Friday, November 6, 2015

Pumpkin Carvin' Time!

It was pumpkin time around here! We took a trip to the nearby Pumpkin Patch (aka Walmart!) and let the kids choose a pumpkin! They wanted to get the largest pumpkins they could find!

Carder liked all the pumpkins!! He chose one for Ty since Ty was at school when we went!

Caleb liked the greenish pumpkin! He thought it looked scary!

It was so nice to have kids old enough to do most of the carving pumpkins themselves!! Caleb did a great job cleaning out his!

Mara got a lot of hers out with one big swoop!

Mara is so cute helping Caleb!

Ty was so busy the day we carved pumpkins he had to to do his in between Lego League, scouts, and homework! But he got it done!

I'm so proud of the kids, they came up with their own faces and designs and really carved them by themselves!

Mara took this pumpkin carving serious! She used her new pumpkin carver like a pro!

Carder glued a face on his small pumpkin instead of carving it!

I didn't get pictures of their finished products until Halloween! So Jack-o-Lantern pictures coming soon......

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Trunk-or-Treat!

Our church put on a Trunk-or-Treat for our wad activity. We had dinner: chili/soup and bread. Unfortunately Nate was out of town so I took four crazy Gryffindor kids by myself! We were all pretty excited about our costumes this year! Our family loves Harry Potter! We had the hardest time coming up with Ty's costume because he wanted to be something amazing like: Albus Dumbladore, Mad-eye Moody, or even Hagrid! But as we looked into making or buying such a costume we just couldn't find anything that worked for him. We ended up going with Oliver Wood (The Gryffindor Quidditch Team Captain!! or Harry Potter when he wasn't with the rest of the group!)

Carder: Ron Weasley, Caleb: Harry Potter, Mara: Hermine Granger and Ty: Oliver Wood 
The kids had a fun time seeing their friends and going from car to car instead of house to house!!



Monday, November 2, 2015

Ty's Swim Meet!

Ty is on a swim team and is really doing well! Ty absolutely loves to swim! He could care less about winning he just loves being in the water and swimming! I was reading his journal back when he was three and we had just signed him up for his first swim lessons! Even at that age he loved swimming! He would try swimming to the deep end like the bigger kids in his class and would start to sink so his swim teacher would put him back on the side of the pool!! I'm so proud of Ty for being a great swimmer and I'm grateful he enjoys it so much!

Here is Ty at warm up! This was his first swim meet with his team, and he did really good!

He could seriously stay in the pool all day and be happy with that!

One of the helpers was writing Ty's events on his arm. They write the event number, what they are swimming and the lane they are in on their arm so the swimmer can remember. He competed in three events: back stroke, breast stoke, and free style. 

So so proud of this swimming kid! Way to go Ty! He didn't come in 1st but he did awesome!


Here is Ty swimming his breast stroke! It was one of the harder ones for Ty to do but he still did a really good job.

The King of Silliness!


While shopping for Halloween Costumes Carder found these awesome glasses! He looks like the King alright...King of Silliness!

I totally would have bought them for him, but they didn't go with this year's family theme! But he really wanted a picture with them on! Carder sure looks awesome!

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Just hangin' around!!

Two little monkeys just hanin' around! The kids just love fall time, especially playing in the leaves! But they love climbing and swinging from the trees all year long!!

Carder wasn't too sure about this! We put him high in the tree and said "Hang on tight for a picture!"


This picture reminded me of a quote from General Conference by Elder Kevin. W. Pearson:
"Enduring to the end is a hallmark of true discipleship and is essential to eternal life. But when trials and challenges come our way, we are often told to simply “hang in there.” Let me be clear: to “hang in there” is not a principle of the gospel. Enduring to the end means constantly coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him."

Friday, October 30, 2015

A fun day in Reno...and back to Utah!

We had one day in Reno to explore and play. Nate had meetings and training so the kids and I were on our own for the day, but we found lots of fun things to see and do. 

Rancho San Rafael Park

We discovered a really awesome park and arboretum in Reno. It was huge, we walked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, played at the playground, and even saw a some dinosaurs!
 
 The Wilbur D. May Arboretum & Botanical Garden was beautiful!

The Blakey Conifer Grove reminded us of our Uncle Blake! 

Along the dusty trail we found a little pond with ducks!

We found a fun playground and we all played tag, even other little friends wanted to join in the fun! 
 
The kids had such fun having races down the slide! 

It wasn't a huge playground but perfect for the kids to play and they loved it. 
 
Ty loved this old tractor! 

Carder kept saying "I hear something!" Sure enough we went exploring and found some big turkeys! 

Yup! Two crazy turkeys right there! 

Ahh, that's way better! 

This place was amazing! Not one but TWO playgrounds! 

 
It was even a dinosaur park! 

 
The boys thought this place was awesome! (Mara liked it too!!)

 Ever wonder what it would be like to climb on the inside of a dinosaur!?! Ty did it!

What fun to climb on huge dinosaurs! 

Scheel's 

We found a Scheel's close by in Reno and thought it would be fun to ride the ferris wheel (or turny-wheel as Carder called it!) Carder was finally big enough to ride this time! 

 We checked out all the animals at Scheels, Carder still LOVES animals so he thought this was the greatest! 

 
Check out Ty driving the jeep--scary thing is this will be real in 5 years! 
 
 It was fun exploring the camping things!

Sparks Nevada

Right near Scheels was a little lake and playground. We thoroughly explored this are until it was time to go home!

 The big kids spent most of the time on this tire swing pushing each other! They laughed and laughed together!

 Carder was sure glad to have playmates for a few days!

 Carder loved riding the ocean animals!

I'm so glad Ty has decided the park can still be fun! 

 We couldn't have asked for better weather on the trip. It started to rain on the way home so we planned it perfect!

 Awww love these kids of mine! 

 Jumping off the dock!

 There is just something about throwing rocks in the water that boys love!

 Before we arrived there were every kind of bird on the shore, but the kids had so much fun chasing them away!

Salt Flats

We drove to Elko and stayed the night. It was a long drive home! 

We stopped to stretch our legs near the salt flats by the Great Salt Lake.
 
We took a little walk around on what the kids thought was snow! 

Football Game

 We made it back just in time for the boys to go to the football game with Papa!!

 
They enjoyed a giant foot-long hot-dog at the game, it was so big they couldn't eat the whole thing!!

This kid LOVES hot dogs! Especially foot longs!!