Leaves Are Falling All Around

One of the most famous pastimes of Fall would be to jump in a big pile of leaves. I remember doing this when I was really little when we lived in a house with a backyard full of leafy maple trees. Fortunately, we have quite a few leafy trees in our backyard too. Last night Samantha really wanted to jump in a pile of leaves, so Jer made that possible. He went out and raked some up and the kids had a great time throwing them in the air and sitting in them. What fun!

After we played outside for a while we headed in and carved our pumpkins that have been waiting on our front porch. Samantha wanted a princess one and Jeremy made a bat one for us. Parker just enjoyed writing on his with a pen and stabbing it with a little carving tool. Whatever makes him happy! Samantha got bored with it, so I carved our bat pumpkin and Jeremy worked on her Cinderella one. The kids ended up watching a Halloween movie while we slaved over these dang pumpkins. It remember it used to be fun, but now it's kinda a hassle. Oh well. The tradition must go on!

Getting Dirty

Our kids LOVE to play in the dirt! I don't know what it is about it, but it's been their favorite thing to do all summer and now into the fall. Luckily, we have plenty of dirt in our backyard to last a lifetime. I really hate it, but it keeps them happy and at least they aren't glued to the TV or being bums inside. SO, I let them...The other day was absolutely gorgeous outside. Perfect day to play in the dirt! One of their activities while digging through the dirt is to collects rocks, find bugs, and make mud pies (that's the worst!). Anyways, here's some latest pics of their fun outside in the dirty dirt.

They do take time outs from the dirt to play on our toys.

They play well together, sometimes!

Parker loves to find dandelions and blow on them, even when they aren't the fluffy kind.

Sam, collecting some rocks in her shovel.

Here's Parker's rock collection that he has made on this stump. He comes here every time and adds to it.

Help A Mom Out!

I've got this smart, little four year old who has all of the sudden become some little two year old just starting to potty train (or so it seems)...Samantha had been potty trained since she was 2 years old, but recently she's had times where she "forgets" to go potty on the toilet for days at a time.  This most recent bout of forgetfulness has lasted way too long!  I mean, she knows where to go to use the bathroom.  She knows she's not supposed to go in her pants, but for some reason she does.  She tells me "my brain is telling me to have too much fun and go in my panties."  I told her that she's in charge of her brain and she can tell it to stop telling her that!  You see, her excuse is that she's "just having too much fun."  Yeah, too much fun to STOP and go to the bathroom.  Very frustrating!  We've tried doing the sticker chart, AGAIN.  We've tried treats at the end of the day, if there's no accidents.  We've now decided that instead of rewarding, maybe we need to punish. I know, it sounds harsh, but she already knows the routine.  So, we have taken a few privileges away, and today was better but I worry it's just temporary. Anyway, I was just curious if there's any other moms out there who have dealt with this same situation.  Is there any suggestions?  And ideas?  Help!

Gaming with Dad

Jeremy downloaded a game onto our Wii that he's been playing the past few days. Here's a glimpse of what the future might hold for our children when it comes to video games...You can see, Parker is really excited and happy to have a Wii controller and be with Dad and to "play", while Sam really doesn't give a care and ends up falling asleep. Like Father, like Son.

Family Fun!

Our family REALLY likes Halloween, so we decided to invite the rest of the family over for a fun night of making caramel apples, and spooky haunted gingerbread houses. Thanks to my mother-in-law who already had the houses, Emily and I took charge of the caramel apples. The apples turned out good, except the caramel got too hard too quick, so we had trouble getting our fun toppings to stick! Any ideas out there??? We tried putting cream in the caramel, but then it got too thin. What to do? We were able to keep some goodies on our apples, like sprinkles, nuts, cookie crumbs, choco chips, and we also drizzled chocolate on them. It was really fun! The kids seemed to really like it too. The gingerbread houses were fun too, but very time consuming. Luckily, I have an artistic husband that kinda took over. Ours turned out good, but Jeremy got bored with it and stopped being as creative as he could've been. Jake and Emily's turned out really good. Better than ours! They went all out! Well, thanks family for a fun night. Maybe we'll try it again next year!

I had my camera on a weird setting on accident, so not many pictures turned out...rats!

Jubilee Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year! Pumpkins are in season and ready to pick and we were ready! Today we went to a great pumpkin patch not too far from us to get a pumpkin. The weather was gorgeous today, with the sun shining and cool Fall air. It was perfect pumpkin picking weather. We went with Jake, Emily, Taylee, and Rohne. The kids LOVE to be together (as well as us adults), so it was a lot of fun. It was really busy, so we got our pumpkins and got out pretty quickly. We did get to enjoy a bumpy hayride to the patch. Parker was totally in awe as we made our way on the hayride and kept it up for a while even afterwards. He finally let loose and became himself again after a few minutes while choosing the perfect pumpkin. We got some pretty cute pictures of everyone, mainly the kids. A pumpkin patch seems to be the perfect background for Fall pictures. Here's some of the fun we had!

This was the first picture I took of the kids after the hayride. Parker isn't in the pumpkin picking spirit yet. He's still amazed at that ride we just had. Can you tell?

He's starting to loosen up now!

Sam and Tay being goofy for the camera.

The girls checking everything out.

We tried to get a pose out of the troop, but wasn't too successful...

Parker loves to point and be amazed at everything around him. What a silly kid.

Samantha thinks she has to be with Taylee at all times. Most of the time she insists on holding her hand, but in this case she holds her arm to keep from falling off the hay during our hayride.

Parker and Dad. What handsome guys I have!

Preschool

The whole preschool buzz has been going around for months now. I haven't really been too into it, being that Samantha still has 2 years before kindergarten. I've always thought 1 year of preschool, at least for her, was sufficient and we'd start next year. Well, my sister-in-law and friend were both thinking of doing a little "at home" preschool with their girls, so I decided to join in and see what would come of it. We've decided on 2 days a week, rotating the teaching around between the three of us. We're actually only doing 1 day a week right now, but only until the middle of next month when all our sports classes for the girls are over. Anyway, things have been going great! The girls really seem to get excited and love to go to preschool. I taught my first time on Friday and things turned out really well. We focused on the letter "C" by practicing writing it, talking about it's sounds, talking about words that start with it, playing a game (which I incorporated counting in), doing a couple crafts ( making crowns, and a big cotton ball letter "C") reading a couple books, singing a crocodile song, making cookies, eating the cookies and some cheese and crackers... we had a lot of fun! I'm so happy that I'm able to have some good friends to do this with. Our girls are having fun together and learning at the same time. Maybe next year we'll do the so called "real" preschool, but for now this is way cheaper and seems to be just as beneficial and fun!

Taylee, Sydney, and Samantha decorating their crowns with jewels and sparkly stuff. What a girl thing!

Spooky Wreaths

The other night, we finally had a time when we didn't have anything to do! It was amazing! We almost always have something going on, whether it's Jer, Me, or the whole family. Anyway, Jeremy came up with a brilliant idea, which he took full charge of. He decided we should do a craft. He thought something Halloweenie would be appropriate. We ended up making Halloween wreaths with ghosts, leaves, bats, and pumpkins on it. Jeremy took the time to cut out each one, after drawing out and designing them. What a job! Then Sam and I assembled the ghosts and pumpkins with eyes and mouths, then pasted them on our paper wreaths, which Jer cut out also. What a good dad. We made one for Samantha and one for Parker. Parker wanted nothing to do with this project. He was too interested in his tootsie pop and a Barbie movie. What a little man...

Awaiting the project by eating a sucker

Jeremy drawing out the bats. I kinda interrupted him!

The finished projects!

Halloween

Just to get everyone in the mood this year!

 

Photo Tagged

I noticed a little while ago that I got tagged by my friend, Michelle. I'm getting right to it since I tend to put them off and then forget and never do it.

The Rules: Go to your 4th photo file and post the 4th picture.



Here's what I got. This is from 2005 when we were living in University Village in Rexburg, Idaho. I loved UV apartments! They were kinda small, but brand new and nice. I also loved the ward! Lots of fun memories there and we made some really good friends. It was great!

So, here's Sam about 10 months old snuggling with Grandma Klein. I remember they had come to visit for the 4th of July. You see Jer and his guitar and me in the background. Aaah, the memories...

Now tag 4 people : Stephanie, Wendy, Katie K., & Allison

Our Big Boy

Parker is growing up so fast! He's going to be 18 months the end of this month, but thinks he's 4 like his big sister. He wants to do EVERYTHING she does. This is the most recent big boy thing he likes to do - stand at the sink to brush his teeth. Normally, I have to tackle him and hold him down to brush them. I'm kinda glad he wants to do this because at least now I don't have such a fight. He still doesn't love me to brush them, but it's a little easier. He'd rather just do it himself, which consists of just sucking on the toothbrush and an occasional swipe on the teeth. I guess that's better than nothing. The past few days he's been getting the stool out and standing there wining until I give the toothbrush EVERY TIME WE GO IN THE BATHROOM! It's getting kinda old. I guess he really likes to brush his teeth (or just play in the water)!

Sam's Halloween Birthday Party!

We had a crazy, but fun friday night this past weekend. Samantha wrapped up her 4th birthday with her Halloween party I had mentioned earlier. We had a really cool witch cake, that my mother-in-law made. It was a little tricky to make, but with a little help of frosting, it turned out great! I made the cupcakes with a little help from her too. There was a big turn out of kids and parents. Luckily, I had moms and dads that stayed and helped. I don't know if I could've done it myself! We had 16 kids (that included siblings of the kids who were invited) and lots of adults. All the kids dressed up in there costumes, which was really fun. We made tootsie pop ghosts and foamie Halloween bracelets. We also played a bean bag toss game into a blow up pumpkin and "pin the nose on the pumpkin" game. We ate pizza, had cupcakes and cake, and opened presents. The kids all seemed to have fun. I tried to make it as organized as possible. I guess you could say it was somewhat organized craziness! After an hour and a half of birthday fun, the kids decided to raid Sam's bedroom. It was fine. I was just pleased that everyone was happy and not fighting and crying about whatever. Overall, it was a success, but I am glad it's over! Until next year...

A Relaxing Afternoon

I just wanted to give a shout out to my awesome husband! I came home last week to a beautiful rose and a little note from him. It told me that I was going to InSpa! He had made me an appointment for a 75 min. facial, a pedicure, and a manicure. He just told me I deserved a break and that he appreciates me. I'm so thankful for him and all the things he does for me and our family. I'm so lucky to have a husband that notices all I do in our family, and cares enough to do something nice for me every once in a while. He's always been good at showing his appreciation and love. Thanks honey! It was an amazing, relaxing 3 hours!