Naptime

Talin falls asleep in the car sometimes when I get the kids from school, so I usually lay him on the couch. I walked in about 1/2 hr. later, and found this -I thought it was so cute!


This one Erin took because she thought it was cute, too. I guess he woke up for a second. He loves our animals, but he loves to chase Tiger, so it was cute that Tiger would climb up and lay by him.

Laura's Baptism

Today was Laura's baptism - it was such a wonderful day for her and a beautiful Baptism. So neat to be able to share it with her cousin.

Our family

Autumn and Laura with their Dads.

Lafe and Laura before the Baptism.

Congratulations, Laura! We're are so happy for your choice to be baptized!

Laura's Baptism pictures

Laura got her Baptism pictures taken tonight, and I just had to show you!
Autumn and Laura (cousins) are 2 days (like 32 hr.) apart and are so lucky to be able to be baptized together since we live next door to each other!!! They are such sweet friends and we had SO MUCH FUN going to get these pictures taken. We had picture of them done when they were 4, I think, and so we figured this was a perfect time to do it again. I love to call them "twinner cousins" because they really look so much alike.

SO THEM!!!

This one we actually signed to let them hang it up in the studio - cool!

Happy Halloween!!!

Erin - Cowgirl

Ethan - Gangster

Jamie - Wicked Witch

Laura - Good Witch

Kelcie - Fairy

Talin - Magician

Jack-o-lantern!!!

Last night we remembered that it was time to carve the big pumpkin - so, at 8pm we started carving (half our kids' bedtime). We got this big pumpkin this year at Sam's Club and it was so fun! They took turns carving and deciding what to make it. This is what they came up with:
Kelcie was helping get the "guts" out and came in to wash her hands, "That's just gusting!" I love how she says it that way - one day I'll have to tell her it's "disgusting", but not yet.

YUM - we love the seeds!!!

The finished product - difficult picture to get! Kelcie's mouth is all chocolaty because I was inside making cupcakes for her party at school today :)

OOOOooooooooooooooo! O.k., he's actually kind-of cute.

Laura's 8!!!

My little Laura is 8 now!!! Can you believe that?

She was pretty excited knowing that she would probably be getting scriptures for her birthday (the advantages of having older siblings!) and she wanted a doll that she could do her hair.

Laura is so loving, smart, tender and has no fear ( well, of swimming, roller-coasters, etc. - she is, however, afraid of flies - almost to the point of mental meltdown if they're stuck in the car with her - outgrown that, mostly) She loves to be with mommy and is really good at getting out of work - magically. She loves to read and enjoys a good laugh with friends. She's my sweet little Laura.

Happy Birthday, Laura!!!!!!!!!!

Fall Break Part 2

Readin' at the campsite - I thought this was so funny ;)

Before we left on Saturday, we drove over to Tuzigoot - another ruin similar to Montezuma but on a hill instead of in it. It was really neat because you could walk through it this time.

Then we drove up to Jerome - an old mining town up on the mountain - literally on the edge of the mountain. It's known for being haunted, I guess - haven't looked into that much. But, it was really fun to see - an old town and seeing how they built those houses onto the mountain. They had the NEATEST Kalidescope store ever!!! So many and so many different! We had a BLAST in there!
Anyway, that's what we did - had fun. Talin had been asking for probably 6 weeks to go camping in the trailer. So, we finally went - the first thing he wanted to do when we pulled up - at 10 in the morning - was to go to sleep in the trailor :) Everywhere we went he just wanted to go back to the trailer - quite a relationship he has with our trailer, I guess. So, today he's already told us 3 times we need to go camping again ........ with the trailer. Sweet boy - we'll have to figure that one out - it gets darn cold at night now!!!

Fall Break

So, for Fall Break this year we decided to go camping at Dead Horse Ranch State Park - sounds great, huh? It actually was really fun - the Park had great campsites for GREAT prices. It was a little warmer than we were thinking - since it's north from here, I just figured cooler - but, it's still desert there, apparently, and we were only about 5 degrees cooler than here (104!!! What's up with that?) So, we set up camp and then we went to see Montezuma's Castle which is really cool! The Sinagua people built it in, I think, the 1400s up on the wall - it's so amazing to try and imagine living that way. The kids thought it was great!Then, we went back to camp and made Hobo Dinners for dinner with campfire Banana Splits for dessert - the campers next to us were so curious she had to come over to figure out what we were doing :) Next day, we decided to go to Out of Africa wildpark - we LOVED it! First, they do a little safari where you can feed some of the animls and they are right there next to you. Then, we went around and saw all kinds of animals and watched a couple shows. In the Safari, Talin was getting done and complaining until the guy pointed out the tractors on our right (as a joke) and Talin sat up "Tractors?" - that's my tractor boy! Here are a bunch of pictures - I'll try to label them:

Talin feeding the Giraffe

Zebra

Kelcie and Erin feeding the Camel

Talin petting the Snake - SO soft and smooth!

Laura and Talin petting the Tortoise

Ethan and Laura petting the Water Monitor - he was so cool!

Grizzly Bear

Tiger - I just LOVE big cats - I want to just hug them and pet them......

White Tiger - BEAUTIFUL!

Tiger Splash Show - really fun, too!

By the end of the day we were pretty hot and dehydrated, but it was so worth it and so fun.

She did it!!!

Sooooo...........I mentioned to Kelcie this afternoon - because I wanted her to go outside and play on a beautiful day - that she needed to ride her bike so she can get ready to take her training wheels off, and she came back 10 minutes later, "I'm ready". So, I took them off.............. and.......

SHE DID IT!!!!!

I was pretty surprised - she just got this bike in May, and if you remember what AZ summers are like, she pretty much hasn't had much practice riding it. Anyways, so exciting!!!!!!!

General Conference

Ethan turned 12 this year, so we're trying to do the tradition of taking them up to Conference when they turn 12. Ethan was SOOOOOOOOO excited (as was Lafe :) )!

Ethan at the airport -

they got through security in 20 min.! I wasn't even home from dropping them off yet!

This is actually on the way home, but isn't it cool?

By the fountain outside the Church Office Building

The Waterfall on the Conference Center

In the "picture spot" in front of the Temple.

Standing by the Handcart that his Great-Grandfather made for the Church History Museum.

In the Tabernacle

In the Conference Center - They went to 3 sessions!!! (no fair)

Leaving the Priesthood Session - Beautiful!

O.k., so funny story: Lafe calls me as soon as the airplane hits the ground in SLC and had forgotten the tickets to Conference!!! So, I frantically call everyone we can think of that is going to conference to see if they can take them up, but nobody was home. So, I call the Conference Center (did you know you can do that?) and they said I could fax them up and they'd reprint them - I figured this had probably happened before. So, phew - they got their tickets. This was also Ethan's first time on an airplane (that he remembers) so that was really exciting, too! All these pictures were actually taken on Lafe's phone - that's why some are not so clear - because our camera is breaking and the camera on his phone is actually better quality than our normal camera - time for a new one!!! They had a great time!!!!! So glad they got to go and have that memory!!!