School Photo

Here is Isaac's school picture for kindergarten.  I think he looks handsome, but I am a little biased...

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Isaac decided to be a dragon/dinasour.  I made the tail and the hat, and put the spikes along the back of his shirt.  He liked how it turned out, so I consider it a success. 

 This was his parade at school.  Of course he forgot his tail in his classroom. 

 Emily wanted to be a princess of course.  So we found the dress, crown and wand.  I didn't really make any of it.  But at least I put it together for under $10. 

 I also put her hair in rag the night before, and this is how it turned out.  It was really cute and she loved it.  All day she kept tossing it around and saying, "My hair is curly!"  Another success.

 Jared was a penguin.  This is the same costume that Isaac wore on his second Halloween.  (Though Isaac was too tall for it, and his feet stuck out the bottom.)  But Jared was the cutest penguin you ever did see!  At least in my own, completely unbiased opinion. 

 For dinner that night we had jack-o-lantern pizza.

 And then Dad took the kids trick or treating around our nieghborhood while I staid at home to pass out candy.  It was a perfect night too, really warm weather.  Emily didn't even wear a coat and she was fine. 

It was a good Halloween, and now of course the kids have a ton of candy.  Emily would eat it all in one day if I let her.  Isaac would forget he had it, and will probably still have some come next summer.  It's so funny to see the difference between the two of them.  At least it gives me a stash of candy to eat as well.  They are more than willing to share with my luckily.  :)

Pumpkins

This year, all of our pumpkins came from our very own garden!  The kids had a blast doing pumpkins.  Isaac did most of the cleaning out by himself.  Dad helped him carve it out. 

 

 Emily decided she wanted to paint her pumpkin again this year.  Though when she saw Isaac having so much fun, she was sad she painted it.  (For like 5 min)

Jared just chilled in his highchair, enjoying life.

This was a gift from the Garners.  We ran out of orange pumpkins though, so we had to use a green one that was still trying to grow.  We got a lot of comments on this pumpkin though.  Everyone thought it was pretty cool. 

The kids had a great time doing pumpkins this year. 

Isaac goes to kindergarten

Isaac is officially in school as of the end of August.  This was picking him up from his first day of school.  Note the sweaty head- it was very hot at recess.  But Isaac is loving school.  He has made lots of friends in his class, he is picking up on tons of things, his reading is taking off, and he loves his teacher.  He is growing up so fast. 

Random cute pictures

These are just a bunch of random cute pictures I have of the kids.

Apparently we are Rednecks

Disclaimer: That title is not meant to offend anyone...

 

Our fence was in poor shape when we bought the house, and this little section fell down a while ago.  Our neighbors did a temporary fix, but the problem was that they 4x4 snapped at the bottom, so it needed some serious attention.  And of course the day Brandon finally could get around to it, it was raining.  So Brandon and Brittany's husband Nathan (who was a huge help) rigged what they called a redneck solution.  Note the scrap wood, the shovel, and something, I'm guessing an old mop pole, used to prop up the tarp.  But it got the job done and the new fence looks great.  You can definitely tell the difference just because the new wood is so much nicer.  But it doesn't fall over in a windstorm! 

For all who are dying to know what they had to do, they had to chisel out the old cement that the old post was in, then pour new concrete around the new post and then put up the new slats.  Luckily a guy in our ward let them borrow a hammer drill, which made the whole chiseling process very much faster.  And who doesn't love playing with large, powerful tools?  (For all wondering, I don't.)  But they sure appreciated it.  Kudos to my handy husband and brother-in-law.

(The kids loved the makeshift tent)

Isaac's Birthday

For Isaac's birthday this year he got to have a friend party.  We invited all his friends from his church class.  We only had three kids come because of different things, but Isaac had a ton of fun and so did his friends.  I made a car cake, which turned out so-so.  The frosting was melting, and my cake fell apart when I took it out of the pan.  But it looked good from one side, and Isaac liked it, so that was all that mattered.  (see the glasses on the other side holding it up...)  We played some games and they jumped out back and they ate cake and ice cream.  Plus, Isaac loved having a party with his friends.  So overall it was a success. 

 

Jared smiles

When my mom was here, she was playing peek-a-boo with Jared and he was laughing like crazy.

 

Hiking

We went hiking a while ago, and I am finally posting about it.  It was a nice easy hike, with water falls (little one) at the end where the kids could play.  They did really well and had a blast.  Chip also did really well.  We even let him off his leash at the water because there wasn't really anyone around and he did great.  He left the few people that were there alone, he listened really well, and he just behaved himself.  So we all had a great time. 

P.S. The hike was Grotto Falls in the Nebo loop.

Trip to Oregon

Okay, finally here are some pictures.  Though pretty much only of our trip to the beach.  We were able to camp at the beach for a night while we were there and the kids loved it.  Since we've been home they keep asking if we can go back to the beach. 

 Breakfast in the morning. 

 setting up the tent...

 Jared and I watching...

Bundling down for the night...

 Being a ham...

 At the beach... (It was very cold and windy, but the kids were in heaven.)

 Their sand castle...

 Flying a kite...

 At Devils Punch Bowl...

 We were also able to spend some time with Grandparents and again, the kids were in heaven.  I only got pictures of our time at the Garners.  I am so bad at taking pictures!

 Isaac got Operation Mater style from the Garners and he loves it.  He has already worn out the batteries to it.

 And Emily loved to color with the pencils.

 It was really nice to be able to go down during the summer time and just have time to relax and hang out.  We did go to Brandon's reunion and that was good.  Not the highlight of our trip, but it was still fun.  He got to see a few people that he caught up with and got reacquainted with.  It was a great excuse to make the trip.