{Operation Pumpkin Carving}

Saturday morning we woke up, rushed to get breakfast into our bellies and hurried off to Ayden's baseball game.  Only to find out that we had put the wrong time on our calendar.  His game wasn't for another four hours!!  Super awesome!!  A morning that could have used to sleeep in was wasted on getting up and at'em.  Darn it all!!  The kids though had a great idea.  We had yet to pick out our pumpkins for carving.  So we stopped by the local grocery store, who was having a sale on pumpkins, and picked out four lovely ones.

Fast forward to Sunday night, the kids were super excited to get to carving.  And surprise of all surprises, I didn't have to gut one pumpkin, which is usually my job!!  I may or may not have been on the phone with my sister at the time, though I wasn't trying to get out of it I promise!

Meysa declared that we have an advantage when it comes to carving really cool pumpkins.  It is called our Dad.  He is an expert at carving.  So glad all his training in the operating room is paying off for us here at home too!!

We didn't have any sliced fingers or broken pumpkins so we'll call it a successful night.  The kids' favorite part was getting to take pictures with their pumpkins and lighting the candles inside.  I am so glad that they still enjoy the simple things in life!!

Lauryn is obviously a boss at carving pumpkins.  She can carve and eat a brownie at the same time!

Family Pictures 2013

This year for family pictures, Ryan really wanted to do them downtown on the Mall.  I agreed and I am so glad that we did!!  We have really loved living out here around so much history and we wanted to add that to our family pictures.  So we took some shots with the Washington Monument in the background and then the rest around the Lincoln Memorial.  I have to thank Ryan's Mom and Step Dad for helping with the pictures.  We loved having them here to visit!!

{Fall Ball}

Ayden wanted to play Fall ball this year and it has been fun to watch him play.  He is learning and getting better all the time.  He has a great coach for Fall ball and we hope he will be on his team for the Spring season as well.  Papa Greg took most of these pics when they were out at the end of September.

{Anybody there?}

I am a terrible blogger!!  Seriously, I should really get my act together!!  Well we have been busy with everything from school to work to sports and music.  Here are a few of the random snippets of our life as of late!!  

For Family Home Evening a few weeks ago we busted out the Twister game.  The kids had a great time turning themselves into human pretzels!!

We enjoyed our last trip to Harper's Ferry over Labor Day!!  It has been a fun tradition and we loved seeing the Shenandoah River and that quaint little town!!  We will miss that next year!!

Wyatt got to dress up as Moses in Primary one Sunday!!  Love the beard buddy!!

Speaking of Wyatt, he loves Math!  He got a math workbook from his Papa Don and had been tearing up the pages.  He calls it his homework!!

For Wyatt's birthday in August he got movie tickets so he could go see the movie Planes!!  Well we finally went to see it before it left the theatre.  Better late than never is obviously how I operate!!  It was a cute movie and we loved getting to go as a family!!

The kids have been great about playing outside and using their imaginations.  I believe they were playing trains here!!

Ayden has been working hard in scouts!! And then I have to work to sew all those merit badges on his sash!!

At the end of September, Ryan's Mom and Step Dad came out to visit.  They hadn't been to Arlington so we headed there.  It it always an experience to see that place.  A must see stop is the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.  I love seeing the Veterans in the background.  I see my Grandpa in their faces and always thank them for their service!!

The highlight of this visit was getting to meet one of the Guards for the tomb.  This particular gentleman was the relief commander.  He is the man that changes the guards.  Well after we had seen the changing of the guard we headed to the bathroom because Wyatt had to go.  The bathrooms are located next to the Guard office.  As we were all getting out of the restrooms and waiting for everyone to regroup the Relief commander was walking back the guard office.  He passed us and we thought "Wow that was cool to see him up close".  Not a minute later another solider in plain clothes came out and asked us if we would like to see the Guard briefing room.  We were a little taken back but of course agreed.  So as we walked in, the Relief Commander walked into the little briefing room and introduced himself.  He had noticed us as he had walked into the guard room because of all the Army shirts!  It was neat to visit with him and see up close one of these amazing men.  It was a once in a lifetime experience,  and we feel very lucky to have been in the right place, at the right time and in apparently the right shirts!!  GO ARMY!!

After Arlington we headed to the Lincoln Memorial to take family pictures.  We really wanted to get pictures here to show the wonderful place we have had the blessing of living in for the last few years.  It was tricky trying to get pictures without all the tourist in each shot and we got some interesting looks from people watching us ham it up!!  This picture was the last shot of the night, they kids had done amazingly well, but they were done!!

A beautiful shot of the Washington Monument!!

We headed to Chinatown to have dinner!!  It was fun to see the city at night too!!

The men headed off to the Priesthood session of General Conference.  It was Ayden's first time and he was excited for the pizza social beforehand!!

Being our crazy selves at Target while shopping for Halloween costumes!!

And yes, Batman now resides at our house!!

{Back to School 2013}

Wow back to school already?!!  That may have been one of the fastest moving summers I can remember.  We had a ton of fun and we are sad to see it end.  But I think we are ready to get back into the swing of things around these parts.  This year is a big year for our little family.  Our baby had reached the ripe old age of 5 and is ready as all get out to go to Kindergarten.  

That means I am all alone at home during the day.  The last time that happened was over 12 years ago.  Holy cow!!  It feels weird because I don't have someone needing my attention all day, everyday.  It also feels glorious don't get me wrong.  I have enjoyed going grocery shopping without having a whiny child try to put fifty boxes of Fruit Loops in the cart.  It is the small things I tell ya. 

Enough about me, how about we get onto the kiddos!!

This young man is a 7th Grader this year.  Seriously hold the phone!!  No way can he be this old!!  He is taking a full load of advanced classes and he is excited to be back with his friends.  He is such a good kid.  Really thankful for him!!

We didn't get any pictures of him with his teachers because 1) he is way too old for that and 2) it would be absolutely mortifying to have your mother follow you around all day to all your classes just to get pictures of your teachers.  So we will have to use our imagination!!

Meysa is a big 4th Grader this year.  Her teacher is Ms. Conley, who we thought was a new teacher to the school because we didn't recognize her name, but she just got married over the summer!!  Meysa also has one of her best friends in her class this year.  It was the icing on the cake for the year to start off that way.  Meysa loves school and was really excited to get back into learning!!

Lauryn is the oldest now at her school.  Hard to believe it but she is.  Her teacher is Mrs. Mebane, who happened to be Meysa's second grader teacher.  Mrs. Mebane was also Lauryn's summer school teacher so Lauryn was happy to get her for the entire year.  Lauryn was excited to start school.  She loves to learn!!

This little man has been dreaming of this day for the last two years.  He was ready to go to school when he was three.  He has been humoring my attempt at teaching him the basics in preschool this last year.  All of which he already knew.  He was very prepared to start kindergarten, except for learning to tie his shoes.  We didn't get that skill mastered.  I figured though since he learned to ride is bike before kindergarten and his siblings didn't, it is a fair trade!!  He'll get it eventually!!

His teacher this year is Ms. Wright.  She is super nice and he says he loves her already.  He has two kids in his class that are in our neighborhood and they were also in his summer school class.  He was excited very about that.  I am so glad that he loves school and is excited to go.  It makes it fun for me too!!  

I am happy to say that there were no tears shed by either one of us on the first day.  Maybe a little heart string tug for me but only for a minute as I watched him walk onto the bus.  He is my "baby" no longer.  Darn kids keep growing up!!

Here's to a happy and productive school year!!