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!"

HELP!

I know we still have a couple of months left until our baby boy is born but we are having such a hard time coming up with boy names. You see on my husbands side of the family this baby will be grandchild #49 and on my side this baby will be grandchild #20. So many of the names I like are already taken. So I need your help. I am looking for ideas of boy names. Something that sounds ok with Kerby, so preferably not ending with a "K" sound because for example if you use the name Jack Kerby it sound like Ja Kerby and I don't like the name Ja! So if anyone out there has some cute (or handsome as my boys would say) names please SHARE!

(Here are the names that have already been taken by family members: James, Jake, Jackson, Dillon, Travis, Porter, Christian, Carson, Taylor, Jacob, Jeremy, Landon, Justin, Clint, Michael, Lance, Nash, Dallon, Derek, Drake, Luke, Hyrum, David, Drew, Dalton, Ryan, Tyler, Max, Andrew, Tanner, Matthew, Eli and Hunter)

Another one off to school...

Today Andrew started Kindergarten.
He was so excited.

Max thought he was going with him.

Andrew and his buddy Gabe are in the same class.

Poor Max! He decided to drown his sorrows in Peanut Butter. You would think I would be getting a break by having one more in school...Nope! Max keeps me busier than any other kid could begin to do. But now I don't have Andrew to help entertain him! I get to have Max all to myself. Oh we will miss you Andrew!!!

Two Dollar Tuesday...

For the month of August Thanksgiving Point has been having "Two Dollar Tuesdays". So we decided to take advantage of that last night. We had such a blast. It was beautiful. The gardens are breathtaking and my kids can just run and run or as you can see roll and roll.

This is a huge hill right at the beginning.
The kids love rolling down this.

Andrew made grandma nervous by looking
over the edge at the waterfall.

I believe that Thanksgiving point has the largest man made waterfalls.

Andrew, he is such a mellow kid, he was just enjoying the view.

We brought grandma with us. I think we wore her out!

They have this huge pond full of lily pads.
Here was a frog the kids found that was trying to hide.

Everywhere you go it's beautiful!

Max loved smelling ALL of the flowers

They have a children's garden as well.
The kids loved climbing and playing everywhere.

If you have never been to Thanksgiving point, you need to go! It is so much fun and so beautiful! We can't wait to go back. We ended the evening with an ice cream cone from JCW's, Thanks grandma!!!

Heading Back to School

I am sad. Didn't know I would be sad. Today is the first day of school and I did shed a few tears. I know, don't get me wrong I am so ready for a routine and some structure but I will miss the little terrors. I guess I kind of thrive on chaos if you can't tell. Well I still have the main terror...Max at home and he is plenty to keep me busy.
Andrew starts kindergarten but not until next week.
I love these monkeys!

Sydney 2nd grade, Tyler 3rd grade,
Raegan 6th grade and Kalli 5th grade

Raegan

Kalli

Tyler

Sydney (Little Miss Sassy)
Andrew!
I think he was pretty happy to have a quiet house.

The last days of summer!

Wow, I can't believe this summer is coming to a close! What a summer we have had. My kids have been so great, lots to deal with and they have dealt well. I think we are all ready for some structure, not necessarily wanting them to go but definitely needing some structure. We have done some fun things that I have not blogged about due to my dad's health and so forth. So here is a quick update before school starts.

Andrew, Sydney and Kalli

My mom, my sister Tara, Chad and I took the kids to this cool little park in Highland that had some great water features. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a great time.

Sydney

Max

Tyler and Max

Max and Andrew hanging out with Aunt Tara before she had to go back to AZ.

We were also able to celebrate Andrew's 5th birthday. Him and his buddies got to go see the movie G-Force. The little boys loved it!

Every morning this summer, Tyler and Kalli had swim team and since I don't have late sleepers in my house this is what our curb looked like every morning. The kids loved to wait for the car pool to come even if it came at 7:45 AM.

Max really got attached to his daddy this summer. Monkey See Monkey Do!

The kids had fun sleeping in the tent!

At the end of July, Chad had the opportunity to speak at a Youth Conference in Wilmington, North Carolina. So I was lucky enough to get to tag along. It was a nice break before a hectic end of July. We had such a blast. North Carolina is Beautiful! We met some of the nicest people who I now keep in touch with by email, and we ate some of the greatest food. Chad and I had never heard of "Hush Puppies" so our new friend Cari told us where to go to try them. They were delicious! I don't know how those people stay so thin everything they eat is DEEP FRIED!

The beaches were clean and beautiful.

We loved North Carolina!

And of course the kids have spent many days at the swimming pool. Luckily with Chad semi out of work he was able to go swimming with the kids almost every time. It was kind of the joke in the neighborhood that he was one of the "women" since he was seen with the kids running carpools, planning birthday parties and taking them to the pool more than I have been. I have enjoyed him being home more but financially it will be nice to have him back at work!