:cornbellys::

Ok, so this might be a photo overload, but it's one of my favorite Fall traditions.  We've gone every year for the last, what 6 years (give or take a year)?  They add new stuff every year, and this year was no different.  It is HUGE!!  We were remembering back to our first year when it was just on large field, and they only had a few activities, and a corn maze.  We thought it was fun then, but now, there is so much to do, we didn't even do the corn maze!

We met my parents down there too.  My brother and his family were invited, but they had something else going on, so it was just us and Grandma and Papa Kitty, which was way fun. 

So here's our family...

There are TONS of wooden structures to play on.  They're all shaped like fun things like trucks, castles, houses, pirate ships, things like that, AND they'e for sale.  They don't come cheap, but it's nice to know you could have one if you really wanted one :]

There were lots of hay stacks with those irrigation tubes for the kids to slide down.  They were a big hit.  Ave didn't love the tube slides.  She preferred the little slides and the little hay stacks (unless I climbed up the big hay stack with her).

A friendly game of tetherball...

They even had a REAL LIVE tractor there!  A REAL one!  Bubb was all over that.  He sat in it and loved it.  He took it pretty seriously...

The slide races, a family favorite...

A game of tic-tac-toe.  

Squashes vs Pumpkins.

The zip line!!  This (among other things) was new this year.  We decided to do it.  Chloe wanted to do it as soon as she saw it when we pulled into the parking lot.  Port wanted to too, but was a little unsure. I did just because it was pretty much the same price as if 2 people went (I think like $1 difference), plus it looked way fun.

So there were only 2 lines which meant only 2 on the platform at a time.  Port and Chloe wanted to go together.  Chloe said she would count down and they would jump together.  3-2-1...

Chloe jumped and poor Portie was still on the platform.  I watched Chloe and listened to her squeal with joy, and I climbed up the steps to my frozen little Tatey.  

Chloe LOVED it!!  She wanted to do it again!!

Port was a little scared.  I asked him if he was ok.  He said "I don't know how to do it, Mom."  I held his little fingers and told him to just step off the platform.  I counted 1-2-3, and sort of pulled him gently off the platform, away he went.

Then I went.  It is a bit weird to just step off a platform that high in the air, and with a bunch of people watching you.  It was fun, until I realized I might hit the wall (an air-filled wall) in front of me at the end of the line.  That's how come the face...

I came to an abrupt stop pretty quickly after I made the face.  This sweet girl helped me down.  

The zip lining was way fun!  Chloe and Port wanted to do it again.  Chloe-no surprise there.  She'll be my child who will want to go sky diving when she grows up.  Port-what??  He's not the dare devil of the fam.  But he loved it!  I'm proud of him for doing it and not being too scared to try it!  Great job, Port!!

We love Cornbellys!!  We'll keep going back every year as long as they keep lettin' us.  They added the zip line, state fair food, paint ball, some new games, and probably more stuff that we didn't even get to. 

Thanks, Grandma & Papa, for such a fun day :]

::pumpkins::

While the big kids were at school, we grabbed some of these at the local fruit stand.

Bubb liked the wagon.  He liked trying the find the biggest pumpkins he could, and also finding "worty" ones.  

We got a little carried away with big ones.  One kept rolling off the wagon because there wasn't room.

But we made it.  $15 and 9 pumpkins later, we made it, and our porch looks Fallish.

:]

::she's 9::

Chloe turned 9 on the third, (...cue the cliche'...) and I can't believe even believe it!!!

She's 9.  NINE!!!  It's crazy.  The thing that makes it really crazy is that we have her mini-me living with us (Ava), so we're constantly reminded of what Chloe used to look like/do/say all the time!  I woke her up for school the other day, and this long legged girl was laying there sleeping with princess jammies that were too short for her, and bright colored heart undies.  As I was patting her back and pinching her cheeks to wake her up, I told her how she used to be Ava's size and wear diapers and how she couldn't even talk, and now look how big she had gotten.  It's precious and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Anyway...she's 9, and we celebrated with a little family party with the 6 of us.  We took her to Wingers (her pick), and had some cake and presents at home afterward.

The cake was gooood.

Oh man!  We struggled with what to get her this year!  She has a fun bike, a scooter, an iPod, a TV, lots of movies, etc, she's NOT getting a phone (no matter how much she begs), what else is there that's fun??  She's kind of at a tough age.  A little in between toys and big kid stuff.  I guess that's why they call them "tweens."

We decided on uDraw for the Wii.  It's a tablet that the Wii remote plugs into, and you draw on it, and it shows up on the TV screen.  We got the artist studio game and Pictionary.  She LOVES to draw, so this seemed like it might be fun for her.  So far, she loves it :]

We all played Pictionary for a bit, drew with the artist studio for a bit, and went to bed later than we should have.  

On Friday, we took Porter, Chloe, and a couple of her friends to see Hotel Transylvania.  We didn't plan on a friends party this year...don't know why...just didn't.  So we thought a movie with a couple of buddies would be fun.  It was a pretty cute movie.  Our favorite was how Count Dracula walked :]

Happy birthday to my sweet Chloe!  I love her so much!  I'm so proud of her and who she is turning in to.  She's smart, helpful, sweet, friendly, happy, funny (sometimes not on purpose), gentle, silly, and many other amazing things.  She's is one of my greatest blessings, and I adore her.  I'm so very grateful to be her mom :]

::fire station field trip::

On Sept. 27th Coop's preschool class had a field trip to the Brigham City fire station. 

His whole class 

(minus Bella-she was scared to get on the big truck)

Bubb LOVED it!  He loved the tires, the hoses, the lights, the ladders, the doors, pretty much everything on the trucks.  He wouldn't try on the hat.  Not sure why.  He even got to go inside one of the trucks.  The fire chief asked the kids if they had any questions and Bubb asked him how much the truck weighed.  The answer was 95,000 lbs.  Good question Bubb!

At the end he got some Tootsie Rolls from Miss Katey (his teacher) so the kids can remember to stop, drop, and roll, and he got a hat from the fire chief.  It was such a fun little trip.  Right up his alley.  I'm glad we got to go :]

::or so we thought::

So school is in full swing, and the kids are loving it-for the most part.  There's the occasional day that somebody whines about getting up for school because they haaaaate it because all they do is the saaaaame things every daaaaaaay, but by the time they're up, things are great.  They're loving their teachers, their friends, recess, even homework isn't too bad.  Things are lovely.

Or so we thought.

About 3 weeks into school, on a Friday (Matt was off that day), I got a phone call from Port's teacher (Mrs. C-who we LOVE!).  It was a little weird to get a call from her.  She told me there had been some problems with Porter in class.  That he and his buddy, Kelton, had been goofing off and not listening during the less structured parts of their class time.  AND that when she would tell them to shh and listen and to stay apart  from eachother, they would get a little...um.... I finished her sentence with "sassy?"  "YES!!"  she said.  I was not too happy about that.  She said it had been going on since the beginning of the year and that she likes to handle things on her own, but that she just wanted me to be aware.  She said that he had gotten his "card" turned (a behavior discipline system in their classroom) and that he had to sit inside from recess that day.  She said it was mostly the other boy.  She said that Kelton will seek Porter out...that he will wait for him in line, and walk around the whole room to get to Port to talk to him or play with him.

I told her I could see Porter coming down the hill from the bus.  She said she was hoping to call before he got home.  I told her we would talk to him and that things would get better.

What I think is so funny about this is that everyday (including the day she called), when I ask Port how his day was and ask him what happened at school he says school was fine and that nothing happened.  HA!  He got home that day and I asked him how recess was.  He just looked at me.  I said that I first wanted him to know that I already knew how recess was because I just got off the phone with Mrs. C.  His face dropped.  He knew he was in trouble.

His punishment...

I made him write an I'm sorry note.  Not so much for my sake, or even for Mrs. C's sake, but because he had to learn to say I'm sorry when he does something wrong (even to people who aren't' your brother or sisters) and he REALLY didn't want to do it.  So now, I ask if he got in trouble every day and what color his card is.  He's been on blue...which is good.

::the color run::

On September 15th, we did another color race.  It was a different group of us this time, and it was the official Color Run, not the Rad Run (the rad race is kind of a little copy cat one).  I guess the person who started The Color Run is from Salt Lake, and he (finally) decided to bring to race to here.

 

Here's our group (the before shot)...

My brother, Me, Sarah, & Carrie.

Here's our after shot.  All color-fied!...with bright white teeth :D

::first day of school::

First day of school.

(they started on the 28th)

Chloe-3rd grade, Ava-almost 18 months, Porter-1st grade, Cooper-Preschool (2 day)

Chloe on her way in to school.  Third grade.  The other end of the school.  She got in to her classroom just before the bell rang.  I wanted to take pictures of her sitting at her desk, but there wasn't time, and I didn't want to disturb her teacher, and also, is she getting too old for that??

Portie!!  First grade!  Mrs. C.!!!  All day.  The other end of the school.  Eats lunch at school.  We were a little early.  I grabbed a quick picture of him at his desk.  His teacher had already told him to go play outside until the bell rings, so he wasn't too excited about waiting for me to take a picture.  He ran outside as soon as the shutter clicked.  Didn't even tell me bye.  :[

Coop!!  Preschool!  Miss Katey!  Just up the street.  Two days a week for two hours.  Green dinosaur backpack.  Green shirt with trucks and trailers (his faves).  He's suuuper excited!!  He packed his backpack along with the big kids.  He even packed Porter's flip-flops in there for a few days.  He had to have a folder (a green one) and crayons, and a pencil box, and he even put chips in his pencil box incase he gets hungry.  I told him to be nice to the kids and his teacher.  No saying bad words at school.

He walked right in.  Miss Katey was excited to see him.  She took him by the hand, walked him over to his seat and helped him sit down.  

I took a quick picture and tried to sneak out the door just incase he tried to run after me in tears.  He didn't.  He didn't even care that I was leaving.  I stood at the door and watched him for just a sec.  He didn't even notice me.  He was so wide-eyed.  He seemed to be loving it!  I bet he felt like a big kid.  He loves to feel like a big kid.

When they all came home they were excited.  They had a great day.  Port likes his class.  He's got lots of buddies.  He has one friend in his class that we've known since preschool AND they're on the same football team, so that's awesome.  He already wants to come over and play.  Chloe's a little sad not to have a couple of her best little girlfriends in her class, but there IS another Chloe in her class, so that's fun.  Bubb loves his school.  He colored a paper with all the kids' names on it.  He had to color his own name and his teacher's name.  He, of course, used green.  He got to play outside.  He said a boy slid into his back, but he didn't get mad.  He also ate 2 cookies.  Only 2, Bubb??

I've never been a mom who's been excited for my kids to go back to school.  I've never been one to be excited to live by a set schedule and go to bed early and get up early and all the jazz.  This year, however, I was counting the days 'til school started!!  I couldn't wait!  I've never been so excited for school to start in my whole life!  Maybe because it's been such a hot summer, maybe because the kids were way excited, maybe because we were just kinda busy and we needed some kind of routine to calm us down, or maybe they're just plain driving my nuts.  I don't know, but they're in school, and I love it!!  The other day, all three older kids were in school, and Ave and I went to the store.  Just Ava and I alone.  Me and one child.  It was so nice!  And so easy!!  And so fast!!  Anyway...I love all 4, and I've loved our summer together, but we're all glad school has started :]

::back to school dinner::

I'm big on family traditions.  We've been having a back to school dinner for 4 years now, and we love it.  Even our extended family loves it-they want to know all about it too.  We love that!

This year's theme was pretty simple and straightforward...

Work Hard

and

Be Nice

To People

When I decided on that for the theme for the year, I mostly had Bubb in mind.  Especially for the be nice to people part.  He's sometimes not very nice to people-well me...and Ava.  I hope he's nice in school.  We, of course, want all of them to work hard always, an also be nice to everybody.  I just felt like it fit.

For dinner we had roast chicken with vegetables.  I've made it once before.  I got the recipe here.  It's even called "perfect roast chicken."  This blog belongs to my cousins, their food is amazing!  We've made a few things from their site.  The roast chicken was a family favorite after one bite!

I didn't plan out my day too well, what with the pet bunny and all, so dinner was a little later than I would've liked, but it was delish, and we had ice-cream with hot fudge and sprinkles for dessert (no photos of that-we ate it too fast :]

We hope we all have a great school year.  We're super excited about school, teachers, our backpacks, our clothes, our friends, the bus, our crayons, chips in our pencil box, eating lunch at school, and everything else that goes along with it. Some things might change for us midyear (hopefully), but we're prepared for that, and I think we'll do just fine :]

::our little bunny friend::

So, it's the last day of our summer vacation.  It's early in the morning (well, like 7ish, to me, that's kinda early-especially during the summer).  Chloe comes up to my room, wakes me up very gently and tells me, with a little but of panic in her voice, that there's a bunny rabbit in her window well.  I, half asleep, said "are you sure it's a bunny!?"  Like an 8 year old doesn't know what a bunny looks like.

Anyway, I went down to her room, and saw this in her window well..

A little back story...While Matt was deer huntin' the week before, I mowed the lawn in the evening.  I was getting ready to rake up some of the extra grass (we have a mulching mower and sometimes it leaves clumps of grass on the lawn and it's a little unsightly).  My neighbor was out.  We chatted for a bit.  A lady rode up the street on a bike.  A few minutes later her husband and teenage daughter walked down with a big box, then a few minutes after that they started to walk up with a big box full of bunny rabbits.  Nor your normal sight, so my neighbor and I went over to ask about it.  They said that the mom (on the bike) saw a whole bunch of bunnies on the loose down in the field at the end of our street (like somebody didn't want their pets anymore and just dumped them in the field).  So the dad and daughter went to rescue them.  Anyway...this lone bunny must've missed the rescue box that night because he hopped into our window well a few days later.

So we took care of him all day.  We gave him a bowl of celery and a bowl of water (which he kept spilling and I kept having to refill), and the kids would go outside and drop grass down there for him to eat.  Anybody who knows us knows we don't do pets.  Anytime he'd hop too close to the window, Chloe would run away down the hall and hide around the corner.  Porter wanted to keep him.  I didn't. Port called Matt and asked if we could.  He even named him "Happy Hopper."  That's a bad sign-when you name it.  I was hoping I could get the neighbor boys (they rescued a bunny a few days earlier) to take him, but they weren't home.  I REALLY didn't want to keep this bunny.  All I could think about was cleaning up his poo.  

The day went on.  We kept feeding and watering Hopper.  Every once in a while, Port would say "we're taking good care of him, aren't we??"  It was pretty cute.

Then after Matt got home, we talked and laughed about the bunny, and I told him how much I didn't want the thing, and then I tried the neighbor boys again, and they were home!  They were SOOO excited to come get it.

I was SO relieved!  I can't even talk about it!  It's so funny too because I grew up with pets.  I even had bunnies-2 of them!  I had cats, dogs, a gerbil, and 2 bunnies (not all at the same time though).  And now, the thought of even one pet that stays outside gives me such anxiety I feel like I can't breathe.   Life is weird.

::the brigham city temple::

On Saturday (the 25th) we got to go to the new Brigham City temple open house.  It is beautiful!!  We got to bright all the kids and walk through the whole thing!  Chloe thought it was so neat.  She got to see it already earlier in the week with her activity days group, so this was her second time through, but she was still way excited.  We looked for peach blossoms everywhere (Brigham City is famous for thier peaches).  The glasswork inside is really beautiful  I've never seen so much beautiful glasswork inside a temple.  Port loved it, I think.  He kind of liked walking behind the signs and under the ropes, and every once in a while he'd show us a really pretty chandelier or something he thought was really awesome. Bubb kind of cried a lot.  He was hungry and tired.  He wanted Matt to carry him the WHOLE time-which was ridiculous and hard.  He was pretty difficult, but then once we got inside and things started to cool off and quiet down, so did he.  He saw the beautiful things, and I think he felt the Sprirt within, and was able to appreciate the temple and enjoy being in there.  He walked around on his own and was much easier to be around after that :]  Ave just stayed with me.  I held her the whole time.  She was a good little Teenieweenie :]  We all really loved it.  I'm so glad we got to go.  It was really neat to be able to take the kids in there.  I'm not sure if they'll remember it (definitely not Bubb or Ave), but hopefully Chloe and Port.  This temple is especially important to us because it's so close to home (maybe 5 minutes away).  We hope we can go often. 

It's right on Main Street here in town.  It's been kinda fun to watch it being built.  We can see it from our front porch (well if we go to the one end of our front porch).  

It was SUPER busy!  We heard that something like 24,000 (that's twenty-four THOUSAND) people went through on that Saturday.  It was hot, and we had to wait around a bit, but it was worth it.  

This is a mosaic painting of the temple just outside the concession area.  I'm sure they'll move it to somewhere else after the temple is dedicated.  It was painted by the youth.  Isn't it neat?

Here's our whole group.  My parents and Billy and Gloria came up to see it too.

Thanks for setting it all up for us, Jennie!  We sure enjoyed it!

More about LDS temples here.