My Sweetie Pie

I love this little gal. Even though there were tears, trauma, and last minute hair and wardrobe changes, I think her 1st grade picture turned out great. Can't believe my sweetie's a 1st grader!

Pumpkin Carving #3

Here is the master chef, Kathy, making the magic happen. Homemade rootbeer with dry ice - yummy!

The kids, of course, thought it was great. Of course Uncle Brian wanted to add a few special ingredients! Jacee...


Emma...

Aves...

And Jack...

Here is Jacee doing her best Elphaba impression. She loves the part where Elphaba is doing the spell for Fiero, waving her arms around.

More fun events of the evening. Here is McKell - our tween - listening to an ipod...hmmm, can you just see those teen-age years coming!

Carter and Talor playing Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots.

Aves at the candy bowl. That thing was cleaned out by the time we all left!

And the night was complete with three rounds of boogeyman. It did take everyone to get Uncle Brian.

Pumpkin Carving #2

The moment you have all been waiting for - the finished jack-o-lanterns!


This is always my favorite pic of the night - the glowing pumpkins. Aren't they great?

Jacee and Jack with their finished products. And yes - mom did carve them this year.

Kimble showing the one he scraped out very thin - when you put the candle in, it is just suppose to glow orange - don't know if it worked or not.

And cute McKell - isn't hers darling? I think she got some of her parents' creative talents!

My little Avery (she's not really mine, but kinda!) I had to take multiple pics to get a smiling one - she is such a teaser!

This was the second one I took...

Here's actually the 1st one I took...

Pumpkin Carving #1

One of the best parts of being back in Utah are the family traditions. This is one of my favorites! The Pumpkin Carving Party! And we of course we have the host with the most - Gary Petersen! Just look at this set up! He has taught me more about the art of carving pumpkins and how to be ready for a party. Props to you big guy!

These first round of pictures are of the actual carving. We started early this year - 1:30pm - because there was going to be a conflict that evening with a 5K. Well, that fell through so we got to stay at the Sunrise Petersen's for hours on end. I will have to add a few other posts to cronicle all of the afternoon/evening festivities! This pic is of Kimble hollowing out his - 2nd pumpkin.


We were glad the Wy-honing Petersens got to join in this year - even though we're not sure of the influence they are bringing to the party. Here is Brian carving his "swear word" pumpkin.

Steve filled in for Uncle John who had to work for part of the party. John is usually the uncle-demand, making sure all the little ones get things going right. Steve was the very handy uncle this year.

Gary and his kids always seem to pick the very intricate designs - surprised? Here he is helping Abby - who actually did most of the carving by herself.

Jack and Isaac lasted for a bit before scampering off to play. I was glad Jack picked an easy design since John wasn't there to carve this year. I did okay, but we sure missed daddy. We're glad he made it for most of the party - and he made a sale! Woot! Woot!

Steve supervising Kimble on his first pumpkin. I think he did the most and was pretty much doing it by himself. Pretty creative kid.


Emy did a bat and then helped her dad hollow out the poor pumpkins that got put in pumpkin hell! Way to be a good helper Emma!
Stay tuned for part 2 and 3 of the party - fun times!

More Fall Fun

Fall 07

I think I have more pictures of the Autumn than I do of Christmas! Just more fun pictures of fun time we've had in the fall in the past. I don't know why Jack does the zombie face everytime I take a picture with him in the leaves. The leaves are starting to fall, so we'll soon be out making a pile to jump in - we'll see how it goes this year!

Maddie - fall 07. Just enjoying things from her carseat.

Jack - fall 05 - up in the canyon - what a cute boy!

Playing dress up in old costumes. Fall 07

Jacee and Jasmine at Hee Haws - look - they were shorter than Jack is this year. We've been going there for a loooong time! Fall 06

The Pumpkin Patch

It's that time again - the annual trip to Hee Haws - our local pumpkin patch. Jack and Maddie had a great time. One of the favorite attractions is always the corn box - think sand substituted with corn. This is where we actually spent most of our time - who knew?

Jack's 2nd favorite thing was the hay bale bounce. When it was time to go - he said - wait mom - just one more big trick. He would do a trick and then say - that wasn't the real one - here's the real one - and this went on for a while.

Jack just hangin' out in the corn.

Of course Jack has tractors encoded in his DNA from Grampa Brent.

Maddie loved the tire horsie swing. I still can't believe how big she is getting.


I'll have to find the other pictures of Jack standing in front of this sign. I hope he continues to grow and be one of the biggest boys his age - it's good to be tall!

We had a great time - we also went on a hayride, visited the petting zoo, saw a pig that was as big as a cow, and went on the slides, and wandered around the pumpkin patch. A great time was had by all!

Chop, Chop, Lamb Chop

Jacee really, really wants long hair, but she also loved going to the salon and getting her hair washed, cut, and styled. Usually about once a year she goes for the big cut and gets a cute A-line Bob.

I love to watch her swing her hair around and look in the mirror after the cut. She told me - I feel so beautiful!

We love our little gal with long or short hair. She is just so fun!

My Girls

Maddie - age 2

Don't know what it is about my girls and buckets...but here are two cute pictures taken about 5 years apart. Sometime it amazes me how big they both are. I sure love these girls!

Jacee - age 18 months.

Witches and more Witches

We had a day off so we went to Gardner Village. It was great! We went on a witch scavenger hunt and had to find certain witches. The kids had a great time. This was Jack's favorite - the witch catching bugs in her cage.
Here's a sneaky little witch at the quilting shop.

Maddie wasn't too sure about getting hugged by this witch.

Everyone loved Witchy Poo - and yep - that's just what she was doing!

Jacee wasn't nervous at all. We had a great time and WE LOVE HALLOWEEN!

Fun for All in the Fall

We love the fall at our house. We love the cool crisp air, we love Halloween, and we love playing in the leaves. The leaves have not fallen yet, so I'm posting pics from last year.

Yep, everyone gets buried!

Maddie even loved it!

Nothing better than playing in the crunchy leaves - and at Grama and Grampa Mission's house - there are plenty!