October

Kelsie won the 5th grade spelling bee and was a finalist in the school bee.  She was quite devastated that she didn't win the school bee but we tried to remind her that it's quite an accomplishment to be one of the top spellers in the whole school.  She is a little over achiever.  She has always been a great speller and the kids in her class come to her when they don't know how to spell a word. :)

 This boy is a NUT!  And the little one is trying hard to keep up!

 Carter at the fire station on our preschool fieldtrip.

We made slime!!!

John turned 36!  Kelsie made his cake and used every candle in our house to get to the number 36.  There aren't actually 36 candles, but the numbers added together equal 36.  That's thinking out of the box!  It was a cake to remember!

Fall in the Canyon

First Day of School

First Day of School.  Emily started 2nd grade and is in Miss Layne's class.  She is new to our school but we've heard great things about her!  Kelsie is in 5th grade with Ms. Decker.  Kelsie is thrilled to have a female teacher after 3 years of male teachers!  She was ready for a change!

Wii Success

The kids have become obsessed by winning Bozers castle on Super Marios Brothers on the Wii.  It is all Carter has talked about for a week!  Today was a happy day at our house!  I was making dinner when I heard all the kids shrieking and jumping up and down!  I ran to see what was going on...well, guess what?!?  They had FINALLY won Bozers castle!  Thanks to Kelsie and Brianna we have now arrived in Wii greatness!  Look how happy they look!  :)  Made their whole week!!!

Babies

 

Our laptop blew up so John is working on getting the pictures off of it and organizing them on our new computer. I came across this little treasure I don't ever remember seeing! How tiny and cute are they? And they even liked each other! I'm pretty sure Emily was trying to steal his binky cause she still thinks we shouldn't have ever taken hers away! I love the chubby little hands intertwined. I can't believe this was a little less than 3 years ago. They were just babies...

 

As we were flipping through pictures Matson saw one of John and exclaimed, "Daddy SUPER NICE!"   Matson keeps us laughing every day...and in awe at the things he comes up with already.  Love our little 2 year old cutie.

Bear Lake- Day 2!!!!

The 2nd day at Bear Lake was GORGEOUS!  We went to an actual beach this day and we were all amazed at how gorgeous it was.  It was like being at the ocean...and you have to know that I have been dying for a trip to the ocean for the last 4 years!  Pretty much I was in heaven!  The water was a gorgeous turquoise blue and was as warm as a bathtub!  The sand was soft and warm and the there was just enough waves to make it PERFECT!  I fell in love with this place!!!  It really was a perfect day (minus the 45 minutes of sheer terror that involved a 911 call and all out search for my 3 year old nephew who went missing).  In the end, many prayers were answered, and John (not knowing that Chase was even missing) discovered him a mile from our beach spot and brought him safely back to greet the hysterical family and the police who had been helping to search for him.  So we continued the rest of our vacation feeling happy to all be together and extremely grateful for the best possible outcome of a terrifying experience.  Here are some pictures...

Matson building castles in the sand (which translates to Matson digging up wet sand and flinging it at us)!

Aunt Michelle flew in this morning and we could hardly wait to see her.  The kids all greeted her with their water squirters and soaked her down!  Then they spent most of the day trying to get the adults wet!

Matson LOVED it as much as me!  I guess he wanted to become one with the beach...he kept lying down in the wet sand and holding perfectly still! 

He was so filthy...covered head to toe with sand...but he was so happy!

Carter and I are working on building a moat for our castle.

That evening we played all kinds of fun games together. The highlight was teaching my dad how to play "don't eat pete"! He had never heard of it before. And then watching my dad play "duck duck goose" with all the little kids. They loved chasing grandpa around and he kept getting picked!

Cute cousins hanging out in the morning before we leave for home.

After a fun vacation we got raspberry shakes and then headed for home.  It think Matson was completely delirious-he was so tired!  The only thing better than one binky it TWO BINKIES!  He is one funny little baby...and he knows it!

Bear Lake -Day 1

We went to Bear Lake for our family reunion with all may family.  None of us had been there before and I was dying to see what all the hype was...all of my neighbors go there every year and LOVE it!  It was my turn to be in charge of the reunion so I convinced everyone to try out Bear Lake.  We rented the cabin (AKA GIGANTIC house) from a family in our ward.  It was gorgeous and relaxing and we had a great time!  This was the view from the family room at the cabin. 

We arrived and settled into tht cabin and then headed to the lake.  We stopped at a little spot by the road which didn't turn out to be a prime spot but the kids got super muddy and sand covered so I think they had a good time!  This is Matson heading to the water when we arrived!

 Back at the cabin we had some fun games and activities after dinner.  The kids gathered items from outside to make their own totem pole person and then we set them out to represent each family.

My Kiddos

Our Totem Pole Creations

The boys also found time to play a little miniature golf around the house!  Fun times!

John and my dad enjoyed the gorgeous view and spent a lot time counseling over some issues at work.  This is literally how John spent the whole vacation.  I want to go back just to he can enjoy a vacation without all that work stuff hanging over him the whole time...  You gotta love my dad in his flannel jammies...sorry dad!!!  I couldn't pass over this picture when I went through them!

Here are a bunch of the cousinsn exploring the areas around the cabin.  One of my favorite things about it was all the open space around us.  The kids loved building dirt houses, searching for treasures, and being able to roam free without any worries.  It was the perfect place.