Two posts in one month....its a miracle!

Well, the semester is winding down. Last week was a wirlwind, with finals, parties, and concerts all lined up in a row. Here's a couple of the highlights.

Michayla's Piano Recital

The pose at the piano

Her hair just kind of blends into the Christmas Tree!

Blakester lost his first tooth!

The little red spot is where his tooth used to be.....his adult tooth was already grown in by the time his tooth came out.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES!

This is during the day:) Allyson is in LOVE with her new Dora "soft and fuzzy" jammies. She wants to wear them all the time.
The kids all had their own houses, and really enjoyed doing this tradition this year.
We LOVE the Christmas season.

The seasons have changed......

There is nothing more beautiful than a sunny day in the fall here in the midwest. I absolutely LOVE all of the different colors of leaves and different kinds of trees. We went on a leaf hunt, and make some crafts with our findings. I counted at least 12 different kinds of leaves that we collected, and ALMOST that many colors!

We have this tree in front of our house that lost its leaves all in a matter of about 2 days. We had a big party raking up the leaves. The pile was bigger than Allysons head!

Where Did October Go???

I can't believe it is already November!!! I guess that means it's time to catch everybody up on what's been going on with our family.

Michelle and some friends went to an apple orchard and picked some delicious apples. Allyson had a lot of fun picking and eating the apples (and she looked super cute in her sunglasses).

Michelle used the apples to make some awesome apple pie (I'm assuming it was awesome even though I didn't eat any of it, because the pie was gone in less than an hour)

She also mixed up a yummy apple pie mix and bottled it. She's really become an amazing homemaker in the last few years. She bakes amazing bread and treats and now she bottles fruit and meat. Who knows what she'll start doing next!!!


We also took a trip to Omaha with the Moores and the Blairs. We had a great time. We went to the Winter Quarters Temple and to the Omaha Zoo. We love going to the temple, and we are excited to have one closer to us sometime in the near future so that we can go more often. It was kind of funny because it was cold and rainy the entire day that we went to the zoo. Michelle and I were worn out by the end of the day, but then we babysat for the Moores and the Blairs while they went to the temple Friday evening. Then, Michelle and I went on Saturday morning (and afterwards we discovered that we both had the hardest time keeping our eyes open). Note to self: get more sleep before going to the temple next time. Thank you Moores and Blairs for watching our kids for us!!!



One of the more exciting things at the Zoo is this rope bridge in the Jungle exhibit (very impressive). The kids all built up the courage to trudge across the bridge.


Amber, Michayla, and Ashley were the 3 amigas during the trip. Here they are being very mischevious in the Desert Dome. It looked a lot like Arizona and made us appreciate how beautiful the midwest is during the Fall.


The zoo has a really cool aquarium--with sharks, sea turtles, mana rays, penguins, and every other kind of water creature you can think of. We thought this headless penguin (right in the middle of the picture) was pretty cool.


Then, of course, there was all of the Halloween stuff that we did. Overall, we had an amazing Halloween experience this year. The weather was amazing, our kids were great, and we spent time with wonderful people--what more could you ask for??? Allyson was an adorable cowgirl on a horse (Brown Sugar)


For Halloween dinner, Michelle made Halloween Mummies for the kids. I thought this was pretty cute, and the kids really liked it. You rock Michelle!!!


Blake was Batman again this year--3 years in a row. He claims he's going to retire as Batman next year and go as Darth Vader, but I'll believe it when I see it.


We made jack-o-lanterns with the Moores for family home evening before Halloween. Blake and Michayla each designed one of our jack-o-lantern patterns. I thought they did a great job!


The kids had a Halloween parade at their school. They were all dressed up and walked a LONG way (approximately 2 miles). That ended up being a huge blessing--that night, we went trick or treating for about 20 minutes and then all three of our kids said "we're tired, can we go home now?" Man, Halloween doesn't get any easier than that!!!

Well, that pretty much sums it up. Bring on the HOLIDAY SEASON!

It's Official.....

Well, today was a big day for us.......We excepted the job at McAnany Van Cleave & Phillips! We feel very blessed to have such a great offer, and even though it is not the location we planned on in the beginning, we LOVE the midwest, and are very excited to get to stay for possibly a few more years:) The kids are all excited about it as well. Blake can't wait to live closer to Science City, and Michayla is very excited to paint her new bedroom......(in a year or so). It seems like a long ways away still, but we are excited for the new adventures that await us. Thanks for all of your prayers on our behalf! Love you all!

September in a FLASH!

WOW! This last month went by SOOOOOO fast. I barely know where to start, so I'll just give a quick photo, and then a synopsis of the happenings:)

Michayla gets her haircut.

Before the madness
The torture
The fuzzy end result. It wasnt my idea....I LOVED her long hair, but she sure does look cute!

The injury

Brent twisted his ankle playing B-ball. It was swollen for almost 3 weeks!
It was pretty nasty how we watched the blood spread day after day, eventually into his toes! He is finally doing better, but not 100%.

Lisa comes to town!

This is one of our outings to a Japanese resturaunt. The picture below is Blakes face when they lighted the stove on fire. Allyson was so scared she was shaking. We spent a lot of time in the bathroom with her because she was scared while they were cooking:)

And Last but not least, Fathers and sons! The last month has been absolutely GORGEOUS, and luckily, this camping trip went 100% better than the last one. Blake loved every second.

Michayla learned how to ride her bike! Wahoo!

The kids in the neighborhood could all ride their bikes. Michayla was determined to learn. We started out on the side walk, and for a couple days she was frustrated and couldnt quite get it. Then Brent took her on the grass behind our house, and she did great! From then on she practiced and practiced! I am SOOOO proud of her.

Starting School!

This was quite the big school starting year for our family. 4 out of the 5 of us were starting school this semester:) Michayla went to 1st grade at McCarter Elementary. Blake is in Kindergarten at the same school. Brent of course is at Washburn law school, and I am doing my internship at Blake and Michaylas school and taking a couple other courses from ASU online. What a change its been for us! The kids have done great! Brent and I actually have our easiest semester so far, so we are very much enjoying it!

Sweet Michayla posing with her favorite Backyardigans lunch box.
Blakester flashing a star wars pose.
Heres the crew. We were all excited to get school started!
Blakester waiting in line at his new school.

Happy Birthday Blake

My BABY Boy is 5!

For Blakes birthday in AZ we took a large crew up to Showlow to go watch KungFu Panda. It was so much fun. We had an entire row in the movies full of kids, and their laughing loud during the funny parts made it so worth the effort of taking ALL these kids! Thanks Jodi for letting us take your 15 passenger van! (And especially for letting us take our van, so we didnt have to drive with you and 13 kids:)

Proud Blake displaying his insect catcher. It came with an insect vacuume......really here in Kansas though, there are no bugs, so we'll have to wait to use it until we move back to AZ. Right Kansas friends?

Yehaw!

In Arizona, one of kids FAVORITE thing to do was to ride horses with their cousins. Especially my Allyson. She is officially OBSESSED with horses. She always has some horse with her now, and the funny thing is that if you ask her what the name of the horse is, she will always say "Star".

Allyson and Briette on Oreo
Michayla and Paige on Splinkey
This is Allyson with Parci. Parci took Allyson for a ride almost everyday. She quickly became her "favorite cousin" of the trip:)
Blake and Briette on Star

If you look really close, you can see the Snowflake temple in the background. Its just to the left of the 2 big trees. There is a hill that you can see, and the temple sits on it, but since its bright outside you cant really see it.
Michayla riding Star all by herself! She loves to ride too, but she is not quite as obsessed as Allyson.

Happy Birthday America!

Well, very late I wanted to make sure and document our possible last 4th of July in Kansas.

We LOVE the 4th here! This year the kids got to decorate their bikes and ride in a cute neighborhood parade along with some of their friends. Brent got to show off his mad bass drum skills! No, it wasnt his idea, and he did it a bit reluctantly, but doesnt he look good doing it? A proffesor of his asked him to fill in when we got there, and I think he actually had a good time doing it.

After the parade, the kids were able to do some foot races, and Blake took 2nd. He did awesome. They also had turtle races, and ice cream sandwhiches for everyone.

That night we went out to some friends house for some major fire work displays. The best part of living in Kansas is that fireworks are completely legal! It feels like World War III for about a week, and on the 4th there is some major smog over the city, but its well worth it. The kids really enjoy it.