Fall Fun!!!

Saturday Chad and the kids were raking the leaves in our front yard, well I think the raking part was short lived. The kids had a ball jumping in the pile. I love this time of year!!!

Halloween!

Max was a dang cute fire man.

Sydney was a Cheetah...Not a Kitty! (that is what she told everyone) then we had two handsome football players, one for the vikings and they other a BYU all star!

Here is the whole gang. Raegan was a witch (she was looking pretty witchy in this picture) Kalli was a punk with her friend MaKenna.
I love Halloween and this time of year.

October Fun

Tomorrow the forecast is for snow. I am not ready for snow. So today I took Andrew and his two buddies to the park for one last "Hurrah" in the beautiful weather before that dreaded snow hits.
It was a beautiful day!!!

Gabe, Andrew and Isaac

MAX

What a Gorgeous Day!!

Then as the sun was setting this evening it was time to go to Grandma's and carve those gigantic pumpkins from her garden.

Grandma and her ginormous Pumpkin!

It took us forever to get the tops off, they were so thick. We figured that these pumpkins weighted somewhere around 80 pounds.

Sydney brought her own pumpkin to carve and was very mad that her "scary kitty cat" pumpkin wasn't very scary.

The final products. No we are not super creative or very good with a carving knife but the kids had fun and everyone got to help out.
Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Happy Birthday Mom!

Raegan and Grandma

Today is my mom's birthday. She has been through so much in the past year. She took such great care of my dad in his short year of cancer. She was such a pillar of strength to me and my sisters, seeing her so unselfishly give so much time and attention to the love of her life. She has been a great example of charity, love and faith. She NEVER gave up! She lost my dad just three short months ago. She continues to endure everyday without him and she is strong. I want her to know how much she holds our family together and how much we all truly love her. She is about to have her 20th grandchild and she is a wonderful grandma to all of her grand kids.
Thank you mom and Happy Birthday!!!Grandma, Tabitha, James, Olivia and Sadie (dog)Tyler (butterfly for the school play), Grandma and AndrewMom and Sadie
We love you mom!
You are the best grandma ever!!!

Some 80's chicks and a pumpkin patch

Kalli and Raegan were invited to a "Rock Star Birthday Party" for their friend Elle. They were supposed to dress up as 80's Rock Star Chicks. So off to DI I went and this is what we came up with. Two stylish little rockers. As soon as they got dressed you could see the attitude that came with the clothes. They were so decked out, though both disappointed that neither of them won best dressed. Oh well.
Kalli made the comment that it was sure hard to be respectful and "return with honor" wearing this "get up".
(I don't think a Rock Star is in her future...Whew!)

On Friday Andrew and I went to Hee Haw Farms with his Kindergarten class. We went through a corn maze, picked a pumpkin, saw farm animals and went on a hay ride. It was such a nice day. Have I mentioned that I LOVE fall in Utah?!!

Andrew and I on the Hay ride.
Look at the mountains behind us, seriously I never get tired of them.

Typical Kindergartners.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Yes! I finally got my drive up the Alpine loop. I look forward to this all year long and this year we almost missed it. The weather forecasters are predicting a cold end to this week which means most of leaves up high will be gone. So I was able to convince Chad to not have any appointments after church and to sneak away with me and the kids to go see the beautiful leaves. What a wonderful time we had!

I love that we are so blessed to have this beauty just 20 minutes from our home! We keep reminding the kids how lucky they are!!!

We stopped at Aspen Grove, one of our very favorite places and got some beautiful pictures of all of the colors.

Seriously look how beautiful the scenery is. I love my husband and my great family. Oh I just love this time of year!!!

We took my mom along with us too.
(remember as you see these pictures that
I am 7 months pregnant and HUGE)

The kids were thrilled to have all of this time with their dad. This is a rare occasion, especially on a Sunday!

Tyler and Kalli

What a great way to end a great day! Max didn't care much about the leaves but was thrilled
when he spied this tractor!
Happy Fall Y'all!

Someone is excited...

Sydney is our little creative girl. She has such a full imagination. She is always pretending she is a dog or a horse or anything else she decides to be at the moment. She gets so excited for holidays. This year she has been extremely anxious for Halloween. She has asked me for the last couple of weeks when am I going to start decorating our house for Halloween? I keep telling her, not until October. Well that just isn't good enough for Syd. She took matters into her own hands. One night when she was supposed to be doing her homework she decided it was way more important to get decorations made. So she made enough to decorate her door as well as her bike and our front door. I guess I should be grateful she made them out of paper instead of painting them herself onto her door. (which I wouldn't put past her!) They really are very cute. She is one who will forever keep us on our toes.

She made bats, cats, spiders and vampires drinking blood (I know nice huh?!)

She decided to make a bat out of her apple.
Too cute!

Sydney was so pleased with her decorations.

Fall is in the Air!

My most favorite season is upon us! I love the Fall. I love the leaves changing, I love the crisp air, I love the smell of Pumpkin Bread. It brings back many fond memories to me of taking hikes, driving the canyon with friends to see the changing leaves, memories of my dad who also loved the changing leaves on the mountain and mine and Chad's first fall at BYU 12 years ago. BYU campus is beautiful in the fall. It just makes me happy. This weekend we are planning on driving the Alpine loop to let the kids play in the leaves and enjoy the cooler air. Oh I am so excited!!! You bet there will be pictures to follow! Anyhow, right now in my mom's garden she has three pumpkins. Not just your average pumpkins but three HUGE pumpkins.
My kids check on them weekly to see their amazing size. We are so excited to lug them out of the garden when it's time and get to carve them. They still have a few weeks to go but oh it's so fun to think of what is to come. I love this time of year!!!

Sydney with the smallest pumpkin

Raegan with one of the two largest pumpkins

Kalli is so excited about these HUGE pumpkins

Labor Day Fun!

We celebrated Labor Day with a short trip up the canyon. (I LOVE where we live and how close we are to the mountains) We went with our good friends the Normans as well as my mom. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! We roasted hot dogs, had fresh peaches and nectarines, homemade hot dog buns, chips and ended it with smores. The kids had a ball, taking hikes, finding sticks and just plain getting dirty. By the time we left the kids were filthy! It was a nice way to end the summer fun.

Sydney and CeCe

BBQ hot dogs taste so much better over an open flame.

Good Times!

Max didn't care if his hot dog was cooked or not (yuck!) he just kept eating them.

Grandma Sharon and Sydney

Mark and Raelene

Andrew enjoying his Yummy Smores! I have never seen a better "smores" marshmallow than the ones that Mark Norman makes...They were delicious!

I am not sure how many each of us had but Kayla was sure enjoying her two!!! (look how dirty her fingers are)

Max was so dirty. He even spilled his soda all over him which made the dirt stick that much more. We had to change him into his sister's sweatshirt. Oh you gotta love "Messy Max!"