Happy Birthday Jaxon!

Jaxon's birthday was actually yesterday but we had a conflict and had to celebrate it today. I can't believe he has been alive for a decade. Man that went fast! He chose to go to Golden Corral for dinner. My parents joined us for that. While we were there, he opened his presents.

This is what Dale and I gave him. It's a new comforter for his new "Utah Utes" room that we are doing for him. After dinner, we went to Jump and Bounce. I can't believe the kids were able to jump around like that after eating so much food but they had a great time! There was only one other family there, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

I hope Jaxon had a great birthday. I am very proud of him. He is doing great in school, he has started taking piano this year and is doing well at that also. He loves sports and excels in whatever sport he is playing at the time. He is very competitive in everything he participates in, including school. He is definately a very strong presence in our home and I'm glad that our family is able to enjoy his enthusiasm for life! We love you Jaxon!

Doing dishes, Katie style

Katie loves to help me around the house. She will come up to me and say "Katie helping". Today I had just finished unloading the dishwasher and she wanted to help. She went into the bathroom and got the little stool so she could reach. Since there were not dishes to unload, she decided to get all the clean silverware out of the drawer and put it back in the silverware holder.

Don't ya love the outfit? All the kids had gone to school in their coats and boots today so she wanted hers on to. Even after we took the kids to school, she kept her coat and boots on for a long time. She is so much fun!

Corn Bellys

On Friday I was able to go on a fieldtrip with Jake's 2nd grade class. We went to Corn Bellys at Thanksgiving Point. I love going on fieldtrips with my kids for several reasons. First, I love spending one on one time with them. Second, I love to see how they interact with their classmates and third, I like getting to know the kids in their class.

Jake seemed to have a good time there. There was a lot of little games the kids could play on. There was a bouncy pillow that he loved. We went on a hayride but never made it into the corn maze.

This is the little group that I was assigned to take care of. They thought it was so fun to all sit in this chair together!

At the end of the fieldtrip, they let all the kids take home a little pumpkin. Jake thought that was great and spent a long time picking out the perfect one! I had a great time with him that day!

A week at the cabin!

I am so grateful for the oppurtunity I recently had to spend a week at the cabin. Since my kids were off track, I wanted to do something fun but didn't want to spend a lot of money. The cabin is perfect for that! It was absolutely beautiful up there. I spent many hours just sitting on the couch and looking out at the sun shining through the golden yellow aspen leaves.

My parents came up for a couple of days and Katie LOVED spending time with them. She kept saying "Gramdad, look!" at everything she was doing. She loved going outside on the deck with my Dad and telling him about everything she saw.

I was even able to get some excercise while I was there. I made Kierra come on a walk around Brighton with me. It was a little too much for her but I loved the scenic walk.

The boys played the WII alot because that's what they like to do while they are off track but Katie and I enjoyed the beautiful fall weather together. Kierra and I watched some great movies together and we all played a lot of UNO since it's about the only game we can all play.

Dale came up for the weekend and it was fun to have them there and go to church together up there. The drive down the canyon was beautiful! I kept pulling over and taking pictures because it was so pretty. Autumn and the cabin are two of my favorite things!

Yes, that is Jaxon you see in the BYU clothing. No he didn't decide to become a BYU fan instead of the huge UTE fan that he is. Doyle has season tickets to the BYU games and they were nice enough to take Jaxon along with them to the game today. The only deal was that he had to wear the BYU shirt and hat and had to cheer for BYU. When we asked him if he wanted to go, he didn't hesitate for a second. He was just excited to be able to go to a football game. He LOVES football and can't wait to play next year. He was very excited when he got home. He was happy that BYU won but he was even more excited that he heard on the radio on the way home that the UTES won their game as well!

Two of Katie's favorite people

Katie had a great afternoon because two of her favorite people, Macey and Porter, came over. She absolutely loves them. She gets so excited to see them. Whenever we walk or drive by their house she says "Macey's house!!!!!!!" She loves babies so when she sees Porter, she wants to kiss and hold him constantly. When he fell asleep today, I really wanted to just sit and hold him but Katie wouldn't leave him alone. She kept trying to climb on him and smother him with kisses. I ended up putting him in his car seat to sleep. I think Katie's love for babies is so cute! Whenever we go anywhere she gets so excited if she sees a baby or a stroller. She almost always has a baby doll in her hand. I love her natural instinct to love and take care of babies!

Timpanogos Cave

I got to go with Kierra, and her 6th grade class, on a fieldtrip to Timpanogos cave today. It was so fun. I have never been there before. It was a pretty steep one and a half mile hike up to the cave.

It was sprinkling on and off the whole hike but it was a beautiful hike. The fall leaves were very pretty. When we got to the top, the sun was shining on the mountain and that was super cool! The hike was hard when the trail got steeper and it felt good to finally reach the cave. Going down that steep trail was actually harder because we wanted to run but with wet trails it was way too dangerous.

This is Kierra inside the cave. It got pretty narrow at times. It was pretty neat.

I always have so much fun going on field trips with Kierra because I love to see how much fun she has with her friends. They are so cute and laugh so much. It's fun to see her having so much fun with them!