Thanksgiving

We drove to Utah for Thanksgiving this year and spent the holiday at Daron's parents'.  We drove down the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and what should have been a 5.5 hour trip turned into 10.5 hours.  We knew a storm was coming in the afternoon so left early hoping to beat it.  We would have made it except the roads from Boise were awful even though we had only had an inch of snow.  They hadn't been plowed and were icy so it took us four hours to travel what usually takes two.  We then came to a section of road, right after we merged onto I-15, and the freeway was closed.  They had closed it an hour before we got there.  So we had to get back on I-84 and go through Pocatello.  Between Pocatello and Tremonton we hit the storm and it was a blizzard.  Everything was white and Daron and I were both leaning forward trying to peer out the front windshield and figure out where the road was.  We were going about 15 mph and it was scary!  We made it to Grandma's house safe and sound, but saw about 30 cars and trucks off the road on our way.  Of course, this was the trip the DVD player decided not to work so we didn't have any movies for the kids to watch.  I have to say though, they were amazing.  They got along so well and played games and were real troopers.  Coming back, another storm was supposed to hit on Sunday, the day we had planned to drive, so we left Saturday instead.  I'm glad we did because the roads were fine and on Sunday they ended up closing part of I-15 again.

We had a great time in Utah. Here are some pictures from our trip.  This is Ian and his cousin doing dishes.

Some of the kids eating Thanksgiving dinner.

The kids with Grandma and Grandpa

Gabe and the Lego ship he built.  The kids spent hours playing Legos with their cousins.

We took TRAX downtown to see the Christmas lights.

Here we are at Temple Square.

We also saw the movie Tangled which was so well done!  Best Disney movie I've seen in a long time.  We did have some disappointment when both Boise State and BYU lost their football games by a field goal, but other than that it was a fun trip!

My Little Man

My little man is growing up, but he will always be my baby. Here he is all ready for church today.

We had family game night Friday night and the kids picked Apples to Apples, one of their favorite games.  Ian isn't old enough to play so we got out Battleship for him to amuse himself with.  He loves plugging the colored pegs into the holes.  After a while we gave him some cards and he started throwing his cards in the pile to see which one would get picked, even though he had no idea what the words meant.  In this picture we told him he had won!

Here he is after he stamped his entire body.  I cropped the picture for modesty's sake, but he was butt naked and had stamped everywhere!

The Fiddler

Gabe is becoming quite the fiddler.  He had his first big hoedown at the Nampa Civic Center and played to a full house at 2:00 and 7:30 on Saturday.  He was in the youngest group and played four songs that he has been working very hard on - Boil the Cabbage, Skip to my Lou, Crawdad Song, and the Chicken Dance.  He loved performing and did a great job.  When he gets more advanced he'll move from the Little Hoedowners group to the Junior Jammers.  The Junior Jammers were invited a few years ago to perform at President Bush's inauguration.

Luke Turns 10!

Well, it's official...Luke is in double digits! It's hard to believe he is getting so old - and tall.

 Here he is blowing out the candles on his Coca-Cola cake.  It was so rich and moist and chocolaty!

Here are some things I love about Luke:

 - He is such a good older brother.  Ian and Gabe love to wrestle, jump on the trampoline, build Legos, and play football with Luke.

 - He gives the best hugs!

 - He has the cutest smile and a cute laugh.  When he gets laughing he can't stop.

 - He is a hard worker.  He has probably bagged 20 big black garbage bags of leaves so far this fall.

 - I love to see him and Maryn spend time together.  They get along so well and truly are the best of friends.

 - I love that he is so persistent.  There is NOTHING Luke can't do once he sets his mind to it.

 - He is good about getting his school work done.  He takes the initiative to get his homework done and turned in, and made the homework club last quarter because he had no missed assignments.

 - He has a fun sense of humor and loves to joke around.

 - He and Daron have started mountain biking a lot together.  There is nothing Luke can't climb and he has the energy of the Energizer Bunny, often passing us when we go as a family and doubling back again and again.

 - He is very driven.  He wants to win and be the best at things.

 - He is still such a snuggler and a mommy's boy.





Trunker Treat

 Here are some pictures of the kids dressed up for Halloween.  Our ward does a Trunker Treat every year so we dressed up and went over to the church for dinner and Trunker Treating Friday night.  It only took Ian two car trunks to figure out what was going on and then there was no stopping him.  Maryn and her friend put a huge black garbage sack over the entire trunk of our van with two holes in it the size of a fist.  One had a sign over it that said MYSTERY and the other had a sign that said TREAT.  If they put their hand in the hole that said mystery they got their hand pulled or sprayed with water, etc.  It was a big hit and kids kept coming to the car again and again to stick their hands in the MYSTERY hole.

I'm Done!

My baby is potty trained!  I am finished with diapers and wipes forever!  I am so proud of my little guy!  He has been pretty close for a while, but even though he could go potty on the toilet when he felt like it, he was pretty sporadic; the motivation just wasn't there.  So I'd try for a day or two and then go back to diapers because I don't have the time or the inclination to ask him every 30 minutes if he has to go potty, and I'd rather change a diaper than clean pee out of my carpet.  Then my sister came up last week with her daughter, who is Ian's age and potty trained, and her 5 month old baby.  We talked a lot with Ian about how babies wear diapers but big kids wear underwear.  He is very into being a big kid and if I ever slip and call him my baby he'll correct me and say, "NO!  I'm big!"  But he couldn't argue with what he saw - the baby was wearing diapers and the big kids weren't.  Well, as soon as she left he put on his underwear and hasn't had a single accident.  That was a week ago.  He goes to school in underwear, runs errands with mom in underwear, and went to church today.  We are diaper free! 

Strep

Poor Gabe has had a swollen lymph node the past couple of weeks, which isn't unusual when a child is fighting an infection.  But when it wasn't getting any smaller we took him to the doctor and it turns out he had a strep infection.  Here is a picture of Gabe (after the Halloween party - thus the face paint) with his swollen lymph node.

October break

I love October.  I love the change in weather and the leaves turning colors.  It is still warm, but the mornings are cooler and it feels so good to be outside.  My kids get almost three weeks off in October and it's the perfect time of year to be out of school!  This year we went up to McCall for a week.  We did a beautiful hike to a place called Blue Lake.  We went mountain biking a couple of different times on some absolutely gorgeous trails.  I'm so mad I forgot my camera!  I thought it was in my purse, but I hadn't taken it out of my backpack from when I went on my trip to Texas.  Anyway, here is an image I found off the Internet:

It was fascinating how different the trails looked depending on what part of the mountain you were on.  Parts went through all pine trees that let in slivers of light, some went over wooden bridges that bridged trickling creeks.  Some parts were quite rocky while other parts climbed or dropped very quickly.

My bike has a bike seat on the front where Ian rides and he loved it!  On parts, he would get out and run and I was surprised at how far he could go before he wanted to get in the bike seat again.

We went to Gold Forks Hot Springs one day.  These are five different pools made from hot water coming out of the ground.  The pools are different temperatures depending on how much cold water is added to each one.



This last week of break, my sister Adriene and her kids came up to visit.  It was so good to see them and have them here!  Here Adriene is reading to Ian and Delylah.

The kids had fun doing crafts

One day we had a Halloween party.  Maryn painted their faces and we decorated sugar cookies.

Making ghosts out of succors

Decorating sugar cookies



 Taking a picture outside

Pumpkin Patch

Ian's preschool class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch, and since my kids were on their October break we all went along. 

On the wagon ride around the fields



The kids each picked out a small pumpkin to take home.

They had fun playing on the tires

And in the hay bale maze



And in the kernels of corn



It was a beautiful October day and the kids had a great time together.