Carving Pumpkins

It took us two nights to get our pumpkins carved this year.  The first night we cleaned and gutted them.  This is NOT my favorite chore.  Thankfully the kids are getting to where they can mostly do it by themselves.  I helped Abbie with hers and did Myles' , Jake did Lexie's because she wasn't feeling well.  But that was all we had time for that night.  The next evening we turned them into jack-o-lanterns!

Myles really didn't understand, but when I asked him what he wanted on his pumpkin he said Mickey Mouse so I found a pattern on the internet and it turned out really cute thanks to Jake for tracing it out and Lexie for cutting it.  

Ashton and Lexie made minion pumpkins.  

And Abbie had a three eyed beast.

 Here are their finished masterpieces.

Myles and Mickey.

Abbie and the beast

My little minions.

We had a lot of fun carving them this year. 

Our New Bed

For years Jake and I have been talking about getting a king size bed.  But that is all we have ever done is talk about it and want one, but haven't actually gotten one.  Well about a month ago we finally quit talking about it and took the plunge and got one.  We already had a sleep number bed and really liked it and knew that we wanted another that wasn't the hard part, in fact purchasing the mattress took less than 30 minutes, we went into the store and laid down on a couple different models that we thought we might like, picked our favorite and that was that.  Find a new bed on the other hand turned out to be an adventure.  We looked around a lot and really couldn't find anything that we LOVED that wasn't super expensive.  We finally decided to have Jake make us a new bed.  He is amazing!

He took this pile of lumber 

Cut it down into pieces

assembled the pieces

stained it 

we brought it inside and assembled it

and turned it into this!

Then we had our new mattress delivered and we have the best bed ever!

Fall Pictures Take Two

I finally made it out to take more pictures of my kids....  We went to a different place, it was closer and really pretty.  I only had Ashton and Myles get all dressed up because I only needed their pictures still, but then I wished that I had everyone ready for pictures because it was so pretty.  Things went really well and we had some small miracles along the way.  First, we had great lighting for longer than I thought we would and second my battery on my camera lasted the whole time.  I picked up my camera just as we were getting ready to walk out the door and noticed that I had left it on and the battery was almost dead.  I didn't know how many pictures I would actually be able to take with it.  I hurried and plugged it in for about 5 minutes and then off we went hoping or the best.  It lasted the whole time!!

Here is what I got this time..... I love these kids of mine.

Fall Pictures

A few weeks ago I asked the kids if they wanted me to buy the fall school pictures or take some myself.  They all agreed that they wanted me to take some.  I think the group ones turned out amazing, I got some good single pictures of the girls.  The boys were a different story, Myles just wouldn't cooperate and Ashton's face was cute but for some reason it was really dark and I couldn't fix it.  I was going to wait until I took the new ones to post these pictures, but it seems we are so busy that I haven't made it out yet.....  Anyway here is some of what I did get!

I love both of these pictures for different reasons.  I still don't know which one I will put on my wall.  

I love how Ashton is hugging everyone in the top one, he did that all by himself and I loved it.  I love the casual feel of the bottom one.  Decisions, decisions..... at least there a few to pick from!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture.  It was and wasn't an accident all at the same time.  I knew I wanted to get one of the two boys together and I asked Ashton to get Myles and come to me.  I was trying to get one of the two of them holding hands, the fact that they are looking at each so sweetly was a bonus.  This is one of my top 5 pictures I have taken!

I was trying to get some candid shots and see how the lighting was all at the same time.

My sweet beautiful teenager!  Love her so much!

My sweet, cute Abbie.  Love her!! She was a little nervous when I put her up there but you can't tell!

My sweet girls together.  

What Myles has been up to

Man we have been super busy! One thing I forgot to mention that happened in Sept was that we had an open house for our newly remodeled church.  It was so much work, but lots of people came and it was so worth it in the end.  Because I am the primary president I was in charge of the primary room, I had to make a poster that explained primary to people and then during the open house I had to give a 3 minute "speech" to each group that toured the building.  I also had to do a poster about FHE. I wish I had taken some pictures of everything, I know some were taken so I should try and get copies of them.  I still have the posters at the church so I guess if nothing else I can take picture of them.  Now I am trying to get the primary program under control!
Some other things we done...

Myles had become quite the little Picasso, so Jake and I decided it was time to paint this wall.  He has colored on this wall at least 5 different times and it's not the only wall he's colored on, just the only one we decided we needed to paint.  

We've been trying to redirect his art skills in a more constructive way!  I'm not sure it is helping.  But man he likes to color!  

Myles chilling our watching conference.  He was really good for an almost 2 year old.  

The weather is getting colder, but we have been trying to get a walk in every day we can.  We both love being outside right now.  We had walked to the bus stop to wait for Ashton and Abbie to get home from school.  

This picture was taken at 6:30 in the morning.  Myles was so upset when Lexie had to go to school and couldn't stay and play with him.  He loves his Lou Lou, which is what he has started calling her.  

My RETIRED Army Man!

Jake officially retired from the National Guard at the end of Sept, after 20 years of service.

I am so proud of him, he has done so many things and seen so many things.  I love this guy so much. 

On his last day of drill he came home and Myles put on his hat and an old pair of sunglasses, I thought it was so cute!

Here are a few radon pictures from our time in the military!

family day 2011 

in Louisiana after hurricane Katrina

The day Jake left for the Middle East

Getting on the bus

Coming home!

In Iraq

September in a nutshell

Here is a few more things that we did in September.

This was our summer fun list that we made this year.  We weren't able to cross everything off our list, but we did do a lot of things.  

Ashton had lots of fun putting together his legos from his birthday, he tried to space them out and not build them all on the same day.  And he let Abbie help which she loved! 

Myles got "lilly kitty" in Yellowstone and they have been inseparable ever since.  She goes everywhere with us it seems.  

Myles is becoming super independent and I find him doing things like this all the time.  He climbed up, got his toothbrush, turned on the water and brushed all by himself.

Riding with tiger at the store.  

Myles gets to watch Daniel Tiger on Netflix while I am getting ready in the mooring.  He is so cute while he watches it.  

The kids have been busy with school.  They are all doing well.  Lexie is in the fall play and most weekdays she is gone from 6:30 am to 5 or 5:30 pm.  She is a busy girl!  I wish I had taken a picture or two of the kids searching for bugs, she had an insect project for biology and everyone had so much fun searching for and catching bugs for it.