Pumpkin Patch

My mom and I took the kids to the Pahrump Pumpkin Patch and had a great time! We left Danny with Daisy at home (she didn't nap that day and she usually just wants to be held at these type of things). When we first arrived we had a little scare, we lost Walt! He had been running with Max and Van to get to the pumpkin patch and never made it there. After looking for a good 5 minutes I decided to head back to the car to look for him and poor Walt was lost at the baseball fields crying for his daddy. After that though, we had a great time!
























The kids went on the turtle train a couple of times, climbed on the haystack, went through the "hunted maze" a few times, Hanna and Walt took a pony ride (while Max and Van went through the hunted maze a few more times), Hanna got her face painted (which she always wants to do, but rarely gets to) and we went on a hayride together. We had a lot of fun!






















This family picture was taken at an awesome activity our Stake put on. It was a huge Stake Carnival, they had dinner, music, pop corn, cotton candy, games, prizes, the big bouncy slide, family pictures... (all for free)! It was awesome, I just forgot my camera that night.

Camping in Lovell Canyon

We have been promising Max a camping trip and with soccer it's been so hard to plan a time to go. There was no school Friday so we left Thursday after school and drove up to Level Canyon (which is thankfully really close to us) for a short camping trip.

We also wanted to do some of Max's scout requirements. Here he is building and starting a fire with Danny. He also helped me set-up the tent (which we mostly did all on our own).

Danny's excited for his dutch oven dinner! Which was yummy! And Danny also made a yummy dutch oven breakfast. Good food while camping is a must!

We stayed near the fire most of the time, because it was cold.



The kids always love climbing trees! They also enjoyed a morning hike and collecting gun shells.





Sleeping could have gone much better though. It was cold! I had planned to bring a couple more blankets and forgot. Daisy cried every 2 hours for her "pink blankie" that she happened to keep misplacing. And I had to get up and pee every 2 hours, which is never fun camping! The first time I asked Danny what time it was it was only 10:30, I thought the night was never going to end! At one point Daisy would not stop screaming so we put her outside the tent for a time out and Van and Walt started crying for her. Van was all nice saying, "Daisy want to lay here?" We only put her outside for a few seconds, but Danny and I thought it was cute how Van and Walt cared for their sister. We had a lot of fun as a family!

Danny's 33rd Birthday

For Danny's Birthday (on October 17th) we cooked tin foil dinners around our little homemade fire pit.

We had peach cobbler and ice cream for desert.

And enjoyed being together as a family. Happy Birthday Danny, we love you!

Worker Walt

Walt is a hard worker and enjoys every bit of it! This is a skill that he has been born with (which will hopefully stick). When ever possible he wants to be the one to vacuum and he really does a good job! He's quite obsessive as well, when I say, "You're all done." He points out all that still needs to be vacuumed up. When ever we need something done we call on Walt and he's always happy to do the job!

Soccer Time

This year we have all three "big" kids in soccer and I'm coaching Hanna's team again.
Max looks so big here. He actually is one of the younger ones on his team, but he was still the tallest so of course he had to get the biggest jersey, which I hate how big it is.

Me and Hanna ready for the game! It's been fun to coach Hanna and her team.

This is Van's first year and he is also one of the youngest, but of course you wouldn't guess that.

Max has been playing goaly a lot this year.

Good game Thunder Bolts!

Good game Pink Coyotes!

Coach Jen

Silly Van

Good game Sea Monsters!

Great Gandma Mike

Great Grandma Mike came to visit! She stayed for a week and a half and this time we kept her in mine and Danny's room and kept her off the stairs. It was fun having her here. Daisy, Walt and Grandma Mike loved taking naps together.

Sadly, I didn't take more pictures while she was here and she left while Max and Hanna were at school so I only got pictures with her and the younger three. We sure are going to miss her, but now that she's in St. George maybe we'll see her more often.

Walt loves to pet Grandma Susan's dogs, mainly Diamond. I think he uses them in replace of his blankie.

After I took a picture of Walt with Diamond of course Daisy needed a picture with her too.

Daisy and Walt

Walt is officially weaned from his blankie. He lost it for a couple of days then he found it, so then sadly I had to hide it from him. I couldn't let him have it back because he had already past the hard part, but he did just fine. Walt loved holding his "gangkie" on his head, sometimes it sat like a turban on top. I'm keeping it in his memory box, now we need to figure out how to get rid of the thumb.

Daisy is not yet ready to part with her blankie or should I say that I'm not ready to deal with her for those first few days or weeks without it.

Daisy is in the Princess dress-up stage. As soon as she wakes up she puts on her dress and her dress-up shoes of course!


Daisy loves Walt playing dress-up with her, thank goodness he only has a desire to wear the shoes I have not yet seen him in the dress. Notice the shoes?

Daisy has become quite the boss of what she wants Walt to do when they play together. One day they had their dress-up on and Daisy was telling Walt where to go and he was following all her directions. A little while later he was done playing and he took off his dress-up shoes, which Daisy was not happy with. She began to chase him with the shoes and was screaming at him to put them on, he tried hiding from her but she quickly found him behind the couch; poor guy.

Another story about "Bossy Daisy"...While playing with dolls the other day (notice it's all Daisy's choice in toys) Daisy said to Walt, "In 2 minutes you say 'your welcome' and I say 'thank you' okay Walt?" Walt said, "Okay...Your Welcome" Daisy yelled back at him, "No, in 2 minutes"!

It is so much fun to watch them interact with each other and I look forward to watching their friendship grow. We love you Daisy and Walt!

"Family Night"

Our family went to the Fair last Thursday night, without Max. He gets so stubborn and he decided he didn't want to do his homework, so he stayed home instead. We locked up the computer and the t.v. so he just had to "hangout" on his own while we were gone. It was such a hard night for me though, I wanted this to be a fun family night together, but I knew that I had to stick to the consequence. After getting home I tried to get him to do his homework one last time and then he would be able to watch t.v. before bed, but he still wouldn't do it, he said "I can do it during 'Fun Friday' since I already lost it". I was so embarrassed to send him to school the next day without his homework done. What is even harder, is when I feel like it doesn't bother him to miss out on these fun family activities. It's not like that was the first time he has chosen not to go with us because he didn't want to do something he needed to get done. I am just hoping this is just a stage that will pass soon!

My camera ran out of batteries, but I got a picture of Van on the airplane.

Heartaches

On Friday Max came home sad from school. He has really done well so far this year and has been enjoying school for the most part. His favorite activity is Fun Friday, which is free time in the classroom. The class can play on the computer, write on the chalk board, play at the teacher's desk... I was happy to hear about Fun Friday because Max has test anxiety and always hates going to school on Friday's because of his spelling test. Well, Friday he came home and told me that he had to put his head down for the whole 45 minutes of Fun Friday. I tried to understand why he didn't get to participate and from what he believes is he didn't do well on his Science worksheet. I find it very hard to believe knowing that the reward is based on behavior, but the more questions I asked like do you think maybe it was because you weren't listening... just made him more upset. I will be writing a note to the teacher to understand why he wasn't able to participate, but I still don't feel that any 8 year old should have to leave their head down for 45 minutes. I know it's important to have incentives, but maybe it should be sitting quietly at their desk and doing worksheets or something. Just thinking of him with his head down for 45 minutes made my heartache. Not a big deal, but I still felt my heartache for Hanna yesterday. There is a girl from soccer that Hanna has met and has really enjoyed. Hanna feels they're friends and she wants me to play them on the field together and wants her to come play over... Well on Saturday this girl started to pass out Birthday invitations. There was only the 3 girls there so far so she passed one out to the other girl and Hanna said, "What's that?" You could tell what it was so I said, "Do you have one for everyone?" And she said, "No just for..." which was about 3 or 4 girls from soccer (that she has known for sometime). I told her if she doesn't have one for everyone on the team she can't pass them out at soccer. Inside my heart ached for Hanna, but I know these type of things are going to happen to my children throughout their life (which I hate to think about) and so I don't want them to dwell on it and feel sad and down about these type of situations, so I made it appear as no big deal hoping that it won't be for Hanna. Which, it might not be a big deal to her (I'm hoping) because she hasn't brought it up since, so it's probably just me. These two situations made me realize the next steps of motherhood and the heartaches to come. (I don't want to even think about further down the road of more serious ones).

Boy Scout

Max became a Boy Scout back in May, but most of the summer was off besides Day Camp. He was excited to receive his first awards last week. He received his Bobcat Badge, his fishing, BBshooting, swimming, and archery belt loops. I love that he enjoys scouts and I hope this sticks with him for a while! I am the Webelo leader and won't have Max in my class for 2 more years, maybe by then I'll have things down. Keep up the good work Max!

10 Years

Today is our 10 year Anniversary! I am surprised to say that even after 10 years I love Danny more than I did on our wedding day. Just to note, I loved him a ton that day!

16 Weeks

I am 16 weeks pregnant today with baby Clark. I see the Dr. in two weeks to find out how the subcronic hematoma is doing. I have been feeling just fine.

Here is my new hair cut! I cut my hair 8 years ago while pregnant with Max and I said I will never cut my hair pregnant again. I guess we should never say never. Danny was actually the one that was pressuring me to do it. I still am trying to learn how to do it as cute as my hair dresser who is also my friend, Mariane.

First Day of School 2011

Max is in the Third grade this year and Hanna is starting First. We are at a new school and the kids take the bus. Hope they have a fantastic year!

Max trying not to smile!

Hope their friendship will always be stong.

Lining up.

Walking home from the school bus stop.

Cookies and milk after school.

First day of Pre-K for Van and Preschool for Daisy and Walt.
I am so lucky to be their teacher!