Winter Storm

Apple picking with Hailey at our neighbors house and then again with all of the kids on Friday at another friends house. This is just the apples from the our neighbors house. We will be making lots of applesauce this weekend. 

Stetson saw a great recipe at my husbands office so we picked up a few groceries and came home and he made us a most delicious lunch. The recipe is called "Hibachi Steak Lettuce Wraps" however we chose to switch the beef for shrimp and it was amazing!

We are getting ready for Halloween over here with some pre dress up parties and poses. I don't know that this is what we will be but at least we know these are options.     

We lost our pie eating cherry tree this last week in the storm. We are sad to lose any trees but had no clue that this one was even weak. We have seen so many trees broken and down. We took three trailer loads to the green waist. The kids were so great about helping us on Saturday with lots of yard clean up, tree chopping and pruning. We haven't even started on our leave clean up, yet! 

 

Fall Colors

The majority of the family went for a Sunday drive though the canyon and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors. 

Lots of pictures were requested because mom wanted to go but couldn't. She went to the ER to pick up her father and then took him though a drive through for lunch. Stetson came with mom and all others went with Dad.  There was lots of helping Grandpa these last few weeks as he is starting to recover from Pneumonia and regain his strength. 

 

Little Piggy

Evelyn and Stetson in the middle with Hailey close in pink and Bristol with her back to us. 

Ezra doing a great job balancing and munching on his lunch! 

Last week before Co-op started we went to the Smithfield skate park and eat lunch. The kids also spent some time on their scooters and enjoyed the adventure park. I was so thankful that no one got hurt while we were there. 

Unfortunately our luck was not kept all day. Not long after starting class at Co-op Ezra was running across the class room when a ball rolled in front of him. Whether he was trying to kick the ball or jump on the ball I am not certain but he fell and he fell so hard that you could hear his brain raddle and he was not the same after. He most assuredly sustained a concussion. 

Thankfully his Dad is a Chiropractor and he knows how put the atlas bone back in after such a traumatic trauma.  I have such great appreciation for what my husband does. I know we could have had a very bad situation if not for his knowledge.  

One of the momma pigs feeding her piglets.

Ezra watching the other group of pigs! 

Thankfully Ezra is back to normal although as parents we are watching over him pretty closely still trying to prevent any additional trauma to his head. 

Every Thursday after we drop Evelyn off at her violin lessons we drive past this house with these new baby piglets. Finally we have pictures to go with our fun discovery. Ezra and I really enjoyed watching them and playing with the dog who also lives there. We love life and the beauty of each animal. 

With rain and cooler weather on the way we have harvested our garden are putting away our bounty. 

 

More Pumpkin Patch

 

Daddy felt like we needed even more quashes so he took some helpers and went back out. 

We do enjoy our squash. We are harvesting our garden and other friends grapes and apples in preparation to make grape juice and applesauce. We sure do enjoy the harvest season and all the amazing produce that can be grown in a summer. 

Pumpkin Patch

The whole family helped to harvest squash and pumpkins for Halloween and to eat throughout the winter. We are big fans of squash. 

Friends were showing us there dog, donkey, goats, pigs, cows and fruit trees. The kids were loving all the animals and the farm experience. 

This little goat doesn't know what is good for her and she keeps getting her head stuck in the fence. I and one of our friends were able to free her. Ezra was very concerned for the goat. 

This little park is in the town of Paradise, Utah and we go there  every week why Evelyn goes to her violin lessons. Stetson taught me a bit about Pickleball, the kids played on the slides and swung on the swings. The weather was a little cold at first but warmed up as the day went on. 

Evelyn has struggled to get back into a good practice pattern but I think that she has finally turned a page and has practiced 3 days in a row. 

Stetson and Hailey started piano lessons this week and they are off to a good start. 

Co-op is fun and we are getting lots of time with new and old friends. 

Evelyn is really enjoying gymnastics and loves that she gets to go with friends. She also loves to teach her siblings what she learns in class each week. 

 

Cousins Wedding

 

This is our family in front of the Pocatello Temple. We were so excited to get out of the car on our way home from Teton Idaho. We were surprised by the kindness of a lady who jumped out of her car and asked if she could take the picture for us. I love the kindness of others. 

Sage is now married and this is the inside of the tent were the reception was held. Unfortunately the weather and wind did not know about the family request for good weather. At least the rain held off until the next day. 

All of the girls helped me as we prepared the flowers for the entire wedding. It was a lot of fun to teach and create for loving family.  

Travel was short and school still happened. 

Homecoming

We looked outside our front door one Thursday and saw all of the high school marching band walking in front of our house. So i gathered up the kids and we went to the homecoming parade that started two blocks from our house. They threw out way too much candy!

Evelyn turned ten on September 3rd and she really wanted to invite all of her friends over for a royal princess party. This picture was taken as they were all going on a scavenger hunt to find the treasure, Evelyn's gift's to her friends. 

Dressing up is a regular activity in our house. 

All school activities are now going in full swing. 

Stetson is really liking his Rocket class and the opportunity it gives him to show off to his friends and entertain his siblings. 

 

Labor Day Weekend

So these kids have an awesome Dad who loves to go to new places. He planned a great trip to Louis Lake in WY. We saw a lot of nothing on the way to a beautiful mountain cabin retreat. 

On the way to our cabin we stopped in a very small town in WY called Farson where we met this famous owl 'Hoot" he has been in over 125 movies including the Harry Potter series. 

We payed to have our picture with him. 

The really cool part of our trip is that all of these kids grandparents were with us. We did some boating, hiking, genealogy, fishing, camp fires, Dutch oven cooking, knitting, church, swinging and exploration. We love getting away as a family and destressing in a new environment. 

Summer Fun

Bubble fun

Dress up

Grandma's 70th birthday party

Growing sunflowers in our Garden

Hair chalk and girl friends

Our Garden

Ballet Lessons by big sister Evelyn

 

School Stuff

 Evelyn has really enjoyed Soccer. She is doing really well this year with her all girls team and they are really starting to get the team effort thing.  Reading is finally not a struggle and she  actually starting to enjoy it and do it for fun.  Math has been a journey and we are still learning. violin has been amazing she is really talented and I hope that she will continue to develop this talent. 

Hailey is pretty funny to watch with Soccer. Often times she holds back and stays in the defense position and chews on her nails. Her dad once asked her why she doesn't play more aggressive and get the ball to the goal more often and she said "Because I want the other girls to have fun and have a turn." She is a very thoughtful girl and a great friend. she is really good at math although some concepts take time for to grasp and more direct attention. Isn't that us all though. She is really progressing with reading and writing and I am pleased with her progress this year. 

Stetson is doing the play "The Ordinary Princess" his character is High Lord Chamberlain and the practices are taking up  a lot of his time. He is really doing well and we are excited for this weekends performances. Soccer is fun but Stetson is the smallest on the team and doesn't usually play as hard as the others. He is thinking he will train a s a ref this summer so he can earn money this fall. Math is going well he is doing his assignments. Grammar has been skipped a bit but he always does his cursive. I hope that very soon Stetson will be more excited to learn. 

Spring

Iris plants in blooming!

Garden tilled and manure unloaded.

Cabbage, broccoli & cauliflower plants to put into our garden. 

We raked the remainder of the leaves  and branches out of our yard this weekend, took a load of green waist and we got three loads of manure for our garden.  There are plenty more things that we need to get done in are yard but it is fun to have warm weather and be outdoors once again. 

 

Spring Break

We made Chocolate chip cookies, posted the recipe on Mom's food blog and shared them with a kind neighbor who served us, as well as Grandpa who visits daily.     

The girls and Stetson's friend Owen dressed Stetson up. 

He is a Rapscallion hula dancing Storm trooper!!! 

We went to visit cousins and Evelyn got a few new gently used cloths. 

This outfit was one of her favorite!

Grandpa, 6 Cousins and an Aunt joined us on a 3 mile Ridgeline hike. Grandpa did great considering he was in the hospital recovering from a stole this time last year. 

 

Easter was fun with lots of yummy treats, eggs full of money and a hunt. Some got scooters the others Lego's. All enjoyed their surprises!!!

We didn't truly take a spring break because we've had so many visitors in the last month. The girls still did math and grammar each day and Stetson started to truly work on his online Adobe class. We all watched some of the video's with him like "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.