Happy 3 Day!!!

Happy 3rd birthday Emery Grace!!!



When she was so little...
1 week old


2 weeks old

And now...on her birthday at her party

Princess jammies

Cinderella cake (too bad I didn't make this one, I didn't even try)

Loving her gifts :)

Christmas Cookie TIME!

Life is changing a bit around here. Jenessa (the little girl we have had here 4 days a week for the last 3 1/2 years) has just started kindergarten at the public school. This is a good and bad thing. Good because I am more free to focus on teaching our own kids, as well as getting involved in an extracurricular activity some afternoon if we want. Bad because that was some income for us. Also bad in a small way because Isaiah thinks some amazing, spectacular things are going on in that class down at the school and now wants to go - so I need to help the kids through their loneliness for their missing friend by crafts, activities and just being a fun wonderful Mom!!! (I say that kind of as a joke to myself because I am not always the most fun to be around on those stressful days that are constantly full of children).
So I said, hey kids do you want to make some yummy Christmas cookies for everyone?




Now will my family actually eat them after being handeled by a couple of kids???


This picture made me laugh - oh the thoughts that can be expressed by a look :)

Some more random pictures to try and bring myself some sunshine on this rainy day.

The kids are so proud of the great sand castle they made with Grandma and Grandpa who seem to be avoiding the camera

The guys watching last nights Boise State game

I had put the kids to bed, then after a few minutes I heard Isaiah sneak into his sister's room and ask if he could read her a story...this is how I found them

Below is a picture of the youth group harvest party from last week...this is right before the pie eating contest...there are no pictures from after sadly, but I had to run into the other room and grab a garbage bag...just in case someone had problems

Below is a quick picture of the teens getting ready to play the hit game of the summer 'smash face' (with a volleyball)

Emmy and Aunt Leanne on a babysitting night i think

Isaiah's serious soccer game face

Us girls

The Weekend is Beautiful

This is how I looked most of the week...two kids on my lap, reading or trying to help one stop crying. They are actually smiling in this picture, so let's pretend it was how they were the rest of the week too :)

Then they recovered, but not enough to visit anyone's house for candy (which was fine with me). They had a blast on Saturday pretending to be a dinosaur and puppy. It was noisy, but the good kind.

Treasure Hunt

My family set up a small treasure hunt for the kids on Saturday. They have been sick with the flu for the past week so I know the kids were excited to actually leave the house and do something fun. It sure is hard to have sick kids and encourage them to do something else other than want to watch tv. I am so glad they are better...and I didn't get it...yet.

so here are some pictures of the hunt:

Mommy reading the clues

Running to the apple tree clue

Entering the corn patch to look for the "X"

Unknowingly flinging wet dirt in all directions, including Grandma, Leanne, and eachother

Digging up the hole

Deeper

Deeper (Emmy is helping a lot with the dirt as you can see)

FOUND IT! The kids thought it was amazing...so easy to please :)

Pumpkin Carving Fun

Yes we all know it has been raining around here...so here are some indoor fort pictures from last week. This week I have box boats that the kids are climbing around in. Anything to keep them busy :)

Took a while, but the kids got into it and had ewwy gooey fun. And made a bit of a mess for Mommy to clean up I might add!

Not sure why the others are so blurry, but here is Isaiah giving an a ok? mad at the pumpkin look? I am not sure

We found out how serious Daddy is about the pumpkin carving stuff too - it is very serious :)

Can you believe I still do these things?

2 weekends ago, Kara and I drove down to Portland for the day. Multnomah was having their alumni week so i decided to play in the alumni vs the current volleyball team. It was tons of fun to see everyone who came and to play volleyball in an actual gym again, but the fact that I am still sore says to myself that i am getting old and if I ever want to do that again...I better get in better shape so I can actually walk the week after, the children do need someone to look after them you know?

At first Alan said "Wow this is a great picture, I didn't know you could still jump like that!". How nice of him right? :) He was just kidding, and even though someone sent me this picture I put it up on our computer, it is obvious I think that I must have missed the ball :) Anyway, here's to Multnomah Univiersity!(they call it now) at least the gym is still the same

And here are the rest of the bday pictures...plus some Boise too!

Girl Cousins ;)

Boy Cousins

Emery

Isaiah checking out his cake on his new scooter... a helmet it worn from then on :)

Buzz Light year cake