Thanksgiving

This year we had family from both sides of the family in town, so we split our time between both. My brother Jesse came home from Utah. These are my 3 brothers. 

Kevin, Paul & Jesse. My dad is in the picture below.

 Love Amber in this one. She is a very smiley baby. 

And below are the cousins, Joel and Drew. 

I hope these boys stay close. 

 We went bowling with Nate's brothers and families. 

Here is Braden and his girl friend, Pam. They stayed with us while they were here.
And then below, my sister in law Mickie, and her twin Suzanne and their little girls.

 Kay bounced all the kids on her knees. She probably got in a good leg workout while bowling.

Loved Kay's reaction to her bowl. 

I am actually in a picture! My camera is not real easy for a rookie photographer, so these were the only 2 that turned out of me.

 The we went to the church afterwards to play Cricket. No one really knew if that was the right name for the game. But that is what we will call it. 

 Pretty fun game.

 Even easy enough for a kid to figure out. 

Fashionista

Found Ashlyn like this one morning. Love her style.

Swimming some more

We needed something for the kids to do, so we did some more swim lessons. Tanner, Dallin and Ashlyn all started out doing them. Ashlyn was traumatized the first day, so she dropped out. We will try again in the summer.

 The boys are pretty confident swimmers now.

Canon ball!

Amber is 5 months

Well, that last month passed quickly! Too quickly. 

Amber is such an easy going baby! I take her to the gym with me, but she can't stay in the child watch, so she comes with me to class and sits an entire hour, quietly. Everyone in class is amazed. I am so grateful. Having 4 kids is a breeze with a baby like her.

 She is rolling over, and making lots of noise, and bubbles. She is quick to smile, and laugh.

Natural Talent

Dallin has always been good at drawing and he is one of the most particular colorers I know; always in the lines. At the library today the boys found some books that show step by step how to draw some of the characters in the book. 

Ok, so these are not perfect, but they are in pen! That is impressive. I know if many adults that couldn't  do this well. 5 year olds usually draw stick figures. 

Just felt like bragging a little. :)

The girls

Amber is moving around more these days. Grabbing things and rolling over and stuff. I took some pictures like these of Ashlyn too. Below is one of each of the girls. Ashlyn was about 3 months, and Amber is about 5. They do look similar, but as Amber gets older they are getting less and less similar, I think. 

Amber with her arm stuck under her after a roll. And this is Whitney. I think they are destined to be BFFs. 

Nate's (and Paul's) shelves + Dallin & Ashlyn

We have been wanting shelves for a really long time in our garage. Nate and my brother Paul built these a couple weekends ago. I love them! They did a great job, and hold pretty much everything in our garage.

I grabbed some quick shots of my kids when I was doing a photo shoot of my niece.

Project and the kids

I stared at this ledge in my living room for long enough. I finally did something with it! 

 I went around to craft stores and Ross looking for ideas. Everything I was looking at was expensive. So I handmade a lot of it. Found the quote on Pinterest and used some old pieces of fence my parents had to make it. The  thing made from branches was something I copied. Saw one at Ross for $30. $30 for sticks?!? I made mine from tree branches I found broken off a tree in the Wal Mart parking lot! I made Tanner get them and stick them in the car while I pretended not to be involved. Ha ha. 

The letter S I found at Crafter's Warehouse but it was $15 so I made my own out of some recycled boxes. Wrapped it in twine and called it good. The other pieces I bought on clearance, so really I didn't spend nearly as much as I could have.

Here are the kids, plus Paige and Ava who I babysit after school. They love to include Amber in their play. It is pretty cute. 

Nate had a project too. He and my brother Paul built shelves in our garage. We have wanted to do that for a long time too. I will post pictures soon about that.

Ashlyn is 3

Ashlyn really wanted a helmet for her birthday. She didn't ask for a bike, but we figured you can't have a helmet without a bike, so we got her both. Dora is her favorite right now, so it is all Dora. She is doing better than I expected. She rides it to the bus stop everyday to pick up the kids.

Happy Halloween!

Dallin asked me all day when it would be night so he could trick or treat. Then he kept telling me all night. "I LOVE Trick or Treating. This is so FUN!" Halloween was fun as a kid, but I have to say, I think I enjoy it even more having young kids. 

Dallin was a vampire, and really got into character. 

We borrowed this football uniform from a friend for Tanner.

Ashlyn started out as a bee, but we went to a party at Nate's work and they had face painting, and she got a bunny face painted on. Luckily we had bunny ears, so she switched to a bunny. No pictures, but she was cute.

And Amber was a pumpkin for a while, but you know how baby's are; poop and barf on everything, so she wore pajamas trick or treating and fell asleep.

 The kids trick or treated with their cousins, Joel and Drew again this year. And the older kids ran the entire night, no joke. We got through our neighborhood so fast.

Amber 4 months

First thing my grandma said when she saw Amber after not seeing her for 2 months was, "She eats well." In other words, she is getting fat. It is true, she is getting chubby. I love kissing these cheeks. She continues to be a happy, sweet baby.