Halloween II, The tradition lives on...

This may be a record for my longest post, but bear with me, the pics are worth it. And so the tradition lives on. The Merrill family has always been know for our bang-up Halloween parties and it may have been November 1st, but we were able to sneak in one heck of a Halloween Bash. The festivities included bat races, gummy worm bobbing, and Halloween bingo with sweet prizes, a haunted train ride through the corn................and we must not forget the manwich barbecue sandwiches with extra pickles with a side of homemade root beer!

Put a handsome devil and a Fairy together and what do you get? Spiderman, Elmo and a little funky chicken. The perfect family :)

I don't really do scary, so I went as a fairy. It was so fun, Katie curled my hair and helped me put on my fake lashes and let's not forget the florescent green tights!
Brian and our little funky chicken :)
Brian definitely married up :)
Yes, we torture our dog too. Our little Teenie Weenie is a true Weiner dog! I know that she hates us, but she looked too cute!
My Bro Ryan made this sweet train and every year he drives the kids through the haunted corn patch. My brother-in-law James always dresses up as the "Funky chicken" and chases train, he is always the kids favorite!
This is my best friend Tawnya from highschool, I was so excited that she was able to make it again this year. (I won that sweet hat in bingo!)
My bro-in-law James is the funky chicken, My brother Kavic and his wife Stacy are the Cowardly lion and Dorothy. My Mom and Dad are the jackelope and witch, and my nephew Michael is Beetlejuice. I didn't have pics of all the costumes, but they were great.
And last but not least My sister Katie and her hubby Jeremy were my favorite! Jeremy was Kip from Napoleon Dynomite and Katie was a "a football coaches wife from tremonton" I really didn't think she could get her hair that big :) Jeremy not only looks like Kip, but had his voice and manorisms nailed. I would laugh so hard every time I walked into the room and he would be doing a different Kip pose. We can't forget our little sad Cinderella. You guys rock!Nice Mustaches fellas! Since Jer was shaving his beard, and Bri was shaving his goat, they decided to take a few pics.
Boys will be boys.

Halloween I

Halloween was so much fun this year. Brian and his brothers had a blast spooking the local children in South Jordan while me and my sis-in-laws took the kids trick-or-treating. It was such a warm night and it was probably the most fun I have ever had trick or treating. The neighborhood we were at was awesome, they were handing out donuts, hot dogs, full size candy bars..... the list goes on, but it was so much fun watching the kids run from door to door admiring their loot.
Brian is the tall handsome devil in the middle and his brother Jason is on the right and brother-in-law Andy on the left.

This is cousin Zach and Morgan after trick-or-treating, they were very content, just lounging inside on the floor.
This is the crew out trick-or-treating
This is a very scary bunch!

Island Park Adventure

What a vacation we had this year! We were so excited to head up to Island Park last Thursday when I started feeling like I was getting a fever. I was diagnosed with a cold and mastitis, I got started on an antibiotic right away and we were off. I fought the fever and aches and chills for 2 days before I started feeling a bit better when Brian admitted that he had a tickle in his throat, the next day he had the fever and chills and poor William was puking and had a fever also. Not to mention a raw throat(Thanks Mom!) Anyhow, come to find out we all had strep throat, but my mastitis kinda threw the diagnosis off for a few days. Monday the boys got started on antibiotic and are finally feeling better, now that we are home! Since we all were sick, we didn't get out to see much, but we did drive through Yellowstone and We took a couple fun pics
We kept the boys busy with craft since it was chilly out. They painted them and Dad assembled them and we walked down to the river to float them.Wills boat took an early lead, and then slowly started drifting away from shore, which could be problematic, I can hear the devastated cries from the boys now!
With Brian's quick thinking and stretching skills, no boats were lost in the float. Mind you, the bank of the river was crusted with ice! Brrrrrrr.........Dad's are the best.
There was another geyser going off at the same time as old faithful, it was pretty cool.
And now onto the boys absolute favorite part of the trip each year. Eating lunch in the back of the van! It doesn't matter what we do, lunchtime cannot come soon enough and the boys have a blast! I love that this simple things bring them so much joy. (as long as the ravens keep a decent distance away from the van:)
It was a little chilly so Mo took refuge in Dad's jacket. She seemed to enjoy it.I love that serious face!
Will wanted his pic in front of the water in the canyon.
Grey also had a good time watching the water with dad. (yep, this is about as exciting as it gets when the entire family is sick on vacation)
Mom & Mo

One Definite highlight and advantage of being sick was the fact that all we really felt up to was to drive, so we ended up taking some scenic routes and guess what we saw...................drum roll please..................an actually Grizzly Bear! We have been through the park countless times and have never seen a bear, let alone a grizzly so that was definitely very cool. We got some video, but since we have an ancient video camera, I have to figure out how to get it onto the computer. I will post it once I figure it out. Aside from being sick, we still had a lot of fun on vacation.

Miss Jane

So, I thought I would post about my sister Katie Jane today, because honestly, if I had to choose a favorite sister it would have to be her. My reasons for thinking she is so fantastic are three fold: a) She is wicked smart and funny b) She is gorgeous to behold and c) She has great taste in beanies and did I mention she is funny? Okay, I will admit it right now...this isn't Toni...this is Katie the afore mentioned sister, so before all of our other sisters go and get their panties in a twist, I thought I should clear that up...but secretly I really am her favorite.

The real reason for this random post? I have heard through the grapevine that some of my dear sisters readers might be interested in a cute beanie. If you are just go to my blog jkcyoung.blogspot.com and leave me your name and contact info. I will be posting all the options and patterns the beginning of next week and would love to make one for you. The price should be around $6.00 or $7.00. I also might make a boutique on Etsy that you can just look through. That information will be forthcoming! Thanks for being so sweet and making me feel great by commenting about the beanies.

One minute to brag....about my hubby

So apparently I feel the need to post everyday now, but I just had to post this thank you for my husband. I know this is so horribly cheesy, bleh, but I wanted to do this for him. He has been on wards for the past 4 weeks which basically translates into being a single mom. He is now finally on a new rotation and had the morning off and instead of sleeping in, he woke up, went and worked out (to maintain his hot bod :) and then got up with the kids and made me breakfast in bed. And we won't forget the huge mug of Hot Cocoa (my fav!) He is such a cute Dad and an amazing Husband. Thanks Babe! I think this is one of my favorite pics of him so I thought I would post it :)

Many moods of a typical model.....

I know that I have already posted a ton of pics of this hat, but when my sis sent these to me I couldn't resist.....and since many of you have asked, she is going to be selling them, if you are interested let me know and I can find out the particulars.

The Most Talented Aunt Katie Ever!!!

Is this not the most adorable beanie alive or ever made or whatever..... KT Jane made this adorable beanie for little Mo. She is also working on a brown and pink one for her and maybe a cream and Tan..I am giving her a lot of practice, but they are so cute! She is also making some for the boys with ear flaps. I love talented sisters :)