This. is. halloween. halloween.

Nightmare Before Christmas Music in the Background- imagine it, I don't know how to add music!
Halloween is always fun with the Wells' clan since Kyle and Jillyn's birthdays compound the festivities. The festivities were doubly compounded this year with it being Homecoming week at DSC and Andy Shelton and his family coming to town.  It ended up being 6 days of parties!
Andy and Sarah and the kids were coming home from Disneyland and needed to crash at our place so we tried to turn it into a Halloween Holiday party- this doesn't even count as one of the 6 days of partying- but it was a big party, and it helped get me in the holiday mood.

 I made soup and bread bowls and mint chocolate fingers and 100 sugar cookies!  

Penny brought soup too and all the frosting and toppings for a cookie decorating extravaganza!

 This got the festive holiday ball rolling, then we had the week of craziness.

1. Friday:  Homecoming week is labor intensive for the alumni committee.  The alumni open house is this night, we don't have to do too much at it, but we did enjoy the live band immensely.
 









Kyle was in charge of the midnight 5K this year though, (talk about labor intense). It being so close to halloween, we got some of the zombies from Thriller to come and haunt the event.  It was a little stressful for Kyle to be in charge, but it was a very very fun night.  We got Spencer and Shana and Drew and Mason and Mandy and Maycee and George and me and my neighborhood running partners: Keli and Katherine, AND Joel and his brothers  all running this year (Penny and the girls helped direct runners).  Every year I wish it started earlier, but it is a very fun event.

2. Saturday  (A marathon party day -happening on 5 hours of sleep)
We went to the Homecoming parade and got loads of candy for breakfast and had a great morning.

Emily and George got to ride in the parade with the college sponsored swim team they are on.

We went straight to the tailgate party and played for about 45 minutes and then Evan had a soccer game- right there on campus luckily, so I took him over to that, and the others stayed with Kyle and the cousins and kept playing and eating.

Evan really loves soccer, it is fun to watch him- especially when he makes a goal!

After all of that we went to the football game, and nearly fell asleep watching it.  I don't remember the score, I think we ended up loosing it in the end.  

I know Kyle and I did anyway- I don't know about the team.

We would have gone home to a bowl of soup and vegging out in our jammies for the night at this point but we went home and mowed and edged the lawns and everything else that is supposed to happen on a Saturday, got the kids settled with some pizza and headed to the Alumni banquet.  Bruce Hurst spoke and it was nice, but we were running on fumes.  As we were cleaning up they had 5 giant balloon arches gathered up in a bunch and were trying to figure out how to dispose of them.  Kyle asked how they got them in?.... we built them in here.. duh?  oh yeah... then I asked something else that was equally brainless, that I can't remember,  and we all got the slap happy giggles.  We decided we could get those balloons home- I know we were not thinking clearly, but we attempted, and succeeded somehow to get 100+ helium balloons home to our kids.  The neighbors thought we were celebrating the Utes win, but we were so slammed- finding out they had won was a great surprise.

 3. Sunday the 28th On Kyle's birthday, we came home from church and unwrapped presents (of which there were few, because he bought and was wearing all his b-day gifts already).

Circus Afro Circus Afro, polka dot polka dot polka dot afro!

 and then we carved pumpkins while we watched Kyle's new Madagascar movie 

(one of the pumpkins was rotten on the bottom- so we cut the bottom off!)

 

Then later we went to Grandma Sullivan's and sang happy birthday to Kyle and let him eat his traditional birthday lemon meringue pie. 

Over the years I have tried to make festive cakes, or buy decadent chocolate creations, but this pie is all he truly wants.

 I am sure he got a birthday nap in between there. 

 He sure looks good for 39!  One more year of youth ;)

4. Monday night we went to Thriller.  We always gets tickets  because Kyle loves it, and the rest of us join him because we love.... him....and being together, but not really Thriller so much.
Mason loves Thriller- I don't think that necessarily means he doesn't love Kyle....or the rest of us, but you'll have to ask him that! :)

            

Apparently we don't have a picture of the birthday boy.....but he was there :) and he loved it!

 5. Tuesday I thought we would have one day of recovery before the actual holiday came, but the College decided to do their trick-or-treating a day early.  All the college sports teams dress up and line up around the track at the stadium and give us candy!  It was a good dry run for Matty, she loaded up because she didn't know that once they put one piece in your bag you are supposed to walk away.  She just kept standing there looking at them, so they just put more and more in her bag at every stop!  (I am totally doing alien family next year....yep yep yep yep yep yep.)

6. HALLOWEEN

 It was finally here! The day started with the Halloween parade at the school and then straight to Emily's class party (I am the room mom). I made an awesome jack-o-pinata a.k.a pinata-o-lantern.

It took 5 days to make and 5 minutes to bust open and attack.   

Emily made a very cute cowgirl- thanks Penny

Evan was a mummy again- thanks Penny

Matty was a super cute witch after a lot of convincing- thanks Penny

Matty was determined to be a pirate ever since we got back from Disneyland.

-so over a month- I be a pie-yut.  I finally took her to Shana's to try on a pirate costume and then she decided she didn't really want to be a pirate.  This is exactly the reason I avoid buying new costumes! 

Thank goodness for Penny's Halloween costume boxes.

So the party at Em's school was super fun- 4th grade boys are a piece of work, but it went well.

 Then we went to Jillyn's for the next party!

It is a great way for all the cousins from all their different neighborhoods to get to

see each other and play for a minute on Halloween. We were so lucky to have baby Molly this year.

It is also fun for the brothers to show off what horrendous creation they came up with each year.

 Happy Halloween!

 

GOOOOOOOO DIXIE!

We have loved being involved in the Alumni board at the college, as time consuming as it is during football season, it is nice to be full of that old Dixie spirit.  It has also turned us into pretty big Dixie sports fans, and it didn't hurt that this year we had a great football season and the games were so fun to watch.  I am glad the burger flipping season is over, and basketball season has begun.

  The last few years Kyle has gotten passes for his brother's families too.  Kind of as a way to pay them back for all the dental work and trigger point injections and medications (not that we abuse the system in any way..... hhmmm). ANYWAY,  It is tons of fun for us all to go together and to let our kids run wild and pretend they belong to someone else.

  Well, the first pre-season game for basketball this year was against UNLV.  HUGE!  In the Thomas & Mack Center.  HUGE!  The problem was that it was a Wednesday night and was inconceivable.  Kyle said at about 3 pm, will you just make one last ditch effort to see if there isn't someone that could stay with the kids..... so I call Shayne, hoping on a wing and a prayer that she doesn't have to work or have tons of homework, and she can watch the kids and get them to swim team and fed.....etc....wing and a prayer.  She says well I can't, but my mom had the day off work last minute so she is right here......pause while Shayne explains our plans.....then "yeah, she will take them if you can have them ready if 5 minutes, we are at your post office."

 WOOO HOOOO! We are headed to Vegas!
  THANK YOU PENNY!

I text Kyle and he says bring me clothes to change into, 

we get all our poop in a group and by 4 pm we are on the road!

Of course our first stop is B DUBS.  Kyle's brother's have him totally addicted to wings now, and I think they are pretty good too, as long as there is a Dr. Pepper close by to wash them down.

I had never been in the Thomas & Mack Center and it was intimidating, I can't believe it is a college stadium, they serve alcohol, in the elite seats they even serve alcohol by way of very cold girls.
Our seats were up in the nose bleeds and I was afraid to cheer for our team surrounded by Rebels.
When we got there Dixie was down by 8 or so and we were surprised that they were doing that well, we really thought we would get crushed.  Then Coach Judkins, as always, lit a fire under them at half time and they started to catch up- so I started taking pictures....

Here is the run down of the score.....all the Dixie fans were taking pictures of the jumbotron.

It was such an exciting game.  We found the other Dixie fans and sat by them, and it was so much fun.  Even though in the end we lost by one point, we were so proud of those boys for taking UNLV into overtime.  It is going to be an awesome season!

MARATHON 11!

There were some new experiences this year and a lot of things about this marathon that were the same as all the others, and we love the sameness of it. The tradition of standing in the street for hours cheering for strangers and slapping their sweaty hands to pass on our energy to them, until our loved ones come by and we attempt to meet them down at the finish line.

Mandy, Charles, Brian, and Joel passed before Kyle- so those are the pictures I have! (Jon and Crystal too but I missed them)

  Mason (new to this tradition last year, but now a permanent addition), the Beckstrands and the Pages staying at the cabin with us is a tradition, but new this year was Spencer.  It was his first time and he was pretty nervous.  He said at one point, "Why is everyone acting so happy?  Why can't they be just a little nervous."  Charles hasn't done it for a few years, and a few weekends before the marathon they were down to see Hairspray at Tuacahn and Charles kind of jokingly said, if you find me a number.....CUT TO....  All the Rogels came and it made it a party!  It also enabled me to be able to be the driver of the runners and stay at the cabin.  That was a new tradition, in 10 years I have never been able to stay, but since Paula was staying at my house and was willing to take my kids back with her, I got to stay the night and experience the anxiety and medical triage (Spencer) of 5 a.m. at the cabin. 

how embarrassing, I have pooh on my feet :)- notice Spencer letting off some steam...

Unfortunately, I didn't know that they had posted that the road would be closed at 6:00 instead of 6:30 a.m. this year, and when I tried to get on the road at 6:25 after dropping the runners off at the starting line, a very gruff cop wasn't going to let me come home.  He told me to wait for a minute and while I was contemplating how long it would take to wait for 7000 runners to clear the road enough for me to go north to Enterprise and then through Cedar City to get home and whether or not I would have enough gas......he came back and said "Next year plan better," but that I could follow the last bus down the hill that was passing right then.  OH the anxiety.....probably matched that of Spencer's for that moment. I got home and we got breakfast and got the kids going and headed up to Janice's corner.  We have always parked at the corner of Hope St. and Diagonal- kind of accidentally the first year....years ago....and then I realized we were at Shana's parents house and it is kind of nice to have a friendly potty so close, so that tradition stuck.

 We yelled at and slapped strangers and friends for an hour and a half or so and then after Kyle passed we jumped in the van.  At that point we usually have about 20 minutes to find a parking spot and get to the bleachers and cheer for him as he crosses the finish line.

No shirt was something new, as was the chaffing problem that caused the shirt to come off....ouch!

  This year we did just that, and Joel had just finished and so I figured we had about 5 minutes til we saw Kyle, (because Joel passed us about 8 minutes before Kyle, but he was moving slowly due to an uncooperative hamstring) so we waited and waited and waited for about 15 minutes and then Penny called me from the finishers corral and said "JoEllen, Kyle passed out, come!" OH the anxiety!  Much higher than Spencer's at this point.  I started yelling at the kids to stay close and follow me and we ran to the medical tent but he wasn't in there, so I called Penny back and could hear Kyle's voice in the background.  She told me where they were and we found Kyle upright and in good spirits.  Then I started yelling at him!  I instantly knew that he had sprinted home and pushed himself too far.  He just said, "I really wanted to beat 4 hours."  A long held tradition is my fear for the last 10 years that he would keel over from a heart attack during a marathon, but he just smiled and told me he was fine. 

Love this picture, love this man more today than 10 marathons ago.

Once I knew he was alright I was just mad I didn't have a picture of him collapsing into strangers hands and being carried off.  No one has a picture of him at the finish line because no one expected him to be able to shave so much time off the last 2 miles of a 26 mile race, so we all missed it.  

AND, he missed 4 hours too....but only by 35 seconds!  

The kids favorite part of this tradition is the ice cream treats dad passes over the fence to them!

I was very proud of him, he has worked so hard and is physically and emotionally healthier than he has been in a long time, a tradition that I hope continues. 

Quick trip to Disneyland! Our very most favorite place to be.

Kyle got this wild hair (this actually happens quite often and is usually how we get to Disneyland) that we needed to get to Disneyland for Matty's third birthday(September 18th) since after that point it will cost a lot of money to get her through those gates.  It also happened to be Andy Hunsaker's 3rd birthday...or 33rd or  4th :) on September 16th, and they had said they wanted to go for his birthday- so the wild hair hits and all of the suddenly Kyle is a man of action!  Planning and calling and texting and off we went to celebrate our birthday babies special days in the Happiest Place on Earth!

 This is the first trip Matty will (hopefully) remember, she went as a baby, and we left her home last time(sorry sis) so this was the first time she was really excited about going to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  We got on Pirates first (of course) and we were a little nervous about her nerves but she kept saying...I not sked...I okay....I not sked, but she held on pretty tight to Kyle the whole first ride.  When it was over she said...I do dat aden!  and we did, not right den, but over the next two days we did it 4 times!...I yike pirates!  She missed out on a lot of the little kiddy stuff, but she was happy with what she did get.  She doesn't know we could have spent two more days seeing all the kids stuff there is to see.  She was also not sked of the haunted mansion, which is a good thing because Kyle and Andy were in heaven there, especially with Bradlus on the ride giving all the inside details of the Halloween decorations.

Brad got to put the hidden Mickey in the snow in the ballroom, we were/are very proud!
The boys got in all the big fierce roller coasters at least once! It is a good thing Evan is tall because he is the bravest of all the kids.  He rode on Tower of Terror with the grown-ups while I stayed with the babies.....George, Emily, and Matty!

It was busier than we wanted it to be, but when isn't it anymore.  On day 2 we went straight to Carsland which was incredible, but our fast passes to ride the Radiator Springs Racers weren't valid until 5 pm.  Carsland itself was so fantastic, really like we had stepped into the movie.

The ride was totally worth the wait- not worth waiting 100 minutes in line for- like the people who didn't have fast passes, but while we waited we visited Brad at the Aladdin theater.....

 We  did other fun rides and went back over to Disneyland and George got to play the Ragtime Piano.

We also let Matty ride some of the kiddie rides.  :) She loved the trains, she loved the horses and she loved the pirates so we were all happy!  I think I might make her a pirate for Halloween since she can't stop talking about the pirates. She and I got to play in the Wilderness Adventure Camp while the others rode the Grizzly River Run.

find the hidden Mickey (our favorite game now)

 The rope bridge was very scary for me.  It was a canopy above the whole campground and it made me very nervous! She was a pro by the end though and tried it solo...
  She loved it all, she loved seeing the Princesses in the parade too and thanks to Uncle Andy she had the best seat in the house!

My boys...growing pains and pay days.

This is part 2 of Evan's 1st grade experience... He made it back to school after his early disappearance the first day and things went better after that.  Once he realized he had 3 recesses if he stayed all day he was really happy about staying.  Last week was his very first spelling test.  His very smart teacher has them take a practice test with their parents the night before.  I was explaining to him that his teacher would say the word out loud and then, without looking at the words, he would have to write them down.  His eyes got big and he said, "that is going to be really hard!" me- "no it won't, we have been working with these words all week and you can sound them out, you will be fine."
So the first word is MAN- I say MAN and he writes it-but it looks terrible and I immediately get on him about writing neatly...me- "the teacher would mark that wrong because the n looks like an h and he says "but it is really hard to write it nicely without looking".......he had his eyes closed.
I realized that what I meant was: you can't look at the spelling list while you take the test, what he heard was: you have to take the test with your eyes closed (without looking at the words).

Oh I love that kid!        

It would be really hard to take a test that way- BTW he did get 100% on the final, and man still looked like mah, but he has a very nice teacher!

One last funny thing he just did while I was writing this.  He got out one of Kyle's lasers and was spinning it in a big circle on the ceiling.  He started galloping in place and said in his best Southern accent, "Look mom, I'm a laser cowboy!"

GEORGE

George is such a phenomena to me.  I have asked over and over again, where did he come from?  He came straight from his Heavenly Father, because neither of his earthly parents have that kind of talent.  I wonder if our talent comes from our Heavenly Mother....not that Heavenly Father isn't all-talented, but just that I imagine her to be overflowing with peace and ability to nurture and lift people's spirits..... that just came to me right this minute but back to the boys....
George had a duet piano recital on Monday night, luckily his teacher was also blessed with amazing talent and was able to play with him (some of the other kids moms or siblings played with the students, but not George's :)).  Here is the video of their song.

He says he made a whole bunch of mistakes but it was great and Bob Ruesch his teacher just thinks he is about the most talented kid he's ever taught and switched him last minute to be the "closer".

Bob is pretty sure that George has perfect pitch and is very enthusiastic about his future as a pianist.

Jillyn and Grandma Sullivan were able to come and so we went to "a place" after to eat.

You've never met two boys so different (already) but I am so proud of both of them and am so grateful they are mine.  I look forward to the fun adventures we will have together as they grow.

Hurrah for Dixie!

This weekend was a wonderful tribute and celebration of Dixie State College.

Friday morning we got to attend an amazing meeting for the dedication of the 

 Jeffrey R. Holland Centennial Commons building.  

The newest, biggest, prettiest building on campus.

Kyle received two reserved tickets to get us into the main building but then he scored another ticket so we could take Grandma Sullivan and we got her in through the back door and onto the elevator so we got seats on the ground level.  We were on row 5 and were so grateful to have grandma with us! Not just because of the awesome seats but she is like a celebrity on campus, so it is fun to be with her.
The whole meeting was just phenomenal, one of the most uplifting and spiritual meetings I have attended.  I was moved to tears more than once, it was also very light hearted.  President Uchtdorf was the keynote speaker and gave the dedicatory prayer.

not the best picture, but I wanted to capture it- he gave such a great tribute to Elder Holland

Elder Holland was overwhelmed by the moment and told of how he refused the suggestion of naming the building after him, but when they explained that it was a student commons building he said.....I am just a common boy from Dixie just like every other student on campus, a common  student with uncommon hope, and I am nothing without you and my Dixie heritage.

Saturday was another great day for Dixie.  It was our first home football game and tailgate party.
I wasn't really looking forward to it, the tailgates are a challenge because Kyle is stuck behind a grill the entire time and it is hot and I just have to try to wrangle the kids but they love it.

Yeah for face paint- I think McKay calls this look BLUE STEEL...

The football game was really good - such a delightful surprise

 after last season..... :)

We have two formidable quarterbacks and 

a great team all around.

I am very excited for the

 upcoming season.

AND WE WON!

the first half was close but then in the second we pulled away and won 24-10!

It was awesome!

Labor(less) Day

I have always wondered why they would name a holiday Labor Day, it doesn't make sense.  

Ours had very little labor- at least mine :).

Kyle and Mandy took a 35 mile bike ride- I am sure that was pretty laborious.  I did go swim laps and am back up to my half a mile in 45 minutes. (this doesn't sound very impressive but it has been a long road getting there, and then getting back there again after the surgery)

 When I got back I found out we were going swimming!

Mason and Mandy took us to the Bloomington Country Club pool which reminded us a lot of the pool in Sandlot.  It was perfect for our families. There was a diving board (until the dads broke it)...

Spencer's signature move.....the limp fish

George, same move, but he calls it the penguin dive...

Super Mac

This is Drew completely upside down

Evan......always leaving us speechless :)

  there was also a kiddie pool to keep Matty (and Seth) occupied. Matty thought she was pretty fancy in her new goggles that matched her swimsuit. She kept trying to stick her head under the water- 

she looked like an ostrich.

It was a great afternoon.  We all got fried which I didn't think was possible after having been out in the St. George sun for the last 5 months.  Evan has been tan since April but still managed to get a sunburn.....weird.. I guess you can never let your guard down when it comes to sunscreen.  The best part is that I got a new camera and it is waterproof so it has been a fun toy, but I forget to take it anyplace we go- unless there is water!  Seth said to me at one point when I was taking pics in the pool- hey your camera's gonna get wet.  Thanks Seth.

So even though I have no evidence... we also went to Pine Valley with all the cousins- we totalled 30, Grandma even came and everyone had a fantastic time- all the same old stuff but it never seems to get old.  Sunday night everyone showed up at Grandma's and the Sullivans from the North(that is their title in my new novel :)) came down too, so we got to visit with Neil and Mary, and Michelle as well. The cousins slept on our tramp on Sunday night,  I hate sleepovers so much, but we gave in mostly because Kyle promised the kids they could sleep out there but didn't want to sleep with them. Father of the year! They were happier with their cousins anyway.  I do wish I had a picture of that- 7 kids between the ages of 12 and 6 sleeping in a pile in the middle of the tramp.  I probably will let them do that again (next summer), just don't tell George.

On Monday after swimming and some much needed napping, we went to see Alladin. Aladin? I don't know how to spell it....anyway Grandma came with us again and it was a great night, and at least I had my cell phone so we could get some pics with our favorite actors.

Annie Frehner, our favorite choreographer from Desert Stars

Tino Smith- our favorite person ever! and past Tuacahneer.

We didn't want to wait in line, so that is Jasmine, Aladin and the Geenie in the background!

 Now we are wiped out, so I guess we did work pretty hard on Labor Day after all.  At least we played hard, but I still wish we had another Sunday after it so I could catch up.