Halloween

I am way behind! We had a great halloween party! I tried to make a mummy and instead, it turned out looking like some sort of alien with big beady orange eyes.. wish I had a picture to show but somehow I lost the one I took. We had lots of creepy food like scattered brains, frankenfingers, and bat wings.. with tombstone cake and monster munch for dessert..pretty tasty.


After dinner, the kids had a contest to see who could unearth the bones and reassemble the skeleton the quickest.. winning gummy body parts for a prize! They had so much fun. They also got to play csi detectives when count dracula was scattered all over the road and they had to figure out what the smashed up body parts were.. they identified an eyeball, some scattered brains, his cold stone heart, a couple bones, his sharp fangs, and his tongue! Grouse!!


We had good food, great costumes, fun games and a ton of chaos! What a blast! Thanks to everyone who came and made the night a success!



SCARY!! My little Vampire and Vampire Cheerleader!


The after party entertainment! Siarah, Danielle, and Carson are dancing!



While trick or treating on Halloween night, we came across a house that had this cool Skeleton hot roddin on this sweet street bike. Carson wanted to take his picture with it and the guy who owned the house sat him on the bike. Rock on dude!

Fun at the Fair!

It's that time of year again.. time for food, fun, family, games, and rides!! Of course, it's all at the Blackfoot fair!




I love the fair. The kids had a blast! They rode everything they could all day long and still weren't ready to leave at the end of the day!:) I had a great time with them and it was sure nice to spend the day with my husband.


We also had a great time with our adopted daughter, Maria, her mom Yinking, and her niece Camille. Thanks for coming and hanging out with us!

Welcome home Jessica! We are so excited to have Jess come home from South Carolina. She's been away for 3 long months! The kids are stoked and we can't wait for all the fun we are going to have while she is here! Love ya tons!

Today is a very special day. Brayden was baptized this morning by his brother-in-law, John. He was so excited to receive his very own set of scriptures with his name engraved on them.


Brayden is a sweet little guy who just has a happy-go-lucky presence about him that you can't help smiling at. I am so proud of him for making the choice to be baptized and I'm feeling very grateful to have the gospel present in our lives. We are incredibly blessed with the knowledge of knowing the plan that was set out for us and knowing how it works and what we have to strive to do to make it complete. I want Brayden to know that he is a special boy who is loved and supported and will be very blessed because of his choice today. I love him tons and hope he keeps that beaming smile that brightens everyones day!

Well, all good things must come to an end.. in exhaustion. Carson had an awesome 2nd day at school, but it was his first full day and he is just tuckered out. He fell asleep on his big red bull dog that he won at lagoon this summer. He came home and was so excited shouting "Mom, I got to count to 100. Guess how many times? 10 times!" I was cracking up. This is truly going to be a fun year!

Back to School

Well, it seems like summer was such a whirl wind and now here we are.. going back to school. Makayla,Carson, and Brayden are pretty excited!


Here's my little rock star! Makayla just started 2nd grade at a new school. She's very outgoing and cheerful so I'm not too worried about her making new friends. In fact, we found out she already has one friend in her class from her last school. I've been so amazed at how much she learns each new day. It's really fun to see the excitement in her eyes as she comes home and tells me all about what she got to do and when she sits down to read me a book, my heart just melts. She's going to do awesome this year! I love that little angel of mine.


Carson is my youngest and is starting kindergarten. I thought I was going to have a super hard time when I walked him in on his first day.. but I was so excited for him that I was just fine. However, today, only his 2nd day, when I watched them ride their bikes to school, lock them up, and then Carson just walked away with the rest of the kids.. I got all teary eyed. My baby is growing up. He's trying to be just as independent as Makayla and that's a little harder to choke down because he's my youngest. He's also completely opposite from her. He is my shy, sensitive little guy and makayla doesn't have a shy bone in her body! :) I love him to pieces. I can't wait to be amazed by how much progress he makes throughout the year. He's going to do great!

Happy 4th of July!

Today, we have taken our kids to the parade and had our faces painted and just enjoyed each other. Tonight, we will celebrate with friends, family, fireworks and food! We celebrate our freedom today and give many thanks to those who have served our country and are serving now, fighting to preserve our freedoms. We give thanks to those families who have had to make the sacrifice of having a loved one out there serving our country. We are very blessed. Hope everybody has a Happy and safe 4th of July!
The Parade
Here's a bicycle dude jumping over a kid out of the crowd! Crazy!


This is a sweet, restored old car!


The kids are patiently waiting for some candy.. but they didn't throw out a whole bunch!




Danielle and Makayla with their faces painted... adorable aren't they?!

Tauphus Park

Sarah and I took the kids to Tauphus Park yesterday.. we had a ball. We missed out on taking Kristi this time because she had a wedding to be to :(.. but that just means we will have to do it again so she and her kids can go too :) I have never been there before so it was refreshing to do something with my kids that we haven't done. First we checked out the zoo! Here are the kids.. Wyatt, Brayden, Carson, Mason, and Makayla.




Apperently at Tauphus Park, you can be hatched from an egg too! And take a ride on a chicken! And play in their nest!

The penguin exhibit was pretty cool. I didn't really know that penguins could survive in the heat.. but apparently, it is their natural habitat.. not the freezing cold like you always see on t.v. There is one type of penguin that lives in the cold but most of them don't. Food for thought.


Checking out the parakeets and other colorful birds.


Here's Brayden feeding the goats. I think it wanted more than the food!



"That's a real lion mom!" This was carson's favorite animal to see.


The crocodile! Just a baby one.


Well.. the zoo was fun but now it's time for the funland adventure!
This is Cameron and then Makayla getting spun around in the twirly cups! Cameron got so dizzy it gave him a headache and Makaylas pony tails were just out of control!



Carson and Mason can't get enough of sliding down the pole.


Carson, Brayden, and Wyatt with his buda belly hanging out, checking out the triple slider! That's awesome!


Tauphus parks little musicians, Makayla and Brayden


And on to the RIDES!
Brayden and Carson riding the flying octopus!


Makayla wanted to ride the ferris wheel.. she said "that was really high!"


Mason sure looks like he's lovin that airpline ride! :)


Well, that was our adventure. We had a ton of fun and I'm so glad I got this week to just really play with them and spend some good quality time together.

Graduation!!

Congratulations Carson! My little guy just graduated from pre-school! I know this post is late..life gets in the way sometimes but I did want to recognize him. He has really done great this year. I'm amazed at how much he learns everyday. He can even sing the alphabet BACKWARDS!



This is Carson and his two "girlfriends" Sadie and Olivia. They are adorable but wow, they really start young! Sadie got a little bit jealous over Carson sitting beside Olivia and paying more attention to her so she picked up something and chucked it at him hitting him in the face. He has a little bruise from it but he's ok and he has apparently forgiven her :)

They drew pictures of their favorite thing they did in pre-school and Carson's picture is of their weather frog. He was responsible for updating the weather frog when he was there by dressing him in different clothes. So, here's a picture of his drawn frog and the real weather frog.

Way to go guys.. looks like you had a lot of fun in school and you learned a lot.


It's official.. the hat toss! Congratulations buddy! Class of 2009!