October 2010, pt. 2

The rest of our October was pretty typical.
 

We celebrated Casey's birthday (his cakes always turn out really bad--sorry, hon!).

We went to the corn maze and activities at Thanksgiving Point ...

 

 

which the boys loved a lot!

I enjoyed my gorgeous ash tree ...

until the first major wind storm arrived.

We decorated Halloween sugar cookies.

We enjoyed Halloween costume parades for preschool and Kindergarten.

We carved jack-o-lanterns ...

which turned out very cute/cool this year (as usual).

We had a Halloween "Spook-Up" (which is what Evan called a party) with our friends and family.

And, of course, the kids dressed up and went trick-or-treating.

But not for very long because it was freezing on Halloween this year!

August 2010, pt. 2

I guess now would be a good time to mention that it was shortly before we went to Wyoming last summer that I found out I was pregnant. Which is why I've both gotten more behind and wanted to catch up on this blog. My other two pregnancies were a piece of cake. This one has been a little different. It was great up until the third trimester, but recently I've had problems with high blood pressure and general pain in "that" area (round ligaments, apparently). Right now my BP is borderline and as long as it doesn't jump back up and stay up, our 3rd boy will be joining us on March 29th. Hooray and yikes!

Here are the boys in front of my tomatoes when they were still kind of standing. The plants themselves were ginormous this year!

This was my thriving squash.

And this, my zucchini. It never got any bigger. I didn't think it was possible to kill zucchini, or at least not have it overtake the surrounding area. Somehow I managed to grow everything but zucchini.

This is Owen on his first day of preschool. This social, outgoing, talkative kid had a bit of a hard time adjusting, but he loves it. And I hear from his teacher, Miss Janae, that he is finally just coming out of his shell in class and talking in more than a whisper, being a little more rowdy, etc. That's the Owen I know.

It wouldn't be summer without a trip to Hogle Zoo! A few of the highlights were ...

the baby elephant ...

the giraffes (including the part where Owen was "that kid" who lost his flip-flop inside the giraffe enclosure; luckily it was just the outer perimeter and we were assured that it happens all the time) ...

this ginormous bird (and all of the birds who grazed the tops of our heads during the bird show) ...

the carousel ...

and the orangutans (who performed especially well when one of their handlers came over by us and talked to them and such).

We also visited the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

This is Evan on his first day of Kindergarten. It was a bittersweet day.

Here are the two of them before we took Evan to school.

Here's Evan with two other Kindergartners from our cul-de-sac.

And here is his class lining up to go inside on that first day (the only decent picture I got of Mrs. Bunting).

July 2010

Last 4th of July (well, 3rd, since the 4th was on Sunday) I took the kids to see the hot air balloons again. This time we went extra early so we wouldn't miss the filling-up and lift-off of the balloons. Well, we got to see them filled, but they were not able to lift off because of (apparent) windy conditions. Can you tell they rolled right out of bed for this picture? :)

I still can't figure out why they couldn't lift off, but what do I know. It was still fun to see them.

This was my favorite balloon, of course. That is my kind of Coke bottle! Just the right size!

We also did a little fishing that weekend. The kids loved it. As you can see they caught some pretty big fish! :)

I caught one about the same size and Evan was kind enough to take him off the hook and release him for me (I don't do that).

We also went to my cousin's house and hung out with her family and my other cousin's family and their friends. Here is a picture of all the cute kids! It was lots of fun!

Of course July involved a lot of sprinkler and/or pool days.

Evan liked the sprinkler high ...

Owen liked the sprinkler low (if he liked it at all).

Owen turned 3 in July! Evan and I went to Macey's and picked up this AWESOME balloon for him (although I think maybe it was a little bit more for me). I love how huge it is compared to him! We also grabbed a little cake, which Owen had to have for breakfast.

Owen loved his new real golf club from dad.

And his awesome old-school Little People (only bigger now) from Mama and Pata Jones.

We had all the cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents from Casey's side of the family over to celebrate with us. Aunt Anahi made amazing and delicious Batman cupcakes.

(By the way ... can you tell Owen went through a cheesy grin phase around that time of the year? This one is a great smile compared to most. I do think the really cheesy ones are pretty cute, too, though.)

We set up a Batman pinata in the studio. It was great fun for all the kids!

As I mentioned before, Evan had another round of swim lessons. This time it was with my dear friend Jennifer's kids. We used to be next-door neighbors so it was great to see her so often again. It was so much fun just sitting and chatting while they swam each day. And Evan was doing amazing things in the water by the time he was done. I included a video of him jumping off the diving board!

June 2010

Last June was a busy and fun month.

We had a pretty incredible storm one night that produced a gorgeous sky.

And I was sure that I would be able to capture some lightning with my new camera. Well, I didn't, but the pictures were still beautiful.

Our great friends, the Peads, invited us up to spend a night at their time-share at Snowbird, a big ski resort near Salt Lake. The creek that runs through the Little Cottonwood Canyon area was a raging river at the time. On our way up to Snowbird, we were stopped on the road because of issues with the river overflowing and flooding and causing erosion. We were stopped right by the local CBS 2News truck where Cristina Flores was reporting on the situation right in front of us.

The kids enjoyed the ride up to the room in the cart with all the luggage.

The set-up of this place was perfect: a kitchen/living area in the middle (complete with hot tub on the deck) and 2 huge bedrooms/bathrooms coming off of that. Here we are enjoying a nice spaghetti dinner soon after we arrived.

Evan and Mallory headed straight for the hot tub after dinner.

I love this picture because it portrays their personalities and how they interact perfectly! Mallory is a little more aggressive than Evan and his face shows how he feels about it sometimes.

Here is the creek (raging river).

My cousin told me that someone she used to nanny was teaching private and semi-private swim lessons at his parents' house over the summer and asked if I would like to join them. Absolutely! It was the perfect solution for shy, water-cautious Evan. Christopher was awesome! He has a way with kids.

It's amazing that he would barely let his head touch the water the first day, but by the end of the 2 weeks he was bobbing. We went back for another session in July, which I will have more pictures of.

Kate got Emily a Slip 'n' Surf for her birthday. It's like a Slip 'n' Slide, but with a small, boogie board-sized surf board that you ride on. Here they are helping Evan. I played with the camera while they all tried it out, taking a ton of pictures that you can scroll through quickly to make it look like a movie. I included some of the best pictures here.

Here are the boys squirting Kate ... as if she didn't have enough water to help her along.

Owen liked to squirt other people ...

but he did not like to be squirted, accidentally or not! (He was not a water kid the entire summer.)

Here is one of Emily's best moves.

This one had a great splash. It was funny to see them try out all the different ways to "surf" ... on their feet, on their bellies, taking the board with them, having the board waiting there for them, etc.

This has got to be one of the coolest falls ever! Good job, Kate!

Even Casey tried it out. I think because he was a skater (as in skate boarder) back in the day he thought he could master this. Okay, not to bad ...

hmm ...

and he's down.

This kid sure enjoyed it, though.

Even Putty enjoyed hanging out on the deck and watching.

Cute!

And we went from that gorgeous day to this cold, rainy day in June. This was at the Orem Arts Festival where Casey had a booth set up. Owen was dancing to a guy singing with his guitar. I don't know where that kid gets it, but he has mad dancing skills! Of course just after he got set up outside, they moved inside the library because of the weather.

Here's Casey doing a drawing demonstration of his cousin, Miss Orem 2010 Bridget Kreis.

Here's a picture of the weather that day. Brrrr!

And just like every year, with June comes Pleasant Grove's Strawberry Days. Just like last June and the June before that and probably every June from here on out, we have pictures of the kids at the carnival on the same rides, with the same carnies, for the same outrageous prices ...

This one started out okay, but did not end so well. Owen freaked out. Luckily they were the only two on because I'm pretty sure they ended the ride early. The highlight of Strawberry Days this year was volunteering to work a shift at the city-run food booth. Most of the time I filled drinks and took money in the greasy little trailer, which wasn't the greatest. But I got to eat as many cups of strawberries and cream as I wanted, even bypassing the huge line to get mine. And you can be sure I took advantage of that little perk!

Mama Jones brought us some oranges from Grandma Berkline's tree in California and helped the kids juice them. There is nothing better in the world!

Cute picture of the boys with Mama Jones!

And since I included a picture of Putty I guess I should show proof of our other cat, too. Harriette found a nice box that my mom was using as a mirror stand to hide in.