Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my second favorite holiday and I get so excited this time of year! We had a fun filled weekend with pumpkin carving, Halloween parties, and of course trick-or-treating! My masterpiece I am so proud of!

Lots of pictures to tell our story!

Victor and I had a great time at our Halloween party! Time flies when you are having fun. Victor was a Spartan and I was his Spartan Queen.

Me and Victor and our friend (an apple itunes gift card) Tiffany on our way to the party.

Conner is at the age where he only wants to be something scary for Halloween. He also educated me that only babies carry trick-or-treating buckets and big kids carry pillowcases. :) Mason was so happy after we went to the first house. He wanted that sucker right away, not in his bucket! And Zack kept asking, "We trick-or-treat at a new store Mommy?" each time we would go to a new house.

Conner is Jason from the movie Halloween, Mason is a dragon, and Zack is pirate. A pirate is the only costume he wasn't afraid of!

The little ones and I quit early and went home to hand out candy. Every time there was a knock at the door they would sprint to see what was awaiting on the other side. Zack would say every time, "Let's see what they be!"

The boys at their first house of the night.

Mace so excited about his sucker!

Already looking forward to next year!

I have to give a pat on the butt to my bud Krista who completed her first half marathon today! Way to Krista!!!!!!

Fall

Conner's football is finally over! I loved watching him play. He really stepped up and got much more aggressive as the season went on. However, I will not be missing practices five days a week and games that take up every single Saturday. His team lost their first game and won all of the rest. Even pulling a big win for their last name (a nail biter!) and beating an undefeated team. Way to go Conner!

With football taking up every second and both Victor and I being immersed with work (especially Victor, thanks for job security H1N1!) I was worried it would be to cold and rainy at the end of the month for us to ever make it to the pumpkin patch. However, we capitalized on some sunshine and the kids had a blast running around trying to find their perfect pumpkin! There is just something about the pumpkin patch, maybe similar to what my friends tell me who cut down their own Christmas trees. I think I will still stick with my fake "little tree that could" anyway! :) The sky clouded up and it started to rain about a half hour after we left. We totally got lucky on that one!

My super amazing hubby who has been working his little butt off all week also ran his first half marathon this weekend. I don't know how he did it, he had to be totally exhausted, it has been such a busy week and he put in a lot of extra hours helping out at work. We are so proud of him. He took 8th in his age group of men (30-39 yrs old) and took 33rd out of 150+ people.
The race was really cool. It was called Prison Break and was obviously held at the prison. There were a lot of people dressed up in stripes and orange jumpsuits, they had a cool vintage war plane fly over, SWAT teams, and they sounded the alarm to start the race. Needless to say, my boys loved it!

The boys talking to Victor after the race. Conner and Zack were so sad that I forgot to pick them up some posterboard to make signs for thier Dad. Opps!

Bad News Bear

Poor drugged Bear right after surgery.

If you are anything like us, then your "pet" is just another one of your kids. Bear, our black lab, had been hobbling around for a while so Vic took him into the vet. When they got back Vic told me I better sit down. My heart was pounding, "What? Sit down? This must not be good!" Victor proceeded to tell me that Bear had major damage in his knee and has also torn his ACL (we are sure from this escape artist jumping our fence all of the time), we could leave it and he would get a little better but would always hobble and have major arthritis when he gets older or operate.

"Well of course we are going to operate!" I tell him.

Victor says, "Well maybe you might want to know how much the surgery is going to cost."

He shows me the estimate. . . I think I left a brown mark in my chair! "Are you serious?!?! Since when did dog surgery start costing as much as human surgery?!?!?"

Long story made short, we couldn't leave our beloved Bear the way he was and we had the surgery. He is only two and maybe it would have been a different story if he was Ben (our other dog) who is 11. The kids were VERY concerned about what was going on with Bear. We all just love that dang dog so much!

Bear is totally Mason's dog. He would walk to up to him and say, "Oh Bear!" and give him a big love. Or he would just lay with him (or on him) and watch TV.

Double Digits

Conner recently turned the big 1-0! Seriously, he is 10?!?! Conner is a really good kid who cares so much about other people and is such a good helper to us and his brothers. We are so blessed to have this little guy in our lives.

A few of his best buds are recovering from the Swine Flu so we are holding on a birthday party for a bit. He did get to spend a fun weekend being spoiled by his Gram and Poppa. And Grandma Nadine, Maudi, and cousin Casey were able to celbrate cake and ice cream with us.

Conner's football team is the Lightning so he wanted a Lightning football cake. Way to go on the cake Dad!

Whenever a Snuggie commercial comes on Conner will laugh and joke with us about how stupid they are. We saw a BSU one in the Blue & Orange store and Conner brought it to show me while he was cracking up. I sent Victor back right away to get it as a gag gift for Conner's birthday. When he opened it he exclaimed, "A Snuggie?!?! Oh Mom!!!!" But he loves it! It is so funny he has been carrying it around the house and when I check on him at night he is all curled up in it. Funny kid.

Big Bad Blair

Me and my Dad.

October 1, 2009 marked the 30 year anniversary that my Dad has worked for and been President of his company. I have to laugh, in my small town he is definitely dubbed as the "Big Bad Ol' Businessman". I laugh even more when I think "If these people only knew!" My Dad does so much for people in the community and does most of it anonymously (after all isn't that the true spirit of giving?). But, I will also say, you certainly have to have a backbone to run a successful business in a small town.

I bought him this sash that says, "30 and Thrilling" he wore it for 30 seconds. Thanks for indulging me Dad!

And successful he has been. In his 30 years that he has been President he has grown his company value from 12 million to 208 million and expanded from 1 office to 13. The business is in good shape because of great leadership. In a time when competition is taking bailout or TARP money, his institution is not. He has served and been President of so many organizations big and small. From the Idaho Bankers Association all the way to the Federal Reserve in San Francisco. He has put so much into this business and cares so much about his employees. (He even plows their driveways when it snows!)

I won't go on and on but I do want to say how much I love and appreciate and am so proud of my Dad. He has taught me so much about giving and staying true to who you are and taught me even more about having a good work ethic and setting goals. My boys all adore their Poppa. They get so excited to see Gram and Poppa and never want to leave.

Our little family on our way to the party.

Thanks to all of the friends, family, colleagues, employees, pretty much everyone who stopped in to the open house. Love ya Dad.

These pictures are for you Aunt Sally. Below is my Mom and Dad and Uncle Howard and Aunt Colleen. My Dad received some beautiful plants and flowers. The flowers pictured below are from his brothers and sisters.