Harvest party

Two weeks ago we went to our friends, the Fisks, harvest party... they made it a very fun evening with activities such as: hayrides, decorating pumpkins, candy flying through the air, a bonfire & singing, yummy food and lots of laughter with friends! 

 Ready for the hayride... Dave and Mindy live in Wilder (the country) so we were able to enjoy the countryside scenery during our hayride. And, God blessed us with an amazing sunset that night!

 Mindy, the scarecrow, lighting a fire... hmmmm... "if I only had a brain" comes to mind! ha ha

 Decorating pumpkins!

 Trenton in his super hero Captain America costume

 My creative husband went as a bee keeper so he would be "the keeper of the bee"

And, Katie as Mulan

Field Trip

Last Friday the kid's classes (PreK-2nd grade) had a field trip to the Linder Farm's Pumpkin Patch.  My good friend, Katie, was unable to go along on the field trip so I took her kiddos...  There were LOTS of kids at the pumpkin patch and, amazingly, everyone survived the morning and arrived back to the schools safely (really... field trips can almost be scary... trying not to lose someone elses kids amongst all the people... well, it's hard work!) Everyone had a great time! They took a hay ride, visited animals, picked their own pumpkins from the patch, went on a mini corn maze and played on the playground. We had so much fun we're going back again tomorrow with another group of friends! 

 Kristiana, Angelina, Katie, Janelie, Tys, Eleana and Trenton.. showing off their prize pumpkins!

 Kristiana's mini pumpkin... so cute!

 Having fun in the corn box!

 On the hayride..

 Eleana and Katie in the pumpkin patch...

 Such a big pumpkin for such a little (cute) girl :)

 Trenton and Tys' perfect pumpkins

I love fall!!!

Fall Break

The kids have had a "fall break" from school this week... we have taken advantage of the week off and kept busy doing all sorts of fun things like: swimming at the Nampa Rec Center, seeing Brave at the dollar theater with 4 of their friends, going to the pumpkin patch and they got to spend a night at Papa and Nana's!  I have enjoyed getting to sleep past 6am :)  

 Sunday afternoon we celebrated Krystal's birthday at my parents house...the kids each made her a gift and we enjoyed yummy homemade cheesecake!

 Yes, Kristiana found the little hole in her nose :)   Thankfully, she hasn't been interested in her "little hole" since taking this picture!

 A few pictures from our day of swimming at the rec center.  We were there for about 4 hours and everyone had a great time practicing their swimming and playing with the pool balls/wading boards. Swimming is always nice because everyone goes home exhausted and happy :)

On Monday Casey and I attended the kid's parent/teacher conferences at Zion.  Tys and Katie are each doing great in their classes... Tys is learning his phonics and Katie is excelling in her reading!

Halloween Classic

On Saturday afternoon, Casey and I took the kids to the Firebird Raceway for their yearly Halloween Classic! Everyone (especially the boys!) had a great time watching the muscle cars race up the speedway.  I think its safe to say that listening to their revving motors was the boy's favorite part! The Speedway also had all sorts of fun events for the kids: Halloween Costume contest, games, trick or treating etc. and festive decorations all over.

 My mom was able to come and meet us for a little bit of the afternoon...

 Kristiana was a cute little bumblebee

 Tys is a Motorcross racer

 Katie Rose is a hippie girl :)

And, Trenton was Capt. America (the weather was a little cold so they had to wear their coats most of the day...)

Casey arrived home last night from MN. and, all four kids woke up healthy this morning... All is glorious once again on the home front!!  

One day last week (I don't remember which day but it was one that Kristiana wasn't sick..) I took her outside to try out my new camera, a Pentax K200.  Casey got it for me almost a month ago and I have literally only been able to practice with it twice so far... sad, I know.  But, that's just how busy we've been!  I know I have LOTS more to learn about both photography and my camera but, there's always a starting point for everything. So, here are a couple... no editing and, a little too dark because the sun was almost down.  But, at least you can see just how beautiful our sweet Kristiana is :)  She looks SO much like Katie Rose! 

Kisses "bye bye"

Sickness

So, this week has not gone according to plan at all!  Initially, our week was going to include helping my dad with their yard sale, the kid's Bike-A-Thon at school, piano and dance lessons for Katie and little projects here at the house... Casey is in MN this week so I am always kept busier with the extra duties of him being away.  Well, God periodically has to remind me that my plans are not always His plans!

The beginning of the week Kristiana came down with the stomach flu and a fever... She soon passed it on to Trenton who then decided mommy should have it too.  Today, Katie was sent home from school with it also...(thankfully, she got her class photo taken before getting sick!)  Tys is the only who hasn't gotten it yet.  This is a really bad bug.  The stomach flu is always the worse but, this one is particularly fierce. It has left me feeling weak and drained... I am still trying to recover.  Taking care of sick kiddos while you're sick yourself proves to be a challenge in and of itself! And, along with sickness comes extra loads of laundry and disinfecting. Thankfully, Katie wasn't sick yet and she helped me out a lot.  Also, our sweet friends Katie and Cory helped out with transporting the healthy kid(s) back and forth to school.  And my mom took time out of her busy work schedule to bring us homemade soup and medicine. So, this week has truly flown by and I got nothing accomplished that needed to be accomplished... except, it was a wonderful week of just sitting and snuggling with my babies!!