Kindergarten Carpool Conversations

This was the conversation between Cole and the cute little girl, Sage, that we carpool with.

Cole: "Stage do you like me?" (her name is Sage but Cole can't seem to say it right!)

Sage: "Yes I like you"

Cole: "You have blue-ish purply eyes" (not really purply, Sage has the most gorgeous blue eyes :)

Sage: "You can walk me to the door if you want"

Cole: "Okay and I will carry your backpack for you"

It was so funny I was about choking trying not to laugh at them! Ah, the innocence of 5 year olds :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I discovered something today when I made chocolate chip cookies. Now, I understand the rest of you are super duper cooks and probably already knew this. But, here's what I learned:

These are the first pan I baked. Just mixed them up and stuck them in the oven to bake. Kinda flat huh?

These pretty little cookies were the last pan I cooked. Notice how much "fluffier" they look? Both pans taste exactly the same, but the last one sure looked better!

Both pans were from the exact same batch of cookie dough. But the last one I stuck in the fridge for about 10 minutes before I baked them. Not sure why it made such a big difference, but it did! So, I guess stick the cookie dough in the fridge for 10 minutes before you bake them and they will turn out alot prettier :)

Things Change

I just wanted to mention this morning that Baylee got some good news this week. The student council advisor came to her and asked her is she were still willing to be on student council. So... Baylee did win in the end, she is now the Junior Vice President at Saville MS. :)

Surprise=Maui

Travis has been super stressed at work, understandibly! So, when Mark called and said he wanted to surprise LaNae and take her somewhere and asked if we would like to go with I was all for it! Mark and I decided to keep it a surprise from Travis and LaNae and finally decided on Maui. We got some incredible deals and it ended up being a pretty cheap trip. We had so much fun! Travis did end up finding out where we were going a couple of days beforehand because he is snoopy. But LaNae didn't know even where we were going until we go to the airport. We drove the road to Hana. It was beautiful, but we found out we are more of "destination" people instead of "enjoy the ride" people lol. We hung out by the pool and the on the beach alot. We went to a luau, which was quite the experience! Mom stayed at our house with all 8 kids! She is so AMAZING! It was an awesome trip and we can't wait to go back :)

We went to Hilo Hatties and picked out the most "touristy" looking shirts we could for Mark and Travis. They were such good sports and it was super funny :)

We were hanging out on Big Beach on Wailea and this guy was doing these really weird jumps so his wife could take his picture. We were all laughing at him because he could barely get off the sand. So Travis decided he would go and show him how its done. Pretty impressive huh!

On our drive to Hana we kept seeing fruit all over the ground. We finally saw some on a tree and I really wanted to figure out what it was... it was passionfruit :)

Because Maui had been receiving so much rain the last week or so the waterfalls were absolutely spectacular.

It wasn't raining (at this point) it was just really wet!

Mark wanted a better view of the waterfalls and to fully appreciate our topless jeep he decided to stand on the seat for a better view :)

Travis insisted on a Jeep. It was a ton of fun, even if it was kind of a piece of junk!

... and of course, a Hawaiian chicken!

Where did October go??

I think I blinked and October was over! I love October, and we really enjoyed it but it definitely went too fast!

I have always wanted to take the kids to the halloween trick or treating party in Disneyland but we just haven't been able to make it in years past. This year we finally did! I'm so glad we went. It was so much fun and the kids got a ton of candy!

This year for Halloween Cole was a firefighter, Kade was a skeleton Pirate, Tori was an 80's chick and Bay didn't want to wear her costume to Disneyland but for Halloween she was the red headed Sanderson Sister from Hocus Pocus. She looked absolutely gorgeous!

This is a picture of Baylee at a Halloween Party she went to with 2 of her best friends.

Travis decided to do a 115 mile bike ride in Vegas. It was such a great accomplishment for him! We were so proud of him, and the kids loved driving the ride and watching for him. They acted like he was a rock star!

We had a surprise party for my sister's 50th birthday at our house. It was so much fun to have our entire family together (everyone except 4 nephews made it to the party!) But at the end of the party Baylee came over to me holding her wrist and said it really hurt. So we hurried and grabbed Cindy and Ken before they left and had them look at it. They said it was probably okay and wait and see how it feels in the morning. But then Jake came in and said when he landed on her on the trampoline it sounded like a stick breaking in half! Needless to say, we didn't wait until morning! Bay and I headed to the ER. She had broken it right at the growth plate. It broke my heart to see her in pain like that! When I took this picture it was after they had given her Lortab so she felt much better :) Jake felt so bad, but it was just an accident. The kids were all playing. But this was our first cast, Bay thought it was pretty cool the first few days. We actually didn't get the full cast that night. We had to go to an orthopedic surgeon and have it casted on Monday. She got a purple cast and a month off of violin.

Travis and Bob went to a football game in Dallas, so Espi and I decided to take the girls and go to Big Bear for the weekend. We had a blast! It was so fun to spend the weekend with just the girls.

Kade has been playing flag football and baseball. He absolutely LOVES to catch, go figure! He did a really great job behind the plate and his coach put him there every game. He even wants his own catching gear for Christmas. I must admit though, I'm glad we survived doing both sports and that it is now over. Two football practices, 1 football game, 1 baseball practice, and 2 baseball games a week about did us in!

Baylee ran for Junior Vice President at school. She didn't win, but had a really great attitude and ran a great race! She is such an incredible kid. She always looks on the bright side of things and gives everything her best.

Village

I always celebrate the kids going back to school by putting up my Halloween Village. It is my favorite thing :)

Durango CO

I really have wanted to take the kids to Durango and ride the train for so long. We decided to make a quick trip and just go. Mom, dad and Chuck came with us and we had so much fun! This is Kade's injury from River Rafting. Him and Baylee were walking down to the edge of the river and he slipped and ripped the skin right off his leg! We didn't have any bandages or anything so we wrapped a bandanna around his leg and finished our rafting trip. He did cry, it was really bad! But he was super brave and insisted we finish our rafting trip.




This was our stop at the 4 corners :)

Our First Cub Scout :)

Kade was SO EXCITED to get to go to Cub Scouts. He has incredible leaders that keep him excited every week! At his first pack meeting he earned his Bobcat and I got my first mom pin :)

Catching up! Kade's baptism

Kade was baptized on the 31st of July. It was such a beautiful day! We are so blessed to have such great friends and family that support us. Kade was so excited for HIS baptism day. He played his violin with Baylee before his confirmation and Grandma Janet made lasagna for the lunch after. I am so proud of this kid and his desire to follow the Savior. He is such a funny, sweet, fun kid!

1st Day of School