Carving Pumpkins

After picking up our pumpkins we came back to our house for dinner of homemade potato soup and rolls. Then the kids each carved their pumpkins.

They turned out pretty good! My job was cleaning out the pumpkin guts so I could cook the seeds. Its a messy job, but someone has to do it!

Alyssa, Andrew and Caitlyn get started on their pumpkins.

Grandma helped Parker with his pumpkin.

Uncle Dan worked with William. Then he ended up carving faces in Cailtyn and Andrews pumpkins. He has the skills!

Carving pumpkins is so much fun to do as a big family event. I am grateful to have so much family around.

Pumpkins

October 8, 2011
Aarons Mom has been in town for the week. We took advantage of this great weather to go the pumpkin patch with the kids. We went to the Red Barn so we could get some of their amazing apple donuts. YUM!

The kids had fun choosing the perfect pumpkin. Our only rule is that you have to be able to carry the pumpkin.

Ice Skating

September 23, 2011
My sister and I took our kids ice skating. Most of the kids had not been before, the rest had only skated 1 or 2 times. We went at the perfect time as there were only about 20 other people on the rink. That is great for beginners.
Here is my crew at the end, plus an extra friend.
Parker only skated for about 30 seconds. He did not like the lack of control. He spend the rest of the time walking from the entrance to the benches to the time out section.

Mariah did great. She got right out and was able to skate.

Caitlyn did not enjoy skating as much as everyone else. She mostly hung by the edge. We got her to use one of the walkers for while so she could out by everyone else. I think she sort of enjoyed herself by the end.

Alyssa is just being silly here. She skates great and had a good time with her cousins and her friend who came with us.

These walkers make skating a lot of fun for kids Andrews age. He had a blast going around and around.

I did pretty well myself. I did not need the edge or any assistance. I got to where I felt confident enough to try some tricks. I could turn in circles fairly well. My sister tried to teach me to skate backwards. This is where I came into some trouble. As I was trying to go backward I did a combination splits and leg turn and fell. On my way down my legs flew above my head and I landed pretty hard on the ice. My toe pick hit my niece on the way down and scratched her up pretty good. I landed on my arm, which started to swell. I was in a lot of pain, but didn't want to scare my niece so I got back out on the ice for another 20 minutes. Then we took the family to dinner. At dinner I was in a lot pain. We ended up going to urgent care. Good news! It was not fractured but the bone was bruised. My arm was a nasty shade of green from my wrist to halfway up my upper arm for over a week. I am still in some pain, but it is healing.

I guess I am too old to learn new tricks!

County Fair August 2011

At Claytons invite we went with the family to the Utah County Fair. I thought Sacramento county fairs were small, but this has it beat. It was small. We walked through the entire thing in about 20 minutes.
Parker enjoyed the taxidermy display and wanted a picture with this guy.
Then each of the kids got to go on one ride. Taitt and Parker went on the motorcycles. Notice the huge crowd! I think most of the kids went on the rides by themselves.

Caitlyn used the last of our tickets to try her hand at rock climbing. She made it to the top without trouble. After she got down she asked me why I made her go since she was afraid of hights. I had no idea she was!

Lagoon

Aarons work rented out Lagoon on Friday for all the employees and their families. This was the best work party ever!
We drove down after work and got there when they opened the doors at 5pm. Mariah and Alyssa had been there before with the junior high, but for the rest of us this was our first time. It was great! There were no lines for the rides!
Aaron stayed with the boys in the kiddie section while I took the girls on the big kid rides. Parkers favorite ride was a roller coaster called puff. Of course, I think he went on everything 3-4 times.

Andrew loved everything! Once he got the hang of the helicopters he loved making it go up and down. He was sad at first that he wasn't quite tall enough for the other rides, but had fun anyway.
The girls and took off and went on every ride! It was a blast. I am so glad my girls love rides. My favorite was Wicked. LOVED it! Before we rejoined the boys for dinner the girls went on Cliffhanger. This ride gets you wet. If you look at how wet they are in the picture that is all from one ride. On our way to eat the boys spotted this fountain. They got soaked. It was nice to let them just enjoy it and not worry about how wet they were.
After dinner we hit more rides. The boys watched us go on the rocket and then they went back to the kiddie rides. While waiting in line for tilt a whirl we watched a girl puke at the end. They had to close the ride to clean it up. It was then I saw the Sky Coaster. I was intrigued! I plan to go sky diving next month so this looked fun. I called Aaron over to join us (since he had my wallet - it was extra for this ride, but since we got in for free and dinner was free I felt it was worth it). Mariah was thrilled to go with me. She is a daredevil like me. I couldn't convince anyone else to go.
This is Mariah and I suited up waiting for our turn. Considering how dark it was Aaron got a couple of great shots. This is us on our 2nd fall. They pull you up and then at the count of 3 I pulled the cord and we free fell 143 feet going speeds up to 80 mph. It was scary and awesome! Mariah was pretty nervous when we were going up. I was glad to be there with her and have this experience. I am so ready to sky dive!

Helen's Birthday

My birthday was a week ago. I forgot to update it so here it is!
My family did great for my birthday. We have started doing presents in the morning before everyone runs off. It has been fun to have all day to enjoy the new things.
We also started taking pictures with each person and their gift. I guess I am not holding the items up high enough because you cannot see them in most of the pictures.

Parker got me some lovely new earings.
Andrew made pipe cleaner people I am wearing teh red shirt and he is wearing the blue shirt. After this he also made one with a green shirt to be Daddy. They are all 3 at work so I can see them every day!

Caitlyn got me a butterfinger! My favorite. Yum!

Alyssa got me a couple more butterfingers. I think my kids know what I like!

Mariah made me poppyseed muffins (or puffy seed as Parker calls them). I got a dozen just
for me to take to work. The best gift from her came after work. I got home to a sparkling clean and organized kitchen. She worked ALL day cleaning the counters and fridge. She also organized all but the spice cupboards. I am putting in my wish now for the same gift for next year. Mariah rocks at the cleaning and organizing!

Aaron got me North and South (the civil war version not Jane Austin). I loved watching this movie every summer. I can't wait until I have enough time to watch it again. He also cooked me a yummy dinner of steak, asparagus and baked potatoes and a yummy blizzard ice cream cake for dessert.

Thanks family!

First Day of School

August 22, 1011
Summer is over and school is back in session. I have enjoyed having my kids home this summer so this was bittersweet. I know they love school, but as they get older they are more helpful and we can do more activities as a family.

Here are all the kids ready to go. I had to change my first day of school pics as the older girls are in a carpool and got dropped off at the school today. I offered to take them and get pictures. They thought about it but were ok with me just them at house first. Alyssa made sure to pose in front of the carpool van.
Mariah is in her new outfit complete with her first pair of skinny jeans. She is in 9th grade and is a little bummed that here that is at the junior high. All her California friends are in high school. She has 3 honors classes plus she is one of 19 kids that are taking Spanish 2 this year. She loves all of her teachers and classes.

Alyssa is ready for 8th grade. The first outfit she put on she spilt milk on so she had to change. Alyssa got moved up to advanced band is glad to have lunch with her 2 best friends.

Andrew is in 2nd grade and is in class with a few kids from the neighborhood. He likes his 2nd grade teacher. He told me this evening that all of the other kids have decided he is a popular kid now because he wears cool clothes. I guess I did ok when I picked out his new outfit!
Caitlyn is in 5th grade. Luckily she has class with her best friend again. She came with us to school and even posed for a few pictures. We love her friend. They are so good for each other. Caitlyn is counting the days until choir starts in a few weeks.

Parker doesn't start school until next year, but he was not about to be left out of school pictures. He even picked out his outfit last night when we were getting everyone else ready. Today he got to go to a friends house where he will be babysat Monday-Wednesdays. He got to go the park, play and draw. This was the note from the sitter: "So today the kids were doing markers on a big white board and Parker was drawing a BIG circle with a circle in the middle and saying 'thats Amber, she has a baby inside her!' then he added the face, hair, arms, and hands. He seemed to know all about Amber and the anatomy of pregnancy :) It was cute!"

Aunt Amber was just here last week visiting. She is 8 months along with baby #5. I guess Parker was paying attention!