Pumpkin Regatta reveals new goal in life

Last week my coworker told me about an event called the Pumpkin Regatta that was being held at Sugar House Park. I was so excited about this that I insisted we go. I even begged my sister in law to let me take her children!! I was totally not disappointed. The pumpkins weighed anywhere from 900 to 1500 lbs and were totally awesome. Here is a photo journal of the day with a few explanations.



They used saws to carve these enormous beasts which was really cool to see. This particular "boat" was named "Life is Gourd"




We were all rooting for this guy and he ended up winning!



We took lunches and ate them by the water so we could watch them finish up all the carving



Then we took to the huge hill and the kids had fun climbing up and rolling and running down. Even Jude liked it. I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of the kids.
Michael and Jude




Carter and Jenna




Abby and Emma




Abby, Jude and Emma




The girls



The kids




Silly kids.

 After the regatta I came home and started searching Pinterest and Google for different techniques to grow ginormous pumpkins. My new bucket list item: grow, carve and race a ginormous pumpkin. I can't think of anything cooler to do with my teenage boys in the future. Dave thinks I'm crazy but I am totally serious! This should be fun!

Activity Days

Friday we had Activity Days at my house and we decorated cookies and played games. This picture was taken before 3 or 4 more girls showed up and before Carter was glued to the pack. He had tons of fun and made some new friends. Dave used the time the girls were over to escape and go visit John in the hospital (he's home now) and, surprisingly, Jude slept through all of the chaos. It was fun but I am grateful I won't give birth to 10 pre-teen girls all at once!

Housekeeping?

First let me start by saying that Dave's phone takes the crappiest pictures! I know this because it used to be mine...

So with everything going on lately and Dave working evenings and all the projects I'm working on and ...   our housework has been the last on the list. Since tonight I have the Activity Day Girls coming over for our activity and next weekend the Manns will be here and the weekend after that my bestie from New Hampshire is visiting I gave Dave a super solid guilt trip this morning about the house needing to be clean. Looks like he found some help...

Bonus kid time

Well, a few days after my "modes of transportation" post we had a transportation issue. Our sweet babysitter is sick today so we had to take the kids to my sister in law's which is not really a walkable distance and we need new tubes for the bike trailer. So I had to take an early lunch and pick up all the guys, take them to Rachelle's and then have Dave drop me off at work. When we got to Rachelle's she was not quite home so I used the time to take some cute pictures of the boys with my phone. You can never have too many cute pictures!! As blah as it was to drive all the way home and back it was nice to see my kiddos in the middle of the day. I always love some bonus kid time!



Carter drew a picture of what Jack brought today.




My little Prince Charming.



Just chillin'

Leave it to Jude, the funniest kid alive, to pick me up from a bad mood. He does this thing where he sits on the ledge in our fridge when we open the door and this time I decided to take a picture. I am so glad I did because his cheese face was priceless. Love this kid.

Modes of transportation

We are a one car family and have been since I was pregnant with Carter 5 years ago. It can be a struggle but we seem to manage. Here is how we get around these days:

Not pictured: Dave's bike and Trax.

Chalk it up

Jack brought chalk for both boys today so Dave took them outside and let them go crazy.



Jude is OBSESSED with the letter Y and I'm sure that Daddy couldn't stomach writing a Y for him without writing a U right next to it.

 

Carter drew himself sitting at a table with a glass of water and a flower. He is getting really talented!! (That is definitely from his dad!)



Struggling

Do you ever have those days where you just want to put your head in the sand and hide? Today is one of those days for me. There is so much on my mind right now that I can't control and I feel like as much as I want to help people I can never give enough.

Happy Birthday Jenna!

Today is my niece Jenna's 8th birthday. It is also my brother in law John's (her dad) first day of chemo. In an effort to help and make her day special I made her this cake.

I think she liked it. A mixture of emotions today as it is also my sis in law Rachelle's birthday AND my best friend Karyn's birthday. Birthdays make me so happy but I can't help but be a little anxious for John and the rest of his family. As hard as it is being slightly on the outside and looking in I can can only imagine what it is like for them. I had a special little talk with my niece Abby last night and I am very touched by her faith and love. Between her and Noelle I know John will be well taken care of. All we can do at this point is pray and be there. Love you guys.

A little bit of love

I'm hoping this is a sign of things to come. Lately the boys have been finding ways to play together. It's nice.

Also, Jack has been visiting our house bringing treats to count down to Halloween. This morning: pencils!

Dapper Jude

Everyone knows I am a sucker for a little boy dressed like a little man. This photo is from a while back but I had to share.

Carter Art


I had to take a moment to share some of Carter's artwork with you:

This is a picture of Sir Jude and Sir Carter rescuing Princess Mommy from the tower guarded by the ferocious dragon. And Carter's cousin Lucas is on the right getting into a rocket.



Come on Baby Light my Fire



As most of you know I have worked really hard to get healthy since having my boys and have succeeded in losing all of my pregnancy weight and wedding weight. I know how to lose weight but I am having trouble learning how to maintain. I have actually gained back a little of the weight I lost and am not feeling as good about myself as I was. I hate that I can't switch my brain back to that 100% committed me. I need something to get me back on track but I know that ultimately it has to be me that commits 100%. I still enjoy eating healthy and making healthy meals it's mostly sweets I am struggling with right now. If anyone can help get me back to my happy healthy self please comment. I need something to happen. I am not happy with who I am right now even though what the scale reads is not bad at all (I am still lighter than when we got married) I see myself in a way that makes me sad and whenever I make a bad choice I get angry at myself. Please help!!



Keeping up with the Menn

It's been a little while since we gave a family update. I will go youngest to oldest:



Jude is growing up SO fast! It seems like all of a sudden something clicked and he is a word learning machine! He is having fun learning letters and currently knows Y, Z, G, D, O and the number 6. His favorite book is Caps for Sale and we learned the hard way (during sacrament meeting) that if you don't read it he will read it for you loudly and with lots of expression. He has almost a full mouth of teeth with the fangs on top and bottom coming in right now. He is sleeping in a big boy bed and shares a room with his big brother. He loves anything Sesame Street or Grover and could watch it for hours if we'd let him. He is a happy, social little kid who loves his Mommy and likes to shake his booty to any kind of music. His favorite songs are Hey Jude, Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree and anything Daddy is playing. He is an eating machine and we are currently trying to break his fruit snack addiction.




Carter is on his 2nd year of preschool and loves having his cousin Lucas there with him. As you can see in the picture he got glasses and looks even more like his Daddy. Carter is very into Legos and Lego guys and also loves playing Wii. He is a super brainiac and loves to learn just about anything. He has 12 of the 13 articles of faith memorized and is almost done with the 13th but is taking his time. He does still have the febrile seizures which he is supposed to grow out of at some point. He is learning to read and enjoys when Mommy gives him spelling tests. He also has become quite the little artist and loves to draw and paint. He amazes us daily with this talent. He has been growing like crazy and seems like such a big boy now.


Brook has been very focused on work lately as she is tutoring her coworker for the Life and Health Insurance exam. She is also very obsessed with freezer meals. She has been sewing a lot lately and is still enjoying being crafty. With the discovery of Pinterest she has had a whole new world of creativity opened to her. She looks forward to the future when she will get to stay home with her children and be the mom she really wants to be.

Dave is doing amazing in school and is on track to graduate with his bachelor's degree in the spring. After that he will start the 2 years master's program. He is now the Vice President of UPSO (University of Planning Student Organization) and has presented at several events that include all of the faculty of the planning department. Dave also got an internship working with the city of Taylorsville developing the neighborhoods of 2 of his brothers. He is working as an on call dock worker for a trucking company in Salt Lake and has recently been moved to the top of the call list due to his excellent work.

Our family recently had a new addition, a piano! The boys are already so excited to play it and it will be nice to have more music in the home. All in all the Manns are doing just fine. We are enjoying each other and trying to focus on the good things rather than the struggles. This time in our life isn't easy but there is a light at the end of the tunnel when we will be able to settle in and hopefully be comfortable with where we are. We appreciate every one's love and support and feel blessed with such loving family and friends.



50 Free Dates Special Edition: Anniversary Weekend (Day 1)

On June 4th, Brook and I celebrated 7 years of marriage. Since we had never really done anything spectacular for our anniversary, we decided this year would be different. Using our list of free dates as a rough guide, we planned a fun weekend that required a small amount of money, thanks to the wonderful anniversary gift from the "Faux-parents" Nancy and Vince: a wonderful kitchen suite at the Residence Inn in downtown SLC.

Brook noticed her bags followed a similar color theme

After leaving the care of the boys in the capable care of our Utah family for the weekend, Brook and I made our way to the farmers market at Gardner Village. We were initially disappointed that the downtown farmers market (that is located in Pioneer Park, which happens to be right across the street from our hotel) didn't start till the following weekend, but were glad we happened upon the one at Gardner Village. The farmers market is a wonderful place to just get outside and enjoy the sights and smells, whether you spend money or not. We did get a brick oven pizza and a fresh limeade to share for lunch, but spent the remainder of the time walking around and looking at the various odds and ends for sale.

Listening to some live music while we waited for our pizza

We still had some time to kill before we could check into our hotel, so we decided to go see a movie at the dollar theater.  On the way, we stopped by a collection of local shops, known as "9th and 9th" (900 S 900 E) to do some window shopping.  This is a fun activity that we enjoy doing, especially when I know we don't have money to spend on random things.  We eventually made our way to the theater and saw "Mirror, Mirror", which Brook found entertaining and I found cheesy.  The best part was eating the chips and salsa we got at the farmer's market during the movie.

9th and 9th Baby!!

After the movie, we went to the hotel to scope out our weekend home.  we were surprised to find that not only was there a kitchen, there were two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a washer and dryer, 3 flat screen TVs, and two safes.  We took the opportunity to relax and watch some TV while lying down on our bed, which increased our desire to put a TV in our bedroom.  

This is the life.

After watching Food Network for a while, we decided it was time to eat.  We went to our favorite Thai place Sawadee and shared a heaping plate of pad thai.  We finished our travels for the day by checking out the new Harmon's grocery store that is downtown by the new City Creek Center to get some food for our hike the next day.  It was a fun start to a wonderful weekend.

50 Free Dates: Indoor campout

Last night we did a little campout date in the living room. It turned out super fun! We knew we would need both boys to be in bed asleep before we could even think of preparing for this date, luckily both were down by about 7:15.

We moved all of our furniture out of the way and set up our tent and aerobed.

A little ambiance courtesy of my I Phone.

I had made an indoor camping version of s'mores. Marshmallows dipped in melted chocolate and covered with Graham cracker crumbs. Truth be told I don't love s'mores but I will make these again with pretzel crumbs instead of the crackers.

We snuggled in to watch Ernest Goes to Camp. Don't judge....

Note: if you sleep in a tent in the living room expect to find this in the morning.

He thought it was a blast!

And so did he! (photo taken by Carter)

The Mann made us all pancakes to end a perfect date as a family. (photo also taken by Carter from inside the tent)

We had a blast and it was so nice to do something else so out of the ordinary but free! This coming weekend is our 7th anniversary and we have the ultimate weekend of free dates planned. Hopefully we will have good things to report! If you have any free date ideas for us please share! We'd love to hear from you!!

50 Free Dates: Kissing Twister

Brook and I had yet another date and this time we did a "twist" on a popular game to make it a little more interesting. 

Before the games began, we made a couple batches of pound cake for some upcoming events and it almost got really messy.  A food fight could have broken out, but we only ended up with a little flour on our noses.

The idea behind "Kissing Twister" is basically the same as normal Twister, but you have to kiss after every move.  The more tangled up you get, the more difficult it becomes.  In order to spin without one of us getting up every time, we used an online twister caller to spin for us.

Unfortunately for us, we weren't the only ones who were excited for this date.  This is the second time that Carter has refused to go to bed so he can see what we are up to.  So we had to let him in on the twister action, minus the kissing.

Once he was finally in bed, Brook and I could resume with the twisting and the kissing.  We had a good time playing a few rounds, then we relaxed by watching "Just Like Heaven" and eating a little popcorn.  This was another example of something simple (and free of course) that you can do and still have a great evening.  Here are some shots of us playing:

Need a Father's Day Present?

I made these silhouettes for Brook's Mother's Day present and think they turned out really cool.  If anyone is interested in a custom made silhouette for Father's Day, a birthday, or just because, I would love to create one for you.  All I would need is a profile picture of the subject and any colors you would like used.  These silhouettes measure 11x14, but I can do larger or smaller.  Just email me at davemannutefan@gmail.com if you are interested and I can figure out a price (roughly around $30).  Here are the pictures I took of the boys: