Cute thing today

Today I asked Avalinea to say her ABC's backwards. So she started to say her ABC's while walking backwards.

Another big fat check!!!

This is the third check that I have received from Ebates.com. This is an awesome website that gets me money back for shopping online. If you would like a referral let me know.:)

Birthday surprise

Today Chelsea, Avalinea, and Olivia came to my work to give me these delicious cupcakes! They were yummy!

Then they took me to lunch, and on the way we saw this herd of deer. Avalinea was soooooo excited!

Carving pumpkins

Tonight we carved our pumpkins as we do every year around Halloween. The kids were so excited to do this, they were asking us all day long when we were going to do it. Here are some pics. Enjoy!

 

Avalinea and Dad.

  

Ewww, yuck pumpkin guts on our little princess' hands!

Joshua sure does love his pumpkin guts!

And so begins the many faces of Dad... the "I could be watching TV Right now."

The "I'm rolling my eyes because I can" face.

The "I'm smiling because Mom threatened me" face. :)

Avalinea and Mom. How cute!

Joshua wanted to carve his own pumpkin this year, so he did... some of it.

Brother and Sister, love to carve pumpkins! And now begins the crazy eyes of Joshua!

I LOVE CARVING PUMPKINS eyes!!

Avy says "Mom he's doing it again..."

Ooohhhhh spooky pumpkins.

Ooooohhhhh spooky people!

Aaaaahhhhh Really Scary!!!!

Our pumpkins are on the porch.

Our littlest pumpkin Olivia was too tuckered out for all this mayhem and retired to her chambers early. She sends the cutest booo! to every one.

Weekend project: Flower beds

This is what I have been doing these past two weekends. I ripped out all the old flowers and plants replaced some dirt and added lots and lots of bulbs. I also added the small retaining walls to keep the grass from growing into the flower beds.

Close call

As Chelsea and I were heading to Ventura, CA to visit Eric and Rachael Danielson we were wittness to a pretty bad accident. We were driving south on highway 34 when a car passed us on the right. This was stupid, because highway 34 is only a 2 lane road and to pass on the right means to be on the dirt and gravel shoulder. So the driver lost control of the car goes across the road and up and over some railroad tracks and ends up flipping the car! Amazingly the driver walks out and says that he is fine. Obviously he wasn't. He was taken away in an ambulance. Here is a picture of his car.

Fire in Eagle Mouintain

Here are some pictures that I took of the fire that has been going on the past two days in Eagle Mountain / Saratoga Springs, Utah.  Some of the are a little blurry, despite using a tripod, because the wind was blowing.

 These are just pictures of the starry Sky, in Eagle Mountain, One of the reasons we love living out here. We can actually see more that just the north star!!! :)

Starry Sky through to top of the community Pergola.

You can see the fire between these houses. The shot didn't come out like we wanted but I thought it was pretty cool anyway.

Joshua's 7th Birthday

Yesterday we had a party for Joshua. It was his 7th birthday! We rented a bounce house and barbequed hot dogs. He had lots of friends come over to join the fun. Joshua was really excited to have the party. Thank you to all those who came. We missed those of you who were unable to come but felt your well wishes all day. We hope that you enjoy these pictures.

Joshua loved his rocket from his Uncle Jake.

Joshua was very excited about the pool that Auntie Alayna got him.

Chelsea and I wanted to give Joshua a chapter book to read over the summer. We thought Capetian Underpants would be fun.

Josh has been wearing his Darth Vader mask from Sergio and Carson all weekend.

The Hillary's gave Joshua this really cool crossover Transformer that turns into a Clone trooper from Star Wars. He has been playing with this all weekend while wearing his Darth Vader mask.

Grandpa Mark Jennings Got this neat Operation R2-D2 game. Right after the party Joshua was ready to play.

Grandma and Grandpa Mickelsen got Joshua a bunch of new clothes that he can't wait to wear and this cool coloring book.

We made foam light sabers for the kids to take home from pool noodles and duct tape. That is what you can see the kids playing with in the bounce house.

Joshua's 7th Birthday Invite.

Wanted to share this with all who read our blog. I know there isn't a lot of you out there. But I did this on my own in Adobe illustrator, with the concept coming from something that Chelsea found on Pintrest.com. I love being able to do these kind of things.

Olivia Sitting up on her own.

It has been a few weeks since I shot this video but I thought I'd share anyway. Olivia has learned to sit up on her own! Yea!

Olivia at 7 months old

Olivia is just about 18 pounds now, and very active. She is close to being able to sit up on her own. She loves to spit raspberries all the time, and laugh if you do them back at her. She still loves to watch peoples faces intently and will reach up and put her hand on your face if she is looking at you but you are not looking at her. She is my little thinker, it always seems like the wheels are turning in her little head. She also rolls all over the place now. I put her down on the floor in my office with some toys while I was working on some work emails, and about 3 minutes later, found her all the way under the guest bed. She may not be able to crawl yet but she is certainly mobile by rolling!

Fire behind our house!

On Friday the family went out grocery shopping. On our way back we noticed smoke coming from the area near our house. We joked that our house was on fire but as we got closer it really did look like it was coming from our neighborhood. It was kinda scary, but as we pulled onto our street we found out that the fire was in the vacant lot behind our house. Whew! We don't know how the fire started but it was put out before any houses were damaged.

Olivia, the first 6 months

I can't believe Olivia is 6 months old today. Time flies, too fast. She is cutting her first two teeth this week, so she has been extra fussy and clingy but she is also such a happy and smiley baby (unless you are holding a camera, she will NOT smile for a camera). Before she was born I purchased monthly "belly stickers" to take on each of her monthly birthdays so that we could see how she changed over the first year. Here are her first 6 month pictures. (and of course I uploaded them backwards so you will have to watch her shrink instead of grow, sorry)