Pumpkin Carving

Last night we carved our pumpkins. This year Brooklyn did hers all by herself, a scary witch. Olivia cleaned hers but I helped with the carving. I did Nathan's skeleton. And Cody and Nathan helped me with the big one.
*Note to self: Next year insist on carving out in the garage, even if still Casey doesn't want to. A few extra minutes moving cars and laying newspapers will save me 2 hours of cleaning and moping!!!*

Hillbilly Ho-Down

Callie is our ward's Activities Chairperson, and she came up with the great idea for our fall ward party. The Hillbilly Ho-down. She decorated the gym so awesome and had a fun variety show, yehaw style. Casey did a lipsync to A Country Song Backwards by rascal flatts (he was Rocso Fatts).

Nathan had his last soccer game on Saturday. He found his calling in soccer, defense. He loves standing at the end of the field jumping around defending the goal. It's so cute! I need to keep him signed up while he is still comfortable.

Nathan also got to go to a Jazz vs. Blazer game with Casey and a bunch of friends and their dads from our ward. He had a blast. Casey's such a fun dad, he organized the whole thing.

Pumpkin Patch, Northwest Style

Nathan's pre-school was going to the pumpkin patch last Friday. With Olivia's lovely kindergarten schedule she didn't have school, so I was going to be taking Nathan, Cody, and Olivia. Brooklyn didn't want to be left out, so I let her come also and take a day off school.
All Thursday night it just down poured into Friday morning. Callie called and asked if I was still going because it was SO wet. We decided to stick with the plan and go brave the patch.
It was just as muddy we thought it would be. The kids had fun on the hay bale maze, in the barn. We sat on wet bales of hay on the tractor ride to get our pumpkins. When we got to the pumpkins most were rotten or HUGE. So we walked forever to find one for each kid, that they could carry. I had to hold on tight to Cody so he didn't slip and fall in the mud. We almost made it until Cody slipped and landed flat on his back in the mud. He was like a turtle. I picked him up and dragged him while I carried a 30 lb pumpkin in the other hand, hoping no one else fell. To get back on the trailer we had to step in 3 inch mud.
So, I only got a couple pictures, I kind of had my hands full. But we go out of there without any tears, and that is something!
We went home and had lunch and hot coco. If you live here you'll never do anything if you wait for it to stop raining!

Cody disappeared and this is where he was. He found the snack stand. Of course!

Witching Hour

Happy Halloween. Look what cute little monsters I have!

Olivia's Cooking School

Olivia just had her birthday. The only idea she had for a party was Barbie Diamond Castle. She has had a couple Barbie parties already and I needed to do something different. So I asked her if she would like a cupcake cooking class party. She was so excited! So we made the invitations and got ready.

I made a bunch of chef's hats and made a little kit so everyone could make their own cook book (a spiral notebook that they decorated the cover.) My girls LOVE crafts and would do them ALL day if they could. So this was right up their alley.
When the girls got here I taught them how to make bread sticks and had them help. Then they got roll thiers out into whatever shape they wanted. While they cooked they made their cookbooks. Then we ate our breadsticks and then decortated our cupcakes. Brooklyn thought of 'freeze dance' to the songs 'icecream and cake' and 'peanutbutter and jelly time'. That was a hit.
If I do say so myself this was a great party! Either I'm getting better at this or the kids are growing up....











(The Diamond Castle poster Brooklyn made for Olivia for her birthday.)

Aug and Sept

August was full of soccer practices, a tournament, and photoshoots. I wish I had written it down because now it is a blur. Brooklyn played in the Khol's cup with her soccer team. They are playing up this year, so they are playing girls one year older, they did pretty good considering. This year she probably won't have as many wins. She is learning alot and loves being the goalie. She usually plays that position for the first half. Nathan started his first year of soccer. At his first practice he just ran out and played. No problem. Then for his game that Saturday he DID NOT WANT TO WEAR HIS TEAM T-SHIRT. "It's too big!" So when we got there it took me 10 minutes to coax him on to the field. Every practice now he gets all shy and only I could get him to go play. The last practice Casey took him and got him to go, so I think he is finally getting more comfortable. Yay! Nathan also started pre-school. He was so excited to take his Ninja Turtle treats for the first day. We've been trying to work on his behavior for the last year at church. He doesn't listen to his teachers and loves to tease the other kids by pokeing them and loves to show off by being silly when he shouldn't. Then he flashes his milliondollar smile and thinks he won't get in trouble. I have been his teacher in Sunbeams since January, I thought I could whip him into shape. It didn't work and I wasn't good because I came home even more frustrated with him. So he just got a new teacher. Hopefully that will help. Which brings me to pre-school. So far he has had two time-outs, and when asked to go to it he refused. surprise. So we are still working everyday to try to get hime to be a warm fuzzy....
Olivia is LOVING soccer. With her size and competitiveness she makes about 6 or 7 goals a game. She needs to work on her teamwork. She just gets out there and gets after the ball, which is so cool to watch, but I feel bad because she needs to let her teammates have a turn. I also took the team pictures.
School started at the end of August. I was so sick with the flu that week and I had so much to do. I had scheduled the kids to go to the dentist (only Brooklyn got her teeth cleaned and xrayed. Olivia and Nathan would hardly let them touch their teeth.) and had two photoshoots. I ended up skiping the photoshoots. Booklyn was so excited to start again but Olivia was nervous for her first year. They wore matching outfits and rode their bikes to school. But once we got there Olivia wanted to go right home. She refused to let me take her picture, so I only got the back of her head. And after all sorts of bribes and threats I left her in her classroom being held in by her teacher. She didn't scream, but she was really ticked off. When she got home she was happy though and hasn't had a problem eversince. This was so Olivia. She has to be incontrol of all situations, she will only do things on her terms, so going to a room where she didn't know exactly what to expect made her very uncomfortable. But after the first day she knew, so she was fine.
Brooklyn is so excited to be the oldest and to be incharge of getting Olivia and Porter to school. They all love going to school together and seeing each other in the halls or at recess. Porter was having a hard time for his first couple weeks and the Assistant Principal called her to the office to see if she could help him feel better. (Porter had asked for her.) She felt so special. I had to tell Callie that if her grades start to suffer I'm holding her responsible!
September continued to be busy with soccer practices for 3 kids, monday, wednesday, thursday, friday, and 3 games on saturday. With Casey in the bishopric he is at mutual on Tuesdays and Sundays are gone.
Here's my favorite pics from those months.

Utah 2009 cont.

After all our fun with the Baldwins, we headed north to Heidi's house. We arrived on Sunday for Avin's blessing. My mom and dad were there, Callie and Brandon and family, and Ashley and Baylor (Logan couldn't make it). It was so nice. Nathan was so excited to finally be at Cohen's house! He had been asking to go there for months! Avin is gorgeous and so is Heidi and I got to take a few pics of them for practice. I put others on my photo blog.



Monday morning ALL the men flew off to Washington. Dad, Casey, and Brandon had to work, and Ryan didn't want to be stuck in a house full of women and children. We spent the week shopping, going to the water park, Hill Air force museum, and playing out back on the water slide and feeding Heidi's chickens. It was pretty wild but oh so fun! I hope Heidi has recovered! Thank you Thank you!!!










Then on Friday morning we all headed north to McCall, ID for my mom's family reunion. The guys were leaving from WA also and met us there. I drove with just my kids. It was pretty uneventful. We stopped in Boise and walked around the temple. Then continued to McCall. Going through the mountains I passed mom and Callie pulled over, Evelyn was throwing up for the 3rd time! We all made it though. McCall is such a beautiful town. The cute little house my parents stayed in "The Lake House" was right on the lake. So we just stayed there all day and rode the wave runner and visited with my grandma and grandpa. I'm so glad I still get to see my cousins and keep up with them! We should have stayed another day or two, the lake and town are so gorgeous and we didn't even have time to really go into town...The kids has blast with their 2nd cousins. I am so thankful for my wonderful grandparents who make it possible for us to always get together, and for the whole family supporting it. I have always anticipated the reunions, and I am so glad that everyone still comes!