Happy Halloween 2012

 My very creative sister and her family

Our much needed Saturday

We woke up last Saturday morning and just went with our bad self...... no plan.... nothing on our to do list.... just decided to take a drive to Heber and have some lunch. Mikes family is good at stuff like that, they just go for drives. Driving to me has always just been a means to an end. But Mike enjoys a nice drive, so a drive we did.

I always have to zoom in on this little smiley butt

then on our way back we decided to pull over and see what there was to see. Ivan can not get enough of this stuff. His happy, macho side kicks into gear and he charges around the hills like he owns them.

found a little trail and hiked it. Ivan in the lead at all times

My shoes, the worst for a hike, oh well

Then we went home and I went out alone and made a nice dent in our Christmas shopping. 

I guess it was so nice cuz I feel like I'm always chipping away at this to do list and even though we try to do some fun things, when we plan ahead it for some reason still mentally fills like another thing on the list. I dunno, it was just a nice day.

New Knee

Did you know that boys have 3 knees? A right knee, a left knee and weenie.

It's ok, I can write that cuz grandpa Ivan told us that when I was little and I'm sure he wouldn't tell us something we couldn't repeat!

Well my mother in law got her a new knee a couple weeks ago. The right knee to be more specific. We are so happy and hope it makes such a big difference for her.

My mom lucked out and got the best mother in law when she got married. I now feel the same way. This women is exceptional! She has been in pain for a long time with this bad knee, but you would never hear a word of complaint. I love her dearly and am so grateful for all I learn from her. Mike doesn't know this, but I married him for his mom! ;)

Steve and Jen came from Idaho and stayed the week after the surgery and took great care of her.

just a closer look at that cute face

and a little uncle Steve time

This here is an infamous table. I can't tell you how many pictures have been taken around that table over the years. One for each grand kid, each bday since they were born. Great tradition! Great family!

Ms. Krispy's

Last year we had a successful round of playgroup/preschool for Ivan. I actually had a lot of fun doing it. He wasn't really interested at that point, but it was fun letting the boys get together and play and it was actually fun having to prepare some activities for them. A friend in the neighborhood runs a little preschool in her home, so this year we are having him go there. Her name is Kristi. When Ivan was little he called her Krispy. Then last week when I dropped him off, Jack called her that. 

Ivan and Jackson. First day of school

Jackson did our little playgroup thing last year so it's nice they know each other. Ivan needs that

Looking for his name 

Picking him up.

It's been fun so far. Since it's so close we get to ride bikes to school.

And we get to go on field trips. We went to this darling little play, "Flat Stanly" a couple weeks ago. When we got there and in our seats I panicked, "what the heck am I doing here by myself with 3 kids? Both Jack and the baby on my lap. A quiet, crowded space. But they did great. They both just sat on my lap and watched. Thank goodness. Hopefully that means field trips to come will be doable.

Ivan just can't get enough of Maybell.......

So naturally he wanted to bring her for show and tell. Look at that happy little look he has

It's fun having him in school. He's grown up so much in the last little bit.

Soccer

Ivan's pretty athletic. I know, I know,  everyone thinks that about their own kid ;) but he really does have some natural athleticism. (is that a word?). He has just loved anything sports since he was born. If I remember right, his first word was ball. The next was BYU touchdown. He throws a pretty mean spiral (football) and can dribble and shoot a basketball (in a regular hoop) pretty dang good. I guess I really don't have anything to compare him to, but we sure think he's exceptional. Soooo we've been anxious to get him on some little sports team to see how he does. He has the talent, but at the same time he is very reserved and so we wondered how he would do.

Alas, soccer season came. We signed up through the county, but they can lump you with people in your same area so it turned out that all 8 boys are in our neighborhood and the 2 coaches are also our neighbors.

I about beat Ivan the first day of practice. Of course he wouldn't go out and join them. He used his whiny of all whiny voices to talk, or make grunting sounds as he hid behind my leg. Before it all started the coach sent out an email with friendly reminders about how we should remember that they are 4 and that we should always be supportive, etc.... I couldn't agree more, until I went to that practice. How easily I forgot his age and how to be encouraging. I wanted to get mad and tell him we'd just go home then and he wouldn't play. I didn't say what I was thinking thank goodness. After watching each kid VERY intently and soaking in EVERYthing that was going on he finally went out there. He had to have Micah come take him by the hand and lead him out, but he went out. But then he got running and his shoe came off. Oh my word you would have thought his whole foot had been torn off! He ran off the field in tears and it took a bit to get him back out there. Anyway- it was what it was....

 The first few games and practices he would not leave Micah's side. He wasn't watching the ball, only Micah. He'd be running fast down the field and the ball would end up right in front of him and all the sudden he'd stop and look for Micah and run over and follow him. Kinda frustrating too.

 Buuuut, it didn't take long and he got himself right in there! He gained his confidence and he did awesome! It was so fun to watch him. I just loved his coaches. They were soooo good with the boys. You don't keep score when they are this little, however I'm pretty sure all the parents know exactly who won each game. We really did have a good little team and they probably lost one or two of the 8 games. There were lots of goals made and each kid on the team had their share of making them.

We are done for now, but have 8 more games in the spring. Can't wait!

Sorry, I know my last few posts are not that entertaining. It's more just for documentation sake.  For the past few months I've been thinking, "oh man, I have got to get on that blog and update our summer." Turns out there aint much to update. I feel like we've been soooo busy, however as I review, I'm not sure what we've been busy with. And we really haven't done any super exciting things this summer. I think every day is super exciting, but you know what I mean. I don't have any trip to Africa to blog about. 

Every month or so my family tries to get together for a combined FHE. My brothers kids are Catholic, so it's a fun way for us to help them learn a little bit about the church. They are usually pretty last minute and low key. Except this one.  I decided to have them all out to our house to do some of the games we did at our primary activity this summer. It was fun. We just had different stations to rotate to. At each one we told about a scripture hero and how they chose the right. Not this one, it's just musical sponges.

 David and Goliath- who could throw the wet sponge the farthest

 See the sponges flailing all over the place.... except for Ivan's blue one, in a straight line, straight in front of him. It didn't land the farthest, but I'd say that was a very nice, straight throw.

 Noah's ark. Rained 40 days and 40 nights.

(the buckets have tiny holes in the bottom so it's like rain coming out)

 Samuel the Lamanite, on the wall, getting shot at

 Jonah and the whale. They are in the whale/pool and they had to dive for shark fruit snacks

 Jack and Jared found fun in squirting Saul

(That's his name, it's not another scripture story)

 My mom.... watering the dead spots in our grass

Trip #5 and final one this year

The unfortunate thing about our trips to the cabin this year is that Mike and I didn't get to be there at the same time much. That's not ideal for us, however during this building time we just have to do what we can do. He went once as a quick trip just to help and we stayed home. And then the couple times we went he couldn't leave work so he didn't go. This weekend he did another quick trip without us to help on the cabin. So here is the progress this summer.....  This is where we started in June

And this is a picture he took this weekend. I think for 5 guys doing it all on their own, that's pretty great progress in 5 months. My brother and brother in law were able to help quite a bit, but my dad has been doing a lot on his own too.

And since you don't find Mike much in the other posts, I've dedicated a section here ;)

We love our dad