Halloween 2010

Halloween was fun here in Idaho. The kids went trick or treating on Saturday night (even though it fell on Sunday). We only came across one house that had a sign on their door saying that they were not handing out candy because it was not actually Halloween-- we thought it was funny.

This year Hannah was a fairy, Eli was a pirate, and Jonas was Tigger. Jonas enjoyed making Tigger noises and Hannah spent half of the night reaching back and flapping her wings.


We found a good deal on pumpkins so everyone got to carve a big pumpkin.


Eli's preschool went to a pumpkin patch for a field trip. They rode on a train, did a hay maze, and got to choose a little pumpkin to take home.


Jonas got to go on the field trip too. He had fun tagging along with Eli.

Eli's Birthday (October 2)

Eli turned 5 in October. He had lots of cousins and family there to wish him a happy day and year. Eli, we love you sooooooooo much (even though it has taken me 3 months to blog about your birthday)!

I think he is making a wish in the picture above.

He was having some difficulty aiming his blows, so dad stepped in to assist him. HAHAHA... it was really funny.

Catching Up

I have not posted in so long, and the longer I put it off, the more daunting it seems (as life, and post-worthy events, keep happening).... So, hopefully this will get caught up in the next few days. I'll blog while Brady plays the Wii!

Here are three posts combined into one:

We decided to go camping as a family for our last summer event. It was a lot of fun. We went up to Heise. We made it easy and ate hot dogs, chips, soda and s'mores before bed.


Jonas had his first s'more and loved it. We knew he would!


Eli's a pro. He and Hannah showed Jonas the ropes.


Brady and I slept on an air mattress. We laid down in between the kids while they fell asleep, then moved so that we could sleep too.


All of the kids had so much fun.


The pool by the campsite didn't open until ten, so we went on a nice drive and nature walk together.


Jonas LOVED the hot mineral pool. Here are the boys just soaking it in.


After camping, it was time for school to start. Hannah started the second grade and Eli is doing preschool again this year (he missed the cutoff by a month). Here they are in some new school clothes that they picked out.


Here's Hannah on the first day of second grade. It rained on her first day last year too! She decided to show school spirit and wear her Edgemont t-shirt on the first day.


This is a picture of Eli and his preschool teacher Miss Karla. Hannah went to her school a few years ago. Eli is excited to be going too.



We celebrated my birthday at the end of September. The kids and Brady made it a special day. Brady surprised me and came home early from work. Then he sent me on my way to a mandatory shopping spree while he watched the kids.


The festivities continued when I returned home to my favorite cookies, a cute birthday banner and more presents. Brady also took me out to eat while his mom watched our kids. It was a great day!

Fun With Company This Summer

We had a lot of company this summer. We had a lot of fun... So much fun that I didn't take very many pictures. (Especially not of the adults-- kids are so much cuter anyway!)

Our first visitors were the Moores. Our kids got along so well! They just played the whole time. It was so great to see them having so much fun. The kids really enjoyed riding bikes together. We also went to Blast Off to play.






We were excited to have Grandma and Grandpa Shipp come visit too! We packed in a lot of fun. We went to Riot Zone for the first time while they were here. We are asking ourselves why we haven't been there before- mini golf, inflatables, paddle boats.... We're excited to go back. We also had a fun time at the zoo, temple visitor center, and the Melaleuca Store ;)

All of the kids had so much fun on the inflatables!

We all got dressed on Sunday, then realized that we were all wearing lavender- hahaha. Had to get a pic!




We got to meet sweet little Elliott when David and Jamee came with their kids. Vivian and Elliott are so cute! This is a picture of her after we ate yummy chocolate ice cream. We also had fun swimming and feeding ducks at the river.



I could not get enough of this sweet little guy! Such an adorable boy. I tried to convince David and Jamee to move to Idaho.


Our last visitors of the summer... The Smiths! We had a lot of fun even though they were only here a few days. Highlights included: The Roaring Youth Jam, swimming, and Blast Off.

4th of July

4th of July was a little different for us this year. Every year since we moved to Idaho Falls our friends the Risenmays have come up from Arizona and stayed with us. This year we were on our own, but the kids still kept asking when Lea and Luke were going to get here.


Let me just say, if you've never spent a 4th of July in Idaho Falls, you haven't really celebrated properly. It's a big deal here. We have a great parade in the morning and a spectacular firework show (set to music) at night. The kids always have so much fun, it's probably the biggest holiday outside of Christmas.

Jonas is 2!

We took most of the summer off from blogging so we will be posting some of the highlights


Jonas turned 2 on June 25th. We had a lot of fun having family over to celebrate.

We love having Jonas in our family. He has his own cute personality and he is always making us laugh.

Soccer 2010

It seems like so long ago that our kids were in soccer. Oh wait, that's because it was so long ago.... But they were so cute, I want to post some pics anyway. It was Hannah and Eli's first year playing. It was so fun to watch them play, they did a great job. They both ended up with purple uniforms (Hannah's was actually lavender). And they both sported the number 3.

Grandpa's Motorcycle

The kids have always been a little afraid of the motorcycle until this year. I think it all changed when we went to Phoenix and they saw Lea and Lucas Risenmay riding with their dad. So when I took dad's bike out Eli wanted a ride. He thought it was the coolest thing ever and has asked every day for the last two weeks. Hannah took a little more convincing, but once we started going and she decided it was okay, she started laughing and couldn't stop. Jonas is a little motorhead too...every time we see a motorcycle on the road he'll start yelling "mocyco! mocyco!" then he'll scream when he can't see it anymore.

Grandpa would be so proud.

Spring Break, Part 3 - Cruise!

The Moores were kind enough to keep our kids for three days so we could go on a cruise. We have always wanted to do this and we decided that since we will have our 10th anniversary this year we should go for it. Since we wanted to do plenty of other things with the kids on our trip, we decided to just do a short one over the weekend. The cruise left from Long Beach Friday afternoon.

On Saturday we were docked in Ensenada, Mexico. It was such a beautiful day. We went on a horseback ride in the foothills above Ensenada in the morning. Everything was green and there were wildflowers all along the trail. We got to see some amazing views of the city and the ocean.

We got back to town then walked around for a couple hours shopping and enjoying the day. We got some fun souvenirs for the kids.

Here is Debbie showing off her sweet new "Gucci" sunglasses. Four dollars!

Saturday night was the formal night on the ship. It was a lot of fun getting dressed up.

Sunday was our day at sea. We played several games on the ship because we really wanted one of these trophies. After several failures, we found a sports trivia contest. It was an easy win.

The cruise was so much fun! We will definitely do it again someday. Of course the best part was the great food...at any time of the day. Each night at dinner we would order 3 or 4 different desserts to share between us. Someone gave us the idea to weigh ourselves at the beginning and end of the cruise...Brady gained 5 lbs and Debbie gained 4.5!

Monday morning we started our journey home...stayed in St George halfway and got home Tuesday evening.

In all, we drove 2590 miles in 12 days. It was a blast and we would do it all again right now if we could!