Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope your day was as nice as ours was.

  Scottie wanted the turkey leg and you would be surprised at how much he managed to eat of it.

The “adult table” I am sure everyone will hate this one.

We love pie!

Just Like Riding a Bike

About three weeks ago Scottie learned to ride his bike without training wheels.  He was about as proud of himself as they come.  We were proud of him too.  Here he is in all of his four year old glory.

       

Happy Halloween

We had a frightful time on Halloween night. 

   

We carved a pumpkin after church.              Scottie put on his costume shortly thereafter and remained a “space man” the rest of the night.

        

We had a family dinner and the cousins all came in costume.  Check out our vampire, spaceman, Captain America, camouflage diva, and Superman.

   

I stuffed James into a lion costume, much to his chagrin, but once he got outside and got some candy, he cooled off. 

   

Thanks for the fun cousins!  We miss you already.

Congratulations Josh and Katie!

While in Washington, we drove over to Spokane for Dear Josh and Katie’s wedding.  It was fabulous and we were glad we could be a part of it.

    

They drove away then back again in an amazing old fashioned car which Scottie and James had to check out before they came out of the temple.

   

What a happy beautiful couple.  Congratulations guys, we love you!

Four is a BIG Number

Scottie is a big boy now.  He can write his own name.  He can dress himself (we don’t mind that his shirt is often inside out or backwards).  He is a super kind older brother and rarely tries to harass James.  He loves school.  We are sure glad he is around.  We got to go for a visit to Seattle and were there on his birthday.  What a party!

        

Grandpa took him on a motorcycle ride and he told me he wasn’t even scared.

We went to the park.

Grandma let him decorate his own racecar birthday cake.

We had a party with the cousins.  His older cousin shares a birthday and turned 8!  Scottie looks a little sad in this picture because there was a little candle blowing out mishap but we had an excellent time.  To top off the evening we got to go spend the night at some favorite cousins house and have a yummy dinner.  What a day. 

Scottie’s Early Birthday Party

Since we are going to be in Seattle next week, we decided to have an early birthday party for Scottie.  After the nearly 80 degree weather all last week we decided to have it outside but were surprised this week with amazingly powerful thunderstorms and rain, and then yesterday was the coldest day we have had this fall.  All the kids were bundled up though and had an amazing time. 

9 little boys made it to the party.  So we had 11 little boys (counting James) running around eating pizza, and raising a ruckus, and a couple little sister siblings.  Luckily the moms stayed around too.

We had a ghost pinata which left the kids with way too many treats.  With the padded bat, they were unsuccessful beating the life out of the poor ghost so eventually after the pinata fell from its rope a few times we switched tactics.

James had a blast eating way too many treats.  I think he is on treat probation.

They all had a blast and went home with chocolate faces from these little owl babies I made.

Happy fourth birthday Scottie!  We love you!

My Birthday

This year was a great one for celebrating birthdays.  Hyrum had the Friday off beforehand so we headed an hour north to the Jemez mountains to camp.  Unfortunately my camera was out of juice so I only got a few pictures but it really was quite spectacular.  I didn’t expect it to be so pretty.  It looked sort of like Twin Lakes, for those of you who are in the know there (ie my family) or say, Northern Idaho, but with interesting rock formations.  We had a ton of fun but didn’t get a lot of sleep.  Scottie kept saying how much fun he was having, it was really cute.  We roasted dogs and smores, slept in a tent, and went fishing, wading, and hiking the next day, what could be better?  Also, did I mention that it was the 15th and 16th of October and the weather was amazing and was only cold in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning.  We all stayed relatively warm in our tent though. 

w

We all had a nap on the drive home except poor Hyrum. 

Saturday night Hyrum took me out to dinner, which was delicious, but we were so tired we came home at 8:15 so our baby sitter didn’t have to stay up too late that Saturday.  Sunday, my real birthday, Hyrum made me breakfast, then Scottie, James, and Hyrum made dinner and a cake after church. 

Here they are working their magic.

After dinner we went to the park.  Notice the shorts, it was 78 degrees at 4pm when we went there.  For all of you Seattlites, I miss you and Washington terribly, but 78 degrees on October 17th?  I could get used to that.  We had a blast pushing the boys down a little hill in their dump trucks.  They loved it, and we thought it was hilarious, so all in all, it was a good day. 

Scottie takes a ride down the hill.

James’ turn.

What we do of a Sunday Afternoon

I love living near the mountains. We are literally minutes to nice little hikes where we can get up and do some "rock climbing" with the boys. They love it. It is what we do most Sunday afternoons lately.

Scottie showing his cool rocks. He finds plenty of cool things most times and my pockets are laden until I start "accidentally" dropping some of them.

James demonstrating his climbing prowess on this impressive foot high rock. Also in the back is the chola cactus. We have all come home with several "pokeys" in our hands, feet, and yes once in our tongues (Hyrum was eating the inside of a prickly pear fruit and missed a few spikes).

We do get to climb some big rocks too and the view is great. Come and visit us. We miss you.

Expert

We enlisted John, the sprinkler, moisture sensor expert to come help us with our new backyard over labor day. He was such a good sport. He worked tirelessly on Saturday from sun-up to much beyond sun-down, with us as his less than skillful "crew." He also patiently played with his adoring fan, Scott, all day Sunday. What a guy.

Putting in our new system.

In front of the mission church in Old Town on Sunday afternoon.

We also took a ride on the tram on Sunday.

We enjoyed hiking up on top. Thanks for coming out John. We had a great time!

Lake Cochita

We missed going to the lake so much that we drove 45 minutes with some friends here to a little, slightly murky reservoir. It was a lot of fun. It did the trick though I was wishing for it to be a little closer to home.

Digging in the sand with James.

Scottie and James soaking.