Capturing the moment

Family pictures make me stop and really realize how blessed I am to have such a happy, health, beautiful family! 

Once again Chris Roe has captured the personality of our family so perfectly =)

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Cuteness and candy

Ah Halloween... I never really considered the irony of the event until reading some eCards that were floating around on Halloween. "Never talk to strangers or take candy from strangers... except on Halloween when its ok to go up to a strangers door and ask for candy!" Right, wrong or otherwise our Bloom, Merida and Ladybug thoroughly enjoyed their loot gathering process this year =)

 This year, the costume selections were made based on which costume came with a wig. Aubrey has only seen Brave once, so she definitely doesn't have a particular love for Merida (the main character) nor had Ella ever heard of Bloom the Winks fairy (think Barbie-type character) before seeing the beautiful red wig that the costume came with. Ainsley was a ladybug because, well, its just so D.E.R.N. cute!!!

Halloween 2013

Oh the joys of ring pops!

Aubrey's wig only lasted about 5 minutes at the church harvest party ;-) But even without that massive red wig, she is still as cute as can be!!

Sweet sweet cousins!

Ainsley jumped right into the fun activities. She thought that throwing the beanbags was a little difficult, but never fret...she just walked right over and put the bag in the hole ;-)

This game was supposed to be a trike race around the orange cones, but Ainsley decided she would rather ride diagonally across the race track. Good thing her cuteness allowed for a little rule bending.

Time for trick or treating!

I have candy!

G-daddy helping out the process. Ainsley was so focused on the last piece of candy she had just got that she was too distracted to keep on walking!

"Auntie, we are twins. We both have curly hair...except mine is red!"

Ainsley raiding the trick or treat bowl once we got home.

Hope you have enjoyed all our sweetness!!

Instalife October

My oh my....The month of October was B.U.S.Y!!!

In the mornings, I often stick my head in the shower to get my hair wet before I get ready. Since I'm not actually showering, I turn the water on to warm up and continue my routine for a minute or two until its nice and warm. On this particular morning, I took my eye off the water warming up....And when I turned around I found this munchkin fully dressed in the shower!! Our mornings don't have extra time built-in for changing the baby a second time before school, so I called in Neal to help out if he had a minute. He asked me "Are you done in here?" before turning off the shower, but without missing a beat Ainsley chimed in "Nope!"

Oreos and balloons during lunchtime to celebrate Ella's 7th birthday at school!!

Ella's birthday dessert request this year....Pumpkin pie!

Aubrey is my cooking helper. She never is far from me when I'm in the kitchen. Ainsley got her first taste of why Aubrey never strays far from the kitchen...there are usually utensils to lick!! You'll notice a dark blob next to Ainsley's eye, she REALLY enjoyed her chocolate mixer. And then she left her chocolaty handprint on the dishwasher as a little momento ;-)

Ainsley  wants to be a big girl SO MUCH!! After all the kids rode their scooters to school one morning, Ainsley jumped on the scooter when we got home and she was ready to go.

Some days I am reminded at how differently moms and dads can be. Here is an example: I'm inside painting and am afraid of Ainsley getting in the paint and making a mess; Neal takes Ainsley outside and wants to make sure she is safe while he mows the yard, so he straps her into a swing and mows around her?!?!

For Halloween this year we had: Ella as Bloom the Winks fairy (think Barbie-type characture), Aubrey as Merida from the movie Brave, Ainsley the ladybug!

Ella is growing up so fast! Her love for reading is apparent in the comments/phrases she comes up with. Today, her and I went for a little date after school. She chose a mini lemon pound cake for her treat; after a few bites she says "Now that is what I call the scent of lemon!"

Trick or treating with cousins is the best!!

This is definitely just a little snippet of fun we had in October. More to come....

Insta-life September!

September was our month to just scale back and get into the school routine. And I have to admit, its been nice to have more quiet days at home vs running around/trips/hectic summer life (as fun as summer was!). So here are is our life in snapshots....

Ella had a survey to fill out for her teacher, Mrs. Nelson. I love when you get a chance to see exactly what kids are thinking!

Ainsley is ready to take sister to school with a baby under each arm!

1st ponytail!!!

"There is nothing wrong with my bed, the floor is just more comfortable!"

Blast from the past!! Nathan and Ella, October 2009!

Ugh! I am not an interior decorator. I picked up all those little card stock samples, flipped through them for weeks, bought some samples, put them on the walls, bought some more samples, painted over old samples...and I still have blotchy walls!!!To be continued....

The Children's Museum has an area where the kids can paint their faces with little crayons. Ainsley looked over at Aubrey drawing on her face, looked at me as if to say "You aren't going to stop her from doing that?!?!" I told her, "Its okay, you can color on your face." She picked up the crayon, made a little mark, looked at me to see if this was really going to be allowed, then went to town. She was SO PROUD of her work!!

I have enjoyed the relaxed pace of September but I know times are about to change. October is full of birthdays, field trips, pumpkin patches and Halloween! Bring on the pictures...

The forgotten photos

Somehow these photos were left out of the Bend post...

Aiden and Aubrey are two peas in a pod when it comes to personality!!

Ainsley at the obsidian flow

Aubrey and Ella at the obsidian flow

Family photo time!!

In the parking lot of the obsidian flow, the chipmunks would come right up into the kids hands and eat snacks. Of course, this type of behavior is highly discouraged not allowed. As we were heading into the obsidian flow, we passed a park ranger and she stopped to chat with the kids. What do you think the first thing the kids told the ranger was? Yep, "We fed the chipmunks some goldfish and they ate them RIGHT OUT OF OUR HANDS!" "Oh, I know how exciting that can be but we don't want to feed the chipmunks because then they aren't afraid of humans and might get hurt," the ranger tells them. "I'm going to feed the chipmunks again!!" SShhhh!!! This was one of those parenting moments when we struggled to do the right thing. We are cityfolk; feeding wild animals isn't something we do on a daily basis and little chipmunks are cute. Do we want to be responsible for the reduction of the chipmunk population because we fed them? No. But will our few goldfish crackers really cause an extinction? Probably not. So we may have shared a little bit of our lunch with the resident critters ;-)

Ella, Nathan, Aubrey and Aiden

Such beautiful scenery!

Neal took the maiden voyage down the waterfall before we turned the kids loose!

Caleb and Ainsley! I may be biased, but we have the cutest kiddos =)

I think this marks the official end to summer. All the camping photos are shared, the blog is up-to-date and the sunny days now require jeans. At least we can say we had the most fun possible this summer!!