

Wow, time has flown by, already. Our tiny baby girl has already hit her first milestone... Okay so that milestone was only her 2 week mark, but already I can see subtle changes in her appearance. She is filling out more, and at her two week check up she was up to 7lbs 3 oz. It had been a fairly busy couple of weeks. When we first brought Elle home the pediatrician was concerned about her jaundice, so we had gone back to the hospital almost daily for the past two weeks to have blood test. It was torture on both of us. (Elle and me!) Thankfully her biliruben leveled out and she checked out more than healthy at her two week exam. On top of all the visits back to the hospital, we mourned a death in the family. My uncle, and only son to my grandmother was called back to Heaven on May 31st. Because of all the family in town I planned on having Elle blessed the Sunday following my uncle's funeral.> Elle was blessed by the Bishop of our Ward, and was blessed with several gifts of health and a spiritual well being. It was a beautiful blessing, and I'm so grateful for all those who were able to attend. I had several friends, as well as my Dad and step mother who traveled all the way down from Washington state. It was a blessing in itself to have my Dad sit in for the blessing.
Afterwards we had a luncheon back at the house and just relaxed and enjoyed the good company. I honestly would have never been able to pull off such a wonderful day without the help of my good friends. With Lalo being home and out of work, like most people now days money is tight. The blessing dress was purchased for Elle by my good friend, Louise, and most of the food for the luncheon was also provided for by friends. Thank you all. I don't know else to express my gratitude for all that God has given me, including family, friends, a loving and devoted husband, and three beautiful, healthy children!