Happy Thanksgiving

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Picking Peaches!

Katie was such a sport to help me pick peaches in hopes to keep the deer away. It was raining so she is hiding under this branch. I have been bottling (I think I have done 5o quarts allready), freezing, and dehdrating for several days and I still have a ton left. (if anyone wants some peaches let me know I have plenty to spare)!


Megan's favorite thing!

Megan is such a girl. She loves to play with her babies. Every night we have to tuck her in with a baby, and she will sit and play with it for quite a while in her bed before she finally falls asleep. She will talk to it, feed it bottles, or give the baby her binki, gives her loves and kisses, and sometimes sings to it. She is such a good mommy.
Good Night Megan and Baby!

Animal dress up party!

September 23 2008
Katie is such a little girl though she loves playing with Justin she sure has her own very girly side too. Today I went in her room trying to find her since she had dissapeared for a while and was being so quiet (which is normally room for disaster). But I found her in there and she had put all her dress up jewlery on several of her animals and baby. It was so cute. And she was taking and playing with them all. I love this side of her. Pretend and dress up...it brings back so many fun memories of my sister and I as a kid.

I love my kiddos!

September 21 2008
The 3 kiddos posing for me after church. They looked so cute I just couln't help it!


"DEER" Me!

September 21 2008
So not only did Justin have a fun birthday we also had a visitor in our yard. This buck seems to like our apples, peaches, pears, and now the raspberries. He also likes to play with our swingset and my other yard items. In the past week I have found him in our yard more times than I can count and regardless of how many times I scare him away (only because I am slightly worried with 3 small kids running around) somehow he tends to find his way back. I have been told to tyr tobasco sauce, cayan pepper, human hair, or lever soap peeled around our trees may keep him away but I have yet to try any. I hope he will just stay away, it is making me so nervous that I won't send the kids outside until I go and make sure he isn't there first. And I find myself checking constantly. 2 days ago I picked all the peaches and pears off the trees and have been bottling, dehydrating, and freezing fruit like crazy, and I have only scratched the surface. I hoped that would work but it didn't now he is stripping the leaves off the trees and eating the flowers. He is also eating the apples still since I haven't picked those yet. I am trying to wait until after the first frost since they are so much better then! Silly deer!
Eating the apples. The worst part is that he only takes 1 bite of everything then moves on so he is wasting so much of the fruit, he could at least finish what he started don't you think. I guess the first bite is the best!




Happy 6th Birthday Justin!

September 21, 2008
Oh Sweet baby boy. It feels like not too long ago that you were born. I can't imagine it has really been 6 years. wow! You have been such a great baby and a wonderful brother and we have been through so many things in these past years. I could never imagine what life would have been like without you. You have kept our lives full of adventure, happiness, love, and laughter. You are constantly amazing us and challenging yourself, something that makes you who you are today. I love your innocence and precious smiles. You are an incredible big brother to your 2 little sisters and stick up for them constantly. You have accomplished so much these past 6 years and I know that you have some amazing goals in life to continue to achieve. You love to learn and your creativity amazes me. You are constantly inventing new things and your adventurous spirit is one of never ending dreams. Thanks for being such a great son and never forget to let your light and love for others shine. We love you Justin. Here are some pictures of Justins birth to 6 years and his six year birthday.
Justin is born September 21, 2002
I love this picture he was so alert and laying on my shoulder, it felt so great to be a mother!

Justin Age 1
Look at the adventurous spirit about him!

Justin age 2 I love this as well look at the innocence in his eyes.

Justin age 3. So happy and carefree, he loved life!

Justin age 4, his love of trains was still there. He's growing up! This year we were in Disneyland on his birthday, one I don't think any of us will ever forget!

Justin age 5, here I think he looks like such a big kid!

Happy 6th. Justin has recently lost his 2 front teeth so it's hard to talk sometimes. He has been telling us all week "mom and dad I am going to be SICK on sunday" he was saying six but it didn't sound like it so we were teasing him all week. I guess you better stay in bed. Even Katie would say no six...it was really cute.

Justin with his presents!


Opening his presents! He got so many of the things he wanted. A remote control race car, bug magnifier, crash car, magnetix, clothes, hot wheels, paper and paints, and more. He kept telling us he wanted cotton candy for his birthday. Unfortunately after going to 6 stores with no luck I promised him some if we ever found it. He said that was ok.

Justin ready for church on his birthday!


Grandma and grandpa brought a present over after church. He was so excited when he opened it...in case you can't tell from the photo! It was a Razer scooter! He really wanted this the one with the 2 wheels he kept telling us and orange. That is exactly what he got.

Justin riding his scooter! He couldn't wait....we all went outside immediately and watched him go. He has been on this nonstop since he got it too!

Eating ice-cream cones.

Justin's soccer ball cake. Just what he wanted and perfect for our soccer star. Thanks Tracy for letting me borrow the cake patterns!


Justin put the candles on himself! He was so proud!

Make a wish! He did it, got them all blown out. In our house we have a tradition that we all get to have a turn blowing out the candles (then we use the candles). It's a kind of fun thing and the kids like that they all get a turn and then the birthday child gets another turn at the end. Then they get to cut the cake and have the first piece. Kind of fun! At least we think so.

We called and had my brother Brandon come over and blow out the candles too. His birthday is the 22nd the next day. The kids didn't mind that just meant another round of everyone taking turns to blow again!

Happy Birthday Justin, we are so proud of you and love you so much.




Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Rob's CPA Inauguration Ceremony! Congrats dear!

September 20th 2008
Tonight was such a great event for Rob. I was so proud of him. After years of hard work and hours of studying tonight it all proved worth it! Tonight was the CPA inauguration for all of those who have become CPA's from 2007 -now. It was a really nice black tie dinner at the Little America Hotel. Such a fun night out to honor him and so many others from his firm and others. I am so proud of you Rob and he looked so great all dressed up!
Rob on stage after receiving his ceertificate!

Being awarded the Certificate!


The swearing in ceremony. This was really neat!


Rob and his friend Tyler!

Everyone from Rob's office that earned their CPA's. What a fun group. Good job everyone!


Our Family Vacation. Goblin Valley!

September 17-19th our Family went on a vacation down to Goblin valley. We did a lot of fun things together below are some of the pictures of our fun adventures.
Rob and Justin in the Wild Horse canyon hike on our hike in the slott canyons.

Megan enjoying her time out of the backpack!

Katie decided to really take a good rest on this rest stop.

Katie hiking in the slott canyon! She loved it she would sing, and gallopp like a horse. Often she would pretend she was a super hero saving someone, it was really cute.

Doing some off roading this was so fun. Rob and I and the kids loved 4 wheeling and being in the middle of nowhere. Here we were on our way to Muddy Creak. We decided it was getting late so we turned around before we hit the end but it was so fun to be in the middle of the beautiful surroundings. It was really cool.

Justin and Katie scaling the slott canyon. This was one of the best hikes I have ever been on and I have been on a lot. It was not to hard for the kids, extremely beautiful, and one never knew what to expect on the next turn. It was really fun and the kids loved it too.

Rob scaled the canyon walls with Megan on his back, I will admit I was a little nervous. he doesn't look that high but he really was.


Justin and Katie under the tunnel rock (as they called it)!

Isn't it beautiful. The slotts just kept going and going.

Mommy and the kids. This was so fun to get some great one on one with each of the kids.

Justin in front of Molly's castle!

Eating their breakfast! Justin, Megan and Katie. These three bonded on this trip and it was so fun to watch them help each other and play with one another. We chose to camp on BLM land so no toilets, no running water. Just us and the land. We basically brought it all with us and if it wasn't burned or burried we took it back away with us. This is Rob's kind of camping and we all had fun. We had a great camping spot too. Or so we thought. Until we found the beehive in the tree nearby. We decided if we left them alone they would leave us alone too (that plan worked).
Lot's of lizards. But we didn't chase them. We were told that would make their tails fall off and then they wouldn't be as well adapted. so we just looked at them and watched them. They were everywhere and this one was really big.


Nicole on the hike. It was very sandy and I was pretty dirty. But oh it was a beautiful day and hike.
Katie and Rob hiking together.

Dad and the girls, they found a hiding spot. The kids loved doing this they would run ahead and hide then jump out and try to scare us. They were pretty good at it too.

Katie and Justin resting under this rock.


We found this cool cave. Rob helped the kids inside and we had a snack break in here. It was fairly large and Rob told the kids about how indians may have lived in here etc. He is quite the story teller at that. They were into it. It was pretty cool.

At the tippy top of the mountain. We kept telling them that that was where we were going and they would repeat it over and over, or ask "dad are we almost to the tippy top" it was cute. And we were so proud of them. They made it! Good job kids.

Justin mom and Katie on the top of the mountain looking down at all the goblins. So cool! The kids had a blast running in and out of them.

Katie hiking in the goblins! She loved trying to determine what they each looked like. Ducks, pigs, horses, chairs, etc. She was very creative.

Justin off exploring near our campsite. He loved doing this. He was so cute always wanting to show us what he had discovered. Here he had found a tree that had fallen into the ravine.


Justin Katie and Rob overlooking the goblins!

I love this photo. He looked so cute. He loved finding creative places to pose for the camera.


Mom with Katie and Justin in the goblins. Always looking for adventure.

Some offroading in the wash at sun down. It was so beautiful.

The kids enjoying their dinner.


Ok so this was a monumentous moment and one of glory for Rob. He Refused to throw away all of his CPA review books and study guides. He had to save a few to bring when we went camping just for this moment. To burn them. It brought him great accomplishment and peace to place that on the fire. He really enjoyed it. Normally we don't believe in burning books but we will admit it sure fealt nice to do this.

One of the CPA review books in the fire with the hot dog dinner.

Megan playing in the sand.