Autumn and Applesauce

The kids were so excited to make applesauce! They love helping, and look how focused they are in getting the job done. It was fun to work with the kids.

I have not done any canning since moving to Illinois. I was excited to put more jars on my self as we had just finished our last jar from our move four years ago. As I got into it however, it was not so much fun, as the apples had so many worms in them to cut out. I will never do that again! I will buy them next time.

Date to Chicago...

No we really are not tourists.... Just documenting our date night....

Keeping the picture on the downlow, as some guy is wathching us in the car behind us.

Mike and I finally made it to Chicago without kids! This is only the second time since we moved here four years ago. We went to the Temple, then downtown to Comedy Sportz and to dinner. This was so fun and we laughed so hard. We then drove by Wrigley Field and there was a concert going on. Luckily we did not get caught in all the traffic. I really like Chicago. I wish we were a little closer. 9 hours and lots of $$$$ later we came home.
When we woke up in the morning Tyler came into our room and then left crying. I got up to see if he was hurt and he said.... "Where's the babysitter?" I want the babysitter. Who needs mom and dad. I guess we don't have to worry the next time we leave for a long date.

Happy Happy 9th Birthday Jaden!

We started off the morning with the tradition of having Jaden's favorite breakfast!

Boxed, Sugar Ceral!

Star Wars is the talk in our home.... So Jaden... May the force be with you this year.

I had great plans for his cake.. to make these cool Light Savers. However, the ended up not being so cool, since I can not use eggs in the cake (due to Jaden's allergies) the cake was another disaster!.. It crumbled so much I could not even frost the sides!. I did, however not get mad this time. Yea for me... the mom.

Jaden said... it's ok mom. It's just cake. Your right Jaden and it does still taste yummy!
Legos and Star Wars.... Heaven in Jaden's World!

To celebrate we went as a family downtown and had Slurpee's and to the movie Toy Story3. We enjoyed the beautiful warm day and walked around town. We loved being with Jaden. He is so much fun and helpful in our family.

Slurpee's... Yummy...

My kids first Slurpee. Some liked them, some didn't.

Happy Birthday Jaden! We love You! You are the Best!

First Day of School

Tyler is off to Preschool!

I cried... Even though he is not my youngest I had him three weeks after we moved to Illinois and I can not believe he is now going to school. As you can tell he will have a lot of fun and give the teacher many laughs.

Jill is really excited to go to 1st grade and so excited to have Mr. McDonald as a teacher who sings and plays a guitar during class.


Jaden is also excited for 3rd grad this year as he has Mr. Meir. He teaches a lot of science and math and that is just what Jaden loves.

I miss the kids already. I love having them home for the summer.

We Love our DAD!

Happy Father's Day Mike!

Jaden and Jill helped make the pancake breakfast.

They love to do funny faces each year.

Lots of Love and Laughs with Dad!

We Love our Dad!

You are the best! We Love you!

Random Fun

Brothers!

Tyler was fascinated with the gameboy game.

He thinks he is eight and loves to do everything Jaden does.

Our Princess!

Jill loves Crazy Hair day!

Every year she tells me exactly how she wants it.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Two little Leprechauns visited our house this year while we were away. They tipped over the kitchen chairs, and left a yummy treat. They sure were sneaky, as they came during the day.

Jill was so excited to come home and find green milk and mint cookies from the Leprechauns. She could not stop dancing and singing with Joy... Literally! It was so cute.

It's a good thing I decided to do something for the kids... at 7:00 at night, or we would have missed Jill's joyful scream and excitment. Traditions must go on!

Bob the Builders

Today was a rainy day so we took a trip to Lowe's to build a basketball hoop. Grandmother was here to go with us and it was fun to have her help the kids, as she is really good at any sort of building!

BASKETBALL

Jaden started Basketball this year. I was surprised at how well he did for never having played any basketball. I have to say out of kids sports this has been my favorite.

It was fun and hilarious!

The little boys sure loved the bleachers.

Run Jaden Run....

The Sharks.... 2010

A Perfect Snowy Day!

Finally the first wet snow of the year! After shoveling I thought it would be fun to build a snowman with Tyler. He said he wanted to make a Dinosaur, so I thought why not, and immediately started planning it out in my mind.

Tyler helped a little, played in the snow and then in the middle of the project started digging holes in it. I had to tell him to stop and go play. Now who was this for? Tyler or me? Me of course!

So three and half hours later there was a dinosaur Tyler named Cocoa in our front yard. Tyler gave up after two hours and I found him asleep on the couch. Tate was watching from his window in his saucer chair. Poor baby.

I have to say I really, really enjoyed myself.

I had told Mike about my dinosaur over the phone, so when he came home... he scooted out to see it. He was impressed. He did tell me he thought it was going to look like some weird snake or something. What little faith. See, my sculpting classes in college were good for something!

Another One Down!

Four days after spending hours in the ER with Mike, I made another trip to the ER with Tyler.
He and Jill were running after the ball downstairs and he tripped and fell into the table. I was upstairs and heard him crying, and thought nothing of it as the cry seemed like a small one. Jill then yelled up that there was tons of blood. I ran downstairs to GUSHING blood. No paniking though as the head always bleeds a lot. Although when I removed the towel the cut was very, very deep. I knew I was in for another trip to the hospital, so I called my dear friend Carolyn to watch the kids and we were off.

5 Hours later...... Tyler received 3 stitches. We had a great time playing games and telling stories waiting for our turn to see the doctor. He was being so brave.The stitching was horrible and hurt him so bad. I hated watching him in pain. But he bounced back as soon as he got a cool cars bandaid around his cut.



They say things happen in three's. I hope the next incident is just an ear ache.

The Old Man is Down!

Mike has offically become on Old Man. He slipped on the ice and broke his left foot. Not as exciting as when we were first married and he broke the same foot by a sweet jump on his motorcycle.

Tyler came into the room and said he broke his foot and needed it fixed too.

We have a couple of Couch Potatoes! It's a good thing the Olympics are on for the next few weeks!

Mike was able to borrow a cool scooter from a friend, which made the time so much easier until he could walk on his foot.

The kids had fun getting out their scooter and racing dad around the house.

This was a fun winter activity.

Happy 3rd Birthday Tyler!

Happy Birthday Tyler! We love you! You are so adventureous

to be around and keep us laughing. We love you!

Tyler could not stop talking about having a

"BIG" Dino T-Rex birthday party.

He has patiently waited through everyones birthdays and his day is finally here. His biggest fans arrived and we played many dino games and ate burried worms in mud for dessert. He had the best time and had a big smile on his face the whole day.

The only little boy his age was out of town, but his biggest fans attended. A bunch of the children from Church ages 4 to 10 just love Tyler and made his birthday so much fun and special. Tyler thinks he is six, and says now that he wants to be 8 like Jaden. I am trying to convince him that three is a blast to be!



Later on we Celebrated as a family and opened what I thought would be the treasured gift a walking dinosaur! That's all he talks about is dinosaurs, but I guess I was wrong. He didn't care. He liked the flying dino for a couple of days, well I hope Tate likes little kid toys and doesn't skip right to legos.