Barnyard Boo

We went to the Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point with my friend Kamie. Kam is my college roomie from back in the day. The kids had a blast. Here are a few of the activities they have for the kids to do.

They bring in a real cow and let the kids give milking a whirl. Cole thought this was pretty cool. Ariah gave it a try, and Ambra wouldn't get anywhere near it.

The best was when Cole asked, "Mom, do we really drink that cow's pee?"

We got their faces painted. Cole got a skull, and the girls chose rainbows.

We went with these cute little bugs.

Ariah could have spent all day next to the animals. Her and this cow became great friends.

Look at Ariah's legs in this picture. She is really taking some bonding time. I love it.

THey loved doing the pony rides. I thought Ariah would be nervous, but I was wrong...

...very wrong. She totally loved it.

Halloween Loot

Adam's mother loves Halloween time. She usually tries to make a visit to our home this time of year. When she comes, the children get spoiled. Look at all of this loot. She brought a huge garbage bag full of surprises, candy, decorations, coloring books, Halloween shirts, and headbands, snacks, etc. The kids were in heaven.



On Halloween, we went to our wards Truink or Treat and then we got in the back of the van and Daddy drove us around. Yes, yes, I know. This is the cheater way, but the kids LOVED it, and we raked in the sugar. What you see down below, is only about 1/3 of his final stash.

On Halloween night, our tradition is to hollow out a pumpkin and we bake our dinner inside of it. THis year we did that, but we also made potato soup to put inside our cute little pumpkin soup bowls.

Adam's mother made these darling pirate costumes for the children. She really made this pirate for Cole's birthday party, but could see the green envy in Ambra's eyes...

...so Ambra got a pirate costume too. They were beautiful pirates.

Halloween Festival!

I swear I'm going to be better about this posting thing. I am letting everything else get in the way. Oh well, better late than never.

I love Halloween time. Halloween is about the time that I relinquish myself to fall. I can say that I am finally owning up to the fact that it is not summer anymore and I need to prepare myself for colder weather.

It is also a time to break out the pumpkins, sweaters, and traditions. I love this time that I get to decorate pumpkins with the kids (we do candy instead of carving - you can see some of our creations in the above picture). We start doing more craft projects, and we seem to bake alot more too (that must be where those extra pounds start coming in). The kids start the countdown to Halloween and pumpkin patches, hay rides, and corn mazes start to pop up everywhere. Love it.

Our stake put on a carnival for the primary children. Eating a donut with no hands hanging from a string - can it get any better?

Our cute little friends. Right to left is Ambra, Eli, Autumn, Bailey, Nathan and Wyatt. We go every year with friends to the city carnival. It is free in Layton and they do such a great job for the kids. They had a blast.

That Little T;urkey!!!

I went up to see my mom and grandmother a few weeks ago and while Cole and Ambra were at school, Ariah and I packed. After we had packed the girls, we went in to Cole's room where I said, "Ariah! Come help me pack for Colie." Well then the doorbell rang and I had a customer come pick out some framing. This took about 10 minutes. I came back to Ariah "helping" me pack. She had taken all the clothes off the hangars and out of the dresser....





This is where they ended up.

After I had unpacked a shipment of product I had recieved from Suspended In Time, I left all the packing in the box and headed off to make dinner. 15 minutes later, this is where I found Little Miss Mess Maker.

2 HOURS CLEANUP!!! UUUUGHHHGHGHGH

She is famous for getting into my purse. Usually I find her with lipstick and a mouth full of gum. The entire pack of wrappers is wadded up on the floor next to her. Well the last week I have been missing my keys. Could not find them anywhere. After day seven of searching and using my spare or bumming keys off of Adam, Ariah comes in with her little purse and says, "Look mom, YaYa's keys (Ariah's keys). UUUUGHHGHGH.

Ariah is potty training herself. I will find her with no diaper and some little princess underwear on. She will totally go to the bathroom. Everyonce in a while she will have an accident. This is mostly when she is downstairs and totally involved in some activity with the kids. I forget she is in underwear and then oops accident. I have started setting the timer so that I can ask her every 30 minutes or so.

Well timer goes off and I ask Ariah if she has to go potty.

"no mom"

30 seconds later she is peeing all over herself and the floor.

"Ariah! I just asked you. You told me you didn't have to go."

Huge smile on her face, she sings "TRICKED YOU!!!!!"

THAT LITTLE TURKEY!

Pumpkin Patch

Pack's pumpkin patch made a fun free family home evening. Thanks Mich for a great idea. We gave the kids rides through the patch in these wheel barrows.

Theres the cute little crew.

Of course Ariah's blurry. Does that girl ever stop?

Summer can't be over yet!!!

I know, I know, the kids are back in school, and its over, but I am not happy about it. I love summer time. I love fall too, but then its winter - uuugh. Here are a few summer time photos I never got around to posting.

Camping at Bear Lake. Is the water ever NOT choppy because of the wind. It was a blast, but windy. And why is it that it is only windy on the beach. Not at our campsite - only on the beach.




Miss Ariah was content to play WITH EVERYONE ELSE'S TOYS. We must not have had cool enough stuff.

Dirt and Uno. Need I say more.

OK I admit it. We are terrible at starting fires. It takes forever, then dinner takes forever and the whole food thing is hard when your camping. I always tease Adam about how long it takes him to start a fire. He was an Eagle Scout for heaven sake. Shouldn't these things be second nature? We always get a good one in the end. I love you honey :)

We did Minnetonka Caves while we were there. It was rough taking turns carrying a toddler that kept saying hold me hold me up 888 stairs. Good workout, and neat caves. The kids thought is was way cool. Last time I was there, I was with the YW and we went through the cave with Carmen Rasmussen from American Idol. That is my only claim to fame.

We sold our tent trailer and bought this spring bar tent. It does the job and takes less space to store. I miss the trailer, but for only going camping twice a year, I finally decided it wasn't worth keeping it around. We enjoyed ourselves...... until midnight the second night and Cole was coughing so badly that he couldn't breathe. It was awful. We had to pack up in the pitch black and make the 2.5 hour trek back home so we could have meds, and humidfiers, and warm beds. We got home at 3am. Note to self - Cole is a scrawny little kid, if he has any signs of illness - DONT GO CAMPING!

THe kids did a carwash this summer for some extra money. They were so cute. One of thier little signs that they held on the road said, " Stop for a wash, kids will make your car so shiny." NO ONE STOPPED. THey were heart broken. They were only charging .50 too. So I got on the phone and called good friends over to have thier cars washed. THey felt rich by the end of day. $6.00 each. I have generous neighbors and friends. They thought this was the best ever.

Back in School

My sweet little Cole on his first day of preschool. This poor kid misses the Kindergarten deadline by hours. All his little friends are in "big kid school", and he isn't. This is his second year of preschool.
He has informed me that he doesn't eat snack at preschool because he is practicing for kindergarten next year. They don't get snack so neither should he.



My big girl Ambra on her first day of first grade. I didn't think I would break down like I did last year, but I did. All day school - sob! My little girl is lost to the world - no longer in my home all day every day.

Her cute little friend Bailey. They are the best of friends. We carpool with this cute little family.

Her new teacher Mrs. Farris.

Second day.

My hubby on his first day of school. He is teaching seminary in Centerville. He has two classes for the year. This has been fun, but very challenging for him. I'm sure he is doing wonderful. He always does.