McLay's Giving Thanks

I don't want to sound ungrateful but if I am being honest I am glad Thanksgiving weekend is over. It was a crazy but fun few days that all started with MANNERS LUNCH!!

Samantha's class turned their classroom into a cafe and had a MANNERS lunch. She was so excited to get all dressed up and practice her manners. Since she is my child I was afraid she would get kicked out of the manners cafe not to mention that she was NOT happy when she left for school because I would not let her wear her baptism dress. I felt bad that I was crushing her dream but since they were drinking RED punch and had recess OUTSIDE in the MUD before and after their lunch, WHITE was not an option! She did get over her wardrobe issue and had a great day!

Our next major event was CHRISTMAS... Even though we had not yet celebrated Thanksgiving, the Harmer family was not going to be together for Christmas, so this year we had our gift exchange early.The picture above is my mom's famous don't talk to the hand pose, something all her children are familiar with!!

I have come to accept that my family is crazy...fun but crazy. This picture below with my nephews (Riley and Chad) "embracing" and my mom in the back not even phased by their actions is far to common with my family! (Heidi however, is enjoying the moment). Dave is sure we break all fire codes when we are together because there are so many people, but the more the merrier especially for Harmer CHRISTMAS!

After dinner it was presents, presents, and more presents. My parents insist on everyone opening the presents one at a time, so to get through all 38 presents took awhile.

Ben got some golf clubs he now uses as weapons! (Tara added a "beard" for effect).

Will got Star Wars Legos....Legos + Star Wars= HEAVEN for this boy!

Samantha got a Moxi snow girl and continues to make snow for the doll every week! (Tara was really bored today and added some more "graphics" to this one).

After presents Grandma taught the kids how to gamble with her version of quarters...we are so proud of our Mother! Samantha did win the "little kid"version and she is now rich!!

Thursday, we ate Thanksgiving dinner but I forgot to take pictures....boo! Ben did come over and throw up at the adult table while we were enjoying our meal. Maybe Samantha should teach him some manners.

Friday night, the family spent the night in the Little America hotel (in downtown SLC). Samantha and William wanted to stay for 10 days....Little America probably wanted us to stay for 10 minutes.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights. We wanted to see them turn on, but some people had to use the restroom so we missed the big moment, the lights still looked great though. The kids just wanted to get back and swim so they weren't too excited. After the lights, we swam, ate pizza, played games, and witnessed Ben throw up yet again!

My Dad took pity on the sick "baby" and held him while he slept on Saturday. I am sorry to say he doesn't get this treatment from his mom.

All in all it was a great but tiring HOLIDAY. My favorite part was that Dave had a week off of work and we could just hang out as a family. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and my cute kids. I am also thankful for all our family and all they do for us!

Life at OUR house...a very, very very fine house!

We raked leaves for the 1st time yesterday. I am sorry to say it won't be the last. If anyone knows how to get the leaves off our tree all at one time let us know.

Our kiddos loved playing in the leaves as well. However Samantha made the mistake of giving Ben food and that boy will choose food over physical activity any day!

Our camera is crazy. I have downloaded and deleted several pictures off of the camera several times since these pictures were taken. Then one day I went to download a few and look what showed up! I don't mind, I love the memories! Thank you camera for reminding me of our fun summer as a family!

I again went to download 2 pictures off the camera and to my surprise there were 20+ pictures of our dear Ben! This boy has been on one this week. He has climbed on top of the kitchen cabinets to eat a snack via the refrigerator. He also turned off the crock pot and I didn't realize it until I went to serve dinner! I also must not forget that when he sticks his hands in his pockets they turn into laser beams and he shoots *everyone* he sees.

One of the young men I grew up next to passed away this past week. It has given me the opportunity to reflect on alot on my life and my childhood. I can honestly say I grew up with the best neighbors in the world and I am so thankful for those extra parents and sibling to help keep me on track! Matt you will truly be missed. Thanks for being a friend and watching out for my kids and I. Now we will watch after Mason for you.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

I love how excited these ninjas and witch were for Halloween! Our crazy week started with the cousins Halloween party!
They loved Abbey and Sara in their costumes...Dave would have loved the girls to talk like Mario and Luigi but it didn't happen!

Not all the cousins were COOL enough to dress up but those who did looked great! Our kids LOVE spending time with their cousins and if you add candy to that what could be better.

Samantha and Will had parades and parties at school. Sorry for the bad pictures but I was stressed about their parties and forgot to capture all their cute moments. They did have fun and I was exhausted from entertaining 25 Kindergartners in the morning and 25 2ND graders in the afternoon!

Even though we had a long day on Friday we still did my least favorite Halloween activity...pumpkin carving. Samantha did such a great job this year. Will was a little out of control with the knives so for our safety Dave took his saws-all to Will's pumpkin! Ben wanted Mickey Mouse and my arthritic hands couldn't take any more carving after that so I drilled holes in mine. Dave of course made us all look bad with his awesome headless horse man.
Saturday these die hard trick-or-treaters were ready to go. I say die hard because they went out in the pouring rain and LOVED it. They were thinking EVERYONE IS GIVING OUT FREE CANDY who cares that it is cold and raining! I LOVE these crazy kids and the happiness they bring to our lives.

Side note here....when I uploaded the pictures for this post I discovered Dave had taken more picture of his little friend than I did of the kids at Halloween! Oh how I love my cute husband!

Corn, Corn Everywhere!

Nana and Papa paid us a visit over fall break....YEAH! We decided to take them to CORNBELLY'S....YEAH!

Our kids LOVE Cornbelly's and beg us to go every year. (Good thing it's only here once a year.) This year we made McLay family history by going through all 3, yes 3, corn mazes at once (we started in the Kiddie Maze)!!!! We are amazing I know. If you ever want us to help you through a corn maze let us know...we have mad skills! Ben wasn't to sure about standing in the haunted creatures mouth for a picture but, he later told us that being "pooped out its bum" was his favorite part.

Two hayrides, shooting paintball and corn guns...what kid doesn't love this place. Not to mention the slides, swings and all the other toys to play with!

Ben is too cool to pose for the "corney" picture!

Sam and Will rode bikes while Ben climbed on this train and drove the firetruck. Our kdis are so cute aren't they!

Their favorite thing is the jumping pillow. We need a new trampoline in the spring so I am thinking about upgrading to the jumping pillow. Donations to the McLay Kids Jumping Pillow Fund can be made anytime during the fall or winter!

THANKS Nana and Papa for coming to play....we think you should come more often! (Sam, Will, Ben and Sophie)

R U A good WITCH or A bad WITCH?

Our friends the Harper's joined us for a witching Saturday at Gardner Village. Our kids loved the ride with the witch and the tour of her house, trying to collect all the witches autographs and the candy!
Dave and I loved watching the kids in awe of the witches, being with our friends and the candy!

I love fall activities and being able to get out and spend sometime with our kids. I am not a fan of the kids and Dave being gone most of the day five days a week so being able to do something fun with them when they are home is tops in my world!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to....all our kids

Well since I am so behind on this blogging thing.....wait I am also behind on the laundry and cleaning....I think being behind has become one of my hobbies. Also one of my new hobbies..getting distracted so back to the point of this post. All of our kids had birthdays since I last posted so here is the run down.

SAMANTHA
Samantha Elizabeth McLay turned 8 and in a lapse of sanity we decided to get her the present she has being dreaming of for almost all 8 of those years.
Welcome SOPHIE to the family!!!
Samantha spent her big day bowling with her BFF Kiley,
playing with the family at Incredible Pizza and watching Despicable Me!
Samantha also choose to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

WILLIAM
William David McLay turned 6yrs old! Will only wanted 2 things to make his birthday perfect: his own razor scooter and the Star Wars AT-AT vehicle. I was OK with the scooter and somehow Will put his cute dimples to work on Dave and he got his AT-AT vehicle. According to Will his birthday was "AWESOME"!

For his big day Will choose to go to Jump On It, Olive Garden and see Alpha and Omega!

BENJAMIN
Benjamin Scott McLay turned 3 but still insists that everyone call him baby! Ben LOVES fireman and firetrucks. For his birthday we took him to the fire station and he was in heaven!!

All Ben wants in life are guys, guys, firetrucks, motorcycles and guys. Thus for his big day we added more guys, firetrucks, and motorcycles to his already extra large collection. Good thing he is cute or I would have not added more "crap"to my house!

Ben wanted to go to the Children's Museum and to Chuck E. Cheese. He could sit and watch the dancing Chuck E. Cheese robot all night!

In my very biased opinion I have the cutest and greatest kids in the world. I am so thankful for all that they teach me and for their presence in my life!

A Hiking We Will Go!

This is the view we have from our backyard. I am ashamed to say that it has taken us almost 7 years to hike up this mountain and tour the cave.

I think this sign is a joke. In my professional opinion it should state a warning that you will hate your hike up but ENJOY your hike down. I don't know what there is to enjoy about climbing 1,100 ft in 1.5 miles with 3 kids and temperatures in the 90's. However, once we made it to the cave it was awesome!

Samantha and Will did great and didn't complain to much. Ben just wanted Mom or Dad to carry him.

The cave system is 3 individual caves that are all connected.

Our kids loved having to maneuver around all the formations and getting dripped on inside the cave.

I don't think we will wait 7 years before we do it again. We had a great time despite the effort it took to reach our destination.

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Sean McLay

We spent our Memorial weekend in Boise, Idaho with the McLay family celebrating Sean & Amy's wedding.

It was great to have all the brothers and most of the cousins together. The negative side was I was the only sister-in-law because Angela just had a baby and Becky was almost due to have a baby. However, I will take being the only girl if it means I am not going to have a baby!

Will and his cousin Jordan were BFFs the whole weekend. I loved watching these two boys follow each other everywhere. They got along so well it makes me sad that Jordan lives so far away.

The most amazing thing about this photo is that no one ended up in the pool! In order from left to right. Andrew, Dave, James, Sean and Jim (for those non-McLay's reading this). My personal opinion is that Dave has them all beat in looks and physical fitness!

Besides the wedding if this vacation had a theme it would be THE DROID. These 3 crazy guys all have the droid. They shared apps and have been following each others' location on a Droid Map GPS application since the Boise trip.

Sean & Amy's wedding added 2 more cousins to the McLay family. Yeah for cousins!

Ben and Samantha's faces in these pictures pretty much sums up how this photo shoot was going. In the end I gave up and we have no great photos of the kids awaiting the arrival of the bride.

Thanks to the great weather we don't have any great family shots either!

The McLay boys are always laughing and joking. This is them welcoming Amy into the brotherhood!
We had a birthday party for Andrew in our hotel room. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROO!

We took the kids to the Boise discovery center the day we started our journey home. Thanks for the idea Aki.

It was a great weekend and we all had so much fun. This is Ben on the way home letting us know he was DONE with the drive.