October '11

In October, John and I went away for a weekend.  We left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa, and went to Park city.  We stayed at a very nice hotel called the Zermatt.

It was a nice relaxing weekend of going out to eat, a little exploring, massages, and swimming in the Hot springs!  What a nice break from our normal chaos!

Later on in October, John's Mom came over from Ireland for a visit.  We decided that it would be fun to take the kids to the Zoo with her.

Sean loved the animals!  He wanted to get right in there with them.

 This is the only picture that I got Colin to stand in willingly!

 John's favorite animal is the Eagle!

It was a cold trip, but it was fun for all of us.  The kids have been begging to go to the zoo for a long time!

 Halloween was fun with Nana there!  And the kids looked great in their costumes.  Erin was a Wolf (which I made), Devin was Darth Vader, Colin was Bat man, and Sean was Tigger.

 Now without masks!

 Sean was this Tigger by default.  I had a cute lion costume that I had tried on him maybe a month earlier, and when I went to put it on him for Halloween, it was too small!!!!  Thank goodness I had this Tigger costume!!!!!  It just goes to show how fast they grow.  He was 11 months old.

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween. Before the big day, we went to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins. The kids always enjoy this part. It was so muddy after all the rain we've had that we wore our boots. It's a good thing!
The next night we carved the pumpkins. Each of the kids picked out a pattern and helped pull out seeds and mark the pattern and then John and I carved. Erin pretty much did the whole thing on her own this year! She had a little help here and there to speed her along, but she did most of the work. That was awesome! Then John and I each carved our own. What a great tradition.

Friday was a big day, cause we had a Halloween parade at school, so we had to dress the kids up bright and early. John dressed up for work too. He came up with his own costume.
That night was the ward Halloween party. It was a lot of fun. We had a soup/chili cook-off, then a costume parade. The YM and YW did games for the Kids, and then there was a Trunk-or-Treat.

After the party John reminded me to take a picture of everybody together. I'm glad I did, cause the next night was crazy! We got ready quickly, cause it had been pouring rain, and was just letting up. I didn't know how long the lull would last, so I shoved them all out the door to trick-or-treat. Then we went to our neighbor's house for a hot dog roast that ended up indoors because of the rain. I thought for sure it would rain all evening, but after dinner it let up again, so the kids all went trick-or-treating together. By the time we got home, it was late, and they were all wet and tired. We took off the costumes and make-up before I even though of pictures. I did get pictures of the morning after though. I can't believe how much candy they got! I guess that's what I get for sending them out twice!

Happy Halloween

Halloween was great for us this year, though hectic. John had the stomach flu that weekend, so I had to do everything without him. Dinner, costumes, trick-or treating, and bedtime. It was a crazy night, and I didn't do everthing I wanted to, but the kids got a ton of candy (our neighbors give out good stuff)! One of our neighbors hosted a hot dog roast in their circle too, and that was fun. Hope everyone had a great halloween!

A week in the life of the Doyles

We have had a really busy week!!! I'll start at the beginning. Last weekend John and I went down to Las Vegas (leaving the kids with my Mom and Dad) to see U2 in concert! It was an amazing concert! The black eyed peas opened for them and played some of their best songs: I got a feeling, Where is the Love, big girls don't cry, Meet me half way etc.

During the intermission while they set up the stage, John went down to buy his Official Souvenir T-shirt. Then U2 came on. They were awesome! They started off slow with a lot of the oldies for the die hard fans. and then the show got better and better! Here is one of our favorites:

They also played With or without you, One, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Beautiful Day, etc. U2 alone played for over 2 hours! John was in heaven! He's an avid fan, as some of you know. We stayed with my brother Ryan that weekend. It was so nice not to have a schedule for kids, or an agenda of things to do. It was a nice relaxing weekend. We slept in, played Guitar Hero (for the first time ever) went out to eat, and went to a home show. Things I normally wouldn't do with kids. What a nice weekend. Thanks to my brother for hosting, and my Mom and Dad for watching the kids.

On Monday we carved our Halloween pumpkins.

Colin loved taking the seeds out of his.

Erin carved her own pumpkin this year! she did a great job!

Devin helped mark the pattern on his. and then John carved it for him. If you can't tell it's a skull with a spider web in it's head. He loved it!

I've seen a lot of snow in my days, but this is the first time I remember it snowing so much so early in the year. On Tuesday we had about 3 inches of snow!!!! Devin thought is was great!

He insisted that we get out the coats and gloves and hats and out he went to play. That snow stuck around too for almost 3 days! It's been so cold!!!!

Tuesday night was our Ward Halloween party. We had a soup potluck, a costume parade, games in the classrooms, and trunk-or-treating (inside, cause it was freezing outside!!!). It was a great party and there were so many people there, they were setting up more tables as people arrived.

On Friday, Erin had a Costume parade at her school at 8:45 and then I had to get Devin to his school in his costume for his class party at 9:15. What a busy morning. We made it to everything though. Costumes, treats and everthing.

Now tonight we get to go trick-or-treating too. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them soon. Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Computer

Well, our computer is giving us problems lately. Sometimes it just won't do what we want it to. The other day it just would not download the pictures from my camera. But I finally got them on. I posted pictures on the last blog, so be sure to scroll down to see them. Here are some more from Halloween.