This and that

Life is so sweet! Things have been wonderful and busy these last few weeks, as usual. The kids seem to be growing overnight, this morning I looked at Cole's new jammies and noticed they are officially high waters. Yesterday I was carrying him to his high chair and Tyler pointed out how he's over half my size now. Baby girl just soaks it all in and adds a sweetness and gentle-ness to our family that we didn't know we were missing. Tyler is working hard and also super busy with his scouts and camping trips. I love love LOVE being home all day with my kids and getting to be the one that plays with them, cuddles them when they're sad, makes them lunch, sees their smile when they wake up from their nap, and the million other things I would miss if I weren't here. The blessings of staying home BY FAR out way the money we are now not making. And it's been amazing how we've been taken care of that way, and found ways to either make a little extra or cut back a little more that we couldn't see before we make this decision. Anyway, in summary, life is good!

So here's my favorite picture from the past month or so, this is Cole cheering on his daddy during the Turkey Tri (more about that further on).

So get yourself ready for a WHOLE bunch of recappin, starting with a great hike up past my parent's cabin.

Cole was a trooper, going right during naptime. We thought he might pass out in the backpack, ha! He showed us. He had a great time.

Until Uncle Shaney threw him in the pond! Not really.

We take a pic here every time we hike up, every year it seems we have someone new on our lap. Such a beautiful day! No, that is not some strange man we found living in the woods, that's just Tyler.

Kate at 4 mos. What a little sweetie!

This hair has a mind of its own.

Another day, another hike. This one up Addams Canyon here by Farmington with a few scouts. A little strenuous, but well worth it! Tyler is taking the scouts up there this weekend, snow or not. He is the ultimate scoutmaster.

We took Cole to the Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base and he got to fly a real fighter jet! He loved these "goy-gles". We weren't supposed to get to sit in this stealth helicopter, but it was a slow day and the volunteer museum helpers thought Cole was cute. If he turns out anything like his father, it won't be the first time in his life he gets extra privileges because of his charm :)

We were heading to a nearby park one day and Cole was on a goggle-wearing kick. It was adorable.

One of my favorite things ever, Kate's big stretches after every nap. She wakes up so happy and makes this cute scrunchy face. Ahhhh! And that's Cole's head, he still worships her and is such a terrific big brother.

Art time outside! This is his Halloween picture with scary colors.

He loves playing baseball outside, he's even hit two whiffle balls over the fence. Check out those baseball cleats!

We have loved going up to Logan to watch Christine play vball at Utah State, and it's a sad day this Friday as she has her last home game :( Cole can't wait to watch Aunt Siss-tine play and loves it when grandpa gets him popcorn to watch with.

This kid likes to wear helmets, he wanted to take his nap with this one on and he kept it on the whole 2 hours! I snuck in to get a shot, it was too funny.

This was at grandma's, Cole is trying to pose like Kate is. Look at her serious face, ha!

Her face in this one kills me.

Another vb game at USU, look the ball matches his shirt! He went all the way up this ramp, found the vballs that were put away, and brought one back to show me. He's so independent now.

This is a church jacket that used to be Tyler's when he was Cole's age! He was definitely the hot stuff in nursery that day.

:)!

Kate absolutely loves bathtime. She can be so sad and crying, but once I stick her in there it's like magic. She blows raspberries, kicks and smiles nonstop, and stares at herself in the mirror.

Each fall we take a trip to Gardner Village to see the witches and fall decor, this year it was a little chilly. We were practically the only people to brave the wind and winter-ish weather, but Cole didn't notice. Here he had fun feeding the ducks his goldfish.

Kate enjoyed being bundled up in the stroller :)Another exciting thing that has happened to our family recently is having Tyler's sister Jessica move in with us! She is wonderful company for all of us and is so much fun to have around. She reminds me that yes, there are a lot of great things going on outside my little family-world. She had the most amazing mad hatter costume for Halloween this year and a pink wig to go with it, and she wore it to Christine's pink vball game night.

Here's what the boys wore to the game (Cole is showing his pink cracker)

We went home for a few days and had the best time raking leaves and then playing in them.

Lily got in on the fun.

While we were home we checked out this Mater replica that was sitting out on Main St, it was detailed so well and looked exactly like the real deal.

On to Halloween! It really was special this year with Cole being old enough to go trick or treating and really get into everything, all the decorations and books and pumpkin carving. Here's his pumpkin that he picked out then designed (I carved, of course). He was so proud of it and couldn't wait to light it every night before he went to bed.

Doesn't get much better than this. For the kids' costumes, we used whatever we could find around the house or were given by friends. Kate had 3 options; a frog, pumpkin, or chinese girl. We tried on all three just for fun, I totally felt like I was 7 again dressing up my barbies and seeing which outfit I liked best!

First was the frog. I thought it was adorable.

Our little tadpole. Next was the pumpkin. Another winner, just a little big (9 mo!)

Last was the kimono (is it a kimono if it comes from China?)/asian attire. This was an outfit that a parent I had in my class last year brought back for me from their vacation to Beijing. It looked soooo cute on her, she looked like a little doll! We kept her in this for trick or treating, which we didn't get to show off anyway because she was bundled up the whole time. She was getting bored with letting me fuss over her at this point.

Oh, and you won't believe who took this picture - Cole! Not too bad! She looks big to me here.

Here's Cole, he's been wanting to be this for months - a football playa! (or as he would say, a poo-ball player. We're still working on that "f" sound.) He couldn't wait to get dressed up and get out there. He had to wait until 630 when dad got home from work, then we took off and left Jess to pass out candy at our place. If Halloween was this anticipated, I already can't wait for Christmas.

It was rainy and cold, but once again, he didn't even notice. He had been practicing for weeks, "twick or tweet" and "tank you", but once it was show time he just got so excited about the free candy he lost all sense of what he was supposed to say. It was hard though, people would open the door and say "Hi Cole! Wow you're a football player! Do you want some candy?" before he could say anything and by that point he has a bowl of candy shoved in front of him and it's all he can do to only take one, let alone say trick or treat. It was so funny to watch. And I haven't been trick or treating for maybe 15 years so it's great to experience those things through your kids again. I'll definitely remember this night.
A final shot of our jack-o-lanterns. Mine is the P, Tyler's is throwing up, and we didn't get Jess' cool Frankenstein in the shot.

Examining the haul after returning home. His favorite have been all the dum dums. Watch out Cole, Jessica looks like she wants to steal some candy. haha. Moving on to more normal things, Cole liked eating his spooners (frosted mini wheats for those who don't know) like this one morning - taking each one individually out of his cereal bowl and eating the frosting off then setting it down in a row on his tray. Hmmm. I thought it was too cute to interfere.

We made pumpkin cream cheese muffins the other morning that were AMAzing! Can you tell that Cole had a blue dum dum while we were baking?

Kate after just waking up from a nap. She does like the bumbo, for about 5 minutes.

We got our first snow of the season this week! We couldn't wait to get snow gear on and head to the backyard.

Cole must have a thing for sleeping with a helmet on. Here he is napping in the car...I wonder if subconciously this is telling us something :)

More pics of the tri. Tyler completed his 5th Turkey Triathlon this past week, you can't tell here but this is after he raced. He finished great and even took 3rd place in his age group on the swim part. He's amazing!

Cole trying on the swim cap.

The swim takes place indoors at a rec center, here we are cheering on daddy from up above. Can you tell it was an early morning?

The traditional stop-and-kiss-me-while-trying-not-to-stop-kiss. This time he had three faces to kiss.

That sums it up pretty nicely! Looking forward to Thanksgiving with the OR fam (most anyway), Christmas weekend with the UT fam (most anyway), and all the normal days in between.