Our Family

Sunday, December 27, 2009

September

After we got back from Pittsburgh, we went to the Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot. We didn't go on any rides, but the kids really enjoyed seeing the animals, tractors, magic tricks, dog shows,and craft and food booths (well, we enjoyed that part more than they did).

We are so lucky to have lots of neighbors who have young kids like ours. Most of the summer was spend outside playing together, or going to parks and the local zoo. We had such a good time with them! (here's just one picture of the kids piled together, even though we did tons of stuff together)

One day I got a package and Parker & Maddie had such a good time playing in the box with the peanuts. It entertained them for hours!!

We went with some of our neighbors to the local Sand Dunes one Saturday. Maddie had never been to the beach (since we moved from Portland when she was just 7 mo old), so it was her first time in sand and she loved it! We had such a good time but it really made me miss the beach.

Then at the end of September I took the kids once more to visit Jess and her family (I had to go one last time before Maddie turned two since that's when you have to start paying for their plane tickets). It was so nice to spend time with my twin again and our kids had a blast together! Just the other day Maddie was talking about Sydney which surprised me that she still remembers her. But since we have mostly boys in the complex (there's only three girls, two of which are infants, and there are 7 boys) she REALLY loved being with Sydney. Renn (Jessica's husband) is in the airforce but was actually home for part of the time that we were there, so it was nice to see him too (last time we were there he was gone the whole time). Jess & Renn have three kids: Sydney (turned six when we were there), Lincoln (2 1/2), and Clark (1).

Like I said Syd had her 6th birthday when we were there, so we threw her a big tea party and I got to make here a really fun tea pot cake. It was so nice to be there with her on her birthday!

My brother, Joe, and sister-in-law, Mary, also live in Tucson where Jess and Renn are, so we got to see them too. Joe is such a good Uncle to the kids!

Oh how I miss those good times together!!

October

While the kids and I were in Tucson, my sister-in-law Heather (Ben's youngest sister) moved in with us. So the first weekend we were back we took her to Jackson Hole (Wyoming). It's this cute little western tourist town right in a valley in the mountains. The drive up there was gorgeous and it was cool to go around the shops and see all of their things (lots of pricey artwork, statues, furniture, home furnishings, etc). Even though it was just the beginning of October, it was cold up there already (30 degrees the day we went I think). Next year we're definitely going a little earlier in the season!

In the middle of their town they have a park area that has antler arches at each entrance. The boy scouts went and collected the antlers from around the area and they built the arches out of them.

This was the first snow the kids saw this season and I think that was probably their favorite part!

Ice cream! (even though it was freezing)

(she was concentrating very hard on getting all the ice cream)

I love the beautiful mountains!!

Maddie turned two on October 13th. I made her a monkey cake and we had a few friends over to celebrate. I know everyone says this about their kids, but I can't believe how fast she has grown!!

Here's Maddie's two yr studio photos

We got to go to a pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins this year. They had a train there (which Parker really liked, and yet was afraid of), a hay maze, food to eat, and of course pumpkins to pick.

We took Heather up to Rexburg to see the campus and the new temple. The leaves were still changing colors there which made the gardens beautiful. The kids enjoyed watching the fish in the different ponds and running around in the leaves.

The new Rexburg LDS Temple

For Halloween we made tombstone cupcakes, carved our big pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, painted mini pumpkins with the neighbors, and went trick-or-treating.