Pilfered Peanuts

it has become a yearly tradition for us to make a movie on halloween. if you haven't seen our previous attempts, click here for 2008 and here for 2009.

now that you are all caught up...

we would like to present....

PILFERED PEANUTS
(best seen full screen)


happy halloween 2010

"you can't have a baby here"

at the end of september, cade's work sent him to las vegas for a trade show. you better believe i jumped at the chance to get away for a little while with my sweeties. it turned out to be a great time...even though i swear violet was the only baby in all of las vegas.

to start, once cade got home from work, we drove down to gran and bob's house in laverkin to see them and their house. we had never been there before and this was violet's first meeting for them. it was sweet. gran had everything ready for us including a warm reception, warm pie, and a warm bed. we chatted well into the night with gran and bob about all sorts of things. i was sure to ask gran to tell me stories of her childhood and stories about my dad when he was growing up. i love hearing these stories- especially about characters like gran and dad. it explains so much...

in the morning gran and bob made a great breakfast and we said our goodbyes. i wish we could have stayed longer!

then it was onto vegas...

we stayed in the hotel where everybody loved violet. i am not kidding. even the nuns loved her.

everywhere we walked, you could hear faint whispers of people- "look at the baby..." sweet, little thing..." she was very loved... except for one woman who said "oh good, you did her hair like a dog" i didn't really like that comment.

anyway, cade had strange hours that he worked at the convention so it left plenty of time for vi and i to hit the pool, make some friends and do some serious shopping. we even got to visit him at his booth.

i met up with my high school friend, dawn, and her THREE little girls. she had just had a baby, little liberty, a couple weeks before i got there - but true to dawn- she was ready to get out. we braved a trip to h&m where things were going great at first with the four kids. suddenly, that luck turned on us and dawn beelined it to the exit while i grabbed as many h&m goodies i could fit in my fists. i love seeing dawn. she is such a fun person and truly the type of mother i hope to be.

at nights, we would walk the strip and eat out. i was nervous to take vi to benihana but she did great. she loved watching the chef cook all the food but towards the end of the meal, she was all tuckered out. she fell asleep in my arms and we called it a night. the next night we went to serendipity and loved us some frozen hot chocolate and a great meal. we walked the strip- which is odd to do with a baby. those "hot babes direct to you" guys don't count ANYBODY out. cade would be holding violet and they would still try to put a flyer in his hands or pockets. when he wouldn't take one, they would move on to me. does this small little family look like it wants a hot babe directed to us? sorry. we don't.

it was fun to see the new hotel. we walked all the way over there... and then i didn't really want to walk all the way back... but we still did, of course.

after the convention, we decided to leave that night to get back for some plans we had the next day. the only problem with this plan was the byu/utah state football game was on. we LOVE cheering on the aggies. so, before we left, cade wanted to watch the opening drive of the game. we had already checked out of our hotel room so we went to the sports area where they have a gazillion huge tvs and all sports playing on them. it wasn't smokey and there were little chairs for us to sit on. i realize this wasn't the smartest move, but we were only planning on watching a few minutes of the game. anyway, it wasn't long before we were asked to leave... "you can't have a baby here." so, we jumped into the car, drove to st. george and watched the second half of the game from chilis- where babies are ALWAYS welcome.

all the fun left us pretty pooped, but it was a fun little getaway.

bye, bye beardie

again, it is weird to put up a post on cade's beard (if you didn't read the last one, here it is) but cade truly is a beard master. this september, his beard reached an amazing length and it deserves some documentation.

but all things must come to an end. in this instance, violet will be the one who misses his beard the most. using the long strands, she could pull herself to a complete stand and she especially loved the kisses she got when daddy came home from work.

although this beard may be gone, another one has already replaced it. cade's chia-pet-cheeks will never quit.

and we like him that way.

then and now

cade grew another long beard this fall... and realizing that he had a strong resemblence to his dad, we decided to do a "young me, now me" photo like this website. after rounding up a few photos, here were the results.

i love me some solids

getting bigger comes with all sorts of new flavors.

sometimes vi likes it

sometimes she hates it

but at the end of the day, nothing beats cat food.

the slumber party

instead of camping, this year we decided to have a slumber party. grown adults can still do that, right? truth is, the six of us really do love slumber parties... so much so that we just had ANOTHER one (but that is a later post).

so this year's norton/taylor/boyle spendover went as follows:

we grilled


we chatted


we slept


and we breakfasted


violet loved the slumber party because she got whatever she wanted from her aunties and uncies. like chips....

and undivided attention...

i love this picture because she really does adore eddie and sam.

the slumber party was so ideal, we may just replace the camping trip all together!

(just kidding, ky. we would NEVER do that.)

RANCHO CHERPABLO

i am tired of being so behind on this blog- so my goal is to be completely caught up before the unveiling of c&a's 2010 halloween video. so to start off, we are headed back to labor day where we spent the weekend at rancho cherpablo. i have split the post into main events.

COWBOYS VS. INDIANS

rancho cherpablo isn't complete without various theme nights. so, for starters, we had a cowboys and indians night.... and since we weren't dining on turkey and sweet potatoes in a spirit of thanksgiving, that could only mean one thing: the battle at wounded knee was inevitable.

we split into teams







and competed in all sorts of events


(if you ever want to know what an unflattering pair of lee jeans can do for you, see below and look no further)





this was a pretty competitive battle, but it ended up far less bloody and far more peaceful than it's namesake.

vi loved it all. it had all of her favorite things: it was outdoors, she could watch kids play and everyone oodled over her. she was one happy cowgirl.


RANCHO RELAXATION
during the days, we took the time to take it easy. this meant fishing, four wheeling, cards, buzzerwizzer, hairstyling, naps, leisure ping pong, and singing around the campfire. (since most of the family aren't great singers, I should clarify that we mostly listened to liz and nic and their FABULOUS version of "i can show you the world")




BIRTHDAY FIESTA!
our next theme was a spanish night to help celebrate natalie's birthday fiesta. the costumes pretty much turned politically incorrect from the start. nobody meant any harm... there just weren't enough sombreros to go around so some of us others had to make do with what we had. in our defense, we are a very muticultural family...


emo was a great sport about all the themed nights and dress ups.

even hurley got into the action

after chowing on tacos, we completed the night with a pinata and some latin tunes.




CHERPABLO CHEVY
my grandpa has our old suburban on the property to take out on hunting trips and indiana jones escapades. it was getting a little rusty, so we decided to paint it.



there was a girl side

and a boy side

the boys pretty much gave up when they saw how great the girl side looked... we all signed the back and cade did the lettering on the front.

poor grammy had to sit out on this one. earlier that morning she was moving a log in the fire pit and when it suddenly gave way, she fell into the fire! she is one tough grammy. even though her hand was badly burned, she just kept right on.

we love spending time with the fam and all the fun at rancho cherpablo. it is a great family tradition that we will always look forward to.