Something from Sara

I love having a little girl because bracelets do make a stuffed monkey better to play with.

Grandpa took Chris and Brooklyn for a horse ride one day after He, and Tyler, and Dad got home.

They rode double up to the barn to put the horse away.

Brooklyn was loving being a cowgirl.

Brooklyn riding Cactus Kid, and Grandpa is on Copper Chief.

Chris looks happy, but he was actually really upset because he forgot to bring his cowboy hat.

Brooklyn is going to be Cinderella this year for Halloween. She is really looking forward to next year when she will be Snow White. Chris and Brook had a Halloween party today at preschool. I don't get it how I am always late getting them to school on time. And I never have make-up on and my hair is never done. I am usually lucky to be dressed. So today, I had to get them dressed and give Brook an up-do (which I had no clue on how to do that, and had to start over three times), and today we weren't late, and I was dressed with make-up and a hairdo. How does that work?

Chris is a friendly skeleton, see the smile.

Here they are together. The thing that you can't see is the glitter that Brooklyn is covered head to toe in. I do love to spray her down with glitter, if only they had that when I was a kid.

This is a t-shirt that the PTA commissioned this year. Every kid drew a picture of himself and then they put them on a t-shirt for the parents to buy. I love it! Go ahead and click on the picture, then you can get a good view of each of the kids pictures.

This year I didn't forget to give the twins their birthday cake.

They blew out the candles.

Then they each had a banana.

Some of the stuff out of my garden. This is my first tomatos of the season, as well as the first broccoli.

Brook and Chris had fun one morning coloring in the kitchen.

We went fishing with Shane's family...and actually caught some fish!

Shane and Tyler reeling one in.

A few of the fish we caught.

We went to the zoo and saw the baby giraffe.

And the baby tigers.

And we petted the big horned sheep.

Chris rode the Zebra on the carosel.

So did Brooklyn.

Aunt Erica and Will and Holden got to go with us to the zoo.

So did Aunt Rose and Jack and Lachlan.

The next day we went camping.

Holden and Will liked to play in Grandpa's trailer.

Having some cousin time and some juice on the stairs.

Tyler flying a kite all by himself.

This was so sad. Chris stepped on a baby lizzard and squished it, then he sat there next to it and cried and cried because he felt so bad.

We signed Tyler up for soccer when school started. Turns out that he is a pretty good player. And the games are actually quite fun to sit and watch.

This is the first soccer game, I was quite the photographer this day and I got some pretty great action shots.

Tyler is kicking it into the goal.

Here he is doing a goal kick.

We took the kids to Las Vegas for a day and we saw the Bellagio gardens.

And the Bellagio fountains. Brooklyn loved the rainbows the best.

Erica brought Holden and Will to see the fountains too.

We stayed in St. George and had a great time hiking around in Snow Canyon State Park.

I took them to see the St. George Temple, it was less exciting.

Tyler got to go with Grandpa to do cows. He rode his own horse all day long and Grandpa was SO PROUD of him. There were too many cows in the trailer to fit the horses in so Tyler and Uncle Bryan rode out of the canyon and down the road past the house. Tyler learned what it felt like to be a real cowboy the next day. His legs were really stiff, and he was so tired, but he had a really good time.

So that is pretty much how we ended our summer. We had a little bit of snow on our grass this morning, and I turned on the Christmas music. It felt good. I thought about changing to Christmas music for my blog but I figured that I'd spare my readers (I might not have any left, it's been so long since I posted anything) and hold off for a couple more weeks. I settled for just a winter themed background. I'm ready for winter, bring it on.

Brooklyn likes to sing songs. She pretty much sings all day, whatever she is doing. Some of my favorites: "Me and Mo-o-ommy in the shower" and "I love my da-a-a-ad." But just now she was singing to me while I washed a window.
"I love my mommy, I love my mommy, She is coming to my bi-r-r-rthday par-r-r-ty. And she doesn't know that I'm bringing home a snake, snake snake."

I remember when I was little, I had a teacher read a book to me. To say that I loved the book would be an understatement. I remember being in the 4th grade at the library and trying to find the book again. One problem. I couldn't remember the name. But I knew that it was "My Father's" something. That was all that I had. I never found the book. I couldn't remember which teacher had read it to me. I had searched on Amazon several times, with no luck. I didn't have a name. I only had a distant memory of it. Maybe the whole thing was a dream.

Flash forward to today, at breakfast. Tyler was sitting there eating his Marshmallow Mateys and suddenly thinks to strike up a conversation. "Mom, my teacher is reading us a chapter book." "Oh, nice" I say. "It's called the Dragons in Blueland." I hadn't heard of it. Then the miracle happened. He goes on, "She already read the other two books. The one was called Elmer and the Dragon." Something in my brain got very excited and then Tyler went on, "The first book that she read to us was called My Father's Dragon." I almost started to cry I was SO EXCITED! So I asked him, "In the book is there a rhino who is sad because his horn isn't white anymore so the guy gives him a toothbrush and toothpaste and teaches him how to brush his horn to make it white?" And he started to laugh, because that was one of his favorite parts of the book too! I finally found it! And to make things even better I looked it up on Amazon and it came right up and the cover of the book is green with the guy and the lion on it just like I remembered! I am so glad that Tyler is in the same first grade class that I was in. And that Mrs. Edgel has taken the time to read my favorite book to my boy! I'm totally buying it now. My lifelong search has come to an end, and I couldn't be happier!