Halloween!

We carved our pumpkins, and I don't have a picture from last year, but I know that at least Sophie's was the exact same as last Halloween. We have the kids draw, or tell us how they want them and then they all fight and bicker while Jake and I carve the pumpkins. It's usually a really great time :)

Okay, mostly it was Liam this year who cried... He didn't like the pumpkin guts.

My 3 sweeties all garbed up. Trick or Treating was so fun with them this year, they loved it.

Candace and I made this wig, and I am certain that it was the best Rapunzel wig in all of Utah County, possibly the state. I should have won some kind of award for this thing! It was really heavy and hot though, and Sophie wore it without complaining. I guess that is the price of beauty. She came home from school and told me that everyone at school was "staring" at her wig all day. She was so happy with it.

Livi was the most adorable trick-or-treater that I have ever seen. She was smiling from ear to ear and would squeal while she ran from house to house. I have been thinking about her and smiling all day long.

Liam has the most awesome poses ever. He was one tough, stealthy ninja.

Alan invited us to come to the Adobe Halloween party with their family and we had so much fun. The attention to detail and work that goes into that party is amazing, it was very entertaining.

The weather on Halloween was the best in memory and now today it snowed. Guess it is time to think about putting up my Christmas!!!

The Zoo

The Martins invited the kids and I to the zoo in October and we had such a great time. I think it will be tradition to go in the fall, without Jake :) Reference my last post about the zoo and you will see why I would rather go solo. The weather was perfect, the animals were cute, and most importantly, my kids behaved.

This picture kills me. Liam REALLY wanted me to get this shot, he waited for about 5 minutes while another family took pictures, and then had to see the shot, to make sure it met his expectations. Too funny.

Family Pictures

I love how our family pictures turned out this year. It is amazing to me to see how everyone has changed in just one year. Sophia is and looks like a grade schooler, not so little anymore. I can see a glimpse of her as a teenager in this family picture. I am nostalgic for the years of their lives that have already passed, but excited for their futures, for teenagers. The older I get, the more I realize just how fickle time is. These pictures make me thankful for the moment that we are living now. Jake and I are still these kids whole lives, but the clock is ticking, and this will be over before I know it.

Sophie turns 7

Sophia turned 7. I can't believe there is only one more year until she will be baptized. Sophie is still the sweetest thing you can imagine. She is such a great helper for me and is always helping Liam and Livi. I was spoiled when God gave me Sophie, she brings us so much joy. She loves school and reading and is above level on everything that she does. She is reading chapter books and comes home from school and asks if she can do her homework first thing. She also LOVES to play with her friends, there are always kids coming over to see if she can come out and play. Soph also has a stubborn streak that reminds me of myself, and unfortunately when she gets upset, she cries, just like me. I love this girl so much and I feel so lucky to get to be her mama.

These 2 have loved each other since the beginning. This will be the last birthday that she will share with Nic until she is turning 10! He is lucky, because she will be such a good letter writer while he is gone :)

First grade!

Sophia is now a big first grader. Of course she loves it :) The most exciting part for her, at least for now, is that she gets to ride the bus to school. I was nervous about it at first, but we are now 3 days into it and I LOVE the bus!! She watches out the window for the neighborhood kids to come and then she runs out and they all walk to the bus stop together. It is so nice to be able to send her out the front door to school :) She loves her teacher and is making friends already. She is reading chapter books already, so I am excited for her to learn new things in math and spelling. I love this girl and I definitely miss her during the day, but she is loving her new fall schedule. I admire her so much, she has so many qualities to make a mama proud :)

Liam, in one of my favorite poses so far!

Sophie and her best bud Ella at the bus stop. They are so cute together. I can't believe I have a first grader, who eats lunch at school and rides the bus.

My baby turned 3!

My sweet/sassy Livi turned 3 and I can't even believe it! I don't know where the last 3 years have gone! She is still a total pepper-pot, but she loves her mama, and is always sweet to me. She has stopped referring to herself as "baby" and is now "big girl", which of course breaks my heart. She still is the boss of the whole family. She stands up to Liam and makes him cry on a regular basis. He knows that if she is in one of her "moods" that all he has to do is bark like a puppy or meow and she will melt and love him all over again. She has a best friend across the street and loves playing with her, it is so cute. She is learning to take turns and share. She puckers her little lips out and gives the best kisses ever. She says "wuh" instead of our, or your. "Look, that's wuh house, huh?" It is so cute. She is always at my side or on my lap and I know the day that will end is coming, so I just enjoy her. I love my sweet, blonde little baby so much!

I asked and asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she just kept saying chocolate, until a week before her birthday she told her grandma that she was having a Strawberry Shortcake cake, so I had fun with it.

Livi loves Nic so much, and this picture is adorable. This is her last birthday she will share with him until she is turning 6!! Sigh.

I love this face. Whenever I think of Liv, I picture her running, with her pretty blonde hair flowing in the breeze behind her :) Happy Birthday big girl.

Our summer!!

This summer was fun despite our constant struggles to make progress on our yard. I am glad that I took some pictures to remind myself that all of our time wasn't spent trudging around in the dirt in the backyard. Even though the summer felt so short, I can feel fall in the air now in the mornings and I love it.

We went to St. George with Jake's family and spent a ton of time in the pool. It is so nice to go down there and relax and hang out with everybody. There are always tons of inappropriate things said and a lot of laughing, it's great :)

At this point of the summer, Liam decided that every time the camera came out, he was going to try to look tough and strike an awesome "super-strength crocodile" pose.

Jake went to Vegas to work at a trade show with my brother in law, so I went and spent the weekend with him at the Venetian. It is so fun to get away for a couple of days and we had a blast together.

Sophie and Liam did the SF summer program, she was in the ballet class, he was in the "Dancing Superhero" class... Both were so cute to watch.

Both kids learned how to ride their bikes with no training wheels. Although Liam still prefers his plastic trike and Sophie takes her scooter. Maybe the bike riding will kick in next summer. Please don't judge me for their lack of helmets, that one is so hard for me to remember for some reason...

Livi learned to pedal her trike, but throws a giant fit if she isn't allowed to pedal right down the middle of the road.

My mom and dad set up this slip and slide for the 4th of July. The kids played on this forever. Jake and I decided on the 24th that we wanted to do it too. It was so much fun!! We only quit when kids were crying because we were using the tubes too much and not taking turns!

Lame fireworks. We did love the formerly illegal fireworks everyone else paid for and set off during the whole month of July. The kids would sneak out of bed at night and watch from their windows.

Playing in our dirty backyard. I have probably vacuumed up 17 tons of dirt this summer. I am sure that I will shed a tear of joy when we finally get grass in a few weeks.

The carnie. Ever since Jake started working at the jail, he has boycotted the carnie because "there are too many inmates" so I have to take the kids alone. But they love it, and I have fond memories of my parents taking me against their will when I was a kid.

Kelsey and Alan got married! Liam kept pestering the photographer to take a picture of him while he would strike some crazy pose. He thought he was so awesome doing these moves :)

Our attempt at a family photo. I love my little ANTM in the front.

Haha, this picture made me laugh so hard! Nic looks like a velociraptor and Liam really does look pretty cool! Hahaha! They are both dorks.

My cute kids at the Grotto. They love this hike and would do it every week if I would let them! I love these 3 and they really do love and watch out for each other, it makes me so happy.

My girls whipping up some Easy Bake Oven cakes. They lick their fingers and spoons a whole lot during the process and wait so patiently for their desserts. It takes about 3 weeks to talk me into getting it all out though...

Unfortunately, our yard still looks like this. We have the sprinklers done and the hole for the trampoline is dug out. We need to finish the tramp, rake for 30 years, and then we will be ready for grass!!

With the help of our dads and Nic and Josh we FINALLY finished something, so now we have this big, nice patio to enjoy! Thanks guys!!