Happy Halloween!

We love holidays at our house. Every October and November and December each of our family home evenings always end with some kind of holiday craft and treat. Last night the kids had a blast making treats and doing crafts. It will be so sad one day when the kids don't think that it's fun to make things like this. But for now here are some pictures of the fun .
Here are the kids and their cupcakes. They did a really good job. It was amazing to see the difference from last years cupcake FHE. I think last year they started to decorate one cupcake and half way through gave up and ate it. They did 4 or 5 each before eating began. Oh, how they are growing up ;O) We made Halloween countdowns! The kids had a blast and Noah and Emma did it almost on their own (just a bit of help getting tape). Libbie and Owen enjoyed telling mom and dad what to do and what color should go next. It was fun!

Here is Noah showing off his countdown.
And here is Emma doing the same
Here is Libbie with a cupcake she made.
Owen hard at work. (He ate the first cupcake he decorated)

Family Out Evening

We went ice blocking for family home evening yesterday. It was so much fun! The kids had a blast and no one went to the ER!
I tried to stand on Matt's back as we went down the hill. I did really well until Daren let go of my hand then I fell right on Matt, but we did make it to the bottom!
Emma loved it. She did really well, but sometimes the block was faster that she was!

Noah had the most fun out of the kids. By the end he was so tired. This is one of his last tries to get the block back up the hill.

Look at this man. Oh how I wish we were snowboarding right now! He made it all the way down the hill... what a man:o) Here is my try at it, I did not do as well as Matt did but I did much better last night then when we went with the Young Women a week ago, I fell right on my rear about one second into my fun.
This was Noah's first run. I don't think he knew just how fast it was going to go. This kid loves to move fast, and had a lot of fun doing it.
This was Matt's idea. It went great right up until they all crashed and Libbie and Owen started crying. For anyone out there who wants to try this with their family, first make sure you have medical and then put someone in the front who can put their feet down to brake!

Big boy

Here is my little Owen and Matt ready for church. He looks so grown up (I'm talking about Owen here). He has done a lot of growing up this week. He has moved from his toddler bed to a bunk bed. He was getting up all night long and started sleeping in Noah's bed, he is sleeping much better now!

Here he is in his bed!

Now that we have the bunk bed in there he has lots more room to play trains. He needed the room since Grandpa McMullin gave Noah and Owen every geo track set he could find :o)
I just loved his smile in this one (and I love little kids in stripes) it is just so cute!
We like to do arts and crafts around our house. Shaving cream is cheap and fun. We just spray it on the table sometimes and let the kids play. This day we put it in a bag and added gel food coloring and let the kids swirl it around with their fingers. Tons of fun... and easy to clean up!

We (well mostly me) have been crafting. I wanted to make these all summer long and as soon as it was a bit cooler outside I went to Lowes and bought the wood. Matt was going to cut the wood for me when he got home but I couldn't wait. I painted and sanded and then cut out the vinyl letters. It was fast cheap and fun!

Here is the set the table cart that I put together. We have had a paper one for a long time but this one should last a bit longer! We have date night at our house. Matt and I take turns having a 20 minute date with one of the kids after the other kids go to bed. I had a paper chart for this too, this one looks a lot better. (I think I have a thing for charts)

Here is another chart...or 4. My friend Lisa made chore charts for her kids and so she let me copy her. The kids love them... I'm not sure how they feel about the chores though:o)

First day of school, Libbie's birthday and fun all around :o)

We painted at Libbie's party here is a before and after of the mess! It went a lot better than I thought!
Here is Libbie opening up her presents. She was given 22 chapsticks for her birthday, because anyone who knows Libbie knows she loves chapstick! Grandma McMullin gave her some money in her birthday card and the first thing she says "can we go to the store and buy some chapstick" oh man! Painting and making crafts!
Libbie is now 4 but is still not much bigger than this balloon. I'm not sure why she isn't so big like her mom and dad :o)
This is Libbie's cake. In our house a month before a birthday a lot of time is spent thinking of what type of cake mom is going to make. I try to let them pick on their own... I have spent 4 hours making a cake before. This year Libbie wanted a beehive. It didn't take too long to put together so that made for a happy mommy!

Here Emma is showing Libbie where her hook at school is... they are so cute!
Libbie showing off her tiny toy puppy...

The picture below is Noah on the first day of second grade (or here he is on the first day of grade two for any of you canadian readers out there)

Emma on her first day of school. She is so grown up. She was so happy to go to school and Matt and I left her in her classroom a little sad but OK. When she got off the bus I cried. She was so big and it made me really miss the days when all my kids were at home and we played and had so much fun. Now half my kids are in school and life is very different. They grow up so fast!!

This is our first day of school cake. Here is my back to school crew. They are so cute. I make Matt get in the picture every year. He loves me so he sits there and smiles. Only one more of these picuters for him and he will be done!

My big grown up Noah at his desk. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside so you can all see how organized he is ( just like his Dad) I miss my big helper when he is gone. He is almost 8 and is getting ready to be baptized. It doesn't feel like long ago when Matt and I were driving home from the hospital with him in the back seat going 25 miles an hour so that we wouldn't wake him up.

Summer is almost done :o(

How sad that school starts next week and our staying out all day long is almost over. Noah and Emma are really looking forward to school, Matt on the other hand is not as excited! We've been doing a bunch of fun stuff, so here is a lot of pictures of all of it.

Emma has to take a stuffed animal every where she goes.
Here is our little family camping. You can't tell in this picture but we are SO dirty :o)
Here are our awsome neighbors. We had a blast with them. For going camping with 6 kids, and no one went to the ER I'd say we did really well. (I know that Matt and I aren't the tallest people in the world but man look how short we are:o)

I had to put this one on because if you know Owen you know how rare it is to see him clean!! So this is on here just so every one can see that it does happen... just not often!
Noah climbing again, he is getting the hang of it.
Libbie and Owen looking at a train. It is really far away but the kids love to look for it.
Here are the kids camping. This was about 10:30 at night. Libbie was tired but Owen who needs no sleep was still ready to go!

The kids love their sand box and now it is even better! We found blue sand at the store and it is a big hit. Just this morning Matt and I found blue sand in our bed, oh well it's still cool.
Here is a close up.
Libbie getting ready for a big swim. She looks like she should be in the olympics:o)
Matt has been paint balling with some guys from our apartments. Round two is Monday! Just to let you know it took a lot for me to get them to stand here for a picture. I think they thought that they were too manly to pose, but they are nice and let me get one picture for the blog :o)
Here is Owen just being a boy. He loves to drive his little truck in the back of his big one...So cute.

Here is Libbie holding Hannah our new little baby.

The kids at the parade.
Matt was able to baptize my nephew Jared. It was so neat to be there, and the kids thought it was pretty neat to watch their Dad baptize their cousin.

We were worried that Nick would have a hard time on the trip but as the picture shows he was very relaxed and happy on the drive! As long as that dog is with his family he is always happy.