Snapshot Saturday

What we spend too much time during church doing.

After 11 months of straight breastfeeding, introducing a bottle did not go well :)

That ladder is resting on the LOWER steps. Sure made me nervous.

Thanksgiving at my brother's place in Salt Lake.

Ava keeps surprising me by climbing on everything.
Especially all of the construction equipment around

Our whole family at Home Depot.

He's SO TALL that he can texture the ceiling while standing on the floor. Sheesh.

The tired, tired kids that we've been keeping up way too late every night to get all this done.

Photo Friday

I didn't get a ton of good pictures, so hopefully James and Mom will post, but here is what I did capture.

Hyrum in his new snow suit.  It is nice and warm, and it is really easy to find him!  Thank you Zulily!  Oh, and isn't it cute how he knelt down to mirror me.  I was just trying to get a better shot, but he followed me.  

Up goes the tree.  We thought it would be fun to put it up with mom and dad before they headed home.  

Simon thought that eating was much more fun than decorating the tree.  He is all boy!

I already make broth from my turkey carcass.  It should make some really great soups next week!

Simon really wants to sit up.  I tried to lay him on the bed and he just popped right back up.  No more bed time for him!  

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I know we will be eating leftover for days, but isn't that the best part.  Well, after the gratitude and time with family.  We love you all and wish we could have all been together!

Snapshot Saturday

I should have snapped a photo of the girls before they headed out the door. I bundled them up in three layers of clothing to head off to a football game with their daddy and his scouts. But I didn't. Instead of I have these.

Ava "helping" with the dishes.

She's been learning how to do the stairs and is quite proud!
I think she looks like Hyrum in this picture.

The Aquarium with Michelle and Jackson.

Chloe comes to visit

We had the pleasure of hosting Chloe for a week while Joe was up north.  This is something that we usually only get to discuss and dream about, but it worked and was great fun.  There was lots of craft time, spy work and baby playing.  We were trying to potty train Hyrum for the first few days but gave that up.  We'll try again in the spring, I think.  I didn't take very many pictures, but here is one of Chloe and Jacob and their poster for their presentation.  It was coincidental, but we were studying Civics and Chloe was taking a Civics class, so we did some fun studying and projects together.  I hope she had as much fun as the boys did with her!

 

Sleeping

I'm not feeling so great today, and Patrick stayed home this morning to help me out. David slept for him all morning, and then when Patrick leaves, of course David wakes up and will only sleep for 20 minutes at a time. Well, I tried out my moby wrap again today, and it worked! For the first time. He went to sleep an everything. Well... Long enough for me to are biscuits at least. It was cool. Now my back hurts though. I guess I gotta work on it. 

Snapshot Saturday

She climbed up there all by herself. She is way to mischievous
for someone so little.

Mom's recipe for roasted vegetables. This one is banana squash.
So good.

Me finally getting to all of my clothing repair projects.

Vida so happy that I finally fixed her favorite skirt. She wears
it every day now.

Water + food coloring + corn starch. They loved it.

Photos just for fun!

Well, I have a minute, so I'm going to post a few pictures!

Lots of pumpkins from a friend.  We pureed most and froze them.

Roasted vegetables look so yummy and taste that way, too!

Hyrum found a fun little reading nook.

The boys were organizing their toys after I took away about 50% of them.  Too much mess!

Lincoln log army.  It amazes me what they come up with.

He is growing up so quickly!  Almost 6 months old!  

Simon likes to roll, so I have to keep him from falling off the bed now.  Pillow barricades to the rescue!  

Ok, well that is all you get for now.  Enjoy and have a great week!

Happy Sunday!

Hey guys! Its Marquie again! We finally got a video of David rolling over!!! Unfortunately, I can't post it. But he's been doing this for about 3 weeks and we finally got it on video! Its becoming more common, so its easier. :) because I don't have that, I have some other pictures from Erin, Calyb, and Bentley's sealing reception last night. It was the most beautiful , happy, and wonderful reception I have ever attended. Such a beautiful thing to share with them. I don't know if you know, but there were actually 4 dealings yesterday. Erin and Calyb were each sealed to their parents, Erin and Calyb were sealed, and Bentley was sealed to Erin and Calyb. Ah! So great. Herr are some pictures. Mostly if us, but there is one of them cutting their cake. It was filled with nerds! I forgot to take a picture, but Bentley LOVED it. 

Photo Friday

Apparently I didn't take a lot of photos this week. But so much happened - Justin got home from China, he took a day off to be with us, we went on a date, we had a playdate with our new neighbors, etc. But here are the things I actually took photos of:

Vida pulling that rope as far as she possibly can at the children's museum.

Ava learned how to take off her own pants. Heaven help us.

A China Adventure

I visited two different sections of the Great Wall. I believe this takes my count up to 10 times on the Great Wall of China. That is enough!

In true China fashion, there were a few good air days, and quite a few hazed pus and toxic days. And this was actually one of the better days!

I love the architecture and history of the Forbidden City. Fifth time? Enough. 

This is what I really love in China -- people in their element. Nothing touristy about a morning vegetable market laid out on the side of the road. The masses don't have refrigerators, so they purchase everything fresh the morning of. 

As part of my trip to China, I had the chance to take a few days down south in the Guangzi Province. I have always wanted to see the rice terraces. Got my chance. Sadly we visited just after harvest. Still breathtaking. Farming on the side of a mountain. 

A picture from the iconic Li River. A 70km boat tour was lovely, indeed. 

We paid a visit to this sweet woman who is the 14th generation to live in her home. It was an old home (300+ years). She is proudly standing in front of her coffin.

A coworker invited me to have lunch with he and his girlfriend in their home. It was on the outskirts of the city, but was worth every minute of the two hour cab ride. The best company and food enjoyed while in China. This couple's apartment is a mere 150 square feet, and it is all they can afford between the two of them. Helps put things into perspective when your kitchen is bigger than someone's entire home. 

This was a long trip with a diverse itinerary. I'm glad to be going home. It is always the most exciting part of the trip!

Snapshot Sunday

What a busy week!  Maybe this is why I am so tired today!  We spent Thursday in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry.  We invited other homeschool families to go with us and ended up with 8 families.  I thought that was pretty impressive for such a long journey!  We began by meeting at 7 AM with breakfast and lunches packed!  I may have bought pop tarts which Michael devoured!

This is Michael devouring his pop tarts.  He managed to eat an entire box before I realized what was happening.

He decided that this was pretty comfortable, so I just had to take a picture.  Those legs are getting so long!

Hyrum and Jacob had fun playing in the airplane!  

This plane will always make me think of dad and his days with United.  

I don't know why but I always have to take a picture with this cow.  Maybe one day we'll raise some cattle!

Sometimes Hyrum likes to go inside the exhibits.  Oops!  

I didn't realize how much fun Hyrum would have, but the museum entertains both young and old!

Afterwards we headed to Ikea to get some fun toys and a new shoe dresser.  The show holder is amazing and fits Michael's shoes with ease!  I love that even the boys have fun wandering through IKEA with me!  

This is one of our new toys for Simon which Hyrum likes to hijack!  It is pretty fun!

Next, came Halloween!  We started our day with these pancakes thanks to Jodi for sharing her recipe.  They were fun and much easier than I expected.  

We had our usual Halloween Party instead of Trick-or-treating.  I am pretty sure I will never go back!  We had treats and some fun disguises.  We took out a piñata and just enjoyed being together!  

These owls are both adorable and delicious! 

Sticky mustaches were a hit especially among Joshua and Jacob.  Hyrum was not a fan.  

And if that wasn't enough we had pears to take care of.  A friend let us know of a tree that was overflowing and needed a home, so we picked up a friend and went to work.  We canned and froze many pears.  It took us two days, but the results were beautiful!  

Pears have to be my favorite thing to can because they are just so beautiful!  Simon will enjoy these!  

Our front door decided it didn't want to stay closed on a very cold day, so we had to barricade it shut until James could fix it.  I thought it looked pretty funny!

Jacob just loves having his picture taken, so here is a fun one with him and Simon.  What a sweet older brother.

Michael, on the other hand, wants to take pictures.  He captured this happy face at Stake Conference.  They are both sweeties!  

I just realized that I don't have any photos of Joshua.  I will make it my mission to fix that this next week.  And I will try to do less and relax a little more.  :)  It is fun to accomplish a lot, but I think I pushed my limits a little this last week.  Happy Halloween!