Veteran's Day

This past Veteran's day the kids were all out of school, so I decided to join my friends Amber and Tawnya at a local children's museum for a few hours.  I had my fours kids and our friend/cousin, Eli, with us.  As I am accustom to doing, I spent much of my time counting...1, 2, 3, 4, 5....yep, I can see everyone...1, 2, 3, 4, 5...yep, they are all behaving...So, I look at Kate and Gracie who are running and jumping in the "Brain Forest" and turn around to count the three boys...1, 2, 3....I turn back around and literally this is what I see...A very happy Gracie who has stripped off her clothes, only to reveal the swim suit hiding underneath!  Seriously, so funny!  What am I going to do with her?????

Halloween...the holiday that never ends...

 Does anyone else feel like Halloween goes on and on and on????  Three school celebrations, a carnival at the church, pumpkin carving, a play group party, trick or treating...on and on and on....

The boys were Jedi Knights...

The girls were Flower Fairies....and yes, I did make their costumes and yes, I was very proud of myself and not afraid to say it. :)  Why should I pretend that I wasn't?  It was a hard thing for me to sew those capes, but I felt accomplished when they were done.  Hopefully they will still fit next year. 

The Pumpkin Patch

It wouldn't be Fall without at least one outing to the Pumpkin Patch!

 Jed, Gracie and I were all able to with Kate's preschool class.  I just love watching them.

 Of course Gracie loved the animals and Kate just loved everything about being there.

Almost two months, seriously?

Okay, so I TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY fell off of the blogging bandwagon when school started. I am not sure exactly why, but for some reason this fall has rocked my world. Seriously, I feel like my head is spinning. I will go into my theories on why this is later, but without further ado here is a photo summary of the past two months....

Owen started 2nd Grade! He has two fabulous teachers who job-share...Mrs. BrumbleMrs. Riemer

Kate started preschool...she was SO happy!
Owen turned 8!
He got his first BB gun. Are we crazy?
We had a Mommy/Daddy/Boys date watching Star Wars on the lawn....
And of course, he had a Star Wars birthday party.
Gracie remains spunky and funny as ever....
Davis started kindergarten!
Here he is with his teacher, Mr. Courtney. Yay for a male teacher. Davis thinks the world of him.

Red day at Tinkerbell preschool...Soccer was here again. Something really has clicked for Owen and he is suddenly super aggressive, which is fun to watch on the soccer field (not so fun when he and Davis are wrestling).
Davis was a machine this season. Sometimes I am pretty sure he was playing rugby and not soccer. Thank goodness he can move out of kinder-soccer in the Spring...he is so ready and excited to play at the next level.
Owen started cub scouts. I think he is adorable in his uniform. I am sure he would be mortified that I am saying this. He spent a few hours for 4 Saturdays selling popcorn in front of local stores to help earn money for his pack.

Owen was baptized. This really should be a post all of it's own. It was a great experience for him with so many friends who came to show their support and Grandma Nila, Nana, and Papa all here. It was the perfect day.


I am so proud of the boy that Owen is. He has such a strong desire to be good.

Jed was able to go out hunting and backpacking with friends. Oh how he loves the outdoors.
Rainbow day at the preschool...this girl sure gets into the themes!
And finally the school had it's Run-Walk fundraiser. Davis ran the most laps in his class (7--almost 2 miles), so of course Owen had to do the same (he ran 9). Way to go boys!



Whew! There you have our September and October in a nutshell.

Summer Wrap-Up...

Today is the first day of school for Owen, I can hardly believe the summer is over....I am crying and cheering simultaneously. Is this normal? Anyway, here is a wrap-up of how we ended our summer...


Our friend, Miss Jenny, hosted a Messy Party! Imagine this, the kids (I'd say about 30 of them) got to run around and move from one MESSY activity to the next and nobody told them to clean up or mind their manners...heaven.Gracie's favorite was the colored whipped cream.

Davis doesn't typically like to get messy (this was him after digging for pennies in the sand), but for chocolate...
he will do anything! That's my boy!
Owen on the other hand was game for all of it!
And of course there had to be a giant pool of bubbles...and a whipped cream slip 'n slide.
Thank you Miss Jenny for a SUPER FUN party and for having the mess at your house. :)

We also went camping with some friends....


I love that these girls are FINALLY starting to play together.
Owen and Davis got to check "fishing with Mr. Shae and Aiden" off of their Summer Bucket List.
Davis caught the first fish. It was so exciting. Let's face it, there are few things that he gets to do first. Yay Davis!
All the little girls loved the lake too.

The things Kate says

Okay Auntie Kristin (my sister-in-law is a speech pathologist), this one is for you...

I often think of Kate as being older than she really is, which I think is why I sometimes get frustrated with her tantrums and sassy attitude, so today I decided to really pay attention to the things that she says and the way that she says them. She really is pretty dang cute. Here are a few "Kateisms" for your enjoyment...

store=stir (Are we going to the stir today Mommy?)

sidewalk chalk=hopscotch (no matter how many times I explain that hopscotch is a game and sidewalk chalk is what we use to make the game, she still calls it "hopscotch")

nail polish=paint nolish

lipstick=lipstip

Kate just told me that she thinks it's funny that she has a bug in her name, since her name is "Katerbug". I am starting to worry, she does realize that her real name is not "Katerbug", right?

Gotta love this spunky and DETERMINED little girl. Let her be little just a little longer, please. I am not ready for her to grow up!

An Understandible Mistake, Right?

Okay, back me up on this one...from behind these tubes look similar enough, right? Well, below is what I thought I was putting on my toothbrush, but...this is actually what I started to brush my teeth with---YUCK!!!! Note to self, diaper cream does NOT taste good, nor does it wash out of a toothbrush very easily. I was actually in a really bad mood when I did this too (hard to imagine I know). I think that the kids were grateful for my mistake because I started laughing (in between the spitting) so hard I could barely stop. I hope to never repeat this mistake!