Leaves and Trees and cousins

My parents have a couple really big trees in their yard, perfect for jumping in! The kids were having a leave fight while Grandpa was trying to get them cleaned up, lets just say it didn't happen! He was so good to let them play. Pictured is Grace and Max, my nieces Maggie, Libby and Adi and nephew Tytan.












And sweet Emery- who for some reason didn't get to come out and play. We sure missed Nayvie who was having fun at a friends house!

Preschool Parade

The kids had a preschool Halloween parade last week, just the first of many times they got to wear their costumes. It was such a nice day, but so bright outside!




The little Trick-or-Treaters. On a funny note, the kids didn't have any homework because they were having a Halloween party at school, you would have thought it broke Grace's heart. She loves to do homework!

Publish Post

Carving pumpkins

On the Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins, does anyone else think this is a stressful activity? Max's white shirt is ruined...stained orange pumpkin forever. Seeds ended up everywhere, despite my attempt at keeping them on the cookie sheet- I had the tools the day before and then when we went to carve I couldn't find them so while Mike cleaned out the guts Grace and I ran to Wal-mart to buy new pumpkin carving tools. The kids had fun though, and that's all that matters.

Yes, Max always ends up almost naked.The first pumpkin is the grim reaper and the second is a cat. Not too shabby, considering.

Black Island Farms

Some days are just rough. I was grumpy, Grace was grumpy and Max was grumpy. Mike took off early and we went to Black Island Farms - I had to get out of the house! We had really enjoyable evening!

This picture was me telling Max to look at the camera, he still wasn't looking at the camera, but I love the face!

The straw maze-

They have several slides that the kids can climb up on hay bales an slide down thick sheets of plastic, my kids must have slid down 100 times-And I couldn't decide which pictures I liked best.

I love Max's face in the above picture - pure joy!

They had a farm yard rock band set up, of course the kids had to play.

They also had a little train for the kids-

The Halloween Bounce house- no we don't know any one in these pictures, but at one point Grace came out of the bounce house just to say she really liked it and was having fun. Made my heart happy. Also, the guy in the black hoodie worked at the farm, they all had shirts that said CORN COP, which I thought was clever.

After the tractor ride, which I failed to get any pictures of, we went back to the slides. The black slide was a grain shoot, at first Max wouldn't go down. Grace came down, and then several other kids came down and I kept shouting for Max to come down but he wouldn't. Then I heard a lady talking to him and then she said okay and came down. She had a baby strapped to her chest, and Max riding on her lap. It was quite funny. After that I went down with him, but once was enough for me. He wasn't afraid anymore and the kids went down several times by themselves.

I know these are blurry, but at some point in time they decided to start going down together-it was pretty funny.

We love fall, and I'm so glad it warmed up a bit for us to go have some fun!

Mr. Max

A few little Max stories - at 3 1/2 this kid keeps me busy.

I was up at my moms in September, my sister and her kids were up and we were just hanging out. I came inside and Max was watching a movie with my little brother (who is 21) and my nephews Bracken and Tytan. The girls were out back catching grasshoppers and I went into the back bedroom that is set up as an office with my mom and sister. I'm guessing I'd been in there between 10-15 minutes, my mom and sister left the room and I sat down at the computer. Not two seconds later I felt the strongest prompting of my life. "GO FIND MAX NOW!" I went into the living room and Max wasn't there. No one had seen or heard him leave. I hadn't heard the doors open but I knew he'd gone outside. I went outback to see if he was with the girls, but none of them had seen him.

Now my mom lives next to cow pastures, and barns, and sheds- but I just had a feeling to go out front. At first I was worried he was in the road but as I came out front I saw him in my car. It was about 95 degree's outside that day, I have no idea how hot it was in my car. Max thought he was pretty funny, he was pretending to drive - but when he saw me he knew he was in trouble. He dived in the back seat and hid on the floor. He had also locked all four doors and the keys were still in the car.

I got him to unlock the car door and as I pulled him out he was soaked with sweat, his shirt was soaked, his hair was soaked, his face was bright red. I don't know how much longer he would have been able to unlock the door, but I'm so thankful I listened to the Spirit that day.

After we got him cooled down I had a little nervous breakdown, I think I cried for like 3 hours. He was fine, but all the what ifs just kept running through my head.

Another Max story - when I ask Max to do something he'll either ignore me, or say "Ai Ai Captain." It always makes me smile. This morning I said, "Come here Maxi clown." he said "Otay mommy fly."

Max is still obsessed with Star Wars, he knows all of the characters names and really wants a Lando figure for Christmas. He also wants Luke's light saber - he has a red one but I guess it's not the right color. (Obviously I don't know, I'm sure I'm spelling all of these things wrong too.) At preschool he has a friend that he says his name is Obewan, his real name is Oliver.

He also loves to watch He Man on Netflix. From the other room he puts a smile on my face when I hear "By the Power of Greyskull!"

Max is kind and rough. What I mean by that is he is never purposely mean, but he plays hard and some times there are casualties. I have to remind him all the time to slow down. He is my sweetest child, caring and likes to give hugs. He is curious, mischievous and loving.

1st day of Preschool

First day of preschool pictures -

(That's my Boo Boo kitty I've had since I was born, Grace loves it.)

Grace and Max are going to Mrs. Palmer's preschool 2 days a week. They go Tuesdays and Wednesday's from 10-1230 and just so if I ever have another child I can compare what I paid, it costs $110 per month total. The first day I went with them and it was a short day, they did a craft, met some other kids, read a story and had a snack. Grace did not want me there - she was a big girl, she wasn't afraid and wanted to go by herself. "Preschool is not for moms!"

They have both done really well, they love going, the love picking something for show and tell each week and Grace is obsessed with doing homework. I love the 2 hour's of me time twice a week, I can't believe how much I can get done in that time!

Bear Lake

Well it's been like over a month since we went to Bear Lake, and I'm so behind, and the last two times I've tried I haven't been able to post pictures - but wallah, I can tonight, so even though its 1130 at night, here I am. Bear Lake was pretty low key this year, school had started and the condos were completely empty, I couldn't believe what a difference one week made. The water was as warm as I've ever felt it, and we had a couple really nice days.

Grace really liked the tube, she is so much more brave than last year. she was a total trooper about the initial cold water shock, and just loved being in the water. Next year maybe we'll try some water skies.

Max and I went over the front of the tube, I new it was happening and you can see in the bottom right hand picture the tube is starting to go under. It works much better with either one person or 3 people on it. I can't ski to save my life, but I do love the big tube!

Max loves driving the boat, he was so tired but he just wanted to stay on Grandpa's lap, after a few minutes he fell asleep with his hand still on the wheel.

The one scary thing that happened was when Grace was on the tube with me and Mike's mom. We had been on for several minutes and Grace said her arms were getting tired so I motioned to slow down. Just as I did we got caught in a swell and the tube flipped over. I tried to grab for Grace but couldn't get her, when I came up out of the water I couldn't find her. Ruth came up and still no Grace. I was scared to death. Those were the longest seconds of my life. I'm guessing about 30 seconds past and the tube flipped back over and there was Grace, still hanging on. She had flipped over the front edge but she held on. If she'd just let go she'd have floated to the top, but because she wouldn't let go she was held under the tube. Grace was screaming and I just knew the only way she could still be attached to the tube was if she was caught up in the rope, Mike went to jump in but didn't have a life jacket, his dad stopped him and jumped in after Grace. She wasn't caught in the rope, the little, stubborn girl was just hanging on for dear life.

I was shaking so bad, and she was so pale. Later I found marks under her arm where I tried to grab her and under the other arm where her life jacket cut into her skin, it pulled her so hard that it cut her under arm, and she didn't let go. I have no idea how she did it, but I'm so thankful we had angels on the water with us that day.