Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

For our 1st preschool field trip we went to the local pumpkin patch. Casey was very excited because it was the same pumpkin patch that Ryan went to with his Kindergarten class the day before.

Sydney was awesome as usual. She fell asleep about a half hour into our trip. My shoulders were very tired by the end. I love how she's holding onto my zipper.

Here's a picture of all the kids, minus Sydney of course. These carts are for hauling pumpkins from the U-pick patch, but as you can tell they served another purpose that day.

Sydney was an adorable lady bug for Halloween, the tights are my favorite.

I was so excited when I found this Batman Costume. Most of the ones these days are a little more on the scary side (think Dark Knight). He's only 3, batman does NOT need to be scary looking, nor does a 3 year old need a muscled chest.


After our trip to Utah this summer and being a knight at Aunt Tara's house Ryan knew exactly what he wanted to be for Halloween. Although he was quite jealous when Casey's costume arrived in the mail. He said, "I still like my costume, but Casey's (costume) is just soooo cool. Maybe I'll be Batman next year."

We completed Ryan's costume with this shield we found at Disneyland. Yes, my boys watch "Sleeping Beauty," but it is NOT a princess movie, it's the Dragon movie.

Disneyland!

Tara (Tyler's twin) and Brandon came down in October with Brandon's family to go to Disneyland. Brandon and Nick (Brandon's brother) work for Disney so we got to go for free!! Since we went for free we splurged and spent 1 night at the Paradise Pier Hotel the night before we went to the park so we could get to the park early and spend more time with family the night before. We had a blast! The picture above was taken in the lobby of our Hotel.


Sydney was such a trooper. She was 4 months old and was the best! We got her to sleep during It's A Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean. Her only fault is that she is an explosive pooper and went through 4 outfits that day. It's a good thing I came prepared. Outift #1

Casey and I went on the Matterhorn Bobsleds. It took some serious convincing to get him on the ride. I had to carry him in line and had to cover his eyes through the first half of the ride. I made him look just in time to see the 2nd "scary monster" which he proceeded to talk about to anyone who would listen for the next week. Then we went on the Tea Cups while Tyler and Ryan went on it.





Watching my favorite, the Tiki Room. This is the PERFECT spot to wrangle kids while adults ride Indiana Jones. Make sure to get a Pineapple Whip outside the Tiki Room, YUM!
Outfit #2
Outfit #3- Then she wore #4 after the sun went down.

September Pics

This picture is a little grainy, but so cute. She was supposed to be sleeping and when I came around the corner this is what I found.

She truly is the best, sweetest, most mellow baby ever! She fusses when she's hungry and tired. Other than that she is very content. We love her to pieces and she has ALL of us wrapped around her little finger.

I wasn't going to put Casey in preschool this year since I'd have a newborn, but some Moms from church approached me about doing a co-op preschool. Each Mom teaches for a 6-7 week block. I love it, and more importantly, so does Casey. He loves getting his backpack and pencil box ready to go on preschool days. It's the cutest thing to see five 3-year olds standing there with their hand over their heart saying the pledge of allegiance.

Every so often the boys include Sydney in their pretend play. Introducing Indiana Sydney!


This was one Sunday before church when Tyler was getting the kids ready and I was already gone for meetings.

Oh Casey! For about a week he would come down every night and sit on the bottom step until we noticed him, then we'd take him back to bed. After 2 nights of this we just ignored him to see what would happen. :)

Soccer

We have finally jumped on the bandwagon. I'm officially a soccer Mom! Ryan was on a U6 team this year and had a blast. When we were asking him if he wanted to play soccer this year; we actually went online and showed him videos of youth soccer so we were sure he knew what we were talking about. (got that?) This year was pretty simple. 6 kids per team 1 practice a week and games on Saturdays. The games are 4 on 4, 4 quarters, 5 minutes each. The field is tiny- it could easily fit in our backyard.

Wording is crucial when it comes to coaching 5 year-olds. It's not "Be Aggressive," it's "Be the first to the ball." Ryan definitely got the hang of it and really enjoyed playing, especially since he loves to run.

Notice where the ball is and where Ryan is looking. I think I said "Ryan, where's the ball?" more times than I can count.
Tyler ended up being the Assistant Coach this year and had a good time. He said he was glad that he was one of the coaches because it gave him an excuse to run around and tell the boys what to do. Soccer is NOT a spectators sport for Tyler.

Ryan lounging during a water break.


Casey is always excited to be included in snack time. After he eats anything he holds his hands like that until he washes them.

Of course, Grandma and Granddad came out to watch a game.

Here's the whole team getting some pointers from Coach Kenny.

Ryan what is your favorite part about soccer?: "When I kick it someone and they kick it in the goal."- Ryan had a lot of assists this year and 1 goal.

Random Photos and Ryan's First Day of Kindergarten

Ryan and Casey love pretend play. We have a LOT of boy costumes and they love to mix and match. Here is Casey as Ninja Lightning McQueen.

And Ryan as Indiana (Jones) Lion.


Sydney and Bumpa. I think this is the last photo I took of Bumpa before he passed away in November.


This picture perfectly displays what she thought of tummy time.


Ryan on his first day of Kindergarten. He loves school and is awesome at making friends. For the first month of school he would come home and say that he "made a new friend today," but he could never remember their names. I really like the way that they've set up Kindergarten. It's half day and he's an early bird. Let me explain- early birds attend from 8:30a-11:55a and late birds attend from 10:40a-2:45p. Each K class has 30 students but half are early birds and half are late birds. So, the teachers only have 15 students during math and reading lessons.

Ryan and Casey sitting on the classroom rug listening to a story.

Utah Summer 2010

At the end of July we headed to Utah to visit Tyler's family for a few days. We've decided that trips to Utah are more enjoyable in the summer. Lagoon and boating are much enjoyable than snow. We loaded the kids into my Mom's big SUV at 3:30am for the drive. We still squeeze our 3 kids and 3 5-point car seats into the back of our Corolla. There was no way we were going to make the drive cramped like that, so we road in style, Thanks Mom and Dad!!


Sydney was an awesome traveler at 2 months old. I think all 3 kids were asleep at the same time for roughly 30 minutes.


Our first stop was Lagoon. Here is Ryan and Casey with Halle and Alaina. Because of these 2 girls, I will never have to buy clothes for Sydney. Hurray for hand-me-downs.
Ryan loved it and was so excited and actually wanted to do "The Bat" again with Mom. I was impressed.


We kept telling Ryan to pull the bar in to go higher, and he kept yelling "I know, but I don't want to."


Sydney is one lucky baby she was Katie on my side that is 2 weeks older and Devin on Tyler's side that is 3.5 weeks older. Jennifer and Tara were actually due on the same day but Devin was impatient, actually I think Tara was the impatient one. :)

We bunked with Mia and Nate for the trip and I don't think Casey took this off the whole time we were there. It was definitely the inspiration for his Halloween costume.

Ryan really blossomed as a swimmer last summer. He's awesome. The water at Willard Bay was so warm. We were there for 7 hours and I don't think Ryan ever got completely dry.

I think this picture is actually our first family photo. Pretty sad considering Ryan and Casey have their eyes closed and you can barely see Sydney on the bottom.

It took some MAJOR convincing to get Casey on this thing. "Uncle Mark will not make you fall off, he will make sure you stay dry."

Daddy liked to relive the glory days of Lake Powell Trips, he enjoyed hanging off the back among some other old tricks.
I think this one speaks for itself. So cute!
Exhausted after another 5 minutes of skiing- single ski of course.

Daddy taking Sydney from the boat to the shore.

And here is the whole reason we went in the first place. Tyler's nephew Taylor is currently serving his mission and we went up to play before he left. We love you and miss you Taylor!!