First Snow

Stella was so excited to wake up to snow...she couldn't wait to put her snow clothes on and head outside to make a snowman.  

Cute Ayden came over and the two of them had lots of fun eating snow, making a snowman, throwing snowballs and making snow angels.

I sure do love spending my days with this cute little lover of life!

Pumpkin Pickin'

Today we met Asher, Chelsea and Granny in Layton and went to the pumpkin patch.  

It was so cute to watch these 2 little cousins wander around searching for the perfect pumpkin.

They climbed on them, used them as cars, pulled wagons full of them around, and kept changing their minds when it came to decision time. 

Afterwards we went to Cafe Rio for lunch and had cookies at Sweet Tooth Fairy.

Such a perfect afternoon!

Apple Picking

We had so much fun apple picking for family night.

Stella thanked Nate and I the entire time for taking her to pick apples.

It was the cutest to see her up on the ladder proud as could be about her harvest.

The other kids climbed high up in the trees looking for the big ones and taking crunchy bites as they picked.

This series of pictures makes me smile.  It might not have been the most perfect attempt at getting a great shot of all my monkeys, but I love that it shows how much fun they have together and their goofy little personalities.  Especially that little tiny wild child!

Happy Birthday Jacks and Lo

 These 2 started their birthday's off with a huge stack of birthday pancakes.  They love this tradition and it gives us a chance to send them off to school with a celebration!  They each picked one present to open before heading out the door.

 For Jackson's birthday, we headed to Chili's for a special dinner as a family.  Afterwards, grandma and grandpa came over for presents and cake.  Jackson picked molten lava cakes and they were delicious.

 

Lola played with friends all afternoon on her birthday. . . and then requested chili and a bake potato from Wendy's for her birthday dinner.  Easy enough!  She wanted a Sam's Club cake, but first made sure it wouldn't hurt my feelings that she didn't want something homemade.  So cute!

One of Lola's favorite presents was her new gymnastics leotard.  She put it on right away and her and her dad choreographed the cutest routine.  I love this video so much. . . and am so grateful for such a hands on dad that's not too good for a little "walking it out!"

 The next night we celebrated both their birthdays by taking friends to dinner at McDonalds and then to the movie theater to see "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs Two."  Their friends are all so cute and well behaved - we had such a fun night celebrating!

Birthday week always leaves me just a bit exhausted, but it's so fun to celebrate with these two.  I'm so grateful for both of them - they are turning into such great little people and I'm so proud of them!

BaCK tO SchOOl

 Miss Lo...headed off to 1st Grade

spunky, confident, outgoing and fun, she makes friends easily.

loves to read and learn.

so very excited for all day school and lunch!

 

 Miles man...headed to 3rd grade

gives me a little bit of a run for my money when it comes to school, but is super excited to start 3rd grade.  he has the greatest teacher ever.

cheerful in the mornings, helps me get everyone on the bus on time.

happy, fun to be around, smart, definitely a leader. . . hopefully for good!

 Jackson. . . headed to 5th grade. . . the oldest in the school!

my smart, happy, easy going kid that I never have to worry about.

all his friends are in the other class, but he's not stressing about it.

sleepy in the mornings, he barely makes it out the door when the bus comes.

 

 

and just like that. . . they're off!

Back to School Dinner.. . 2013

Annual Back to School Dinner...

2013 Version

Theme:  Kindness Begins with Me

 

Personalized bulletin boards for the kiddos

Blowing out candles and making wishes for the best school year!

Love these 4 little people.  
*past back to school dinners here and here

Some of the crAZinEsS that is May

 May is the craziest month.  With school winding down and all the other fun things going on, it keeps us running all month long.  But we love it and have had so much fun!  Here's what we've been up to:

 Lola's Ballet Recital...

so cute to watch our little dancer.  She loves to dance and is so graceful and has so much more coordination and rhythm than her mother.  It was a crazy, busy night with the boys piano recital the same time, so we didn't get cute pics before/after and these were taken from so far away.   But she did awesome and we loved every minute of her cute performance!

Jackson and Miles piano recital...

these boys of mine have worked so hard this year and I am so impressed with what good little piano players they have become.  I wish I could say that it's been all happy, pleasant practicing all year, but we have had our fair share of complaining, whining, and feeling sorry for ourselves.  BUT...they were so excited to perform and both did such a great job on their songs. 

 Jackson's River Heights Mile. . . 

to practice for the Wellsville Mile, they hold a River Heights mile.  Cute Jacks was a nervous wreck the whole morning.  He is my responsible, hard working, perfectionist kid and expects so much of himself.  He did such a great job and got 5th place out of all the boys in his grade.  So awesome!

 

 Jackson's Wellsville Mile. . .

this is such a fun tradition in the South end of our valley.  It's such a big deal and the kids prepare for it for months leading up to it.  All the elementary schools from this whole end of Cache Valley come.  Jacks was so nervous but it was such a fun day and such a great atmosphere with all those hundreds and hundreds of excited kids.  Jackson took 32nd place out of about 400 4th grade boys.  We were so proud of him!

Miles' Soccer Season. . . 

this boy fell in love with soccer this year.  He worked so hard and was such a good little player.  He always scored several goals in the games and was such a great hustler.  I was so proud of how far he came! 

Lola's Soccer Season. . . 

Lo had lots of fun playing soccer this spring too.  She works really hard and runs really fast trying to get that ball.  Plus, she's so dang cute out there!

Miles Second Grade Race. . .

Miles had his 2nd grade race today.  He is such my happy go lucky, no stress kid and wasn't even worried about it for one second.  It was so much fun to watch him and I was so proud of how he did.  He took 6th place in his heat and got a medal.  So fun!

And this cute little squirt has been a trouper being carted around to all these fun events.  She loves playing outside while her siblings do their thing.  She has it pretty good too.

whew.  that was major picture overload.