Welcome to our World

 Here's our most liked picture ever on Facebook.  Even beat out the pictures of us announcing a child was born.  The force is strong with the Star Wars fandom!  We had a great time at the ward party, our neighbor's party, and trick or treating.  I do have to include the below picture as well.  M only agreed to be Princess Leia for the ward party if she could be Doc McStuffins for trick or treating and at school.  I was willing to make that deal to have everyone have the same theme for one night!  Since she is afternoon kindergarten, her class missed the all school parade in the gym but got to parade into individual classrooms in the school instead.  I thought it was great because I didn't get good pictures in the gym because it was so crowded.  The best part was when we entered D's classroom and he gave her a big hug as she came near his desk.  My Irish twins are so sweet together.  K, D, and M have informed me I have to sig...

We wanted to take the camping trailer out one more time before husband had to winterize it, so we camped at Lake Granby when we had a 4 day weekend in October. Guess what we learned?  That it's a great thing we brought our own water because they had already turned if off at the campsite and that if you go camping in October, you pretty much have the entire campground to yourself.  The weather was nice enough to play around and in the lake and was a little chilly for roasting marshmallows, but the taste of those s'mores are totally worth it.  And being reminded of songs I hadn't sung for years while I was at my Girl Scout leader training helped me teach "I Love the Mountains" to my kids.  (If that's what's it's really called.)  We also learned the hard way to make sure you have plenty of propane left in your tank when you go camping in the mountains in the fall.  In the middle of the night the propane tank ran out of gas.  Although the forecast was a...

Girl Scouts can take over your life, but I'm not going to let it, don't worry.  I signed M up for Girl Scouts because I thought she needed it and would really like it.  As I filled out the online form I had a feeling I would be needed as one of the troop leaders.  Sure enough, I was asked to be the co-leader of M's troop.  The first Saturday in October M went Boo Bowling with her daddy on a date.  The next Saturday I was in leader training from 8:30am to 3:30pm.  Then two weeks later M and I spent a weekend in CO Springs so she could attend a GS Safety Fair and have a weekend away with mommy.  (We are going to try to give all the children weekends away with mom or dad every other year from here on out.)  Needless to say, only having to worry about 2 troop meetings and one field trip in November looked like a piece of cake after all that.  It is great, though, to remind us to give one-on-one time to our children.  With activities for M...

  Playing by the pond after swim class play dates that contain lots of smiles  Celebrating N's half birthday with Frozen themed cupcakes Grandma made planting tulip and daffodil bulbs for next spring  awesome K swimming with a pumpkin  M helping N at their dance class  K giving D a piggy back ride when he complained he was too tired to walk home from school  corn maze at the pumpkin patch! face paint and free carving pumpkins at the neighborhood fall festival Scooping the gooey ickiness out of the pumpkins in prep for being carved and refusing to pose for a picture in their Halloween outfits.  Yes, this is what my life really looks like on a daily basis.  lol.

It has been a looong time since we've been to Elitch's, so when we heard Hubby's work was renting it out for the night we were pretty excited.  This was D, M, and N's first visit and they loved it.  We stayed until N was literally crying she was so tired.  I couldn't believe my 8-year-old and 6-year-old braved the Boomerang coaster and Brain Drain with their daddy.  I was more than happy to go on the littler rides with my younger children.  Tea cups are more my speed when it's past bedtime.  lol.  Our last trip to Denver for the month was for the Rockies fireworks game the children have been looking forward to all summer.   We love being able to go on the field and sit on a blanket with an amazing fireworks show to watch after a year's best plays video.  We had a harder time getting there than usual.  Friday we got a flat tire on the mini van and N and I spent almost all afternoon in the tire store lobby.  There was a nail by ...

 All 4 of the children began a new round of swim lessons this fall.  K and N continue were they learned but D and M decided to give the local rec center a try instead.  (They haven't taken lessons for a while.)  D would rather play than learn but M absolutely loves her lessons.  She feels like they are much more fun and less work than where she started.  We also really lucked out because there was only one other student in her class and he didn't come half the time.  So during the month of September M had 4 lessons with one other student and 4 private lessons for a grand total of $32.  I guess the rec center caught on that isn't a great way to make money & they canceled the class for October.  We signed her up for November and are crossing our fingers they get the 3 students they need to start up again.  As for N, she loves being with her friends for another semester and K is rocking learning new skills preparing her for the butte...

What fun it is to have a three day weekend!  On Friday Hubby got to take our youngest to a make-up swimming lesson since there would not be classes on Monday.  This was his first time getting to see her in her Fun Day 2-year-old class.  K and M had a class too -- dance class, as usual, in the afternoon.  On Saturday we worked hard to get everything done we needed to in the morning so we could watch the BYU season opener on tv.  Boy, what a game!  What a sweet victory to beat Nebraska on their home turf after our starting quarterback was injured.  And in the last few seconds of the game with a hail mary pass by a backup true freshman quarterback.  It's so fun to be proud of your alma mater, especially when the neighbor boy is over and talking Nebraska trash.   (:  (What was even more amazing is that another hail mary pass won the next game for BYU as well.) On Sunday we had a great dinner that included my parents, my cousin Jessica an...