Sleigh Ride

Alright so this is a sled but it's the closest that they are going to get with a sleigh ride. The kids took a ride with dad up and down the street. Bryson had tons of fun doing it, but Baylee was pretty terrified of how loud the snowmobile was and wanted off. I still can't believe how much snow we have. It is just crazy.

Charlie's First Birthday!

Charlie turned 1 on November 24th which is also my brother David's birthday too. He is just below 50% on his height and just above 50% on his weight but is in the 70s on his head. He obviously loved his cake and he just took his first step yesterday on 12/1. His older brother and sister have all walked before they turned 1. Charlie definitely does things in his own time. Like he just started to give kisses but they are only given on his terms, he doesn't just give them to anyone anytime. He waves on occasion but that is the same as kisses only when he wants to. He loves to make tons of messes. He always gets my Tupperware out and throw them all everywhere. He gets into both bookshelves and throws the books out and just in general this kid likes to make messes. He loves the dish washer and when ever I am taking dishes out or putting them in he is in the middle of it all. We are very blessed to have our little guy in our life and can't wait to see how much he will grow.

Thanksgiving

I had preschool the week before thanksgiving. The last day of preschool we had a Thanksgiving party. We put a turkey puzzle together and made a turkey with feathers that each said what we are thankful for and made these awesome hats for the kids. They had a lot of fun.

MMMMMM

My kids tend to think that it's OK to put what they are done eating with on the ground, so Charlie can have it, kinda like a dog. This is what happens when it is ice cream cake.

Daddy daughter time.

Darin took Baylee with him to hunt last night and came back with a buck. He was really excited because with all the bad luck of not seeing much this hunting season it didn't take much time to get this buck. Baylee as you can see was really proud of her dad and really excited to be with him. What a night.

Baylee's on her own.

Well not totally on her own. She learned how to ride her bike on her own. I haven't posted much lately and decided to do a whole bunch at once. Baylee started riding her bike at the beginning of August. She was outside playing with the neighbor kids and they were all riding their own bikes and I had taken the training wheels off of her and put them on Bryson's bike so she decided that she wanted to ride her bike like everyone else. So we got her bike out and started going. She started out first riding only about five or ten yards and then Dad decided to come out and help out with her bike riding. She was riding it in no time. She loves to ride her bike now and feels like she is a real big kid now.

Pumpkin Carving

Dad helping Bryson out. Darin first took a knife to try to cut the stem down and ended up taking the whole thing off. It was really funny because he was trying to show the kids a really cool trick and it ended up not working the way he thought it would.Bryson squirming over the guts.

Baylee showing the guts.

Baylee trying to cut her own.

The end results. Bryson's in on the left and his had two buck teeth and Baylee's is on the right with vampire teeth and cross eyed.

We did buy some big pumpkins and the kids loved carving them. Darin helped Bryson out on his and I helped Baylee with hers. She wanted to cut it on her own really bad. Charlie had fallen asleep so he missed out. The kids loved taking the guts out. It was a great night.

Halloween

My little Fairy Princess.

Baylee had a Halloween Party for Preschool and she had so much fun. When I came to pick her up from school we had a Mummy wrapping contest and had some cake together. We had a lot of fun together. She loves to go to preschool. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of my other little guys in their costumes. Bryson was a tiger and Charlie was a Dalmatian. I could squeeze them back into them but I don't think my pictures will turn out with some happy kids.

Hard Work

This is Darin's friend Josh and he got a bull elk and we went up to help pack it out. We had to wench it out about a half a mile up a mountain side. It was really hard and I have a new application for all that Darin does when he has to get an elk out. Thankfully Josh gave us about half the meat for helping.

Painting pumpkins

Carter feeding Charlie. He just loves him so much. Carter tries to say Charlie's name and it sounds like Carly.

Bryson showing me his hands.

Baylee showing me her hands.The kids having fun.

Charlie having fun with his pumpkin but staying very clean.

So the little pumpkins that we got from Carver's Farm were so small that my friend Taylor and I thought that it would be better if we painted them instead of carving them. We used some poster paint that I had and changed their shirts and put some paper down. The kids had tons of fun and the paint washed off their hands really well, but after they dried the next day the paint started to peel off. Oh well they had fun and that was all that matters.

Pumpkin Patch

Look at how these kids have grown.Bryson picking out his pumpkin.

Baylee is super excited if you couldn't tell.

Charlie having fun being packed around.

Baylee's preschool went to Carver's Farm and they had a lot of fun. The kids were really excited about picking their own pumpkin out. It was a fun day.

First week of preschool!!!!

Baylee and Bryson are starting preschool this week. Baylee goes to a co-op that some women in my ward and I started together. She went the first day and had a blast. She is so excited to go to preschool and that she has her very own book. Bryson stays home with me and we do preschool while Baylee is gone at hers. He is just excited that he gets his own pencil box and crayons, markers, and so on. He loves to drag his backpack around. He feels very important with his backpack on.

Hair Cut

This is all the hair I got off his head cutting it on a 1.I took a picture of him sleeping becuase this is the only time that he sits still.

Charlie is pretty bald and out of all my kids he has had the least amount of hair. So I thought that if I cut his hair it will grow back fast and full. Still waiting on the verdict for that, but it has worked in the past with my other kids and so hopefully this little guy will have some hair on his head by winter and not be so incredible bald.

Trip to Twin Falls

Holly and I always do our toes every time we visit. It is becoming a tradition for us.

We made a bunch of flower barrettes out of ribbon and buttons. I was showing them off here.

Baylee wearing these gorilla gloves. Casen would wear them as shoes and that was really funny to watch.

Clayton with Charlie. These two were buds. Bless Clayton's little heart wanting to hold him and try to keep him quite.

This is Holly my sister.

Baylee and Bryson wearing the football pads. Uncle Aaron is a coach for the football team there. All the kids except Cody he was having a rough day.

Bryson and Charlie having a little fun.

Casen and Bryson were jumping up and trying to do a 360 on down.

Baylee

Charlie and I

Saturday night I asked Darin if he minded if I followed one of my friends down to Boise and kept on going to Twin Falls and around 10 that night he told me I could and that he was alright about it, so Sunday morning I packed up and left to Twin Falls. We stayed for a week and came home on Sunday. I really enjoyed visiting my sister and her family. We did tons of stuff. We made a Family Home Evening board, painted toes, made flower clips, went thrift store shopping and more shopping and our favorite garage sailing. The kids camped out together in different rooms, one night upstairs, another in one room and so on. We went on a lot of walks and stayed up late talking. It was tons of fun and we miss them already but were glad to be home.

Update on Charlie

Charlie now has 2 teeth and he makes sure that I know that he does every time I nurse him. He is drooling a lot lately and I think he is going to pop a couple more through. You can see the drenched shirt in these pictures.He has been crawling for a couple of weeks and just within the last week has been pulling himself up onto things.

Charlie is in the 80% with his head and 75% with his height and 50% with his weight. He is 20.3lbs.

Huckleberry Picking

We have recently gone out huckleberry picking and it has been really fun. The kids love the 4 wheeling ride up to were we pick and they have a lot of fun eating the huckleberries and exploring around, Charlie even liked to eat them.

This is Darin and the kids up just a little further where we pick huckleberries at.

The kids and I.

This was the first time we went and Charlie feel asleep on the ride up.

Baylee and I picking. She liked to help bring the bucket back and forth from Dad to Mom.

This is the second Huckleberry pie I made this week and I also made 2 pumpkin pies too. Darin really likes pie so I went a little crazy on doing them. What is sad is that they are all gone. I did give one pumpkin pie to my Dad for his birthday, and we have shared with friends that have dropped by, but the majority of the pies were eaten by Darin.

P.S. I was really excited about the huckleberry pie because I have never made one before. I am just happy that it turned out because it takes a lot of huckleberries to make one.

Hayden View Triathlon

JoAnn and I right before the swim.

Me finishing the bike.

Me starting the run.
Ben Tran, Charlie, myself, and Melanie Patterson
My kids and I right after I crossed the finish line

So this year I did my second sprint triathlon which is a 1/2 mi. swim, 10.2 mi. bike, and a 4 mi. run. I did it all in 1hr and 25min. The morning was starting out to be really cloudy and a bit chilly. The water was really choppy but wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. My chain fell off on the bike and got tangled up pretty bad and thank goodness some guy stopped his race to help me because I really didn't know how to fix it. I wish I knew his name so I could thank him because I thought that I was done for the race. For the run I had a 7 and 1/2 min pace for it. I am really proud and excited about finishing and my time. Sorry for the bragging but I am just really proud of myself and feel very accomplished and on a little bit of a high still from the race. I wouldn't have done it this year if my sister JoAnn hadn't asked me to, and since it was her first I couldn't let her do it by herself. I am really glad that we did this together.
Here is the time of everyone else: JoAnn Isaksen was 1hr44min. , Melanie Patterson was 1hr16min., and Ben Tran was 1hr15min. We all had fun and cheered each other on.