Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was quite a big one around here. My two brothers and their families came into town, my little nephew Mason had his blessing, trying to pack up my mom's house for moving and enjoying Thanksgiving. It was so great to have my brothers families here. Talmadge could not get enough of his cousins. It was like having a built in babysitter with 11 other kids to play with, and he literally enjoyed every moment of it!!! They all got along so well. Here are some highlights from the week! (There are a lot but it was really hard to choose)Mason's blessing was great. Crystal and Drew did a great job. Like father like son, the little boy has become obsessed with drawing all the time!!Oh how Grandma is so loved!!!!The kids love to stand up on my mom's fire place with the mike and pretend that they are singing. It is quite the show!!My 2 boys enjoying the pizza joint we went to. Nothing like walking into a place and telling them we have 24 people in your party. It was a blast!!The kids all up playing in the TV room. They just all loved being around each other!!!Brayden was just a little hungry, and really this is what he ate!Talmadge was a little worried about the olive fingers!!My awsome family!!!!! I could not have asked for more during this holiday, it was one for the books!!!

Happy Halloween

We had so much fun this year for Halloween. We got together the week before Halloween and carved pumpkins with the Arnells and Bannings the kids had a great time. We cut out a Mickey Mouse for Talmadge and Matt did a Seattle Seahawks.This was our pimpkins a couple of days after we cut them out, I promise they looked better before they started to shrivel up. Talmadge was so fascinated with the candle inside!!!!

We went trick or treating with the Banning and Arnells again, always the best to go with family, I think it is the funnest!!! Talmadge was not so sure about his hat on his costume but he looked so cute!!!! Andra was such a great sport to go with the little kids and show them the ropes.I think the girls look so pretty in the princesses outfits!!!!Talmadge was pretty fast about getting the hang of going up to the doors. Of course he didn't say anything when he got up there but he was proud to hold up his basket and get some candy!!!Talmadge loved walking up to the doors, however walking from house to house was not his thing he would sit down on the driveway and as you see below towards the end he even layed down on the driveway. As most of you know my little boy is not a light man. So needless to say my back was killing me by the end of the night carrying him all around, the little stinker.Please someone carry me!!!!!!!!!We had a great time walking around!!!And the kids loved their candy. This is Talmadges first sucker that he has had and man did he love it!!!!!!

My funny little Talmadge

Poor Maximus puts up with a lot from his new best friend (Talmadge) However this day Talmadge found himself particularly funny trowing Maximuses squeaky behind the couch. He did this for Max for quite a while. This video was even towards the end.

Life around the house

Not tons of huge things have been going on around the Stevens household so I thought I would just post some fun random pictures that I think are really cute:

Most of these pictures were taken at Makenzies birthday party. She just turned 3 and oh how she loves to hug Talmadge so tight!!!!

My super cute new nephew. I love it when new borns sleep this way!!!!!!!!!!Talmadge and Aunt CorinnaTalmadge was so good with Makenzie's new little baby. I had never seen him play with a baby before and I was quite impressedThis is how Talmadge hugs Mason. he is so soft with him and so fasinated can't get enough of him.

Baby Mason Born

Wednesday, Sept. 3rd at 5:30 am our new little nephew joined us. Mason Joseph Banning. Crystal was such a trooper through the whole thing. You can imagine the scare we all got at 12:30am getting a call that Crystal was in the hospital 3 weeks early. However, we rushed down there and I was able to be by her side and see Mason born. Drew and Crystal could not be more excited to have there little man here. and I cannot describe was wonderful it was to be there and experience the whole thing, and see him come into this world! Yeah, now Talmadge will have someone to play with!!!!! We love you baby Mason, welcome to the family!!!!!!!!

LASIK:
For all of those who were thinking of me last Friday as I went into have Lasik done, everything went great. It is by far one of the tripiest procedures I have ever had done. It only takes about 15 minutes, but you are awake for the whole think and can watch them working on your eye except for the few seconds you go blind when they cute your flap back. Anyways, I slept it off on Friday and by Saturday was back to normal and seeing great. It is by far the sweetest things to be able to see all the time. Going to bed, waking up looking at the clock, and when I have to go in and see Talmadge in the middle of the night I CAN SEE!!!!!! It is fabulous. I would recommend it to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Out Hiking

Last Saturday we decided to have a great family day out and due some hiking. This was our first time finding a trail that we could hike as a family, so we were pretty excited. We hiked down Hulls Gulch. It was really pretty and overlooked the entire valley at the beginning and end of the hike. (PS - Excuse the glasses, I am only a week away from Lasik and you can't wear your contacts for 2 weeks before surgery)The start of our hike!!!Overlooking the awesome valley. Looks so small from were we are at. My 2 happy boys half way down and still holding strong!We had to pass over 4 bridges on our way their. It was so secluded and a great walk. Oh how Talmadge loves the outdoors!!!2 1/2 miles into the trail we decided to sit in the middle of the trail and have lunch, before heading back.Poor Maximus so tired. Right after lunch when we started heading back, Talmadge was so tired and conked out on Matt. I have to give my honey props for carring an extra 30 pounds of dead weight on him for the next 45 minutes until Talmadge woke up for the last little bit of the hike. Maximus was so tired towards the end he was finding any tree or bush as you can see to find some shade and rest under. I was beginning to think he was going to drop over of a heart attack.

The hike ending up to be 5 miles. Took us about 3 hours, and everyone loved it!!!! Going to be a new family thing to do!!!!

Babbitt family reunion!!!

This last week we got the opportunity to go up to Bear Lake and have our Babbitt Family Reunion. We were very blessed because everyone was able to make it again this year. It was so much fun to see everyone again, we miss those nieces and nephews we don't get to see very often really bad. Talmadge could not get enough of his cousins or Aunts and Uncles for that matter.This is our awesome cabin that we stayed in, with the view off the front porch! It was so beautiful to wake up to every morning!The always fabulous Babbitt family, including the 11 and 1/2 grandchildren. The 1/2 being pregnant Crystal.We got to go through Minnatanka Caves. Which was so incredibly cool. Really cold but really awesome. Talmadge was so fasinated the whole time. He even got to touch one of the stalagmites at the end at you see in the bottom picture.We got to play multiple days at the beach. The water was so bright blue and it was really warm to. It was shallow water forever, which made it fun for all the kids to be able to go out and play.Matt, Kat, Todd, Chad and Austin all decided to participate in a 5k run while we were there. Bravo to you guys.This is the few of us that drug out butts out of bed at 6am to cheer them on!We also had a bit of time for just fun and play around the house!The fabulous gifts mom got the boys and girls!The final night we got to do a bonfire out front and roast marshmallow and make smores Such a great trip!!!