Erika's 5th Birthday!

Erika turned 5 on September 27. She is so tall that people have thought she was 5 a long time ago.















Erika enjoyed licking the bowl with cake batter
in it. Who wouldn't?
































Natalie gave Erika a barbie doll.

















She got a fairy play outfit.

















Erika's birthday cake.

















mmmm yummy cake!

















I turned 5 and I am so happy about it!

















Erika at the play place in the mall.















Kids by the conductor of the train.
















Erika being silly!



We had spaghetti for dinner and then opened presents. We then went down to South Towne Mall and rode on the little train. She loved it! We came back and sang and had birthday cake. We love you Erika. You are such a sweetheart!

Discovery Gateway Museum 2010

Last school year Heidi received a coupon good for 6 people to get in free to the Discovery Gateway Museum. I was way excited when she got it and really wanted to use it because without that it would cost our family probably around $70 to go. I magnetized it to the fridge and noticed the expiration date being August. 31. 2010. I thought, "no problem, we have plenty of time to use it." Well, every once in a while it would get knocked off of the fridge and I would look at it and put it back up noticing the date. Finally in July I decided that we were going to go on the first Saturday in August. Well, soon that Saturday was full so we decided the next saturday would work. Well, sure enough that Saturday started getting plans that took over the museum. Well, it turns out that we were finally able to go the last SAturday of the month which was Aug. 28. Erika had a primary class party that day so we weren't able to stay as long as we would have liked but we all had fun anyway. Thanks Heidi for receiving the coupon.















Me and my handsome hubby.
















Candace pretending to be a fairy .
















Matthew in the toddler area climbing.






















Natalie pretending she was a mom
with an apron.
















Matthew sitting on a swan.

















Candace sitting on a horse.





















Candace climbing the rock wall.






















Heidi pretending to be a cashier.
















Matthew playing with the balls.
















Erika carrying the balls.

Labor Day 2010!

Chris and I have moved our room downstairs to the bigger bedroom. For the time being, Heidi and Candace are going to be upstairs now in our old room. THey have been sleeping in the living room, on the couch downstairs (not allowed to sleep on new couches upstairs) , on the floor in the family room, and almost anywhere since May when we sold their bunk beds that were too big. ON Labor Day, CHris and I spent most of the day cleaning out our old room that had been needing to be done for a long time. We then drove down to IKEA in our new truck much to Chris' dislike. He disliked it because technically there aren't enough seat belts for all of us to each have our own. I didn't want to follow him down there in the van so I insisted that 4 of could squish in the front and 2 kids could share a seat belt. (We really weren't that squished).

Anyway, we drove down, bought a loft bed for Heidi (couldn't buy 2 because it is too tall for the room downstairs where Candace will be. ) It was dinner time so we actually stopped at a nearby park before going to IKEA and had a little picnic and let the kids play for a few minutes to get out their wiggles. THey had fun!

As we left IKEA, we just had to get some of their yummy cinnamon rolls. They are so delicious! THen we all piled back in the truck and headed home. We love our truck! I especially love it because it is automatic so I can drive it. :)

It was a good labor day. THe kids didn't do much laboring but Chris and I did. Maybe they will do more next year! :) One can hope!















Matthew playing at the park.















Natalie crossing the monkey bars.














Heidi getting ready to tackle the monkey bars.














Erika having help going across the zipline.
















Candace going across the fast zipline


.













Heidi's new loft bed. We are going to put a desk underneath.

First Day of School!

The girls started school on August 18. Again they are at Syracuse Arts Academy which is a charter school. They really enjoy it there and we have no qualms. We do have to transport them to and fro but it is only about 12 minutes away and really no big deal.


































Natalie- 1st grade






















Heidi-6th grade






















Candace-4th grade

Candace's 9th Birthday!

I can't believe it! Candace had her 9th birthday on July 18.
She is such a fun girl. She has a sweet and fun
personality. She works hard in all she does and she
is a great helper. She loves to cook, read, play the piano,
scrapbook, swing, play games, and play on the
computer.

I got these pictures in wrong but oh well.
Since Candace was turning an odd number she
didn't get a friend party. She wanted to go
camping as a family. We weren't able to go until
about 2 weeks after her birthday but she was patient.
We went up to Monte Cristo.















Candace exploring and looking cute.















We brought glow sticks and that night we had
a lot of fun hooking them together in our tent.
Candace made quite the necklace as you can see.















Natalie having a good laugh in her chair.














Candace enjoying camping. It was beautiful there.














The beautiful outdoors. You can see the path
to the wonderful bathrooms.














Candace in her birthday outfit of a jumper and
shirt. She loves yellow right now.














The birthday cake for a 9 year old.
She also received her Article of Faith candy bar
at church on her birthday from the primary and
bishop for memorizing all of her articles
of faith. What a cool thing to get on your birthday!
Good job Candace!!














Sorry I forgot to turn this picture. She is showing
9 fingers to show her new age.














Cutie Candace and her mommy.














Candace has quite the collection of stuffed animals
that each have a name. She has them all
written down and she takes turns sleeping with
them each night. This was a new doggy she got
for her birthday. She loves dogs. As you can see,
she also got a dinosaur (from Toy Story) that
she had begged me for from Kohl's.
Happy 9th Birthday Candace! We love you so much!

24th of July Celebration!

Sara and Brian invited us all over to their (Mom & Dad's) house for the 24th of July. We all brought something and Brian cooked hot dogs and hamburgers for us all.















Lindsey and Emily having fun together!
















Ta and Lizzy














Matthew having fun on slide in backyard.














Kaitlyn painting her fingernails red, white and
blue for the holiday. She also had her mom paint Y's
on some of them for BYU.














I was a funny mom and painted one of
Matthew's fingernails blue. I thought Dad wouldn't be
too mad since it was blue but he didn't
like it at all. They were out of nail polish remover
so we had to wait until we got home to get it off.















A bunch of family hanging out.














Jennifer, Brian and SAra chatting. Sorry Sara but
I told you to smile. :)














Whitney and her friend Taylor covering their
beautiful hair do's so they could down the slip
and slide. What cute girls!














Alisha having fun in the pool. I think she was
stuck in that tube.














Matthew was cold so dad was snuggling him.
Isn't he cute? Yes, I mean both of them. :)

We did fireworks later and everyone enjoyed
that too. Chris had made homemade ice cream
so we ate that for dessert.

Thanks Sara and Brian. WE love ya!