Halloween Party at the Zoo

It just wouldn't be Halloween without a trip the the Zoo's Halloween party.  The kids always love it.  It is always crowded and this year was not an exception.  We couldn't even get in to park at the zoo, but found our way around and was able to park at the park across the street and I'm pretty sure it was faster then the mile or so long line getting in to the zoo.  This year was great cause they made the path longer then the years before meaning the kids got about 20 pieces of goodies instead of just 15.  :-)  Here are the pictures of our adventure.

The end!

Family Pictures

I first have to start off by thanking my wonderful friend, Rhonda, who took these GREAT pictures.  I have always wanted to do pictures like this and she was WONDERFUL!  I can't brag about her enough.  Thanks a ton Rhonda.  And I think that the pictures speak for themselves, enjoy! 

Megan

Bryson

(I have to add a comment about the bottom left picture, the boys were told to give each other a hug, and well the picture speaks for itself. Typical siblings!)

Connor

Josh & Alexis

The whole gang!

Ta Da!!

Swim, Soccer & a Sneek Peek

Megan had another session of swim lessons and loved it.  She does very well swimming in water and is our little fish.

Bryson is currently in the middle of his soccer season.  He loves to play defense, he has a great power kick, and does pretty well playing goalie.  Josh is also the assistant coach this season.  He wasn't going to volunteer because he is in school, but Bryson has loved having him as his coach. 

And here is your sneek peek of our family photo session.  One of our wonderful friends took pictures for us of our family, it was a lot of fun, and I'm very proud of my kids for doing so well.  Can't wait to share more!

Fishing Derby

On October 1st it was the Annual Fishing Derby put on my the local Police Department.  We got there a little after 9am and were all bundled up cause it was COLD.  We only had 1 fishing pole and Megan got to fish first.  Caught nothing.

Connor sat as our spectator and cheerleader.

Bryson grabbed his worm so that he could fish.

Bryson fishing his one time before he & Josh had to run to his soccer game.  Caught nothing.

After about a hour and a half of fishing.  Still nothing.

Connor enjoyed eating the donuts, drinking/spilling his water, talking to the people around us, playing with the worms and watching.

After Josh left Megan & I had to learn to do everything by ourselves.  I don't think that I have ever baited a hook, & if I have then it has been since I was Megan's age.  And casting a fishing pole, same story.  So we were pretty funny to watch once Josh left us but we figured it out, or maybe I should say Megan figured it out.  She learned how to bait her hook, which she had to do several times...

And she learned how to cast the fishing pole.  She got pretty good at it.

After about 2 hours of fishing they caught nothing. Bryson came back at the end after his game and was able to get his trophy and bag of goodies. 

 Fun how they get a trophy for catching nothing, it made sitting out in the cold worth it! 

 Later that day Megan did catch a fever though, we think from sitting out in the cold or eating cookies after baiting her hook without cleaning her hands. 

We always look forward to the fishing derby, hopefully it will be better weather next year!

I can't believe she is 8!

Funny how age makes us remember where we want to be in life.  I remember having a conversation with a friend saying that when our girls turned 8 we would be back in the same place living together, and the girls would be able to get baptized together.  And now Megan is 8, Josh just started dental school and my friend has now moved away.  It's funny how life just happens.  So instead of Megan turning 8 there, she is 8 here and we are just starting our journey in dental school.

For Megan's birthday we celebrated by Bryson, Connor & I taking her lunch at school.  We had fun hanging out with her.  That evening we made her favorite meal, Grilled cheese sandwiches & jello and then we had some friends over for ice cream cake.  Megan was very excited to see their new baby and hold her for the first time.  We are so proud of our little 8 year old, and for the beautiful girl she is.  She is so kind, loving and helpful.  Sometimes she gets a little excited about things, but she is a great big sister.  We love her!

Party Time!

We let Megan have a party this year thanks to Grandma Kelly for helping plan it.  We wish she were here to help put it on, since I'm sure it would have looked 10 times better, but she helped supply most of the stuff and helped with a lot of the ideas.  So thank you Grandma Kelly.  We even had the girls say it during the party, so if a random little girl comes up and thanks you next time you are here you know why. :-)

So Megan chose to do an Art Party!  We started out by playing in our photo booth while we waited for everyone to come, and then went back to it during the party since the girls had so much fun!  They would have stayed there all party if they could have.

Here are a few silly poses, there were so many to choose from!

Cute poses

We had 3 different art projects for them to do. 

Canvas Painting

 Tote bag stamping/painting

 Piggie Bank decorating

 We served lunch along with cupcakes, Oreo balls & ice cream sundaes.  And each girl got to take home a tote full of fun things.  (thanks to Grandma!)

 Megan loved all of her presents.  She got a lot more earrings that she is so excited about wearing, in 3-5 more weeks, a necklace, art supplies (which will be tucked up high so that Connor can't color on the wall with) and an umbrella.

I am so glad that Megan loved her party.  I asked her afterwards what her favorite part was and she couldn't think of a favorite she loved all of it!  That is when you know it was a success.  She just missed a couple of friends that didn't make it.  I'm glad that it is done.  We have been planning this and getting ready for this for a few months now.  It was worth it tho. 

Happy 8th Birthday Megan!

Birthday Week

This week Megan is turning 8 years old.  Back when Megan was around 4 years old she was asking when she could get her ears pierced, I told her that she had to be 8 years old since I figured that we would be done with dental school by then or possibly just have a year left.  (funny how life doesn't go the way you have planned) Plus I figured that when she was 8 years old then she would be responsible enough to take care of her ears by then.  So she has been counting down to this day for a few years.  The next big step in her life will be when she can wear make up at age 12.  We decided to take her down on Sat (a few days before her b-day) to get it done so that they would have 2 people there to be able to do the piercing at one time.  So we didn't tell her where we were going, even when we were looking at the earrings she kept asking, "When can we come back and get my ears pierced?" When I told her right now she was so excited and kept jumping up & down.  We let her pick out the earrings that she wanted and she sat down.  We documented it all with pictures and video.

Before

During

they gave her the dog to hold on to.

 After

 Something else that I told her is that I would re pierce my ears too when she got hers done, so I got them done too.  So we get to take care of our ears together! You can't really see them in the picture, but Megan picked out really cute flowers and mine are CZ's. 

Megan is going to have a super birthday week.  Turning 8 on Wed & then having her art birthday party on Saturday that her Grandma has been helping me with and getting supplies for for a few months now.  We have been working every day to get everything ready for it and Megan is SO excited.  She also gets to meet with the Bishop today and then she will get baptized next month.  My little girl is growing up!

Room Remodeling

Grandma Kelly came and helped us redecorate the kids rooms.  We had painted Megan's room before she came out and purchased some things, but Grandma came and gave us direction.  We found some awesome things and just love the way the rooms turned out.

The Boys room

It ended up being a baseball/ sport theme.  I love their little reading corner that they use, Connor likes it the best so far, and the shelving for them to keep all their nick knacks.  Bryson loves his hat rack.  I loved the picture with the 8 12 19 giving them their goals to work towards, baptism, priesthood & mission.   I love it!

Megan's Room

Her room was much easier to put together.  We had bought the bedding and was trying to match things to that and we had no problem.  We found the perfect picture that matched perfectly.  We made Megan her own reading corner and got the cute lamp so she can read before bed, and modge podged the letters READ.  She loves her little hanging basket for her stuffed animals.  We put butterflies on the wall and hung other cute things around her room.  We also found the perfect rug and curtains to go with it.  We love it!

Our last project that we worked on was a wall collage.  We went to the local flea market and found a bunch of mirrors and frames which were all a couple of bucks, except for the big mirror.  They were all gold so we took some white spray paint to them.  We cut out the size of the mirrors so that we could tape it to the wall before Grandma had to leave so she would know what it looked like.  Then we finished it up after she left and I think that it looks amazing.  Megan loves it! 

We had so much fun doing projects for the kids rooms.  Now all we have to do is paint the crown molding so that we can put it up in their rooms.  There is always something to do!  Thanks to Grandma for all your help and decorating expertise.  We couldn't have done it without you.

White Coat Ceremony

We never thought that this day would come.  But it did!!!  We were so excited.  Josh was able to have his White Coat Ceremony, which is basically the acceptance into the dental program as they walk up on stage to get their white coat and then take a picture with the Dean of the Dental School and recite their Dental Oath.  Josh's Mom came out to celebrate this long awaited day with us.

Proof that he got his coat, a very proud moment in our life.  All that hard work, and never giving up finally paying off.  Phew, now only 4 years to go.

Some shots afterwards of our soon to be Dr. Kelly!  And for anyone that may not know Dr. Babbage, she is the woman that Josh would call about every other week for the last 5 years as he was on the waiting list.  I'm sure that she is glad that he is finally in to school and won't be calling her all the time.  But I'm sure they will still see each other over the next 4 years.

We couldn't be prouder!  We love you Josh!

Boating

We had a very fun boating trip this year with our friends on the Ohio river.  All the kids had a lot of fun, and even as I type this Connor is freaking out cause he want to go "weee" again. 

Connor went out on the tube for the first time with Daddy.

I took video of them too.

Bryson loved going out on the tube and would go with Aidan so that he could go fast.  He would keep giving us a thumbs up for us to go faster.  They went out a couple of times to get dragged.

Here is a video of them out on the tube, it is kinda crazy since I'm sitting on the boat which gets pretty bumpy as we are going to create bumps for them, but you can just see how much fun he is having.

Megan and Lacey went out together.  Lacey does not like going fast and as soon as the boat would start to move she would have her thumb going down to slow down.  We just ended up not paying attention to her thumb and would pull them, they had fun and even went out again.

Bryson was also daring this time and wanted to try water skiing.  Unfortunately he never got up, but none of the kids could, we think that we may have to tie the other end to the boat instead of holding it, it just didn't seem to work out too well.  Someday tho!  He only tried once and when he got pulled under water he didn't want to do it again.  I don't blame him, he got further then I have.  I'm proud of him!

Josh of course got out and showed off his skills.  Here are a few of his jumps.  I missed a lot of them since he was jumping so fast that by the time I got the picture his head was either out of it or his whole body completely.  But I think that some of these shots are still good.

We always have a blast boating with our friends and look forward to more trips next year.

Swimming, School & a Shower

Trying to take advantage of the last days of summer we went to the pool to stay cool.  We were so proud of Bryson for going down the big slides all by himself.  Megan loved racing him down the slides.  Connor enjoyed jumping into the water over and over again.

I can't believe that Megan started 3rd grade this year!  Megan was so excited to go back to school to see all her friends.  She has a great teacher, Mrs. Weber, which gets confused with last years teacher Mrs Weaver.  We are so proud of Megan and for all of the hard work that she puts in at school, she loves to be the teacher's helper and seems to be friends with everyone.  We look forward to another fun year of school.

Bryson is in Preschool again!  Bryson was so excited to go back to school.  With his birthday in December he didn't make the cut off to start kindergarten so he gets to be in preschool again.  He got a new teacher this year, Mrs. Jan and his two teacher helpers, Mrs. Teresa & Mrs. Beatty (it's pronounced bae-de)  He had Mrs Beatty last year as a helper and a few of the same friends in his class that were returning students as well.  But he was excited to have the same bus driver again who we love, Mr. Dave.

I also wanted to share the decorations from a baby shower that I threw for my good friend Tiffany.  It was really fun to decorate and be creative.  I was very grateful for the help that I received from my friend Rhonda with all the rain drops, I couldn't have done it without her.  I think that everything turned out really cute, thanks to all the ideas I got off of Pinterest.  We served Oreo balls (becoming one of my favorite), fruit kabobs, mixed nuts & pretzel M&Ms.  I was sad that I wasn't able to get my blanket done for the baby before the shower, but I got it done before she was born this week!  I am very grateful for such a wonderful friend, who was worth all the time put in to put this together.