October fun

Father Daughter Campout

All Ava's fun friends...

Ava looks forward to this every year!

Fall Break

We went swimming...it was still way too hot for me in October, but the kids loved that they could swim.... (this is Lucy and Brec.....they have so much fun together)

Lillie, Ava, and Abbie

Zoo

The zoo had special feeding times for the animals and they gave them pumpkins. The monkeys destroyed theirs!

Pumpkin patch!

Train ride......so much fun!

milking a fake cow...

Cole having way too much fun!

They had this big blow up thing that the kids could jump on....so fun...

This place sure beats the place we usually go to every year. Thank goodness for groupon to introduce us to new places! Happy Fall!

P.S. Halloween post is next!

Brec's program and Ava's 7th birthday!

Brecon had his first program at Discovery Club. They learned everything about space and now he knows all his planets and more.....he now is obsessed about space and loves it......I know what we are getting him for Christmas!

Ava turned 7!!! What?

I told Ava she could invite two friends to take to the movies this year since we did a big party last year. One of her besties was sick and couldn't make it so we were able to bring another of her favorite friends (along with her cousin....hence no time to make another purple shirt). I made the girls matching shirts to wear...

Ava picked Dolphin Tale in 3D. Afterwards, the girls went down by the screen and did there own little dance party and were leaping across the floor.

Pre jump.....

Jump!!

We hit the park afterwards to meet up with the fam for cake.

All three of my favorites!

Happy birthday to my beautiful 7 year old! She is one happy, energetic, helpful, smart, social, and silly 7 year old!

18 months

This little man is 18 months! Yes, I now have freedom at church and can actually listen to the lessons! Here are his stats:

Weight: 21 lbs 12oz (now back on the charts at 3%)

Height: 33 1/4 inches (75%)

We have been to the GI doc to check out why he is so underweight and he recommended an endoscopy, which I was against....I didn't want to have him go under anesthesia again and get poked and prodded. And, the only reason why they were going to do an endoscopy was to check for "allergy cells". If he were to have allergy cells they would have sent me to an allergist which would have been a ton of tests which always turn out false positive anyways. I figured I would just wait and see if he gets more symptoms of supposed allergies to something. I think right now he is just an extremely picky eater. Seriously, any food I give to him he usually dumps it on the floor....which is extremely frustrating. The above pic of him is him eating mac and cheese noodles which I made original mac and cheese for the other two kids, which Cole doesn't like, so I opted to put spaghetti sauce on the noodles in hopes he will eat it!! Turns out he just likes to play with it and put it EVERYWHERE! No fun for me!! We are still working on the eating issues, but right now he has pediasure three times a day to try to keep his calories up!

Some things about Cole right now:

He loves watching Super Why! He likes Elmo, but will walk away from it.....Super Why....never. Also we will find him all the time in Brec's room watching Blue's Clues on his little TV. He even puts in the tape and turns on the show himself. He could sit in front of that for hours too. He is talking a lot too. He says bubble, happy, momma, dada, aya (ava), was that (what's that)....all the time to everything!! He also says, apple, baba, uh oh, ooww, sanks (thanks), pease (please), sisss (cheese), tssis (teeth...when he wants to brush his teeth), ello (hello), eyes (while pointing to his ears...), eieio, duck (stuck).....he gets stuck a lot, wow, hot, hat, weee, pee pee, poo poo, baby and probably a few others I missed.

He is super adorable and fun and loves to pretend sing and dance and is such a happy little guy. Whenever we go somewhere and get out of the car he always says dada thinking we are meeting up with him. Super cute....and whenever he comes home he runs to him saying dada, dada and has to be held by him. Cole is super independent and does not like his hand held. He likes to be free and will purposely run away from us. He is also super fast and always has been. He was a fast crawler and an even faster walker/runner. It scares me because half the time he is going faster than his legs can carry him, but he usually seems to handle the speed. I think that is where all his calories are going! Anyways, I can't kiss this kid enough and love all the funny faces he pulls. He has such a funny personality and are glad we have him!

Soccer season has begun...

Ava after a tiring hot game!!

Go White Storm!! They do a lot of running!!

This is Brec's first year of soccer....

Bless his heart, he has no clue what he is doing, but he sure loves playing and running on the field. I think next year we will do football as he his a little aggressive! :)

Labor Day fun!

We had to get out of the heat once again and headed up to Payson, Arizona. We went to our usual spot at the park and played on the hill. We then met up with friends at their cabin and played by the river and just enjoyed being in cooler weather!

I really need to get a good camera because there were so many opportunities for great pics with the light filtering through the trees....so beautiful!

So Briant had the clever idea to try to make boats to float down the river. He was totally trying to pull out his scouting skills...I think he was just as excited as the kids....

Boats are launched!

They crashed into rocks a didn't move, but the idea was pretty much there!

Had to grab a family pic....

Ummm....I will explain.....

Briant was finding vines to use as rope and decided to tie them around his head and then tried sticking tree branches in them for camouflage around the face. Eric of course thought it was a great idea as well and joined in.....It was seriously hilarious because they tried hiding behind trees to scare the kids, but they weren't very scared....

We had so much fun and someday I would like to get a cabin in this very spot. It is super close, beautiful, and has a fun river to play in! What a great getaway even if it was only for a day!

How we manage the heat!

First lets say happy anniversary to us! 9 years and counting to eternity....

We have had a lot of good times and can't believe we almost have a 7 year old! Time seriously does fly when you have kids.

I have been crafty lately and have been inspired by Pinterest. Loving it. Addicted to it. Wanting to constantly do crafts and project......

I made a Roman Shade for way cheap!! It was super easy and we really needed something for our bathroom window.....ya know, to keep the sun and heat out!

I like how the sun slightly filters through during the day but also gives good shade....

I had to add these little bath pic of the boys....Cole loves his big brother and kept laying on his tummy and smiling up at him....glad I captured it.

Arizona Science Center

They had a lot of fun and interesting stuff at the science center....the kids loved it and we definitely need to go back.....

Cole enjoyed it too. They had a really cool show that told you about all the elements and natural disasters that happen with heat lamps beaming on you when a volcano was erupting and wind blowing on you when there was a tornado, etc....

Love these kiddos.....

Payson, Arizona

Randomly playing with photoshop on the above pic......

Peek a boo!!! (seriously the only way I could get a decent pic of the kid...he is a busy boy...)

The kids had so much fun going down this big hill!

They were going so fast! Brecon kept looking behind him a few times and I thought he was for sure going to roll and flip....

It started to rain shortly after these pics which was perfect! It was so much cooler in Payson and we really needed a picnic and park day since being in 115 degree weather doesn't really let us enjoy parks this time of year!