Trick or Treat!

We love Halloween around here. But then, what's not to love about carving pumpkins, dressing up, and getting free candy?!

Mom's famous Halloween bash!

We look forward to this amazingly spooky and fun party all year.  Mom is the absolute best party planner and I love how she is so passionate about holidays.  We are so lucky to have such a fun Grammy!!

Pumpkin Patch

Ian and I tagged along on Nyah's preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch.  It was a lot of fun and I got some cute pictures of my two littlest sweethearts!

LOVE this picture!

Thiiiiiis big!!!

One day we were having dinner out on our patio when the kids found a little spider.  As they were all talking about it, the story became more and more animated, especially when Ian started to exclaiming how BIG the spider was!  Eric and I were laughing so hard I had to get the camera to record it.  When I asked How big was the spider again? He stretched his arms as far apart as they would go and insisted: THIS BIG!!!  He was so serious! I had to take a picture of the tiny spider to illustrate how funny it was. What a funny little dude he is!

summer fun!

This summer was so fun! We had so much sunshine, so many fun family vacations, and lots of trips to the water park and aquarium. But best of all was the fun we had at home! Gabe and Nyah always had something wonderfully creative to play and ended up outside every single day with Cole and Mason, our great next door neighbors.  One day I spotted them down the street under a tree and walked down with otter pops to investigate... they were camping they said! And playing Uno in the shade. It was so cute!  There were a lot of discoveries of bugs as well this summer... as long as it wasn't a spider, Nyah had no problem holding it.  She is braver than I!  The best was when she rescued a beautiful butterfly (her words... it was really a little moth) from Denali's water dish.  She was so worried about it's broken wing. She sang to it for an hour at least, songs about how Jesus would heal it's wing.  It was so adorable.  We even found a praying mantis one day and all of us took a turn letting is crawl up our arm. It was a little unnerving but thrilling at the same time! (Gotta think and feel like a kid sometimes... it's fun!) We went to Highland Days with the cousins and the kids got to be in a bike race by age. It was so fun to watch them racing along on their bikes - they both did really well, Nyah even won second! We LOVE the summer time and we LOVE living in Utah!!

"Camping!"

look at that monster grasshopper!

Hiking to Lake Mary (Ian was there too!)

The rescued "butterfly"

On your marks, get set, GO GABE!!!

Nyah on the podium accepting her prize!

Happy birthday to me...!

Amy and I shared our birthday celebration this year and it was so fun! Mom and Dad hosted a bbq and Eric provided a lovely cake.  (He may not have baked it but he personally decorated it!) And my cute kids made me darling home-made cards that I will treasure. It is so wonderful to be with extended family on these fun days. I have missed this!!  The next week we got together with Eric's family and Cheryl made me a darling purse cake... she is so talented!

The birthday girls!

I am loved!

view from the back... so cute!

Goblin Valley

On the way home from Lake Powell we stopped off to see Goblin Valley.  It was amazing! The rock formations are so interesting - and the size and scope of it all is awesome.  It's like a maze in there... we want to come back some day properly prepared with good shoes and lots of water and really explore!

Lake Powell in July

Matt & Amy and Mindy & Griff bought a boat this year and they invited us to Lake Powell with them! Woohoo! It was so much fun with all that tubing, wake boarding, even surfing... plus lots of beach time and cliff jumping - all with our family! Gabe and Nyah had so much fun playing with their cousins every day, all day.  It was genuinely a blast. Gotta love GORGEOUS Lake Powell!!

Nyah, Gage, Amy having fun swimming

Time to relax on the beach

snack time!!

That's Gabe!!! He was so brave!

Eric and I getting ready to jump

My boys on the boat

Our whole family tubing together!!

Ian and Gage could've just dug in the sand all day

The Daddies throwing the boys!

Our beach spot

The kids doing their wake board starter-thing

Look at those cliffs!

Jack, Gabe, Wesley - our little mountain goats. They swam over there and then started climbing straight up!

Nyah and Ririe - our two sweet girls

Me attemping to surf...!

Ian sucked his thumb during tubing... who does that?!

This may have been right before Eric leaped off the back of the boat at the boys - surprised us all! What a crazy Dad!!