Halloween Countdown

I have lots of projects that I am trying to accomplish before the baby comes. I finished one today. It is a Halloween Countdown! The kids will get to take off a magnet every day until Halloween. I found this on-line and made up my own version of it. I love Halloween decorations, so this will be a fun addition to our house come this October.

Water, Water

Today we got invited to go to a little pool with my friend Kristy and her kids. It was a lot of fun. Just the right size for the kids to play in. It goes from very shallow to 1 foot deep. Makena has really loved playing with Katelyn, so we try to get together at least once a week so that the kids can play, and we can chat. It has been so much fun having them back in the state!!


Tyler


Makena


Makena and Katelyn. The pool was only 1 foot deep in the "deep end" so just perfect for the kids to play in!


Cute Nathen


Tyler playing with a water bottle in the pool.


Katelyn


Kali playing


Nathen


Tyler


Kali playing with a boogie board. She loved it and swam all over the little pool with it.


Brett


Tyler eating a fruit roll-up


Makena - she found this life jacket there and wanted to wear it. Once the life jacket was on...she was in the poll swimming around. Just needed something that she felt kept her safe in the pool. I will have to remember ours for next time!


Makena testing out the water before venturing in.


Kali swimming


Katelyn and Kali

Happy Birthday!

Today, my family all came to our house to celebrate Gretchen and my birthday's! We had dinner, opened gifts and had cake and ice-cream. It was a good time to spend with them.


Lighting the candles on the birthday cake. My sister made the cake. Gretchen wanted a princess Tiana cake this year. So one side was hers (Princess Tiana with the pink candles) and the other side was mine (Louis and the yellow candles).


Tyler came out of the girl's room wanting the tu-tu on him. He went to Grandpa Boyack asking him to put it on Tyler. Tyler then went and found his blanket and pacifier! Awesome picture!


Tyler kept turning around saying "cheese", so I could only assume he wanted a picture of him from the backside!


Then Grandpa decided it was his turn to wear it. He was too manly to wear it around his waist, he decided to be a lion with it! Good times!

Milk Man

We ran to Costco this morning and after we were back and the milk was put away, Tyler decided that stuffing his blanket and himself into the milk box was an awesome idea! He was laughing and having a great time.

Potato Bugs

Lately, Kali is in LOVE with potato bugs. She loves collecting them in any container that she can find. She gets quite a bit and keeps them in the container until it is time to go inside (which she cries every time because she doesn't want to let the potato bugs go). She reluctantly lets them go and the potato bugs crawl every which way. All of the kids will be playing with eachother, and she is collecting her little friends! One day, she had about 50-60 bugs in her little container. She will even collect them in the back of her bike (she has a basket on the back) and take them for rides. She is very protective of her friends and if Kali goes off to play with the kids, she will tell me, "Mom, watch them and make sure nobody touches them." It is sure fun to watch her get so excited about bugs! She also tries to sneak them into the house. One time, she came into the house and hid the potato bugs underneath her chair. She quickly learned that potato bugs need to stay outside!


Kali with the potato bugs she caught!


Kali really wanted a picture of a potato bug on her arm!

Master Chef

This morning, Makena and Tyler were playing in Tyler's room. Makena had come out to watch a cartoon, but Tyler remained in his room. I went in to see what he was doing and he was preparing some delicious meals!

Meet the Newest Members

These 2 little frogs are the newest members of our family! Aunt Molly decided that she didn't want them anymore and gave them to the kids to enjoy. They love them and everyday have to go look at them! We don't have names just yet, the girls are still working on those. We are trying to have Tyler say frogs...but for now, they are fish to him!

Homemade Ice-Cream

Tonight I was suppose to work, but got canceled and so we were trying to think of something fun for the kids to do. I had come across a recipe for homemade ice-cream in a bag a couple of days ago and got the ingredients for it and so we decided that it would be fun to make our own vanilla ice-cream.

The girls helped me assemble the ingredients and bags and then we went outside to shake the bags. The kids didn't last too long shaking their bags, and so Jarel did most of the shaking for the kids' ice-cream. It didn't take long, and sure enough we had ice-cream to enjoy!

Here is the recipe: This makes 1 serving.

1 gallon ziplock bag
1 quart ziplock bag
2 Tbl. sugar
1 cup half and half
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup Morton ice-cream salt
Ice cubes

Add sugar, half and half, and vanilla into the quart size bag. Seal tight.
Mix ingredients by smooshing the bag.

Place salt and enough ice cubes to fill the gallon bag 3/4 full. Then place the sealed ice-cream mixture bag into the gallon bag. Seal tight.

Shake the bags around until you can feel the ice-cream mixture harden. Takes about 10-15 minutes.


Makena shaking her bag.


Kali really didn't like to shake the bag, she liked rolling it on her head or stepping on it with her feet.


Tyler trying to open the bag. It was really hard for this little boy to understand that we had to keep the bag closed so that we could make ice-cream.


Makena enjoying her ice-cream. She tasted it and said, "Mom, it takes just like Chick-Fil-A's ice cream. Yumm!"


Kali and Tyler


Kali eating her ice-cream. She ate her entire bag!


Tyler eating ice-cream. He loved it and wouldn't let anyone near his bag of ice-cream.

Salt Lake County Fair

Tonight we went to the fair. We love going every year and it is wonderful that it is so close to our house. We don't have to go very far at all! We pretty much just saw all the animals. Makena and Tyler had a great time looking at the animals, Kali...not so much. The only animals she liked this year were the rabbits. Tyler was going crazy, running around to all the cages calling everything "sheep." Makena loved the sheep, horses, rabbits and cows. She told me that she didn't like the pigs because "they were stinky." We also went into the petting zoo and got to feed the animals some carrots. Kali HATED this part and wanted to leave the moment we went in. Tyler loved feeding the goats and horse. Makena loved the horse and also the baby goats. There was a huge bunny in the petting zoo that Kali wanted to go see. We went over there and this bunny was all over Jarel. He was jumping up on his lap, nibbling at his legs and arms and getting a little frisky with Jarel. It was the funniest thing and I was laughing so hard, tears were coming down. He wouldn't leave Jarel alone and the more we tried to shoo the bunny away, the more he came back attacking Jarel. Maybe I should call the bunny a "she"! It was a fun little outing for us all.


Makena with a sheep.


Jarel showing Kali the sheep. She couldn't crawl high enough in the stroller to get away from the sheep!


Tyler looking at the sheep.


Makena by the goats.


Tyler with a huge bunny.


Tyler feeding a goat.


Jarel, Kali and Makena feeding one of the many goats.


Jarel pushing the goats away from Kali.


Tyler feeding a goat. He didn't mind the animals and loved feeding them. But when one of the goats got in his face, he didn't like that and wanted to be held.


Jarel, Tyler and Mr. Camel.


Makena with a horse. She loved this horse and would have stayed all night if we would have let her.


Jarel and Tyler by the donkey


This was Kali pretty much the entire time we were in the petting zoo. She didn't like it and kept asking me "Mom, can we leave now?"


Kali got brave and actually pet the bunny. She was actually smiling!


The very friendly bunny nibbling on Jarel's leg.


Jarel trying to get away from the bunny. I didn't get all the pictures I wanted because I was laughing so hard, but this bunny was seriously all over Jarel!