Tearin' It Up in Idaho

Levi and Carter playing on an old grain tractor

 As most of you know, Bryan reclaims wood from old barns, and makes beautiful furniture out of it.  He found a barn in Idaho and has been working on getting it torn down.  Some friends of ours the Stonehouse's came up one Saturday to help.  The kids were able to hang out on the beautiful property as the guys worked on the barn, and I was able to chat with Annette.

Hailey and Katie

The boys brought their dirt bikes and were able to ride for a bit

Levi, Makia, Carter and Lucas

The boys had a blast building forts

 It was pretty cool to watch Duane and Bryan get this big wall down!

Halloween 2013

We had the opportunity to go to the American West Heritage Centers Fall Harvest...

They have all sorts of fun activities.  The funniest part of the night was when we did the corn maze.  We all got terribly lost, and so Bryan pulled out the map and started leading us out of the maze (or at least trying!).  As people noticed that he "acted" like he knew where he was going, we started to get quite a large group following behind us. They would see other "lost" people and say "Oh this guy knows where he is going, follow along!"  There were probably 50 people! It took probably about 45 minutes for Bryan to get us out of that thing, and as we exited, everyone behind us cheered.

They put tarps on a big hill for sliding down... Hailey thought it was awesome to go down on Dads back!

 Target practice...

 Shooting Gourds...

 Hailey got tired. Carter offered to carry her, so cute!  Sometimes they do get along ;)

 This was after attending a Fall Harvest party at our church.  My brother Glen and his family joined us.  It was fun to get some time to hang out with them!  Hailey dressed as something different for each party we attended!  This day she was a witch.  She sure does love her daddy!

 Carters Wolf Costume

 We also went down to Layton one evening to join my parents at their local Junior High for a Fall Festival.  

 My brother joined us with my two nieces Izzy and Alivya and we also brought our friends Mark and Hannah from home

 This skeleton guy is really cool.  He is on a wheelchair and is controlled by a remote.  One person controls his movement, and another guy controls his voice.  Alivya was a little creeped out!

From left to right: Izzy, Hailey, Alivya & Scott, Mark, Skeleton, Carter and Hannah

 Apparently running  around Grandpa to get our energy out is fun...

 Hailey dressed as a kitty for her dance class...

 Hailey had the opportunity to perform some fun Halloween dances for us...

 She did such a good job and was so stinkin' cute!

 Helping with the MANY MANY leaves in our yard...

 Carving Pumpkins...

 Bryan and I helped with Carters Halloween Party at school.  He is in the fourth grade and I struggled trying to come up with a cool craft that they wouldn't think was nerdy since they are getting older.  This is what I came up with: Blow up balloons, put glow sticks inside, and draw faces on them.  They were a hit, and lots of the kids said it was their favorite activity....whew.... I think I passed :)

We turned off the lights so they could all see if their balloons glowed.  You can't really see it in the picture, but it looked really cool!

 Mrs. Caziers 4th Grade

Carter is in the green shirt.  He was dressed in his karate uniform, but took off the shirt, because his classroom was pretty warm

 Sillies....

 Halloween Night..

Carter and Dad are Wolves, I am the Grandmother, and Hailey is Little Red Riding Hood

 Those wolves were pretty hungry...

 This wolf likes to eat rocks...

 Hailey, Kat (a friend who came along and was not feeling so well, poor girl), and Carter

One of the neighbors had a fire going, and let the kids roast marshmellows.  They also had hot chocolate, what a great idea!

Hailey's 1st Tooth

 

Hailey lost her 1st tooth the other day.  I can't believe my baby is already losing teeth, she's getting too big!

Saying Goodbye to Shelby, and Our New Additions

 We had to say goodbye to our sweet kitty Shelby a few weeks ago.  We were lucky to have her in our family for 12 years, and she will be greatly missed.  She got really sick over a weekend and first thing Monday morning we took her in.  They put her in an incubator because she was struggling to breathe.  We did several tests to figure out what was wrong, but she wasn't able to pull through and passed away late that night.

We brought her home so that we could bury her in our backyard, next to our other beloved cat Xena.

 

 We decorated her box with love

She was always so tolerant as Hailey would dress her up.  Sweet Shelby was buried with this crown on her head.

Josie after her bath

 We boo hooed for several weeks and decided we needed to adopt another kitty to love.  We were set on getting a maine coon cat because that's what Shelby was and she was the most affectionate cat we have had.  We found a brother and sister maine coon that are 6 months old, and instantly fell in love.

Hailey and Josie

Josie and Jarvis

 Josie was found as a kitten with a broken tail, but it doesn't seem to bother her.  She is definitely more affectionate and sweet.  Jarvis is a little trouble maker and loves to play.  I think it will be fun to have such different personalities!

I believe this is Josie, but its hard to tell!

Snowbird 2013

This was our 3rd year attending the Octorberfest up at Snowbird Resort.  We had a good time, but it's a little bitter sweet for us.  We were expecting our third baby, and Snowbird is where we decided to tell the kids.  We came up with a fun treasure hunt of clues and the kids had a ball running around the hotel finding each one.  Sadly, we ended up miscarrying about a week later at 11 weeks. I was pretty sick with the pregnancy, so I couldn't do some of the rides that I normally do, but it was fun to watch the fam have a good time!  I am feeling a lot better now, have my appetite back, and am back into the swing of life.  Emotionally doing well, but have some hard days when I think about how far along I would be.  We were touched to have so many friends and family reach out in prayer and bringing meals through the couple months of me being sick and then through the recovery of losing the baby.  We feel so blessed to have such amazing family, friends, and church family!

Hailey on the trampolines..

 Carter and Dad riding the lift...

 Riding the Slide... Carter is old enough to go by himself, so Hailey took turns riding with myself and Dad

 The view for our hotel room was beautiful!

We tried to get a decent picture of all of us, but didn't do so well!!

 We just gave up and got a little silly!

The pool was right below our room, so I snagged a picture of the boys swimming.  Hailey and I hung out in the room since Mama wasn't feeling so good.  

 The ropes course...

 This is the first year that we have gone up, and there has been snow on the ground!  Most of it was melted, but the kids had fun throwing some snow balls!

 The balloon man was there as always and made Hailey a dog on a leash, and Carter a Bazuka