Pumpkin Carving

For FHE this week, we carved our pumpkins. We were pretty proud that we grew them all ourselves this year!! It was the first garden we've had since we moved into this house (6 years ago...). The kids really enjoyed picking all the veggies over the summer, and we got about 10 -12 pretty good sized pumpkins. This is Sydney making a "spooky Halloween face." She definitely likes to get into it the spirit of things!
Ryan and Sydney gutting out their pumpkins. Doesn't Ryan look like he's enjoying himself!?!
Brandon working on his pumpkin.

My cute little Ryan. :)

I got to help Sydney clean out and carve her pumpkin...

Brandon's finished product. He did it all by himself.

Sydney with our pumpkin. I loved the design she picked--just like her!

Tim with his uber-cool BSU pumpkin.

Brandon's and Tim's all lit up. Tim had fun being the camera-man for these photos. He got out the tripod and everything.

Sydney's all aglow. Pretty nice carving work, if I do say so myself...

Ryan picked like the hardest design ever...and was determined to do it by himself. We let him stay up til 9 to work on it (it WAS a school night, after all) and this is how far he got. He finished it the next day after school, but I forgot to take a picture of the finished one...I'll post one later. He did it almost all by himself and it looks pretty cool!

All our hard work! It's always such a chore (and huge mess) to get it all done, but so worth it in the end. The kids had so much fun!

And...we're done!

Well, we made it to the end of football season! It was a lot of fun, but I'm not gonna lie--I'm happy to see its end. Five days a week is grueling! Last night we actually all sat down at the table and ate dinner in a relaxed, unhurried manner. It was awesome!Brandon did so well this year! He started out on defense at middle linebacker and then for the last couple of games, he also played offense at tight end. For one of the games, he only sat out for one play the entire game. He loved that! He is excited to play for the school next year. So am I, since they practice right after school and games are not on Saturdays. :)
Here he is (number 63) bringing down a guy on the other team. If there's one thing Brandon likes to do, it's hit people. This is SOOO the sport for him!

Good job, Brandon!!!!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Sydney's kindergarten class took a field trip to a pumpkin patch and corn maze last week, so Jake and I went along. It started out to be a lovely day, but then the wind picked up and we pretty much froze the rest of the time. It was the first time I've ever gone through a corn maze, and it was o.k. but nothing to rave about. I have to say, once we were good and lost, I got a tiny bit worried that we wouldn't find our way out. Thank goodness there was another Mom with us!

Jake, as usual, spent most of the day in his stroller. Poor kid. I think that's all he's going to remember from early childhood--a car seat and a stroller. That's what he gets for being number 4...

There were so many cool things to do at the ranch. They had cool slides that Sydney went down several times, a hayride and stop at the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin, a cool jumping thing that I can't remember the name of (jumping balloon, maybe?), and cool little go-cart/trike things on a race track. Oh, and then there was the corn box--a sand box with dried corn kernels. Such a great idea--no sand in her hair!! She and her friend made "sand angels." Her favorite part of the day was the corn train. They had little train cars made out of old barrels that looked like cows. Her cow was named Greta. The tractor pulled them all around for about 10 minutes and she loved every second of it!

The funniest part of the day was lunch. Since it was so cold, we ate on the bus. Before she could get her granola bar opened, Sydney was passed out against the wall. She was so tired! All-day kindergarten has worn her out at times...

I'm glad I went with her on her first-ever field trip and so glad she is having a great year at school.

Quality time in the Pilot...

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE my car! I picked it out myself--the color and everything--BRAND NEW!! It's a 2008 maroon Honda Pilot. I REALLY love it.

But I need a break from it for a day or two. This weekend the Pilot and I had a little too much togetherness, if you know what I mean.

Thursday afternoon when Tim was done with work, we left with Jake for Salt Lake for Tim's brother Shannon's daughter Emily's wedding. After the fun drive, we got to our hotel around 10 pm. Then Friday morning, Maggie came up from Provo and took Jake to her house for the day (Thanks, again, Mags!!) while we went to the sealing at the temple and the luncheon afterwards. Then we had a couple of free hours, so we parked the car and had naps in the Pilot (more quality time with my car...it's not really made for sleeping, either...). Then we went to the ring ceremony and wedding dinner. We rather rudely left as soon as we were done eating so we could spend more time in my amazing car and make the drive back home to Idaho. We arrived at 12:30 am...

Then at 6:30 that morning, we left for McCall (2 1/2 hours north in the mountains) for Brandon's football game. Jake was SO excited to be back in his car seat! NOT!! The game was freezing cold, but his team played their best game yet and won 28-0!!! Brandon played well and had a great sac on the very last play of the game to "rub it in a little." Haha!

Then we all got back in the car for another 2 1/2 hour jaunt in the Pilot...

I hope to not go anywhere farther than 5 miles from my house any time soon. It was a fun weekend, just a little cramped for time and way too far spread out!

The streak is over!!!!

Brandon's football team this year has struggled...that's the nice way to say it. :) Before yesterday's game, they were 0 and 4, and hadn't scored all year long. Last week's game was 30 to nothing...it's been more than a little painful at times. We've tried to be positive, and just try to get him to learn what he can this year.

Yesterday was another game. Tim was in the mountains with his dad getting ready for the hunt in two weeks, so I had all the kids by myself there. THEY WON!!!!! And Brandon had an awesome game. He had probably at least 20 tackles, a couple of sacs for loss of yardage, and a fumble recovery. He was pumped up the whole time and I don't think he missed a single tackle. It was so fun to watch! I'm just sad Tim wasn't there...

His team's offense actually scored a touchdown for the first time this year and they won...I still can't believe it! Such a good feeling!!!

Discovery Center

The kids were out of school on Thursday and Friday, and I have Musettes on Thursdays, so I promised them a few weeks ago that we would go out to lunch and to the Discovery Center on Friday. They had earned free tickets from doing the summer reading program at the library and they expire soon, and who am I to pass up FREE entertainment?!? So we headed to Boise. First we went to lunch at Burger King, then we went to the Discovery Center. In all the years I've lived in this valley, I can't say that I've ever been there, but it was awesome and the kids loved it. I'm sure we'll be going at least once a year now. Hopefully the library has free tickets again next summer... Here are some pics of our fun play day.

This is Ryan on the pulley chair.

Sydney thought it was so cool!!!

This is the "Bubble Wall." It was also super-cool. I'm pretty sure none of us have ever made bubbles this big before. Bubbles make me happy. :)

The hbubble was was Brandon's favorite thing, he said. He learned that if you got your finger wet with bubble solution, you can stick it through the bubble wall without popping it.

Here he is illustrating my point...

Poor Jake was once again confined to the stroller. Poor kid...sometimes I worry that that's how he will remember his childhood...spent in a stroller...one day we'll start letting him out...of course, he's going to have to learn how walk first.

This is Sydney playing with the ball-blower (not sure what it was called...).Air blew out of the tube and suspended the ball in the air, then you could slowly move the tube out, and the ball would follow. She was pretty much amazed.

She found this big blue couch, sat down, posed really cute, and said, "Take my picture!" This girl has been trained from birth--such a camera-hog!!

Sydney's favorite part of the trip--Discovery Market. It was set up just like a grocery store and the kids could go shopping, check out (their items even made a beep when they scanned them), and bag their groceries. She LOVED it--except for the part when we were done and I informed her that she had to then put all of her things back away....

The funniest thing was that Ryan noticed what she was doing and joined right in. It was pretty cute to watch him fill up his cart.

Brandon on the "Bed of Nails." He laid down on the table, then pushed the button, and then the bed of nails pushed up out of the table and raised him up a couple of inches. In was pretty cool!

There was a robotic arm that would spell out your name. Again, pretty cool...

Ryan loved the logic puzzles there. He has always been our "puzzle-meister" as Grandma calls him.

Brandon trying out one of the puzzles.

While the boys were playing logic puzzles, Sydney played in the "Animal Hospital." They had a bunch of stuffed animals, pet-porters, stethoscopes, and x-rays for the little ones to play vet with. She loved it, but was kind-of an animal-hog.

My little girl and her pets. We had a really fun day!