Dave's Birthday Notes from Lexi

I thought this was a cute note Lexi drew the night before Dave's birthday and put in his sock drawer for him to see first thing.
She also made this poster for Dave. She is funny because she is very detail oriented, and notices things about people's clothes. If I ask her about someone she says, "Is she the one that was wearing the red shirt?" So I thought it was cute that this is what she thought was the most important thing to tell her Daddy that she loves him on his birthday:
(One night I told Dave how handsome he was and that night as I was tucking Lexi into bed she said, "I like Daddy's face." Isn't that cute?)

Harvest Week and Other Odds and Ends

This turned out to be a super long post! The kids were out of school last week for Harvest Break. The first day of break we rode our bikes to the library and the park. Porter got tired so I told him to park his bike on the side of the road in the weeds and ride in the bike-trailer with Brenner. We came back 2 hours later and his bike was gone! Seriously? I didn't think that would happen here. I was rather shocked. I also celebrated another birthday last week. It's hard to be another year older but it's so fun to be pampered once a year and not feel guilty about it! Thank you to all the family and friends that called, came over, brought treats, etc. It's so fun to be spoiled on your birthday! Loved it. Thank you!

In honor of having no school, we went momentarily insane and spontaneously decided to take the kids on a 1-day trip to Hogle Zoo. 5 hours one way. 2 1/2 hours at the zoo. 1 hour at This-Is-The-Place Monument. 5 hours back home. Yikes! Crazy, but fun. I'm thankful for a great husband that will take the day off to do something like that with us. Love him! Here are lots of pictures from our day. So many things to see and do. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!












This Is the Place



Loved General Conference last weekend. I love sitting on the couch together, coloring, eating, and listening. I am grateful we can record it so I can watch it later and soak it in a little more than I can with 4 kids up and down and all over the place. Dave gave me a Bosche mixer for my birthday (I've been wanting one forever) and so I made wheat bread that we ate warm from the oven while we watched. Two absolute favorites. General Conference and homemade bread! Brenner loved the music and each time the choir started singing he would watch, wave his arms, and sing with them. It was so cute and made us all smile. Every song.
The coloring table.
Looks like the table got more color than the paper.

It snowed for the first time last week and has several times since. I keep hoping it will melt and stay melted but that hope was short lived again today as we woke up to another winter wonderland. A few days ago was Brenner's first time to play in the snow. I didn't think he'd be out for long so I didn't bother putting on his snowpants or boots. He would touch it and say "Co, co" for cold but seemed to like it.

Kyler and Porter have a great time playing in the snow, especially with Ginny. She follows them everywhere, I think SHE thinks she's another kid!She is a funny dog and loves to get up on the trampoline, with or without the kids. I never thought I would post pictures of our dog but here she is up on our trampoline today after all the kids went to school. It made me laugh.

And last but not least we have finally decorated for Halloween. Look what I got from Christine (love her!), isn't it so cute? Check out all of her ADORABLE dolls here. Wish I could have them ALL! Thank you Christine!
I've been wanting to make a Halloween tree the last couple years and finally did this year. The kids love to hang and rehang the ghosts and spiders. Kinda fun! (ideas here and here)
A fun way to Halloween-ify your candlesticks I saw here. I love it! Very fun and easy.
I'm not quite finished with these fabric pumpkins and I still want to make a few more, but very fun! (tutorial here or here)
I love Halloween and that it kicks off months of holiday fun. Christmas is right around the corner, can you believe that? Holidays, ready or not, here we come!

Cute Brenner

I love how he pulls apart Oreos to eat them and licks off the frosting. I don't know if he came up with that by himself or if he thinks that's the way to eat Oreo's from watching Porter.

Forever and always a shoe boy. Here he is in Kyler's new boots pushing Lexi's doll stroller.

I have the kids stand in front of the dining room wall to take their picture and I tell them "Say Cheese" so whenever Brenner sees me get out the camera he runs over to that wall, smiles, and says, "DEE!" I can't remember what I had the camera out for but I couldn't resist!

Animals at Hogle Zoo for Blog Book

School Photos

School picture day is always fun. Here are Kyler and Lexi all snazzied up for school. I thought these pictures of them before school were cute. Love my kiddos!


Kyler - 2nd grade


Lexi - 1st grade


Porter's picture day was one week later. Dave and I went to the temple that morning so Grandma T helped him get ready for picture day.

Porter - Kindergarten


I have got the CUTEST kids in the WORLD!

Kindergarten Carpool

The cute little group of kids we carpool home from afternoon Kindergarten.

Tatem Streit, Porter, Zach Douglass, and Cody Kaufman.