Carving Pumpkins

Last night for Family Home Evening we carved our pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. The girls even helped clean the inside of their pumpkins out. That was a first. There were a lot of gross and sick comments, but they survived. Here are the finished products.

The girls spent a lot of time arguing over this giant pumpkin, so in the end we gave it to all three boys to share.

The girls thought it would be fun to put some of their Sunday shoes on the boys and dance with them. The boys thought this was super fun and were dancing and having a good time. The only one who didn't like it was their dad. Oh well, get used to it Matt. I'm sure there will be many more of these girly moments to come.

Brock, Collin & Aiden

Karate Video

The movie I was going to upload for my previous post is being stubborn. I will try to get it on some other way.

I love Fall!!

Fall this year has been incredible. The weather has been so nice and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it lasts for a couple of more weeks. I was thinking yesterday how nice it would be to not have to wear a winter coat Trick-or-Treating.

Paige is playing fall soccer. Matt had asked her if she wanted to do this and she was hesitant at first, but now that she is actually playing and learning the ropes, she is really enjoying it. It might help a little that Matt is her coach. She has a couple of more games left and then hopefully she will have liked it so much that she will want to play again next summer.

Kayla, Aiden, Brock and Collin watching Paige play soccer.

Kayla has been loving Kindergarten. She loves learning and it is just the right length of time for her. A half a day is ideal for any 5 year old. After school she comes home, eats lunch and then plays outside all afternoon with the neighbors. I don't know who loves this more, me or Kayla. I think I am going to die when it is cold and snowy and I have to entertain her all afternoon. We will have to get creative and come up with some entertainment.

The boys are such characters. Last weekend we watched "The Karate Kid" for movie night. Afterwards, Matt decided that he needed to show the boys how to do karate. It was quite humorous and thought I would share the humor with you. They just continue to grow and change all the time. Some days it is really hard to think that they started out so little and are now in the 90th percentile for their age. Amazing.

Harvest Break

Last Friday was the 1st day for Harvest Break for the girls. We headed down to Logan to stay with my sister for the night. She had kindly agreed to watch all of our kids while Matt and I went to the BYU vs. Utah State game. We wore our BYU shirts and my sister, who is an Aggies fan, decided to dress our boys in Aggies t-shirts she bought for them. It was pretty cute. We had a fun time, although Utah State beat BYU.

Aiden, Collin and Brock sporting their Aggie shirts.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Willard Bay. Matt's brother called and they were going water skiing. Matt was so excited. He had waited all summer for a chance to go, and here it was the 1st of October, 90 degrees, and we were boating. We took all the kids, and Brock and Collin absolutely hated it. I think they cried 75% of the time. Aiden on the other hand just sat and enjoyed the ride.

Aiden, me, Collin and Paige

Paige, Brock and Kayla

After water skiing we headed to Bountiful to stay and Matt's mom and dad's. We had a fun weekend and the kids were glad because they got to play with several of their cousins.

Sunday after we got home, the kids were running around the kitchen having races and we had a casulty. Collin ran right into the counter. At first I thought he might need stitches, but after a few minutes we decided to let it go. His eye was all puffy and sad looking, but it is looking pretty good now.

Collin showing off his owie.

Brock, Aiden, and Collin

Luckily the weather has been cooperating so the kids have been able to spend time playing outside. We have all enjoyed that. I'm sure our days are few, so we will take advantage of what we have left.

Luckily we only have a few more days left until Monday. Hopefully we will all survive.

Family Pictures

We got new family pictures taken last weekend and I am so pleased with how they turned out. It is really hard to get a good picture with so many little 2 year olds, so I was just happy that they were all looking at the camera. Here are a few and then check out the sidebar for the individuals of the kids.

Weekend Wrapup

What a fun weekend we had. On Friday the girls had a Boot Camp Field Day at school. I was able to go over and watch them for awhile in the morning, and then I took the boys and we had a picnic at the school with the girls. It was a lot of fun and the girls had a fun time.

Also on Friday we got new family pictures taken. They turned out really good if I do say so myself and I will post some of those as soon as I get them back. Then we had our weekly Friday movie night. It was a busy but fun day.

Saturday we got up and ready and headed out for Yellowstone. It was a gorgeous day and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. The kids were great and we were able to see buffalo, elk, deer, antelope and chipmunks. We had a picnic with some really annoying birds that just waited for the kids to drop food and then they would fly under the table and snatch it up. The girls finally got freaked out enough that they finished eating in the car. Aiden loved the birds, and Collin kept saying "no" every time they came near.

We saw lots of hot pots, the Upper Falls and Lewis Falls. The scenery was breathtaking. The leaves were changing and I can't remember a time when I have seen such beautiful colors. We drove home through Jackson Hole and ate at our favorite restaurant, Bubba's. It was a long day, but worth every minute.

I am glad we finally found the time to take the kids. We talked about going all summer and we finally made it. The only disappointment was that we didn't go see the up and down thing, as Kayla would call it. (aka Old Faithful) We promised her that it would be number 1 on the list next year.

Canning

The last 4 days were consumed of canning. I kind of dread this time of year, when it is time to can, but the end result is so worth it. I got 5 boxes of peaches, 2 1/2 boxes of pears and 5 dozen ears of corn. The end result, 35 bags of freezer corn; 35 pints, 7 quarts and 31 freezer bags of peaches; 34 pints of pears; and 35 quarts and 8 pints of fruit cocktail. Lots of work, but oh so good. The kids logged several hours of t.v. time during canning, but they sure didn't seem to mind.

On Sunday we met my parents out at the cemetary. It was fun for the kids to see all the gravesites of great grandparents and other relatives.

The sun was so bright when we were standing there and we got this really cool shot of our shadows.

I thought this was a cute picture of the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Ricks.

Life keeps moving along. I can't believe it is almost October. The last week and half have been gorgeous here. We are looking forward to taking the kids to Yellowstone National Park on Saturday. It should be a fun day and we will post pictures of our adventures when we return.