Birthday party

Adelle's 10th Birthday party was this Friday night. After quite a bit of hassle getting it booked (if you say you work until 5, you really should stay until 5!),17 out of the 20 children she invited came, which was perfect because then Jude and Roman got to play in the gymnastics room too. Joel did a great job on the cakes, again. He is amazing. He got home a few hours before the party. It was a really easy party for us. Totally worth the money, at this stressful time of the year. Adelle had a blast and was so happy. That made it really worth it. I cannot believe my baby is double digits!!

Thanksgiving

We went to Fort Worth to celebrate Thanksgiving at my sister, Michelle's with her family and my brother Jim and his family. There was 11 kids and 6 adults. It was really fun. Roman vomited as soon as we made it through the toll booth south of Wichita. And Jude vomited on the couch as soon as we got home but in between all of our kids were healthy! We ran in the Fort Worth 10K Turkey Trot. I did not have a PR but since I have not run 6 miles all at once since 2007 I was pretty happy with my time. Roman spent a lot of the time crying, I cannot remember why now. Even with that it was a good, relaxing vacation.

Veteran's Day

Man, I was doing so good at keeping my new year resolution of at least 2 posts a month-- but I totally missed the entire month of November! Here is photo of Maeve and I at the Veteran's Day parade in Leavenworth. It is apparently the biggest Veteran's Day parade west of the Mississippi but ummm yeah- it was okay. It was cool when the F15 flew over us. And the float in the background was pretty neat. I am thankful for those who have fought to protect our freedom and am glad that we did something with the kids that day to recognize the sacrifices.

Halloween costumes

Didn't the costumes turn out so cute? I am pretty pleased with myself...

Red Lava

Maeve is in the middle of her first season of soccer. She has come from not wanting to be on the field at all in the first game to actually running after the ball to kick it now. She must have a great coach-- ha ha! Coaching 3-5 year olds is not where my talents lie but the season is almost over.

Here is Zach A., Maeve's future husband. Seriously. They talk about marrying each other. The other day she asked him, "Are you breaking up with me?" Not sure where she even learned about that!

Group Photo Shoot

The joy of group photos. The pictures tell the story. You need no more explanation.

School Photos

Joel's School Photos.
We don't buy the school ones anymore because they are lame and expensive. Joel can take better ones. So we try to have a photo shoot at home the same week as the school photos. I think they turned out so cute. But group photos was another story!

sleeping children

Why is it when you see your child all sweet and sleeping you forgive him for all that he did that day? Like turn the light on in the room where his baby brother WAS napping. Or go through 6 pairs of underwear. Or tear the couch pillows off for the 10 zillioneth time that day. He looks so sweet and innocent sleeping. Though I wish it was his bed and not mine!

Hiking Sander's Mound

We took the children to Clinton Lake to hike Sander's Mound this week. I needed to check it out before I take the Activity Girls there on Wednesday. It was really beautiful. I have enjoyed this Kansas summer more than any other. Probably because I did not have a newborn and felt more comfortable taking the children out into the hotness. That first summer was rough because we were trying to adjust from California weather to muggy Midwest weather. It really is a fun, beautiful place to live when I get out and do things.

Lone Star Lake camping

We went camping at Lone Star Lake last weekend. When we went to Clinton Lake over the fourth of July we drove past Lone Star on the way home to show Joel where we wanted to go camping next time. Unfortunately when we got there several emergency vehicles were present and we found out later a little boy had drowned the day before and they had just found his body. So very sad. We went back this last weekend and as I was walking down to the lake from our campsite with all the children, several young adults in the lake yelled out to call 911 because someone they had been swimming with had gone under and not come back up. They dove down and looked for him over and over again until emergency personnel showed up. We went back to the campsite and waited until it really got too hot to not be in water. We went back down to a part of the lake to swim, away from the emergency boats. While we were down there, about 4 hours after the man went down, they found his body. So sad. We are starting to wonder if we just bring bad luck to the lake. After the first drowning we got life vests for all the children. Best purchase I made this summer.

The campground was really fun. I am glad that Joel has enough head lamps for everyone in the family. It made it easier for Maeve and Adelle to sleep in their own tent so we had room in our tent for Roman's cage.

The play ground at the campground has all of the banned toys from other parks. They had two of these merry go rounds, a huge metal slide, and wooden swings. The kids loved all the "new" equipment.

Amazingly Roman took a nap in this, right outside at the campsite. It was too hot to make him nap in the tent in the middle of the day.

Isn't the lake beautiful?

Winter Quarters Temple

We finally made a trip to our temple. It is 3.5 hours away so it is usually easier to just go on vacation when we are closer to a temple. But we did not go on vacation this summer so we took a day trip up north to Winter Quarters. Joel and I took turns in the temple. The children were very patient playing in the visitor's center and looking in the cemetery for our ancestors. We found a Mower one, Eliza Jane Sanders, age 3, who died while her family was living there. It was a sad and spiritual place. I am glad that we made the trip. We needed to be in the temple again and I was happy to have the children be in such a spiritual place. In the visitors center they had a collection of bronze statues of Christ on display. They were beautiful. The two I liked best were Christ walking on water and raising Lazarus from the dead. His face just looked so powerful, like of course I can walk on water and calm the storm. In the other one you could look at it through the door of the tomb so you could see Mary and Martha's faces. So happy. It was a wonderful day.