Happy Halloween

Halloween is a lot more fun with kids.
For Family Home Evening we carved our jack-o-lanterns.
This is a scared and a happy face, per The Boy's request.
For the big night The Boy was a dragon and The Queen was a princess, though we had many guesses for The Boy as a dinosaur and The Queen as either an angel or a fairy.

The Boy was very excited as soon as our next door neighbor handed him a candy bar and he really enjoyed ringing doorbells and yelling, "trick-or-treat" before anyone could open the door. The Queen was excited as soon as she found out what was inside the wrapper.
As much as he enjoyed trick-or-treating himself, The Boy loved handing candy out to all of our trick-or-treaters. The doorbell would ring and he would yell, "I coming!" Then he would open the door and hold the bowl so everyone could choose a treat, saying "Trick-or-treat! I got some treats, they are suckers." As they would leave, "Thanks for coming!"

It's Autumn time!

I raked some leaves for the kids to play in (and so we could mow our jungle lawn one more time). The Boy had a lot of fun, but we only got one picture because The Queen had enough at this point.

(In case you didn't) know what we did last summer...

Yes, I realize it's been four months. We've been busy. Doing what you may ask?

JUNE
*Painting the house
*USU 5 K Spring Fun Run
Talena, Caleb, Ainsley and I participated in the 2nd annual Aggie Spring Runoff in Kaysville. It was a fun run, the kids liked the stroller ride...and free Aggie Ice Cream!






*Planting 3 trees
*Ripping apart and clearing a 120 sq. ft. cement dog run surrounded by chain link
*Planting a garden

JULY
*Centerville 5K -- apparently I have no pictures of this event (Talena, Keira, Elly, please send me some). Mark, Neesha, Caleb, Ainsley, Talena, Keira, Adam, and Elly all ran the 5K (okay, so Caleb and Ainsley were in the stroller) and Josh ran the children's 1/2 mile. Afterward, homemade pancakes at my parent's house...yum!

*Pulling 500 gallons of weeds
*Moving 250 gallons of gravel
*Moving 1 tree (don't think it survived, poor thing)
*Moving 800 sq. ft. of sod

AUGUST
*Putting together a swing set

























This was worth all the money and all the work. The kids ABSOLUTELY LOVE their swing set. Since the pictures were taken, we've cleaned out the sod and put pea gravel along the bottom, it looks nicer.

*Heritage Park











Cousins were in town, so we all took part of a morning to visit Heritage Park. The pony ride and train ride were a big hit with Caleb. He was also very fond of his arrowhead necklace and hand dipped candle.



*Girls Camp -- I didn't take any pictures, trust me, you wouldn't want to see any pictures.

*Mueller Park
Every summer we take an evening and go to Mueller Park to roast hot dogs and make smores with the Winegars. We managed a couple of pictures -- the boys and the babies.











*Youth Conference -- again, no pictures, none wanted.

*Top of Utah Half Marathon
I ran my first Half Marathon with Talena and Elly in Logan at the end of August. It was a lot training (loads of thanks to Mark for watching the kids) and it was A LOT of fun! Next up, Snow Canyon Half Marathon -- Nov. 7! Yep, I'm addicted.






SEPTEMBER
*Mini golf








For Labor Day, we decided to take the kids out to breakfast and then over to Cherry Hill to play mini golf. It was a hit.






















Think she has a future as a pole dancer?






*Painting front door
*Moving 250 gallons of gravel (again)
*Canning 12 qts. peaches and 24 qts. tomato sauce
*Kaysville Car Show
I took Caleb to his first car show last year. He had so much fun, we brought him again this year.








*Ainsley's first birthday
Ainsley is one year old (okay, almost 13 months at this point). One word to describe her, busy. She is everywhere. She is getting better at walking, goes up and down stairs, dances, and will eat pretty much anything. She's learned a few signs; "daddy", "mommy", and "more". She loves to walk around with her purse, and toy cell phone. She is very endearing when she waves, smiles and says, "hai" (hi). Bear with some of my favorite Ainsley shots from this last the summer.































So, a quick run down of our summer. This cold weather will force us inside more often and I hope to spend more time updating the blog ... lucky you!

Miss Ainsley at 9 months

The Queen is 9 months old toady and, yes, it's gone by fast. She has accomplished so much the last three months...

After weeks of trying to get her to eat solid food, she now can't seem to get enough of it -- anything with apples is her favorite.

She tried crawling for weeks without much success until she watched Asher do it a few weeks ago. The next day she had it figured out and now she goes anywhere she likes. She LOVES to chase after The Boy, who loves to run circles around her.

She loves to splash in the big bath tub and chew on The Boy's bath toys with her four teeth. I tried getting a picture of her teeth, but she is thus far uncooperative. The teeth on the top are the two on either side of the front teeth (still no front teeth). I'm mulling over the idea of taking her to audition for the vampire movies...

Her favorite activities are peek-a-boo (she now takes on an active part and hides under a blanket), the silly game and the "so big" game, ripping apart (and eating) magazines, and crawling after The Boy while he runs around the room.

You are getting so big, Ains! We love you and are so glad you came to our family!

"Higga, Higga" (and other funny Caleb things)

Thought I'd share some of Caleb's funnier moments from the last month.

Whenever Caleb sees (or hears) a diesel truck, "Mommy, that truck says 'higga higga.'"


Caleb: Mommy, I playing wif my scunruction site.
Me: Caleb, it's con - struc - tion.
Caleb: No, mommy, scun - ruc - tion

...I hope the scunruction (construction) trucks (that say, "higga higga") don't ever get into an axkident (accident).


This is what Caleb wound up wearing to the store on Friday.

Trust me, it really wasn't worth the battle.