Pumpkin Carving Party

This was so much fun!!

It was round 3 of Canyon's b-day. I know. It's totally out of control. What happened is that we were going to put off Canyon's b-day per the request of friends who were going to be out of town. But Canyon knew it was his b-day so we had to go ahead and do something before. Now, we had the friends, had to carve our pumpkins Thursday because of high school football Friday and so much going on Saturday. So I decided we will have a pumpkin carving party and a cake and call it good.

I THINK WE JUST FOUND A NEW TRADITION!!!

IT WAS GREAT!!!

Sascha and Malaki even dressed up for the occasion :)

Just a pumpkin sweater (that is actually too small but is all the store had left)

Malaki is a pirate :)

Party table set up

Sahara and I moved the couches out to the carport to make room for lots of carving and people.

So it begins :) Rylan and Melanie think about Rylan's design and Mila and Hannah get busy on theirs.

We had Mila and Zach

Paula, John, Kristy and Hannah

Rusty, Melanie, Zane, Rylan and Addylin

Me, Jared, Sahara and Canyon

Zach and Canyon dig in. I think this is only Canyon's 2nd time actually wanting to get his hands in the goo.

Can't keep Mila away from the babies. She got to hold Addy for awhile. I haven't even held her yet!!!

Jared takes the first stab into his very first pumpkin ever. Yes, he has never carved a pumpkin before. I love that he gets to do new stuff like this with us :)

Canyon looks like he is having a great time!

Rusty helps Zane with his pumpkin. This is also a first. Rusty has never carved a pumpkin before either. He does not like the goo so he chose never to carve before.

It was funny to watch Jared and Rusty. They took the most time, were the most careful, and were the most serious carvers of the group.

Melanie decorates Addy's pumpkin with a marker.

Sahara tries to be very careful and actually her pumpkin this year looks the best ever!

Here is the groups efforts (- Zach's pumpkin which I think was on the back of my truck and I didn't realize it till after pictures were done)

This household's masterpieces :)

I told everyone we eat our babies here. Maybe that's why they kept Addy away from me. hahaha

Jared's Superman

Misty's Monster

Canyon's Crazyhead

Sahara's Goofballhead

It was a lot of fun. I think if the Buddy Walk b-day thing doesn't work out, Canyon's b-day will just be moved to the end of the month for this. Or we will just do this anyway for Halloween.

All too soon, Basketball ends :(

Shooting for Success is only an October program....then the regular basketball session starts. He LOVES it. Lots of excitement running up and down the court.

This is one of the 3 baskets he made this game:

The cake for all the players

Everyone got pizza and bread sticks too.

He went up with his team for awards. They got a medal, draw string back pack, team and individual pictures, and a graphic novel style bible.

This was the girl who was his one-on-one for the practices and games. Unfortunately, I do not know her name :(

Next up will be baseball in the spring.

Growing.......a little

Measured Canyon and he grew 2 1/2 inches this year. That's great! He is now a hair shorter then Sahara was at 10 years old. hahaha. My little guy!

Basketball

Basketball is way too short. Only the month of October. Canyon is on the red team this year. Because they have so many kids this year, it's also been broken into 2 groups. 4 teams from 6-7 and 4 teams from 7-8. He's the early session which is fine with me!

Better pictures coming soon!

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Like a Duracell....Canyon's b-day just keeps going and going and...

Canyon's birthdays always seem to come in stages.

We went to Hog Wild for phase 2 of Canyon's b-day. Since today is actually his b-day we thought we better do something. Jared and Jordan came along. Canyon loves the boys and looks to them as older brothers so he was very happy.

Jordan playing Canyon on air hockey.

Canyon ~ Jared ~ Jordan

Sahara didn't play much of anything

.

Jared and Jordan really like the shooting games. Yes, they hunt too.

Jared doing some more hunting.

Jordan at Guitar Hero.

Sahara helping Canyon drive a log truck.

Jared and Canyon did what Canyon loves best. In fact he runs over to the bumper cars as soon as we enter the building....but I always try to save it for last since it's his favorite.

Well, had a video but I tried 3 times and it would not load :(

Thank you Aunt Kristy, Uncle Rodd, Caleb and Emily!! Your gifts arrived today :)

Thank you Uncle Brian, Aunt Mel, Jason, Parker, Tobey and Zoey for the card money and gold coin!!

A little partying

At the Buddy Walk, everyone there sang Happy Birthday to Canyon. After they sang he asked for cake and presents. When they didn't have any he was sad. Even with the pouty lip. So later when we went to do the Walmart shopping I picked up a cake. Since Jared was all ready over and it was a good time for Mila, we decided to do the cake and the presents that had all ready been waiting on Saturday night.

He got a new Tonka and a handful of movies from Mom and Sahara.

Nerf guns and more movies from Grandma and Grandpa Tom.

A bank we have to build from Nana and Papa.

Money from Gran-pa.

We sang and had Reese cake. Very yummy!

Thank you for all the gifts!!!!

1st Annual Buudy Walk

We did our walk today!
It was very hot for this time of year and the hottest day we have had in a few weeks. At least it was a sunny and not rainy day.

Smokey the Bear was there for a bit.

A couple police cars came for the kids to see.

Sitting in the shade. The only way to go!

Logan with Malaki! He loved that pup and said it was his dog! He took off running with Malaki shortly after. We had to chase him down!

Canyon and Logan with the Dz Girls. Not sure who they are, but they were the main helpers today with checking in, lunch, clean up and so on.

The view of the walk behind me.

The view of the walk ahead of me.

Logan and Canyon in the bump and jump.

Canyon being a ham for the camera.

Canyon and Logan in the bump and jump.

Good time. Lots of people for a 1st. We will have LOTS more next year!

Basketball Begins

Canyon had his first basketball practice and game on Thursday. He is on the red team. Last year there were 24 players. This year 51 so they broke the group into 2. Canyon plays 6-7 and the second group plays 7-8. That works for me.

This is a picture during practice.
The other 2 are from the game.

He had a great time. He loves running up and down the court. Lots of action and great exercise for him.

I am such a bad Mom!!!

Canyon's birthday is Sunday and I haven't put anything together! He has known his b-day is coming up for the last 2 weeks too. Asking for cake and presents. GAH!!! It's been a very crazy week. We will probably just do a family thing Sunday and maybe go to the movies or something. Then have a party later. A family we would have for the party is out of town this weekend anyway and had asked if we could wait for his b-day :)

This week:

Spirit week for RMS

CPR test

Canyon's first basketball practice/game

Sahara takes the Driver's Permit test

The PHS/DHS game!!!! (unfortunately Jared's ankle is not healed enough to play :( )

Buddy Walk

Canyon's B-day

Canyon's eyes

Just got back from the eye doc with Canyon. Everything looks good. His nystagmus (shaking eyes) has no change. His cataracts have not changed, tho they give him 20/30 and 20/40 vision. And his far sightedness has no change. Doc says we could do glasses for farsightedness, but because of the cataracts, it really wouldn't help anything out and why bother with glasses because he mostly likely wont wear them. Surgery on the cataracts is something he doesnt want to do either until he sees that they are growing. For now he thinks they are something he was born with and not really a problem. So, that's it till next year.

Pottsville's Homecoming Dance

Sahara and Jared have waited a long time for this:

They finally got their first date!

Pottsville lost their game. Dardanelle won theirs. No they didn't play each other.

That's next week!

Jared rolled his ankle in practice this Thursday so he didn't get to play tonight. But he is going to hobble to the dance anyway.

After dance update:

They had a good time. They were exhausted even before the went so by 12:15, you could see tired all over their faces when they got back.

They danced with friends not just with each other, which is BIG for them and their jealousy issues. They have come a long way!

I love my little couple!!

They're too cute!!!

Here we go!....

Sahara and Jared's schools are having there Homecoming at the same time. That's frustrating for many reasons. Jared and his brother were chosen to be the Junior escorts. We will miss that because we will be at Sahara's schools game. Also, both schools are having a dance afterwards. Not really a Homecoming dance, they call it -5th Quarter- and it's directly after the game and it is come as you are. He wants to go to his. She wants to go to hers. I told them, that's fine. Go to your own. Have fun with your friends.

Turns out Jared's school canceled their dance because they only do 2 dances a semester and had a back to school dance all ready and later will do a Christmas dance or something like that. So, Jared is going to take Sahara to her dance :)

This is going to be their actual first date --- and it's this Friday :).

Our 1st ever Buddy Walk

A little boy I met 9 years ago, with his mom and grandma, in Walmart, I just got reintroduced to. He was 5 weeks old at the time. Canyon was 3. His last name was Collins as well and we were so excited that he would be going to Pottsville eventually too. We thought it will be very interesting because they look so similar and have the same last name that people, especially the kids, would assume they were brothers. That didn't happen and we never really knew where he went.

Now we do! His name is Logan and yes, he has DS too. His mom is starting a Buddy Walk and this is the first year. It's going to be the day before Canyon's 12th b-day. He lives in Dardanelle. Yep! Another Sand Lizard!

http://logansriverwalk.com/index.html

We are excited! Like Canyon, Logan is the only one in his school with DS. He does however have 2 younger brothers and a baby sister. Playmates abundant! Canyon really could use a buddy tho so we are looking forward to getting to know Logan and his family better.

We went to church today

Only for the baptism of 3 of Sahara's friends. Zach, JayMac and Tyler, all who have graced this blog in the past, got baptized this morning.

Zach was up first. He did not look nervous at all. The church was packed!

Next was JayMac. He did look nervous.

Last was Tyler.

The cake was beautiful!

Mila cut the cake and I served. No, I don't even belong to the church and never have even been there, but I jumped right in.

Jared came with us [of course :) ]

It was short and sweet. It actually took us much more then twice as long to get ready then the ceremony lasted.

After, Sahara, Jared, Canyon and I went to a new Mexican place for lunch. It was very crowded (all the after church goers tend to have lunch out on Sunday's) and the food was good, but I still prefer Las Palmas.

Jared's football picture

Looks like he has his game face on.

Don't look too closely, one of those daggers might get you!

Same ol' same

I hate that I haven't posted in awhile. Things are just the same. I turned in my very first rough draft for my first essay for class today. I'm kinda nervous....but we will see.

Sahara's grades for the first 4 weeks of school have been great! But she thinks she bombed her Biology test last week. No results on it yet.

Canyon has sinus issues lately. Hope he feels better soon. His teacher is acting odd this year too. Let you know more on that later...

The lawn is about 2 feet high but the mower has been out of whack. It's on the charger now and maybe (keeping fingers crossed!) it will start after work tomorrow so I can at least get the front done.