Thankful.

I am so thankful for all of the many blessings in my life. We have been very blessed with beautiful children, healthy bodies, a warm place to live, heat, food, and clean water. There is always something to be thankful for no matter how drab life can get, and for that I am thankful.Gary

My handy dandy fixer-upper repair man. He is pretty amazing this guy. He hung our Christmas lights on our house after coming home from work and in the dark. Our T.V broke and he ordered a part and fixed it right up!

He got a new job in August which I forgot to mention. He works for the National Weather Service now and he loves it. He works with the Radars and he gets to be in the great outdoors. He brought home this weather balloon one day for the kids to play with. They think he's a pretty cool Dad. So do I.
Me
I have been loving being a stay at home mom. I love to be able to volunteer in Ryker's class at school, take care of my young ones at home, keep our house clean, and cook dinners. I really like trying out new recipes. The only thing I dont love is Laundry that is a battle I can never seem to win. I get it washed and dryed. Then the folding part comes and I put it off until there is a permanent mountain in Gary and I's room. Ah well what can ya do?
One hobby I have picked up lately is Zumba! I love zumba, I have been going about twice a week in the evenings. It's an amazing workout and so much fun!

Jonah
How could you not wanna squeeze these little cheekies?! This big baby is turning one soon. I can't believe my Christmas baby is already going to be one. Time flies when your having fun I guess. He brings plenty of fun wherever he goes. He loves to explore the nooks and crannys of our house, he loves following around his sister & brother, and playing ball. He says Mama, Dada, and HI. He likes chasing ripley around the house, and he prefers to feed himself these days. Such a big Boy!

I guess you could say he is getting too big for his bouncy! Whenever I put him in it he manages to flip over and crawl with it on his back. Gary and I call him our little turtle.
He loves eating peaches. I am giving this boy lots more baths now that he is feeding himself!

This is my brother Dallen. Doesn't he look like a caucasian Bob Marley? Jonah was loving the Guitar strumming by his uncle Dally.

Violet

My little lady knows how to hold her own when it comes to wrastlin' with her brother! She loves playing with her brother, eating cereal, being super snuggly, horses, puppies, and french fry days with her Mom. Every time I ask her how old she is going to be on her Birthday she tells me "eighteen". I don't know where she got that from!

I can never keep her hair done anymore so I just leave it down most the time and everytime I comb her hair she sings that song from tangled " flower gleam and glow let your power shine"..so cute.

The Weather Balloon above.

We got invited to do a Joyschool and she has been loving it! She gets to play with kids, learn about letters, and read stories every Wednesday. Here are some pictures of the last couple of times at our house.

Ryker

Here is Ryker being Santa. He dresses like this every year without fail. He stuffs his belly, puts on boots, and wears our Santa hat on his head. He also makes a paper beard and then pretends he is Santa asking everyone what they want for Christmas. Violet loved it! She is pretty terrified of the other Santa's out there so Ryker's little gettup will have to do. He's such a funny guy!

The weather balloon pretty much made his day! Gary had a Christmas work party for the Air National Guard. He took Ryker to the inside of the Radar he works with. Ryker thought that was probably the coolest thing ever! He told Gary he wants to be a Radar man like him when he grows up.

Wrestling! We put Rykes in wrestling, he had a pretty good time and pinned a couple kids. He also got pinned pretty good too, but he was a good sport about it! He even wrestled a 2nd grader in a unitard. It gave Gary and I some pretty good laughs!

I love how serious these boys faces are!

Funny kids.

Halloween

This is Halloween! We had dinner and went trick or treating with our good buds the Ostranders! They dressed up as the Wolf Dawgs it was awesome. We also recieved a very special visit from a witch (Jami's mom) that came all the way from Wyoming to bring the kiddos some treats. She played an awesome witch. The kids had no idea who she was!

Ryker the skeleton with buds Bridger and Foster. This was the spookiest house on the block it had fog machines, a hurse, and all of our favorite nightmare before christmas characters on their front yard. Yes and that is a coffin complete with a severed body behind the kids. I love when people go all out like that it's awesome!
Our little trick or treaters! Foster the transformer, Violet the pink horse, Bridger Darth Vader, and Rykes the Skelly!

Their bags got pretty full! We weren't messin around this year. This trick or treating stuff was serious business!

Vi and Ryker

I was so delighted Violet wanted to wear her costume on Halloween night! We had about 3 other times we dressed up before Halloween and i couldn't get her to wear it. She was the prettiest pink horse I've ever seen!

Ryker was four different things: for our trunk or treat with the neighborhood he was Jack sparrow (borrowed from a friend). For his school carnival he was a swamp monster that we already had. We had a family Halloween party, and for that he was a frankenstein that we made up from make-up, hair spray, and old clothes. Then finally he was the blue skeleton for Halloween! My little theatrical man!

Halloween Night we had Jack-o-lantern pizza for dinner!

Our carved our pumpkins!

I wish I got more pictures of the family party but I video taped most of it! Gary and I decorated our basement with blacklights and spiderwebs. We had spooky music, glowsticks, and awesome food brought by family. There were apples shaped like bats in the salad (heather), and purple chocolate chip cookies (harm & Finnley), Soups, and some awesome witches brew with dry ice in the cauldron!

Grandma Jen dressed up like a gypsy, papa shane was a cowboy, Aunt Jill and Uncle Brad had some awesome costumes! They were puss in boots and Humpty dumpty. My Grandma and Grampa even dressed up! Uncle Ty and Aunt Annie were the batman clan. Everyone looked amazing!

Trunk or treat! Our ward had a Trunk or treat in the parking lot it was awesome! People go all out decorating their trunks. There was even a Dj set up. It was pretty fun for the kids. Cousin Crue came with us he was a cute little clowny!

Vi was ariel and I was catwoman

Jonah Bugs was the cutest little skeleton! His favorite thing about halloween was the pumpkin carving he loved smooshing his hands in all of those pumpkin guts!

Ryker as Jack Sparrow with a sweet handlebar mustache!

Gary as Batman! For our party he was an old man. I was a slacker with pictures this year.

Papa Todd and Grandma Fran at the Trunk or treat!

We had lots of fun dressing up, spending time with family and friends, and getting lots of candy! I personally dug the snickers bars out of my kids candy bags and ate them all!

Fall splendor!

I am in love with fall.

I love the color. I love the cooler temperature.

Did I mention I love the color?

Here are some of my favorite pictures of this fall.....

Vi vi and I had a girls day out to the Black Island farms.

I look forward to many more girls day outings with my little lady!

Vi loved the cow.
This was a warm sunny fall day in our backyard. Our tree was starting to shed it's red-orange leaves and the kids were discovering the wonderful joy of playing in a big pile of leaves! Ahh to be a kid again.....

The mountains are my favorite place to be in the fall time.

This is where we get to admire all of the beautiful leaves
and my kids get to run around and be in the great outdoors!

We went a little early in the year looking for some fall color.

We didn't see any but I managed to snap this cute picture of Ryker!

Just look at that face. He's so cute!

One of my favorites. Nothing beats pumpkin pickin' with the family!

Jonah discovered his love for Wagons...so cute!

The brothers.

Vi with good buds Bridger and Foster at the Black Islands patch.

Fall is the best! It's a time of comfort and family and being warm inside while soft white snowflakes start to fall outside of your window bringing with it the Holidays!