Poor Maurie!

Maurie has been subject to a lot of dress up this halloween. She is definitely a good sport!

(And these were the only ones I took pictures of!)

Sam's Kindergarten Halloween Program

Sam's Kindergarten Class

(Sam is in the top left corner)

Sam chose to be a fire fighter this year!

JACK-O-LANTERNS

We had a fun family night and carved pumpkins!

Dad helped Josh with his "happy" pumpkin and I helped Sam with his "scary" pumpkin. We followed their instructions to make these pumpkins just perfect. Both Sam and Josh were brave enough this year to touch the pumpkin guts!

Doesn't each pumpkin reflect the personality of their maker?!

Nintendo Bonding!

It is rare to see these two this close to each other without them being on the attack!

Cowboy Bopper

Isn't he too cute! Josh is enjoying this season of dress-up!

Sugar Cookies!

Decorating Sugar Cookies

Rachel and Scott brought a bunch of halloween shaped cookies for the kids to decorate!

Mark and Taneil came with Landon, Luke, and Lily to join in the fun!

We had a lot of fun even though our house was torn apart (downstairs remodeling)!

Kindergarten Trip to Vineyard

Pumpkinland

I volunteered to help out with Sam's kindergarten class on their exciting trip to Vineyard (west of Orem). Everyone had lots of fun and no one got lost! :)

Sam and Josh

Joshie in his true form!

In the corn maze! Sam, Nicholas (from Sam's class), and Josh.

Maurie endured the adventure!

Sam in the hay house.

The boys had a lot of fun playing on all of the fun setups. They were also able to pick out a pumpkin to take home!

Snicker Doodle

My toothless wonder!!

Maurie received her nick-name "Snicker Doodle" because she always wrinkles up her nose into a snicker! I was just now able to capture it on camera!

Three of a kind!

Even from behind they look the same!

(Josh, Maurie, Sam)

Ted's brother Kyle Just had their first baby!

Isn't he cute!

Way to go Liz and Kyle!

Maurie Nine Months

This is the expression that we get a lot of lately!

Our Quick Trip to Georgia!

Ted and I (and Maurie) were able to go to Georgia to take part in Tonya's baptism this last Saturday! Thanks to my parents for taking the boys for a couple of days!

(Ted, Becca with Maurie, Tonya, Devin with Allyson, Elliott, Barrett, Nicole)

It was great to spend time with family!

Our Hummer!!

We got some sweet wheels at the rental shop since they were short on stock!

(I will never own a vehicle like this, it was pretty much awful in every way!)

Devin and Tonya took us to a Mexican Restuarant following the Baptism!

Maurie having fun during conference!

Daddy we miss you!

The boys wanted to send a letter, but I thought this would be easier!

Love you!

CRAWLING!!!

I apologize for my goofy voice, but what do you expect!!

Maurie is no longer content to just sit around anymore! There are just too many things to explore, and too many ways to bother her brothers!

We had good timing in getting new carpet downstairs just yesterday. Maurie has been enjoying the big open rooms (I think I am enjoying the soft floor more than anybody!). These are a couple of pictures of our biggest room downstairs that we had done.

You may ask why we took down the walls and left cement in its place?!

The answer is: we found black mold from a past flood and decided better now than later!

So needless to say one of our next projects will be to put up new walls (with insulation this time)!
The projects only seem to multiply!!

Here is Sam showing off the new stairs!
He expresses several times a day . . . "I love that carpet very much, it is way great"

Sam and Josh have already claimed the biggest space for train tracks!

I will show pictures of the bedroom that we are finishing a little later when it is more complete!

Fun with Maurie!

Maurie has been a lot of fun lately! Here she is helping me out while I put groceries away! (Actually, it was a way to keep her content so I could put the groceries away!) Maurie can now wave and she can mimick your noises . . . "ba ba, da da, ma ma," etc...

She has also turned into a mama's girl lately and cries nearly every time my back is to her! :)

A Typical Morning!!

It is a good thing our kids like to get up early! It makes taking Sam to school just after eight o'clock not too terrible! This picture is a repeat day after day! Aren't they cute little stinkers!

Sam at school! Mom and kids play!!

Josh having fun being a big brother! He always takes care of his "snicker-doodle-pants!"

I have been having a lot of fun with just Josh and Maurie while Sam has been at school! It is fun to have some 1-on-1 time with my little bopper! Maurie has also started to get on a better schedule these past couple days!

Grandma and Grandpa are gone for 18 months

We said our final goodbyes to Grandma and Grandpa today as they drove away to Cleveland! It will be quite an adjustment having them away for the next 18 months! We have been so blessed having them live so close! We are very excited to hear of their experiences and also see the blessings as a result of them choosing to serve!

Good luck Mom and Dad!

Last Summer Day

We met my friend Melissa and her daughter Maya to the Dinosaur Museum and the Farm Country the day before school started!

Maya, Josh, and Sam have always seemed to get along very well!

The wagon ride at the farm was one of our highlights!

I had to put Maurie in the blog too since she is usually stuck behind the camera with me!

It was fun to go and spend more time with Mel again! Thanks for the fun idea!

Sam's First Cub Soccer Game

We decided to let Sam play soccer with a bunch of our neighbors' kids in the Springville City Cub League.

This is Sam getting ready to kick-off!

This is one of the many repeated reactions that Sam had during the game when things didn't go his way (i.e. "I didn't score a goal," "I couldn't kick the ball," etc... ).

Josh found some friends to run around with during half-time!

Sam's First Day of Kindergarten

The big day finally arrived! Sam was very excited to go to the "big" school this year.

My "little trouble maker" is not so little anymore!



"Hmmmm, I wonder what I will learn this year?"
Play dough kept Sam occupied as I dropped him off! I don't think he even noticed that I was leaving!! Later that night Sam told me that he was brave while he was at school. I asked him why and he said that there was a time that he "really needed me" and I wasn't there, but he didn't cry!

Sam's good friend Micah that lives next door took most of Sam's worries away as they ran off to school and into the classroom. It is fun to have some friends that Sam is already familiar with in his class, and also great to have a walking buddy.

My favorite thing that Sam told be about his first day of school was while we were walking home he quickly turned to me with a perplexed look and said "Mom, Mrs. Morgan (his teacher) didn't teach me how to read today!" I told him that it takes more than one day of school to learn how to read, but I think he was a little disappointed!! All in all, he is very excited to go back tomorrow!

2008 Garden

Sam and Josh have been faithful little helpers this year in our garden! They have enjoyed weeding, watering, and picking the veggies! This year we have focused on mainly corn and tomatoes. We had to take this picture to show Sam just how big the corn was in comparison.

Our New Piano!!

I never thought the time would come that I actually would want to sit down and play the piano voluntarily! I actually am really excited to have found such a good deal on a piano (from our neighbor who is moving). I have already been playing all sorts and the kids are even enjoying it!

Sam and Josh have had a great time making up songs and listening to some of their favorites!

Getting Big!!

Maurie (7 months) has been getting more and more fun as she gets bigger! She is definitely a social bug as she hates to be left behind! Maurie has collected many new nicknames the past few weeks, our favorite of which is probably "snickerdoodle, chocolate chip cookie pants!" I have no idea how that one came to be other than Ted and Sam enjoy putting long combinations together! Some others include "doo," "doodle bug," and "baby girl."

Our Trip to Denver, Colorado

Who would ever put such beautiful children in jail?

Ted and I were able to take our kids to Denver, Colorado at the beginning of August. Ted had some work there and we followed along. We let the boys pick out our adventures each day and so that mostly involved trains! The picture above was taken in "Tiny Town." This place was filled with miniature houses of all kinds, including a jail!

Tiny Town also had a miniature coal locomotive that we all were able to ride on!

Our boys loved the ride and could have gone all day over and over! We ended our day at Tiny Town by watching the conductor switch out trains and put the black locomotive on the round-about turn table and put the engine in the miniature shed! It was a blast for the kids!

We also went to a train museum in Golden, Colorado (just outside of Denver) close to our hotel.

Our trip was great, but Josh ended up getting sick with a variety of issues and we were out of commision for the next two weeks! Thus no blog entries until now!