Josh's Farm Trip

It was Josh's fall field trip to the Tolmachoff farm this past week. We had been before when Ethan was at this preschool. I was hoping it would be cool outside and feel "fallish" but not yet it was a pretty warm day.

Here he is with his class, you can see how petite he is compared to other kids his age.

Picking some vegetables for us to take home.

Riding the train, I almost wanted to put Avery in with him to but decided it would probably not be a good idea : )

The big brother doing a good job keeping Avery upright.

Josh was excited that he found a somewhat bigger pumpkin in the little pumpkin patch.

The three of us having a good time.

Hiking in Sedona

A few weeks ago, Michael and I went on a hiking date. We went up and stayed the night at Grandma Connie's and she watched the kids in the morning while we drove the rest of the way to Sedona and went hiking. We went on hike to "Devil's Bridge." It was about 4 miles roundtrip and pretty steep in places. Once you get there it is a rock that naturally goes really skinny in the middle making a bridge up in the Sedona red rocks.

That's us out in the middle, we had another couple take our picture once we got out on the bridge.

Halloween Birthday Party

Yea! Our Halloween party we had been working on for weeks finally came. Here are some pics to share if you didn't get to be there.

The boys went around taking pictures for me that's why they are all from a weird angle.

These were my touch and feel boxes, it was hard to get the kids to stick there hands in the boxes they wanted to see what was in them first.

We had some freaky pictures hanging on the walls to set the mood.

In our bathroom we had some Halloween lighting and some mice infestation.

Josh eating with some friends. The bottles of orange crush and IBC root beer were a hit.

Our menu consisted of sliced arm pieces, "spine"-wiches, pureed maggots, moldy chips, booger dip with veggies and pumpkin guts with apples and pretzels to dip.

Ethan was able to have some good dancing at his party. These pictures are bright because of the flash but the room was actually dark with strobe lights and fog from dry ice. Ethan was a happy boy in his zombie costume.

Every kid loves to have a pinata full of candy at their party. Here is Ethan getting first swing at the bat.

And then the madness after the pinata breaks, we had about 15 kids at the party so luckily there was enough candy to go around.

The party was fun chaos but only lasted about 1.5 hours. After all the guests were gone we had a nice spread of food and trash everywhere : )

Ethan is a lucky boy and got a lot of nice birthday presents from friends. His presents included: legos, dagadars, nerf toys, gift cards and more from family too.

My video of his birthday cake doesn't want to load but Ethan chose to have oreo ice cream cake and it was pretty delicious.

All in all Ethan had a blast and that's what matters. One more birthday down and another year to go.

Ethan is 7!!!

My Ethan is already 7! Seven sounds so old to me, where has the time gone. I'd like to say Ethan is a totally sweet boy, but he does have a pretty grumpy streak that shows up most days. He is a good boy though and incredibly smart. He reads just about any words you put in front of him. He was one of three kids in his class to be excelling in both reading and math. His new love right now is building with legos. He is a project man and is never bored. He wakes and usually tells me a plan of what activities he's doing for the day. He loves playing video games, his favorite sport is basketball and he love, loves to dance. He's still a pretty small guy coming in about 5th percentile for weight and 15th for height. I'm excited for another year with my Ethan and all of the new things he is going to learn and discover.

Here is him opening up his birthday presents in the morning before school and then we had his party that evening.

Peppersauce Caves

Last month, Joshua and Michael went on a day trip with one of Michael's old mission companions and his boy. I was nervous about them going because it sounded kind of dangerous and unregulated but of course they came home fine. Josh wore a helmet to protect his head and brought a pound or two of mud back home with him.

There were lots of places for Josh to crawl around in.

And slide down too.

So cute with his flashlight and helmet.

Michael in the background with his headlight on.

And one cute little bum who couldn't make it to a bathroom.