Luke's Baptism

I swear, once your first child hits a milestone...it is like boom, boom, boom, everyone quickly follows.  

It seems like just yesterday THIS happened....

Joshua's Baptism in California

Shortly after we moved here, James was baptized. (I know you love those white jumpsuits!)

Michael was right around the corner...

And now ALL four boys have been baptized.  Wow, that went fast. 

Luke's baptism was extra special because he was baptized with his best friend, Gunnar. 

These two sister Missionaries helped prepare the boys by giving them lessons.  They became great friends with us.  Sister Wood (in the middle) is from England and she has been transferred to Rexburg.  We miss her! 

This is Bridgette, Gunnar's Mom, and his beautiful Grandma.  She is like 90 and looks pretty fabulous. 

Gunnar's sister, Aubrey, talking with Ryan over some Italian soda's and cookies. 

Joshua spoke on the Holy Ghost at the baptism.  He did an amazing job.  I was proud!

Lauren and Emmaline

Sadie and Emmaline (striking a selfie pose)

Our neighbor and friend, Mariah, with Grandpa

Mariah and Sophie

Things might have gotten a little wild after the baptism.  (It looks like we had a congo line going.) This is Keisha (neighbor/friend) Luke, Michael, and Gunnar. 

Luke, showing his post-baptism excitement. 

Hooray for being baptized.  

Our neighborhood doesn't have a ton of families with young kids...so we are pretty lucky that our little cul-da-sac has  all these hooligans running around.  It makes for lots of adventures and fort making. 

Gunnar and Luke with their baptism gifts.  Both got a nice new set of scriptures.  (Thanks, Nana and Papa!)

It really was a great evening.  The boys were so excited to be baptized.  Gunnar went down into the water first and when he came up out of the water Luke was watching in the wings and we could all hear him hollar with excitement, "How was it!!!!???"

Annie and James sang a duet.  Their cousins, Abigail and Sadie accompanied on the violin with Grandma on the piano.  We found out that James is a great singer.  He is a natural!

We had lots of good food....and we made Italian Sodas.  All the preparation and planning paid off.  We were so grateful to all our neighbors, friends, and family that came to support the boys.

And here is one last snapshot of the night...Sophie decided she wanted to wear my high heels.  She is at such a great stage.  She is so squishy, and lovable.  She says that funniest things.  Can't get enough of her cute smile. 

Party in Park City!

It's been almost two weeks since we were in Park City.  It was kind of a last minute trip...and we were so glad we went. I think it is my favorite time of year to go.  Whenever we come up this time of year, the week seems the same.  The first half of our week is warm and sunny, hitting up to 80F.  By the end of the week it is full on winter and sooooo cold! 

We stopped in Ogden on the way to Park City to have lunch at Sonora Grill with my cousin Emily and her lovely family.  (They own and run the restaurant.)  After a delicious lunch, we loaded into the car with full belly's and headed to Park City together.  The hills were so beautiful (The Hills are Alive....) that we told the kids they HAD to do some sort of outdoor "hike" if they wanted to swim at the condo.  My cousin also documented the "hike" here.  She has some great pictures, especially the scarecrow with they pumpkin breasts.  How could I have missed that one?  This little walking path leads to a beautiful, historical barn where we happened to take our family pictures last year.   Every October, different groups decorate scarecrows that are displayed all along the way.  It is fun to see what people come up with! 

Rachel (Emily's oldest) and Sophie (My youngest)

 Lucy and the princess scarecrow?

Annie and Rapunzel

Go kids!  Get out all of your energy before we head to a swanky restaurant!  

Luke and the ski patrol

Annie couldn't decide on a favorite. 

Michael really gets into roll playing. 

The boys... (Joshua and James didn't come until a few days later.)

The girls  

You can't tell here, but not only do these guys look dorky with their tucked in shirts and hiked up pants, but they have straw in their mouth.  He and Lucy couldn't stop pretending they were "country folk".  They were seriously cracking me up. 

 

The barn has some great trees to climb. 

Rachel and Luke

Adam

Lucy, Annie and Michael 

Sophie

"Catch me, Dad!"  (Luke)

And Michael...

As you can see, we take hiking pretty seriously.  

I love this picture.  

It would not have been right to leave without getting a shot of Rachel doing the "Annie Pose" with Annie.  

  (So sad, as you can see, Annie is sort of over the pose.  She kind of figured out we were all laughing about it this past summer, and that was the end.)  I think Rachel looks pretty fabulous.  

I can't remember...Emily, did you get a better picture of the entire crew?  I don't have ONE normal picture.  Oh, well.  It's disco-crow, nothing too serious about that anyway.  Rachel and Sophie seem to have it down. 

I am definitely the "short" one with this crew.  Emily's husband, Steve, back there has to be at least like 6'5"  I am guessing?  He is taller than Ryan.  Emily is right up there too.  No fair. 

One last picture of these dorks, I meant goofs!  

From our wonderful jaunt down scarecrow lane, we headed to Vinto Pizza for dinner (at Steve's suggestion) and it was so tasty.  FINALLY, we got back to the condo and the kids went swimming before these guys had to head back home.  We were so glad they made the trip down for the evening to play.  What a great day- great food AND great company.  

One last picture of the kids outside Sonora Grill in downtown Ogden.  This picture was the best of everyone...

Everyone that is, except for Adam.  

So here is a picture of just Adam...looking cute all by his lonesome!  

 Hope everyone is enjoying their Fall!  Happy Fall Friday!~

A visit from Papa and a few other things

It's already October.  The house is decorated for Fall/Halloween.  The shorts have been put away.  The leaves are changing.  I love it.  September was a little colder than I prefer, but it was a good month!  One of the highlights was a visit from Papa on his way to and from Canada.  

Papa was able to come watch Luke and Michael's soccer game. As you can see the shorts and flip flops had not been put away and we froze our buns off.  

I told Papa I would permanently keep him around.  Each morning he drove the kids to school for me.  (In his white custom school bus.)  Annie thinks his work car is pretty cool.  It was really nice to have an extra helper around all week.  He not only took the kids to school, but he spent one on one time with kids, ran them to activities, tuned up our cars, and took care of lots of "to do's" that just never seem to get done!  THANKS, PAPA! 

I love this picture...captures how much the girls adore him, and you can tell he really likes them too.  :)

We missed Nana, but she was getting prepped for her knee surgery...which is a GOOD THING!  

Here are a few other little things that happened in September...

1.  Abigail paved the way as the first cousin to get her drivers license.  It has been nice having her drive up here once in a while and she even hung out with Joshua one Friday night and took him to find a book he had been begging me to get.  Go Abigail!  

(Above she is posing with her sweet ride.)  I was telling her different ways to pose, but out of all the pictures, I liked the first pose she did the best...it just looks like Abbie.  Such a great girl! 

2.  Joshua started Drivers Ed and got his permit.  

3.  While in CA, I had my nails done with Grandma C. and got me some FAKE NAILS.  They lasted clear until mid September and they were pretty fun I must say.  (My natural nails are awful.)  

4.  Luke came home from school with this love note.  

5.  I inherited this awesome china, it was like Christmas in September.  Thank you!  

 When my parents remodeled they did away with their formal dining room, making it into an office.  Since the house we are in now has a huge dining room, I was lucky to snatch it right up.  The new dishes had a perfect home in this hutch.  I think of both sides of our family every time I look at it since everything in it came from them.   

6.  Annie let me put curlers in her hair.  This is a rare event.  Sometimes I am still shocked I have two little girls in curlers.  

7.  We spent lots of time with our favorite sister missionaries!  (So sad, Sister Wood, on the left, was transferred today.)  We have grown to really love these two and they always bring a special spirit into our home!  More on this to come. 

8.  The weather was WAY colder than I was ready for.  I took this one day, while driving around still wearing flip flops.  

I should have been thankful for that 56F, because a week or so later we woke up to this...

 9.  Grandma came and froze with us at another soccer game. 

Joshua and I get a "little" excited at the games.  James told us we were embarrassing and watched the rest of the game in the car.  

10.  Annie became a "closet" Hello Kitty lover.  The shirts I used to have to hide because she wore them everyday, no longer are worn on "school days".  The one day she DID wear one, she came home with her sweater buttoned up over it.  She hasn't quite told me what is up with that, but kind of a sad sign that she is growing up and peers begin to matter.  :(

She does still LOVE all things Hello Kitty at home though.  

11.  This month has been a month of doctors visits for the extended family.  While my mom was in Arizona, my Dad had a horse accident and so I got to play caregiver a little (he would not let us do much!)  Grandpa didn't even call to go to the doctor until the next morning after the accident, but when it was all said and done he broke his collar bone and had to have surgery on it, he broke his hand, chipped his foot bone, and had a VERY sore back.  He was in great spirits, despite his discomfort. 

This was the same horse that sent my brother to the emergency room the week before, needless to say, my brother sent the horse packing.  

What a month!  Happy October, bring on the holiday season!