It's Halloween Fun!

Better late then never! I made a Halloween dinner of Ghostly cheese sandwiches, chicken noodle soup and orange smoothies, then we carved pumpkins before going trick-or-treating. Blake did most of the work, as I was desparately searching for the hat to Ed's costume ( I found it!). They all had a great time though. We even toasted the seeds-yummy! Garlic salt was our favorite topping by the way.

Here they are-the pokemon, dinosaur, cavegirl, gypsy and ninja. The cavegirl is Johanna's friend and our neighbor-Hannah

Is this not disturbing? This is the loot the kids ended up with-a VERY LARGE bowl of candy! Blake decided it was time to quit after overhearing comments to Logan and Camden like "Wow-you've got a lot of candy there!" Ed petered out after one block, and then he ate pretty much everything he got while the others were out. So, this is only 3 kids worth of candy! SCARY!

Cozy and Colorful Fall Pix

Ahhh...family togetherness... Yes-that's Ed wearing Johanna's glasses. He's facinated with them-though they're not like Mia's-they are breakable, and he's doing his best to help Johanna into contacts

Quintisential fall-leaves, trucks and boys-don't you just want to join in?

Our VERY LAST berry pie-just picked on October 24! Ed "helped" by arranging the berries-I think he was just trying to hide the fact that he'd eaten most of them. Can't you see that guilty look on his face?

The owl cupcakes I made for my Halloween recital-aren't they cute?

Fall happenings

Is this really 2009? At our house you wouldn't know it-in fact, for portions of General Conference-Camden had to hold up our lovely-right out of Star Trek antenna so we could get proper reception!

The poor little kitten! Ed visited a farm with his preschool and there were a whole passel of kittens for the kids to hold. It was very cute and didn't mind Ed holding it too much.

We had a fun time picking grapes last friday. We didn't get there until almost dark, so we had to pick fast. The kids all had fun running around the vineyard in the light of the moon. We picked an 18 gallon container full, plus three buckets. I got 35 quarts of grape juice out if them and I'm going to try and make a batch of grape jelly. They smelled so good!!!! The vineyard really was lovely-you could smell the grapes as you walked around. Ahhh...nature.

Cotton Candy Cuties

I really love this picture of Mom for some reason.

My kids have never had so much cotton candy as they did at the Hoth reunion in Logan, UT. I got lots of great pictures with their treats-to cute! I can look at them, but not have to wipe cotton candy off myself afterwards.

School Again

Eddy started his preschool this week. It was at my house first. On Tuesday we made tye dye shirts for them to wear on fieldtrips. Today they were ready, so I had everyone put them on and we took a picture-so cute!! I think it will be lots of fun for Ed. He gets lonely without his brothers and sister all day.

Every year those kids keep getting bigger! I feel like these first day of school photos come around all the time, but the kids in them keep changing-bittersweet.....Johanna looked so grown-up going off to middle school with her friends. Check out Johanna's friend's 80's outfit-skinny jeans are coming to get us, ladies!


Johanna seems to really like middle school though-I hope she has a wonderful year and keeps on becoming the girl she should be.



Just the two boys at Hunter Elementary this year. I think they are both liking school. Logan is enjoying his one day a week challenge program. Camden says his teacher is both mean and fun....? Let's hope the fun side wins him over-especially since he's in a "loop" and will have her for 1st and 2nd grades!

Wyoming

Our family (sans Ed) about halfway up Twin Peaks in a field of beautiful wildflowers. Logan, Cam and I turned around shortly after this point, but Blake and Johanna went the whole way up and back-9 hours of hiking!!!!

The whole gang in the back of grandpa's pick-up right before the hike.

This is how big Ed said his fish was

Eddy and the fish he helped catch at the cabin pond

Johanna coming down the zip line over Blake's uncle's pond in Rexburg-so fun!! We celebrated Grandma Call's 80th birthday with a dinner, family pix, and lots of swimming, boating, canoeing, and playing in the pond. The kids had such a great time. We didn't leave until after 8, which got us back to the cabin after 10 with a load of tired kids.

All the boys canoeing in the pond

Blake and I after a session at the Rexburg temple-beautiful!

We had lots of fun in Star Valley, Wyoming recently! Katy and Mia came to visit us at the cabin-which we loved! We enjoyed a short ride in a motorboat over Jenny lake. After disembarking, we hiked to Hidden Falls (pictured here). Katy and I had to "walk" with Mia a good part of the way...whew-what a workout! Aside from the mosquitos, it was fun though.

summer stuff

Here's a few pictures of what we've been doing. Cam's birthday was fun-after caming in a yurt overnight with Grandma and Grandpa Thurman, we came home to presents and this cute cupcake alligator cake. Johanna and I had a fun time making it. We've had tons of cherries over the last few weeks. It's been wonderful! They were so beautiful and delicious! We gave a lot away, but ate as many as we wanted-love it!

Last weekend, we all (except Johanna, who was camping) ran a fun run. Logan came in 2nd and would have won a prize, only he was wearing my number-oops! Cam and Ed kinda cheated-they couldn't make it the whole way, so we lobbed off a bit of the course.

What's not to love about summer?

I just love summer. I love not having a schedule, I love not having to make cold lunch each morning (pb and J everyday...boring!!), I love just hanging around the house with the kids playing, I love reading books while lounging in the sun, and the last minute trips to get ice-cream. We took the kids to the ice-cream shop that Logan made a model of tonight. Everyone had fun and only two of us didn't get ice-cream on their shirt (I was NOT one of them). We read books from the library-library reading program time! Anyway, just had to share why I love summer.

Party!!!!

We had a last day of school party yesterday. It was mostly for Johanna, but I let Logan and Cam each invite a friend as well. I think a good time was had by all. I'm not sure how many kids were there-at least 16. Anyway, my house was full! I made the cute graduation cap cupcakes- an idea I've saved from 2000 or something like that. We also had Johanna's requests-Bugels, Capri Suns and Starburst, plus cookies and fruit/veggies with dip. There were two slip n' slides, waterguns, pool, waterballoons, bubble machine, and a craft. I swept up about 2 cups of debris off the sopping wet floor afterwards-I had a pond in my downstairs bath, mangled carpet, and scratched wood floors from the sand they brought in, but it was fun! Maybe I'll do it again!

The happy kids who are now out of school

Johanna in the wet t-shirt contest at school (JK) she had fun at all the field day stations. I was there face painting. I forgot about babysitting for Cam and Ed, so they came with me. Poor little guys-I was so busy-they had to entertain themselves in the hot sun for three hours! They did great, though I'm not sure how many otterpops Ed helped himself to.

Logan pre-field day-ready for the fun to begin.

Cam wearing his graduation cap. The kindergartners had a cute little graduation ceremony in his classroom. They sang some adorable songs (which I did not have my camcorder for -GARGGGG!!), and recieved their "diplomas". Cam is now ready for first grade..sniff..my baby!

Gotta have h

Is it all about the kids? Yes, at our house

Logan's end of the year project-mostly done by himself. It's a local ice-cream parlour that operated for 30 years and then closed. New owners bought it and have learned to make all the old recipes.

Johanna backstage before her dance recital.

Ed and Log enjoying ice-cream at school. Logan got one item for every times table he learned-he passed off all 12, so it was three scoops of ice-cream, sprinkles, choclate and caramel syrup, gummy bears and whip cream (he didn't want a cherry). I helped scoop, so Ed of course had to have some.

So cute! Cam and I found this cute gosling at the zoo during his field trip there. There were a whole bunch of them being gaurded by their menacing parents.

Sorry about the fuzzy photo, but it's a shot of Logan celebrating the victory of his Log-mobile at the pinewood derby tonight. His car won the "most original paint job" award and came in 7th overall out of 27. I spent the night trying to get ONE good picture (never happened) and cleaning up vomit off of myself and Ed after Camden pulled Ed's shirt from the back and made him choke...all in all, a very exciting evening for everyone.

Recent pix

Here's Dad playing on the floor with Inky and Cocoa. It was really funny how our cat was interested in Cocoa. She watched him all night long and came right up to him lots of times-I think they could be friends!

Here are just some of our pretty flowers this Spring-the whole yard was gorgeous this year-the best we've had! I know it doesn't really show in pictures.

We went to the kids school carnival last Friday. Ed was really excited to get his face painted, though you can't tell by this picture-he loved the spider he got on his cheek. This cute girl is in our ward.

I think this picture is hillarious! We just wanted one...ONE good picture of the kids on Easter-is that too much to ask?

Easter

We had fun dyeing eggs. Ed just loved it, though was throwing the eggs in the yellow dye as fast as he could-I cooked 20 eggs, and about 8 of them were yellow. I let the other kids re-dye them, so they ended up the most interesting shades of puce!

Here's Ed shlepping eggs as fast as he can!

My Easter cookies-beautiful to look at and delicious to eat. However-not a good choice for people needing carpal tunnel surgery-that cookie dough is hard to squeeze!

Here's the Easter haul that Cam and Ed got from the Easter Egg hunt we went to. It was really cute watching Ed, who's never done one, pick up the eggs-he was going as fast as he could, which he didn't need to-their were a million eggs! So much candy! Luckily, I guess, Ed just broke the candy jar, which was full of leftover Easter and other candy.

Spring Break in Oregon

Johanna was a good babysitter for Mia and Ed during the week.

Ed loved his Diego cake! He loves birthdays!

Grandpa's thinking about joining in the sand castle making....he does.

Ed and his Mo's birthday sundae.

Look how cute Mia is coloring at Mo's. She also enjoyed finishing off Ed's hotdog.

Mom and the gang playing operation Shrek.

Here are some Spring Break pix. We had a great time visiting Grandma and Grandpa Hoth in Oregon. The kids and I had a good trip there-we even picked up Katy and Mia at the airport on the way. I was so glad Katy came. It was fun to see Mia and it's always nice to have a sister to hang out with at home...thanks for coming, Katy! I got to see my friends from home-Kari, Britta and Jennifer. I went on several walks with Dad in the mornings. The weather wasn't too bad-even a few nice days! Katy, Johanna and I had a fun time shopping in Portland. We all went to the beach one day and enjoyed a beautiful day there. It was Ed's birthday that day too. We ate at Mo's, of course-they even brought Ed a sundae with a candel on it and sang to him-he loved it!

We played on the beach for awhile before heading home. Grandma made another wonderful cake for Eddy-Diego this time. We visited the carousel and had Kevin over the last day there. All in all, it was a wonderful visit, and I can't wait to go back! I love Oregon!