Getting ready for Christmas

We still can't believe the holiday season is here, but we were all excited to get out the Christmas tree and decorations. Everyone participated in the decorating. Even Justin got in on the action(he likes to be involved these days).

Trip to Moab

We have been wanting to start visiting some of the beautiful national parks of Utah. For UEA this year we decided to start with Arches as our first destination. We invited our good friends the Holbrooks to go with us. They also have three girls and a baby boy, so our kids are perfect matches as friends. You would think that six girls together might get a little wild...and you are right. Just kidding, they got along very well and were excited by all of the sights.

We even made the famous hike to delicate arch. All of the kids were troopers and made the trek with no complaining.

Even Justin was excited and ready for the trek.

He started getting a little drowsy...

And finally gave up on the hike back.

The whole clan.

First Birthday

It's hard to believe, but our little Justin is already a year old. We were able to celebrate his big day with some of our family. I wasn't sure how he would do with opening presents and eating cake, but he had no problems at all. In fact, he enjoyed everything much more than I would have thought a one year old can enjoy things.

He laughed after every single present he opened. He even smiled about the cards. (What little child gets excited about cards?) He was especially excited about his little football that Kelsey gave him.

Then came the cake......... After a little prodding, Justin dug right in and didn't stop until the cake was either consumed or destroyed. He enjoyed playing in it as much as eating it.

He seems to be looking for more cake.

The deck

While my parents were in town in August we spontaneously decided to expand our deck (with some prompting from my dad). My dad, Scot's dad, and Scot quickly went to work and before we even had time to think about it, we had a deck. Scot has been working to build the stairs and railing and to finish the deck. We are thrilled with how it has turned out.



Ashley is a great worker and enjoys helping her dad.

Kelsey got going on her own little project of sanding some wood.

Justin is walking!

Justin has been taking steps for awhile now, but just this week he has taken off with walking.

He often has a huge smile as he goes walking across the kitchen floor.

Walking opens up the doors for all kinds of activities. Hopefully he will continue to enjoy the piano as he gets older.

Princess Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn got to dress up and go with her two cousins and her grandparents to a Princess Festival.

Ashley and Kelsey decided to make it a fun day for her. They gave her a menu and fixed her French toast, fruit, and hot chocolate for breakfast. They are very sweet to their sister.

Oregon

We were able to take a trip this summer with the Morrisons to the Oregon coast. The views were beautiful and the cool weather was a welcome relief from the summer heat of Utah.

The girls didn't seem to mind the cold water. They spent several hours playing on the beach and in the water. Ashley convinced me one day that the water didn't feel very cold, so I ventured out a little further in the water. It just so happened that a big wave came rolling in at that very moment and managed to drench me. The water was definitely cold!

The beach house we stayed in is in the distance. Even though Scot and I didn't play in the water as much as the kids, we still enjoyed the beach.

Our growing boy

Justin seems to be all smiles these days, especially when he is eating. He must have gotten a little overly excited during this feeding.

Becoming more mobile has opened up an ex iting new world for him, which apparently brings even more smiles.

His excitement also seems to be growing about the prospects of being a pharmacist one day like his daddy. Can you picture our future pharmacist?

Birthdays

One of the fun things about having birthdays in the summer is that you get to play in water! During the past couple of months, each one of our girls have had a birthday.

All of the girls had fun in the water at Kaitlyn's birthday party.

Minnesota

We recently took a trip to Minnesota to visit my parents. Every year we seem to make it to the Mall of America, despite my dislike of shopping. We mainly go on a few rides and wander around for awhile. This year, however, we also visited Como Zoo and Minnehaha falls.

Justin had fun swinging at the park with Grandma ( I think Grandma was having fun swinging too.)

Of course we had several bonfires in the backyard. If the girls had it their way, we would have had a bonfire every night. As it was, I think they consumed enough smores to last them for awhile. Here is Ashley very carefully building the perfect smore.


And Kaitlyn very carefully eating one of her smores.

And Kelsey very content after eating all of her smores.

Justin missed out on the smores, but was equally happy with entertainment from daddy.

Beautiful weather!

We decided to spend an evening at the park to enjoy the beautiful 70 degree weather. The girls were excited to help Justin try out the fun playground equipment. He seemed to enjoy it as much as they did.

It turned out that there was a fitness program going on at the park that evening to remind us of the importance of physical fitness. The kids got to participate in several activities

Some of the activities may have been geared towards smaller children...but the girls still managed.

Happy Easter

The kids were excited for Easter. They put on their bunny ears as they got ready for Grandma's Easter party.

Saturday evening we had their cousins Stevie and Melanie over and they all decorated Easter eggs together.