Jack at the Pumpkin Patch

 Jack's first elementary school field trip was to the pumpkin patch, and I was able to tag along.  He has so many cute kids in his class, and it was fun to spend the morning with them learning about apple cider and pumpkins.

Boise v. BYU Weekend

 We'll take any opportunity we can to watch our alma mater play when they are close - and Boise State offered this chance this year!  Although the game was a complete disappointment….the company made up for that.  Julie and Kelly met up with us, bringing Tess and Abbie to watch Max and Lyv, so we could actually watch the game.  Although after it was over I think I would like to remove that memory from mind forever!

 The boys loved the stadium and the cheered on the Cougars the whole game.

 The rest of the weekend we got to visit with Grant and spend time with our family and friends, and of course stay in a hotel, which is the best thing ever when you're a kid.  Free breakfast and a swimming pool - could life get any better?

 We loved spending time with Grant.  What a wonderful man he is and I feel extremely blessed to have the opportunity to be connected to him even if through marriage only.

Slowly but Surely

We broke ground at the beginning of September - and slowly but surely we have a house coming!  Shawn diligently drives out to see the progress daily.  I am not as enthusiastic about literally watching the cement dry, but I am excited to see the progress over the last month and a half.  The framing will begin in the next week and we were told that goes up fairly quickly.  The kids love going out to see the house whenever they can, mostly so they can get filthy dirty in the dirt piles and try their balancing skills on the basement walls.

Jog-A-thon 2014

Thanks to our generous family and neighbors both boys raised money for Summitview PTO, enough to go to the movie during school! They both ran their hearts out.

October Moments

October always seem to start out great, mostly due to the chance we have to listen to General Conference, and hear from our modern day prophet and apostles. Not to mention a generous serving of cinnamon rolls.  It has taken a good 12 years, but I think that I have finally perfected the recipe.  They taste just like Grandma Julianne made them!

 Max was a wee bit distracting during conference

 Two weeks into October the kids pointed out that we had no Halloween decorations!  Am I failing as a mother?  How is this possible, that I didn't decorate for one of my favorite holidays??  So we amended this wrong right away.  The kids crafted our scary door this year, and I think they did a pretty terrifying job!

I always like to record when my kids reach milestones and/or firsts - and Jack had his first lawn mowing experience.  He was over joyed to be considered "old enough" for the job - which technically he isn't, but our lawn needed mowing and he was game.  Not to be out done, Sam decided to try out the weed whacking.  They both did a great first time job, and I am happy to add one more slave to the chore chart:)

 Jack also brought home this self portrait and I had to post it!  First of all if you know Jack, you know that he doesn't like to draw, color, or anything artsy or crafty.  It is a stretch to even get a stick figure out of him…so this was a step up!  He also likes to attempt to liven up his work with words - although backwards and scrambled, those are several conversation bubbles saying "Oh no!"  and that is rain coming down on the side of his head.  It was so adorable - love that he is moving on up in his art.

 I feel like poor Lyv hasn't had a picture on the blog for a really long time.  Life seems to have gotten so face paced and in between it all I am becoming a forgetful mother.  I did grab this shot playing on the playground at Sam's soccer practice.  This one loves to pose!

Bill's Berry Farm, Eastern WA Fair, Amazing Jack

We went to Grandview to visit Bill's Berry Farm in pursuit of harvest fun and apple cider donuts!  Ok mostly in pursuit of donuts - which we LOVE! We recruited our good friends the Lancaster's to join us and the kids had a great day at the orchard. 

Shawn and I decided to scope out the Eastern Washington State fair minus the kids this year.  Mostly we went to eat all the deliciously unhealthy fair food!  We found some killa curly fries and some good Asian noodle bowl, amongst other yummy treats.  There was a glazed donut cheeseburger that I couldn't believe anyone would buy! We plan on taking the kiddos next year when Max is a little older and able to do more things.

 Summitview Elementary had their first awards assembly of the year and Jack received an academic achievement award!  We are so proud of him and all of his hard work and his intelligence, he just blows us away.  Sam also got a shout of for mileage club and was one of 4 kids who were on their 25 mile card!

Afterwards we celebrated with some Baskin Robbins, and sweet Jack approaches ice-cream like he does all things in life - with head on collision!

Soccer Fall 2014

The future is so bright - you've gotta wear shades! At least that is Max's motto.  Soccer this season has kind of felt a little so-so.  Don't get me wrong - I love to watch Sam get out there and play, but he just doesn't seem to have the same go get em' attitude that he has had in the past.  I am curious to see if this will be the final year or not. Here are some of my favorite shots of the season thus far, and thus far the weather has been GORGEOUS! Loving this Yakima fall weather, I can handle 80's and 70's the rest of the year.

 Striker Force #9

I love this last shot - the look on Sam's face, the sheer umph… I can almost relive the the moment again.