Happy Thanksgiving

Emma with her feathers on.

Nothing says Thanksgiving like some football at the park. Andrew's knees took the brunt of the tackling. Thankfully he washed up okay :)

We had 14 pies. They were all so good, I wish I could have had a piece of each! Although I didn't mind taking our leftovers back home :)

Eli was a good sport when the little guys kept tackling him.

Eli didn't want to play football with the big kids, so he climbed trees instead.

Eli loved Kari's feathers best of all. He wore them almost the whole day!

Andrew goofing off with the turkey drumstick. Eli's face is hilarious!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We spent the day at Papa's house with Jeremy's family. The food was great and it was nice to see everyone and spend time together. We were really looking forward to having a long weekend to relax. We enjoyed getting out our Christmas tree, decorating and hanging lights. I was so glad Jeremy was home this year to do it. The last few years he's been working so much, I did the outside lights. I do not enjoy it! He can put them up about 10 times faster than I can. For family night last week we made a list of things we are thankful for. I am grateful that my children can see so many of the Lord's blessings in our life. They came up with a very creative list! I am thankful we have such a wonderful family and have been blessed with so much time together this past weekend.

Blustery Day

I think fall is finally here! I'm glad that it will feel cool for Thanksgiving. There just seems to be something wrong about having a Thanksgiving where it's 80 degrees. Sunday we had a little bit of rain and a lot of wind. The kids were brave enough to bundle up and head out there to play. They were trying to fly off the trampoline, into the air. Luckily they did not succeed :)

We are grateful for the fall weather. It feels so nice to be cold for a change. I wasn't sure it would ever actually cool off. Soccer has finally come to an end. It was a long, but fun season. I am looking forward to having a break. Driving to Wickenburg that many times a week was beginning to do me in! We are going to have some very leisurely Saturdays the next few weeks.

Andrew's Baptism

Wow, this month is full of wonderful things! After a morning of soccer, we headed to the church for Andrew's baptism. He has really been looking forward to it and was so excited. It was nice to spend time with family and friends as we shared this special time with Andrew. We are so proud of him and his decision to be baptized. We know his Heavenly Father is pleased with the choices he has made. He is such a happy go lucky boy. We love him and are grateful to have him in our family.

Birthday Girl

Emma requested a pink cake of course!

Emma with her new pink scooter.

She requested Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday dinner.

She loved ski ball. It took her about 10 minutes to finish one game. She was so determined to get that ball up the ramp!

Emma with her presents. Most courtesy of Grandma :)

Emma's birthday topped off our long weekend of celebrations! I can hardly believe that my little baby girl is now three and not so much of a baby anymore. We are so grateful to have this little girl in our lives! Although Jeremy says he still isn't sure what to do with a girl :) I think he's doing a good job, because she adores her dad. She will drop whatever she's doing when he gets home and run to him.

Emma is definitely the little princess of the family. She loves anything pink. She loves dresses, skirts and bracelets. Don't get me wrong though, her brothers have toughened her up. She's out playing in the dirt, throwing rocks, killing "bad guys", playing with swords, and throwing footballs...all while in her pink dresses.

I am amazed at the difference between boys and girls. I have loved being home with her while the boys are in school. We get to spend lots of time "cooking" and playing with her dolls. We have so much fun!

Emma is the only one of our kids that has really loved singing. She sings all the time. I love listening to her, it always makes me smile.

Boo!

I wanted to do something different to decorate our van this year for the trunk or treat. This was what I came up with. It's kind of spooky. I feel like this is the personality of our van. It's payback for all the driving and the goldfish ground into the seat cracks :)

Emma the pink fairy princess.

Eli chose to be a bat skeleton this year. I have no idea where that came from. He was determined to be nothing else, so we created his costume. It turned out pretty good and he loved it. I love the creative thinking!

Andrew the ninja. Just don't tell him I got those killer black leggings in the girl section!

Ethan the mummy. This was a tricky one to make, but it was fun. A few hot glue gun blisters on us both, but he was so happy how it turned out!

Oh Jeremy, what can I say? He makes me laugh! His last minute costume. I wish I had gotten a picture of his long socks and old Converse. It completed the picture!

Just in case someone thought he dressed like this normally :)

The whole gang.

Here is our "spooky" dinner :)

Pumpkin guts! It takes years for my kids to be brave enough to actually scoop them out!

The finished pumpkins!

Halloween was fun this year. Since it fell on a Sunday, we did not go trick or treating. We did go to the ward Trunk or Treat Saturday night. We had a great time. The kids got to visit with their friends and have dinner. It was a good turnout and we had a great time. All of the boys chose their own costumes this year to make. It was fun to make and I loved their original ideas. Emma of course chose to be a pink princess. She was of course a cutie pie :) I love having a little girl to dress in pink!

Friday after school we carved pumpkins and Friday night we had a spooky dinner, while we watched the great pumpkin. We had bloody worms, egg eyeballs, severed fingers and pumpkin hamburgers. The kids got a kick out of the "creepy" food. It was a fun night!

Happy Birthday Andrew

A Nintendo DSi from Grandma? No way! He can't believe his eyes...

Andrew with his silly card from Dad.

He loved his cake!

Football is a huge at our house right now. The boys love the Cardinals and anything to do with football. So, I made this jersey cake. It turned out okay. I'm just glad Andrew loved it!

Happy happy birthday Andrew dear! I can't believe he is 8 already! Andrew is such a great kid. He has always been a happy go lucky boy. He is always the first one up in the morning. Bright and early and happy as can be. He is doing amazing in school. He is in the gifted program and is also going to 3rd grade math because he does 2nd grade work like it's the easiest thing ever. He loves school and loves learning. He is always excited to come home and tell me the newest thing he has learned. I am so grateful he has such an enthusiasm for learning!

He is also really big into sports right now. He loves football and basketball. He loves playing soccer and is doing really well this year. He plays kickball after school twice a week too. He is very determined to get better and improve himself. He will come home from school and shoot baskets for hours until he gets it just right. I see a lot of his Dad come out in his personality. He gets frustrated when he cant' do things perfectly. He is determined to be the best.

Andrew is a great example to our family. He is always thinking of others and showing his love to us. I am excited to see how much he has changed and grown over the past year. He is ready for his baptism next week and really looking forward to it. He's so excited to start cub scouts. He is so eager for this next stage of his life. I'm proud of his accomplishments and can't wait to see what the next year holds in store for him.

Eli Strikes Again

Well, it's been almost a year since Eli had his last major head injury. Although I must admit it feels like it was yesterday! He finally went to school without crying on Thursday. He was excited to play and was actually smiling when I left. I felt so relieved not to leave a crying child at school. About 1:30 I get a call from school saying that Eli fell off the slide and had a bump on his head. The nurse was out, so it was just the office lady. She told me he was still crying, so I had better come pick him up.

I was just expecting a goose egg on his head. Not all these scrapes and cuts! Poor guy. His eye brows were covered in sand and he looked a mess. He told me he was running to go down the slide because they had blown the whistle. He tripped and flew right over the edge. He told me he wasn't going to ever run full speed towards a slide again. He was complaining of his arm hurting. When I asked him if he put his arms out to catch him he looked at me like I was a bit crazy and said "No, I caught myself with my face!".

I'm grateful he hit the sand and not something hard. He seems okay and is in good spirits. Let's hope his poor face doesn't get more beat up. I think Traci said it best when she told him "Chick's dig scars!"