Halloween 2013

For Halloween this year we had a Lego Man (again!), a two headed monster, and Iron Man! Ethan wasn't going to dress up this year, but at the last minute decided to go out with his cousins and threw on his Lego costume. After putting it on, we realized how much he has grown this year! The red lego body used to go down mid thigh the first yer he wore it. Audrey and Aubrey loved the idea of a two headed monster and love each other enough to be stuck together for the entire evening and David chose to be Iron Man back in September and actually stuck with that idea all the way till Halloween. I am realizing that pretty soon my kids will have completely outgrown dressing up, but then I realized that I have Audrey and stopped worrying. She'll want to dress up forever!

Audrey & Aubrey loooooooved their tinted blue fake eyelashes. Pretty girls.

Flag Football | Fall 2013

This fall David decided to try flag football instead of soccer with his friend, Mason. He ended up having a lot of fun, especially the second half of the season. The first half he didn't enjoy the feeling of not knowing what he was doing, but eventually figured it out. I, personally, enjoyed the first half of the season more since it was still sunny and warm. The end of the season... not so much.

Still playing catch up on the blog. I am now moving past last summer and onto fall! Yay for me! Here are a few snaps I took of the kiddos on their first day of school this year. Ethan is now in seventh grade and as you can tell by his picture he is barely humoring his mom in taking a "first day" photo. Audrey and David are still good sports. David was super excited this year since he was now going to go all-day like Ethan and Audrey. That didn't last long...after a week, he realized that half day is way better!

Last day first day of Elementary school! Wow.

The gang

As you can see we have quite the group for our one lone street. My kids are rarely hurting for someone to play with!

Halloween | 2011

This year our church Halloween Trunk-or-Treat was a little early, but the kids were super excited to get dressed up. Audrey was a muggle "nerd" this year and she pulled it off quite well. David reeeaaally wanted to be a power ranger. I have no idea why. I don't think he's ever seen one, but he thought the costume was "awesome". Ethan was a LEGO man. When I showed him this costume on Pinterest, he was dying to do it so Jason and he worked on it for weeks. It ended up being a bit more work than anticipated, but I love how it turned out. It's hilarious!

Audrey's favorite part of her costume (other than the fake suspenders) were her bright rainbow colored socks. Love em.

Kids can't wait until Halloween so they can get dressed up all over again!

Back to school | 2011

Now that the sun is out, the afternoons are hot, and the 10-day forecast finally shows sun-sun-sun, it's time for school to start. I'm not sure why summer felt like it needed to wait until now to show up, but we are glad to have such a beautiful first day of school! The kids have not been excited for summer to end, but this morning they were pretty excited to go to school and see all their friends!

Audrey and Aubrey checking out their best friend neckalces they agreed to wear.

And, of course, Fred had to come along. Fred has been on many adventures this summer and the girls have been keeping a photo diary of all his fun outings. While we were in Idaho for three weeks, Audrey let Aubrey take care of him and Fred went on more adventures than I can count.

Audrey with her best buddies, Karen and Aubrey.

All the girls playing with adorable Elle while waiting for the bus to arrive.

The bus stop gang, minus the nine kindergarteners that start on Friday!

And they're off!

This year Ethan and Malcolm are headed off to middle school. They actually leave an hour before the elementary kids. I can't believe these guys were only three years old when we both moved here. Where has the time gone?

After humoring us by letting Melissa and me take a few pictures, the boys were headed off to the bus. They look like they're headed off to the guillotine and not school. We made sure not to embarrass them by following them with our cameras any further.

David didn't start kindergarten until Friday and he could hardly wait. He was so excited this morning that he was up and dressed and ready to go an hour early. He has been so excited to go to the "big kid" school and has been counting down the days.

On our street we have nine kiddos starting kindergarten this year. Here's a picture of all of them, minus one. As you can see, David is rarely without a buddy to play with.

Karen and her dad brought down some donuts and orange juice to celebrate all the kindergarten kids first day of school. So fun!

My favorite picture of the day and the one shot that makes me a little emotional. David has been waiting so long for his turn to ride the school bus and today is finally the day! I'm so happy for him.

I followed the bus to the school so that I could get a few picture of David at the school. The teachers meet all the kids at the bus and help guide them to the right spot to show them the way to their class. We don't actually go into the school with them. It took quite a bit of time for them to get them all sorted out. As you can see, David thought this process couldn't get over soon enough.

Finally! Time to go! Surprisingly, David seemed the least nervous on his first day of any of my kids.

November Snow

We had three very exciting, wonderful days of snow last week! It took me by surprise too because the weatherman said we may get some flurries but we ended up getting a lot more than that! Yipeeee! The kids were so excited and even though on some days the temperatures barely reached 30 dgrees, the kids played outside in it for hours and hours!

I am well aware that I take too many pictures, but for some reason I can't help myself when it comes to snow. It is the most beautiful backdrop and turns everything into a winter wonderland!

I told the girls that if they let me take as many pictures of them as I wanted that I would make them a huge cup of hot cocoa when they came inside. That was all the bribery they needed.

David was home with me in the morning while the kids still had school. We both couldn't wait to get our sleds down from the rafters and take them outside!

As soon as the big kids got home from school, they dropped their backpacks in the entry way and were super excited to see I got all their snow gear out and ready to go. They were changed and on the sledding hill before most of the kids were even all the way home from the bus stop.

Cayden even brought down his snowboard, but unfortunately the snow wasn't quite deep enough and he didn't go very fast.

David looks totally terrified, but he actually loved it and wanted to go again and again!

Wednesday it was so cold that you could find icicles hanging all over the place. Audrey and Aubrey had fun collecting bucket fulls of them. At one point she said that she was getting some from underneath the neighbors car and our neighbor came and saw them there and Audrey just said... "Hi. We're are the icicle girls." He then just turned around and went back inside. Funny girls.