Christmas Time!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!! Hope you all had a fun holiday. This is the crew- Mia as a Princess Fairy, Casey as Lord of the Underworld or Grimm Reaper and Aidan as SpiderMan.
The kids had a very fun time this year, although they're still somewhat slow trick-or-treaters. Mia was more interested in playing with each neighbors dogs/puppies than the actual candy.
I was able to go to Aidan's pre-school to help with his Halloween party and I can vouch that he had a fun-filled Halloween week!

Gardner's Village Outing

Wow, what a fun place. This was out first visit to Gardner's Village and I think we'll make it a yearly tradition. They had beautiful displays of 8 ft witches all around, up and down which kept the kids very entertained. My mom came with us, and got to hear all the accolades of Mia's cute costume that she made for her (isn't it gorgeous!! Thanks Mom!!). Grandma treated us to a cookie, and the weather was amazing. They had many fun, cute shops that I think I'll go back and visit with some girlfriends, as they aren't too kid friendly but look very fun for me. A very fun Fall Day!

Playing with friends during Fall Break

We were lucky enough to have our friends from Richfield come up and stay with us for a few days at the cabin. Cassie and her 3 kids: Kenady, Emry (cute little bum)and Treven. Mia was loving the baby, and we all loved playing together. We even got to go to the Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point and enjoyed a hay ride.

Aidan playing the guitar

Aidan singing his favorite song from Cars, and Mia singing background.

FHE at the Cabin

We got to spend some time with our cousin's Miriam and Ellie at the Cabin for FHE. Grandma provided a fun Halloween lesson with puppets. We always enjoy throwing sticks and rocks into the water, and Ellie is just always happy!

Happy Birthday Mia! #2

My sweet baby girl is now 2! I'm still having a hard time processing. She sure is fun, and is enjoying getting older, to be like her big brother Aidan.

Here is Mia doing her most favorite thing...READING! She loves books, and is frequently found in her bedroom entertaining herself. We love that she loves books, and hope it continues!

Day at the Park

One of our favorite places is Salem pond. We go there to feed the ducks and just enjoy the beautiful scenery. They have a fun playground, and a nice walking trail around the park. We like to go here in the winter just to get out of the house!

The Grotto

The Colors

Saturday we were lucky enough not to have plans and were able to go up the Canyon to enjoy the beautiful colors. We took some pictures of our friends, enjoyed some scenic views, and took a hike to the Grotto. A perfect hike for little kids. It contains several log bridges over the stream that they find fascinating. We had to take some pics of the kids, as they're growing up way too fast for us. They're in such a fun stage that we'd love them to stay in for awhile. But, I'm sure that more will come....right?

Cute Sayings

My kids say lots of cute things, and I need to write them down more often so that I remember them. Here are a few from today.

Aidan is asked what else he wants for breakfast "I only eat chocolate mommy," Dad had given him a granola bar earlier (with chocolate in it).

Our favorite "Aidan talk" is during the prayer when he says "Bedankdee"- We thank thee

Aidan's ALL-TIME constant, favorite thing to do is tell us what we're going to be. "Mommy, how bout you can be Nala's mommy, I can be Simba, Daddy can be Mufasa and Mia can be Nala". Within 10 minutes, our roles are changing to car colors, dinosaurs, The Incredibles etc.

Mia's favorite Movie is also Lion King, which she calls TATA for Hakunna Matata. This goes for any of the figurines, the book etc.

And after pulling up into the garage, Mia announces our arrival with "WAHOME".

Casey and I look forward to coming home, for Mia's welome. She runs to us with open arms, screaming either Yay Mommy, or Yay Daddy.

During Aidan's nap one day Ali and Randy brought by a slide/playground set from Aunt Carolyn for our backyard. When Aidan woke up and looked outside, he asked.." How did that grow there daddy? With lots of rain, sunshine, and love?"

Yellowstone Trip

Wow, I can't believe this summer's almost done. We were lucky enough to take a trip to Yellowstone before Casey started back to work. We spent 3 nights there with the kids in a tent...and we had a blast.

The kids were great, loved the outdoors, and surprisingly slept wonderfully. They were excited to see all of the animals and play in the dirt to their hearts delight. We were able to see quite a few Buffalo/Bison up close and also some elk, but no Moose or Bear (I'm okay with that). The campgrounds did a great job of posting signs in the restrooms of Buffalo and Bear attacks to keep you on your toes. We had some sporadic weather while we were there, but we survived and it kept it interesting! Our tent issues started as we arrived past midnight our first night. We then discovered that we had forgotten our rain fly, and the forecast was for rain. We placed out picnic blanket on top of us, but got lucky in that it didn't rain that night as we all cuddled up on the floor together. The next day we moved sights and placed out tarp over the top, which came into good use several times throughout our trip.

One of our favorite stops was a trip to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and it's falls. They were beautiful. We hiked down the 375 steps to reach this lookout point, which was beautiful. More amazingly to us, was that Aidan was able to walk all the way down and back up with no problem. He has sure built up a lot of strength in this last year and it doing great!
Our kids have been pretty good at posing for pictures lately. So much so that at times, they won't give you a nautral simle, but we love them!
Here are the falls from another lookout point. It was great to see it upclose, and then to see them from this distance made it's grandeur more amazing.



Old Faithful, was very true to her name. We were able to check it out twice, and we tried to see others... but just missed them. We got to snack on our favorite treat though (ice cream), as it was a very hot day, which we were a little unprepared for.

Overall, a very successful trip that was enjoyed by all. One of my favorite memories if of Mia waking up and chasing the moles/squirrels and calling them "mousey's". The only part I would change would be the drive home. I would have borrowed by neighbors DVD player, as the kids were quite ready to be home. Here are the last of our pics, hope you had a fun summer too!

Mia being her favorite animal

Mia in a fun moment of dance and acting, unfortunately with Aidan's toy noises in the background. Mia's favorite animal is the Elephant. She enjoys stomping and swinging her trunk.

Cabin Vacation

Justin/Cassie and family were able to come and play with us @ my parents Cabin. We were able to stay up for 4 days, and loved the relaxing, book reading, hiking and movie watching. It was a nice surprise, since we probably won't get to do much more since gas prices are so high!! Here we are roasting some marshmallows. Yum

Aidan Turns 4!

Happy Birthday Aidan! What a fun, crazy summer it's been. We've had so much fun celebrating with friends and family. Aidan now has plenty of guns to scare off the bad monsters, a jet, army guys and a fun guitar, (that I think the Dad's have even more fun with). Hope your July has been great!

Kristel and Dustin are Sealed!

Yea, Horray! It was a beautiful day for my beautiful friend to be sealed to her wonderful hubby. We were lucky enough to be a part of their sealing and are very happy for them. Love you Kristel.

Swimming Lessons 2008

Aidan learned lots at his first go @ swim lessons. He loved blowing bubbles and going underwater for snakes!

Wild Hogs 2008

Casey and the Koosharem/Richfield gang headed out 4 wheeling (2nd Annual PARTY). The boys had a blast being out in the brush with nature. I'm hoping that maybe some year I'll be invited to go 4 wheeling, but Cassie and I stayed in Richfield with all the kids and tried to fit a little fun in too.

Aidan's preschool graduation was a lot of fun. Aidan loved to sing the songs and was great at participating! We sure will miss Miss Rachael. She was the best!

Bug Catching

Mia's always looking to play with some bugs on our outings. I liked this video, because I thought it showed the most of her personality, and it's many emotions. :)

Yum!

Mia love doritos! This is Mia post-piggytail, having a yummy snack. In our house they're called Messy Chips, for a good reason! Sure is fun to watch though.

Telling secrets

Aidan wouldn't ever give the puppy a rest, if you can guess, he's telling her a secret. He wanted her to come downstairs and play with him. It was entertaining all evening to just watch them, cheap fun. :)

Young Love

Wow, I have never seen my kids like this before. Aidan has always been somewhat afraid of dogs, but he seems to be maturing and trying really hard to not be scared. I think he overcame his fear, and developed a little crush for our cousins new puppy Ellie. She's a little Boston Terrier, and we wanted to take her home!

Uncle Court

Uncle Court lived with us for a few months, and we got to catch up on the way to Brigham City for a birthday party. It's been awhile, but I think we still love him!

One of my favorite things!

The Zoo

I know, I'm sorry. I knew I wouldn't be too good at keeping this up! We have done some fun things in the past few months. We went to the zoo with our cousins Miriam and Ellie where we got to see the elephants (our favorite), monkeys, zebras and a white alligator. Our favorite was of course, riding the train! We love the zoo!

Mia waves "hi"