Pics galore...

I am short on time so lots of pics will make up for a lack of words. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Jake asked a question I couldn't answer today. He looked at the speedometer in the van and asked what the highest number was. I said 160 mph. He said, "Wow, this car can go that fast!" I told him I didn't think the car could actually go that fast, and even if it could we could never drive it that fast because it's illegal. He asked, "Well then why do they put the numbers so high?" Seriously, right? Why do they? Like I am going to drive 160 mph down the road in my MINIVAN!? Yeah, I bought that car for speed...

A few of you have been asking to see pics of the house. It will come slowly, in installments (because I can't seem to keep it all clean with the kids running around). Here are pics of the office (to the left when you enter) and the dining room (to the right--a completely superfluous room but it came with the house so what are you gonna do?--actually we have used it several times already...)
Joey's new favorite place to play? In the innards of my paper shredder garbage. Ugh. One more thing I have to keep up on top of the desk (along with the garbage).
Last week Eric was playing football with Ty and all the neighborhood kids came to join. It was so cute to see Eric making plays with the kids. The kids all had so much fun. I've got the coolest hubby!

Even though there are only a few kids shown there were about 8 kids here...playing football in our tiny yard!

On Monday we met some friends at the Red Barn. It is a little south of our house and they have a pumpkin patch and stuff.
We all got to take a hayride down to the pumpkin patch.


We let the kids each pick out a pumpkin. It turned out to be way colder than we were prepared for. We better get used to winter quick...it's coming!
Here are most of the kids. They had a little kid-sized "corn maze." It was really made out of that wood behind them, but they loved it. Plus it was easy enough for them do to alone, I've been stuck in a corn maze once--they can be impossible to get out of! Of course I didn't call 911 like a lady did in Utah the other day!
By the end of the night it was FREEZING and poor Joey was wrapped up in Ty's jacket (I guess I should say poor Ty...) I love Joey's face here. He's thinking, "Why in the world am I out late in the pitch black and freezing cold? You do remember I am a baby, don't you?!?!?!"
The hayride back to the barn from the pumpkin patch.

Inside the barn they have the world's best ice cream...literally. Lots of treats and HUGE pumpkins. Look at the size of that thing.
It was a fun night with friends, pumpkins, treats and hayrides. How could we go wrong? Definitely a yearly tradition for us...starting now.

So sweet...

Here is a conversation between me and Jacob yesterday...

Me: How are you liking school?

Jacob: I like it, but sometimes I feel sad when I go to school.

Me: Why do you feel sad?

Jacob: Because sometimes I want to stay home.

Me: Why do you want to stay home? You said you liked school.

Jacob: I like school, but I like you better.

What a cutie.

Catch Up

Okay, it's time to play catch up. I usually don't wait so long between posts but I guess I've dropped the ball here. Really our lives have been made up of school, football and soccer. We did take a break to hike Stewart Falls. Me and Tyler and Jake went with Jessica and Cory and their girls and Grandma Sharee on this fun hike. The boys loved it and thought they were very "outdoorsy". It was a good hike and the falls were cool. The kids had a blast playing in the water to cool off.Joey's been keeping us busy too. His favorite spot of destruction is this kitchen cabinet...
He always heads straight for it and pulls everything out that he can. You think I'd learn and stop putting stuff in it, but I haven't yet. I figure it is something safe for him to play in. Kids are going to get into something and if he's satisfied with this instead of chemicals and dishes (he already broke one of my nice Corningware dishes) then so be it.

He did have a birthday on September 18th. My baby is ONE! I can't believe it. We had family over for a BBQ and had lots of treats. He was fascinated by the candle on the cake and kept trying to grab it. Me and Uncle Cory were on the ball so no burns.
He loved to look at the cake but, wouldn't you know, he wouldn't put a bite of it in his mouth. Just like his brother Jake. He was a little leery of the presents...
But maybe that was just because he was accosted by all the kids. Poor little guy!
Last weekend we decided on the spur of the moment to borrow Craig's boat and go fishing. The kids had fun, but there wasn't a fish to be seen. Of course, me kids are always happy when there is yummy snacks around.
Tyler is looking more and more like a legitimate fisherman!

And in-between all Tyler's football games we have Jacob's soccer. He LOVES it. He hustles the whole game, gets right in the action and is doing so great at it. I love it--watching a bunch of kindergartners play soccer is really quite entertaining.

Well, that's all for now. I will try to be better about keeping up. But pretty much if you are wondering what we are up to, I am either at a football game, soccer game, cleaning up after the kids, making them food or doing laundry. Yep, sounds about right! And having a whole lot of fun in between!

First Day of School!

It has finally arrived (a few days late). Summer is officially over and school has begun. I now have TWO boys in school who are both very excited about it. Jacob has been asking for a couple weeks, incessantly, "How many more days until school?" He had to be extra patient and wait a whole week to start after Tyler started but he made it through. Here he is on his big day...Tyler was also very excited to go back to school. He likes his teacher a lot and also already knows some people in his class. This year we are implementing a "school shoes/play shoes" policy. Ty goes through shoes faster than anyone else I have ever seen. So we decided to buy him shoes for school only and then he has to change into his nasty play shoes after school. Hopefully this will save us having to buy new shoes in a month! So far so good.
With the boys back in school life is getting back some of its regimen. School, homework, Tyler in football, scouts and guitar lessons, and Jacob starting soccer. We definitely have a lot to keep us busy this year...can't wait until next summer!

Lake Powell

Home for a bit and now it's back to traveling! This was our last big trip before school starts but it was a great one--we spent 3 days down at Lake Powell. 3 days of fun filled with swimming, eating, boating, eating, exploring, eating, wave-runnering (I know it isn't a word), spending time with fmaily, more swimming and more eating! We all had a blast! And no, we didn't throw Joey overboard... thanks to Katie and Mat who so graciously volunteered to watch him for us. It made for a much more enjoyable time!

Doing some swimming in the perfect-temperature water...
Although I can't seem to keep Maggie away from the water everyhere else, she did NOT want to get in the water at Lake Powell unless it was right along the shore. Luckily we found a great campsite with a shallow pool where the little ones loved to play. Here is one of the rare instances Aunt Jessica managed to cajole her into the water.
For those who haven't been Lake Powell scenery can't be beat--most of the Lake is bordered by sheer cliffs--it is awesome and gorgeous! For a little perspective, here is Eric and Kaylee and Ashley swimming toward one--the cliff goes another 100 feet up!
Jake having a good time...
Tubing and "Hot-Dogging" (Maggie loved the hot dog--and Mom loved riding it wither her since Uncle Cory couldn't go too fast!)
Here is the little shallow pool by our "campsite" (we were lucky enough to have a houseboat for luxury thanks to the Hiatts). The kids loved to pretend to ride on the wave-runners. After sitting on it and pretending to drive Jacob turns to Eric and asks, "Does this have missiles?"
Kaylee and Tyler were great explorers--finding all kinds of fish bones and building a cool fort from driftwood. They even set up a Lake Powell museum and play for us all!
I had to put this picture in since it is pretty much the only picture with me in it....pretty sad huh? But it does show the cool canyons...
Cliff jumping was a favorite of the trip--Jacob and Tyler are awesome jumpers. It took some convincing to get Ty to jump but once he did he wouldn't stop--and he just got braver and braver as you will see.
Let's make it a family affair...
We did have some TIRED kiddos!
Maggie finally decided she would get in the water as long as she had her "tube."
So Tyler got pretty brave jumping--braver than me or Eric! Look at him go!
Just for a little perspective this is him before jumping at the top of the cliff--INSANE! You are probably thinking I am a terrible mother for letting him jump this high....and you are probably right.
Taken the last day of our trip just exploring and enjoying the general splendor of it all.
Overall a great trip with great people--a winning combo!

Tyler's Baptized!

It's official, I now have a child at the age of accountability! Tyler was baptized on Saturday. It was really nice--my mom was able to come out and see it and most of Eric's family was there too. We tried to get a family picture...this is the best we got...Look at those two handsome guys!
And Maggie was being so cute--she has this little closed mouth coy smile that is so adorable.
One more shot before the big event. Tyler was a little nervous but he did great. Although he said he didn't feel different after being baptized, he just "felt wet."
We had a little lunch at our house after where apparently we got everyone in the family sick...oops. Sorry everyone! It was a great day for us all. Well, one down and three more to go!

World Travelers

Okay, maybe "world" travelers is an overstatement, but we have been traveling a lot! Eric's been traveling back and forth to California for a training course several times. While he was gone, I took the kids up to the Lee (Sharee's family) Family Reunion in Idaho. It was actually pretty fun (I only say that because, let's be honest, most family reunions are a bit lame). There was more candy there than in Willy Wonka's factory, and that combined with the plethora of blow-up water playthings made sure my kids had a blast. Joey enjoyed his very first sucker, under the watchful eye of Aunt Hillary...

The trip was a success. Soon after, or before--things have been a blur--we had Tyler's birthday party--LEGO themed. It was all things LEGO, LEGO chopsticks, building LEGO cars, LEGO candy towers, LEGO races, even a LEGO cake.

The cake didn't turn out quite as cute as I pictured it in my head, but the kids didn't care so neither did I.

Not long after that we headed to California to visit my mom. It was great because my sister and her family were down there as well so it was like our own little family reunion! Of course a trip to southern CA isn't complete without the beach...

Diving in waves...
Getting sand EVERYWHERE (picture me sighing and rolling my eyes...I mean really, how do kids get sand in places I didn't even know existed...plus you find it for weeks afterward...I think if there were ever a nuclear holocaust all that would survive would be sand sand sand...)

Finding cool treasures along the shore...(the highlight was a lobster tentacle)
My feeble attempts to get Joey to like to sit in the water...it was a "no-go".
Bathing in the warm sun....(I couldn't see Maggie for a moment then found her sun-bathing in another kid's sand pit).
We did lots of other fun stuff, like Pretend City kid's museum and playing in grandma's hot tub. But of course I didn't get any pictures of those things. We also took our little family (me, Eric and the kids) to San Diego for a night. We spent the first day at Sea World then the next day Eric had to go to another conference. You will be very impressed to hear that instead of going straight back up to my mom's house I braved an adventure with the kids all by myself. There is a "retired" aircraft carrier in San Diego called Midway. I have always wanted to see it and thought the boys would think it was cool so I decided to give it a go. Aren't you impressed? It was a relative success, all things considered, but little did I know I would be climbing up and down what they call "stairways" despite the fact they are as steep as ladders. Talk about nerve wracking watching Maggie climb up and down the million stairways with me trying to be prepared to catch her if she fell, all the while having Joey in the carrier sling on my hip. Phew! More than a few beads of swear fell from my brow that day--and not just from the workout! But it was pretty cool. The boys loved it. And you will be even more in awe of me when you see that I actually took a few pictures to boot!

Here the boys are trying their hardest to get the ship to move--and yes, that is Maggie's leg sticking up at the bottom. She decided it would be more fun to breakdance at the controls rather than steer. Remind me never to get on a boat with her in charge.
The boys loved sitting in the fighter jet cockpits.
Here is a view of one of the "stairways". This is not just the angle of the camera--they really are that steep.
We spent over 2 1/2 hours there and still didn't see the whole thing--it just kept going and going! But by the end Joey was kaput and wouldn't stop screaming no matter how much I jingled my keys in front of him. So we called it a day (morning) and headed back up to my mom's for one last afternoon of hot-tubbing (kid style of course). And left the next morning to come home.

So here we are back in real life for a couple days, then my mom comes out here for Tyler's baptism in a few days, then it is off to Lake Powell, then not too long after that school starts. Phew! I am worn out just writing this! But I love it--a summer crammed full of fun-ness is the best way to go!