visit to the Gale's

We headed to Salt Lake to have Thanksgiving with my dad and Gail and siblings.  Before we headed over to Robyn's house to, first meet her dog Perry.  So cute!  Then I did the twins, Amberly and Emily's hair so we could go take baptism pic of them at the Jordan River Temple.  They turned out beautiful.  They were so much fun!

dance class

The girls started dance class again.  My friend, Danielle started it up after the last teacher moved.  We were pretty excited.  I forgot to bring the camera to Kaiya's class, sigh.  

Cute Katelin, ready to dance.

 After I took her picture she wanted one of us and here's what we got, HahahahahaHA!

Thankful Tree

One Sunday Kaiya and I set out to make a Thankful tree on the wall.  It is a bit interesting, but we made it and we LOVED our tree.  Kaiya cut out all the leaves free hand, I think they are so perfect and cute.  I love that she loves to do these projects with me.  

She got a sharpie and the kids each wrote something on a leaf.

 I went to add something the next day and was so touched by what the kids had each written down the night before.

What a bunch of sweeties!  It seriously made my morning.  I felt so grateful for them and that they just thought up those things on their own as their first writing.  I'm so grateful for them.  A few days later Kaleb bounced a huge ball into the wall and the tree came tumbling down into a crumbled mess.....so it was fun while it lasted.  We'll see if we get a new one up.  sigh.  :) hahaha.  

Soccer Season

All three kiddos wanted to play soccer this year.  I love watching them play.  They are all pretty good!  Kaleb is a go getter, he LOVES it!  Kaiya is on his team now sometimes.  And Katelin gets the ball often also, she chases that thing down.  It is so entertaining!!!  Here's some pics of the first day.

Katelin just ran and ran.  She kept running to Burke and I to get another drink of water, I think she might be a camel.

 Always time for a chat while practicing.  hahaha, Kaiya and her good friend Ashlyn.  They did great.

Kaleb trying to sneak that ball away from Kambre, even though it looks like she is clearly heading for it!  Kaiya's running for it on the left too.  Love this.

 Lacey is helping out Katelin's team.  She is so great and loves the game.  She does a great job teaching the kids.

 Oh, the losing team had to get down and do like 10 "turtles".  I hadn't heard of this, it was a new thing that Lacey introduced to the team this year.  It was funny to watch.

Halloween 2013

 This year was pretty easy.  The kids chose costumes with things we already had, except Kaleb.

Katelin was a CUTE COWGIRL.

 Kaiya was Venelope VonSchweets from Wreck it Ralph.

 Here is the real candy in her hair, and fake sprinkles.

 We had a trunk or treat before the night began, it was a good turn out.  We met at the senior center, decorated our trunks and the kids walked around gathering candy.  It was a fun hang out.
Korry and Taffee and their little fam, plus a niece.  Too cute!

 Lindsey and Kelsee, we just love them.

 The kids waiting to go get candy!

 Kaleb was Bilbo Baggins from the Hobbit, and his friend was Pippin from the same movie.

 Kaleb and some friends, Kambre, Josh and Talynn.

 I made a breakfast dinner and found these cool/creepy/gross/ labels to put on each dish to make it a fun Halloween meal.

 Bloody nuggets, for strawberries.

 Werewolf Eyeballs were grapes.

 The condiments for the pancakes or orange rotten fritters, were whipped snail slime, goblin snot and ghost dandruff.  Hahaha, eweeeeeeeee!  The kids had fun with it.  They'd ask to please pass the scrambled brains (scrambled eggs), or the witches brew, etc.  It was funny and gross, perfect for Halloween.

 Then I stayed in and passed out candy while Burke took the girls out to trick or treat.  Kaleb had his first Halloween going out with just this bunch of friends and not us.  It was a big step for us, I was a little mom worried, but felt fine at the same time.  If it was a bigger town, it may not have happened.  We sent a cel phone with him and we'd call him every once in a while and see where he was and told him to call if he needed us.  If was funny.  When he got home later, he described it as "THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER!!!!!"  So I'm glad he was able to have that fun experience.  And this sight was priceless when they came to trick or treat us.  I made them stay for a sec for a pic.  Love this.

What a fun Halloween.  The kids had fun eating some candy that night and I'd told them about something I read (tried it last year too, and it was a no go - thought I'd try again) that a lady gave them 20 bucks for their bag of candy....their bags were HUGE.  Kaiya gave me hers that night, she was just done.  Kaleb caved the next day and Katelin said NO WAY...but later came and said she wanted the money.  I was really surprised.  Burke took it all to school to snack on until next year, hahaha.  He can really forget its there and then just have a piece her and there, not us!  They got to pic out a fun things they wanted, Kaleb got a lego set and mechanical pencils, Kaiya got a purse and a notebook and mechanical pencils.  Katelin is saving hers.  That was fun!  What a great Halloween.

Katelin's show and teach - 1st grade

For Katelin's show and teach in October she REALLY wanted to show one of our bunnies.  Mrs. Hunt said that would be great!  I didn't want to bring one, it sounded really stressful since we didn't have a small cage with a door to bring her in.  So Burke saved the day and came with me on his lunch break.  He just brought one in a metal wheat container...it was perfect.

The kids got to reach in and pet her; they loved her.

Then Katelin got to answer any questions the kids had.  She rocked it!  She is such a great speaker in front of others.  Burke and I loved watching her in action.

FRIENDS / FAMILY PHOTOS

I am SO lucky to have an amazing friend who also loves to take pictures as much as I do.  It's so much fun to share things we've learned together or if we get a fun shot to e-mail it over and share.  I LOVE it!!!  We headed to the park one night with our families and I got to take pics of her kids and family and she took them of my kids and family....it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

Jaci, Audri, Jamison.  We just love them!  My kids think they are so much fun to play with and make laugh.

And the whole fam: Korry, Taffee and kids.

I am so grateful to have these pictures.

Oh, hahaha, Taffee won't want to claim these goofy ones, we were playing around while waiting for them and this happened.

Kaleb is in this stage where he doesn't want to give me a nice smile; so I was doubley grateful for Taffee for getting these of my cute kids!  Look, he smiles...normal!  Hahaha!  Really, anytime I'd step in to help set them up he'd be silly, so I had to leave.  These are so sweet.

Thank YOU TAFFEE, that was SO much FUN!  

Visit to the "other" Simmons

Over Fall Break we headed to Colorado Springs so Burke could help Blake plan out a sprinkler system for their new land they are building on.  We had a fun weekend with cousins!

Larissa bought this hair chalk and the kids loved coloring their hair different colors.

 Cayla looking in the mirror after she got hers done, I thought it looked like there were twin Kaiya's for a moment.  So cute!  We love this fun little girl!!

 Kyle and Katelins colorful hair.  Kyles showed up so well with all that blonde hair.

 Blake paid the kids $3 a bucket of these little cactus that grew all over their land.  They went to work.  Kaleb earned enough to buy two movies!

 Katelin and Kyle were buddies in this and helped each other.

 ...They had a bit of help from Burke too, they were grateful for him!

 Kaiya and Larissa headed way out to explore, then Kaiya came running back with all sorts of pokies, we had to have her change her pants, that helped.

 The drive is long, about 6 hours, but it was the most BEAUTIFUL time to go.  We stopped at this rest stop on the way home and went for a walk.  It is the best rest stop EVER.

 They even played in the leaves.

 ...and buried Kaiya.

 Katelin found a cool stick.

 Kaiya found little eggs she learned about in school.

 Kaleb walked in the COLD water.

 I sat my camera on a rock and set the timer...and it didn't focus on US.  OOPS, you can still tell its us though, so that's good!  Hahaha.

 Kaiya took some pics of Burke and I.

 Burke got Kaleb to smile, LOVE these boys.

 They found fish in the creek.

 And then we headed home.  That was a well needed and wonderful break from the drive.