Halloween

We try to not make Halloween a big deal with our kids, simply because it doesn't celebrate anything that we believe in or want to exalt. However, we do carve pumpkins with the kids and try to explain to them the symbolism of how yucky we are, like the inside of a pumpkin, and how Christ makes us clean and lets his light shine through us. Below is a picture of the girls carving their pumpkins and you will clearly see the differences in their personalities. It's pretty amusing to me.

Rayna is loving every minute of this.

Taylin, not so much. Daniel and I made Taylin stick her hand in the pumpkin a few times just so she could see how it feels. Her response is pretty plain to see.

The kids then got to dress up and go to one of the church's harvest festivals. Rayna was a Red Dancer, and Taylin was a ballerina.

Tobyn was our little lion! He said "Roarrr" all night long and loved the suckers!

Chickens!

My husband things I'm crazy, but we got an incubator and chicken eggs from a friend and went through the process of hatching some chickens with the kids. It was really a fun experience. The kids loved it, and there were times when Daniel would say, "Are you doing this for the kids or you?" It probably was a mixture of both! My mother did this with my siblings and I a couple of times, and it was always fun and exciting.

Here are our 10 chicken eggs, fresh from Ruthy's Farm!

The first chicken hatched around 4am. I awoke to it's chirping noises and found it already out of it's shell.

Here is our first chicken, Ginger, proudly named by Taylin.

When I woke up from the first chicken, we found the second one in progress of hatching.

Here is chicken #2, Goldie, proudly named by Rayna. Rayna and Tobyn actually got to watch Goldie be hatched. I happened to be in the shower and Taylin was getting dress, but Rayna and Tobyn had decided to just plant themselves that morning and just watch the chickens.

All the kids were enthralled with the new baby chicks. It's really an amazing process. I think it just shows God's hand in creation. They start out as a simple egg, and when you look inside you see a tiny spec developing, and 21 days later you have this perfectly formed baby chicken! Out of our 10 eggs we had only 2 of them hatch. Not the greatest odds, but I've heard that is fairly common.

Here they are after they have dried out. We had plans to keep the chickens for a while and then give them back to our friend who has the farm, but it didn't turn out quite that way. We kept them for about a month, which apparently was too long. They both ended up dying with in two days of each other and we don't really know why. It was actually very sad, although I think I took it the hardest! One minute they were trying to escape there box, and the next they were gone.

Taylin actually snapped this photo two days before Goldie passed away. We miss you chickens! It was fun!

Family Visiting!

Part of Daniel's family came to visit us at the end of September. We had a great time with them and were bummed to see them go. It always seems to feel like there is never enough time. But the time they were here was fun! However, I did a horrible job of taking pictures! I'm pretty irritated at myself that I didn't do a better, especially when I think about getting pictures of the little boys together! Oh well, not much I can do now. One of our outings that I did manage to get pictures of was a scenic chair lift up to Snowbowl. It was quite the view. It was a little early for the fall colors, but still pretty amazing when you can see the Grand Canyon from there!

Rayna captured in a tender moment with Grandpa! She pooped out once we reached the top!

Jude wasn't much for the sights either, his mama's arms were much to comfortable.

We miss you!

Rayna's First Day of Preschool!

Rayna has started Preschool this year, and loves it! Here is some pictures of her first day. I find it amusing that she chose to wear the same dress her sister did on her first day of preschool even though she has a closet full of other things! She goes to the same Preschool as Taylin did, Peace Lutheran, and has the same teacher Taylin had. I think she remembered coming and dropping Taylin off, so it made it a very easy transition. She goes to school on Mondays and Fridays, and on Wednesdays she stays home with the rest of us to have Discovery Day with a few other homeschooling families.

Here she's a little anxious.

Feeling more confident.

"I can do this!" she says.

"Alright, go already. Your embarrassing me!"

I'm A Slacker!

So, I admit it, I'm totally a slacker! I haven't put anything on the blog for a long time, so here's my attempt to catch up! Be patient with me, but here goes!

Having a little fun together on the piano, after bath time!

Summer is Gone

Summer has come and gone and the school year is well under way. And I am so very behind in blogging! Oh, well, so is life! Before the year escapes me too much, I wanted to share some of our summer trips. At the end of July we went camping in the White Mountains. We had a good time. Some of our highlights were we camped in a motel our first night due to a severe rainstorm, Rayna caught her first fish (sorry, no picture:(), we were attacked by beetles one night, and we got to tent it out in a big thunderstorm on our last night so we sang songs and had uncooked smores that night!

Here's my silly Rayna

I can't remember what this lake is called, we stopped and checked out several lakes. This was a pretty one, and a lunch spot!

Tobyn loves the outdoors!

Camping always has better treats than at home!

The kids loved the tent, it was a fun new playhouse for them, including Tobyn.

We went to Montana to my family's cabin in the middle of August for about two weeks. It was awesome! A very relaxing time, which was just what I needed. We spent a lot of time outdoors, we went to Yellowstone for a couple of those days, Daniel fished, we picked lots of berries, and I actually read a few books! It was going home for me, and sharing some of that with my kids, since they really haven't been there except as babies.

This is along the Madison River. The kids and I picked wild raspberries while Daniel did some fly fishing.

This is a beautiful little lake called Wade lake. It is crystal clear water! It's remarkable when you get used to living with Arizona's brown lakes!

Rayna loved this lake as well. It was a chilly day, so we did not bring our swimsuits, but it was too tempting for Rayna to not get in. The funny thing is that a school bus full of kids came up as Rayna was in her choonies! Oh, well, she's only four!

This is in Yellowstone at Tower Falls.

Here is Old Faithful going off, although Tobyn is much more interested in his stroller.

This is Firehole Falls in Yellowstone.

Here are the girls on the boat out on our lake with Daddy. Daddy's always good to sneak in some yummy treats! Chase had a blast on vacation as well. It was doggy heaven. He had a huge forest to roam in, squirrels to chase, and a huge lake to swim in everyday. I think he lost ten pounds (although, know that we've been home, I think he's gained it all back!).

Hanging out at the cabin in our jammies!

I already miss it!

Soccer!

I'm learning what it's like to really be a soccer mom. Both girls are enjoying their soccer season, and I'm enjoying taxing them around and cheering them on. They are so different. Rayna has been fun to watch. She gets in the middle of all the commotion with the ball or she is the leader. Her last game she scored 5 goals! It's been enjoying to watch Taylin's team actually figuring out some of the strategy to the game verses just running back and forth. Right now she likes being goalie!

Tobyn's Finally Steppin OUT!

He's fourteen months today, and is just getting his courage up to walk. He's not completely there yet, but he's made a lot more progress the last couple of days. He still is probably crawling more than he's walking, but he is attempting a lot more to walk! He is definitely my late bloomer, yet he climbs on more things already than the girls to this day. I guess that's a boy for you, at least that's what people tell me!

Tobyn's favorite obstacle course is weaving in and out of these chairs.

Here he comes!

4th of July

Since we have had so many forest fires lately, there was no fireworks in Flagstaff. So, we headed down to the Phoenix heat and celebrated our Independence Day there with family and friends. I honestly did not do a good job taking pictures, but we did have a lot of fun. My sister BBQ'd, the kids played on the slip-n-slide, we had a game of water balloon volleyball, and then headed out for fireworks. The next day was a water filled day as well. We watched my newphews' diving practice (they can do some pretty amazing things) and then went to my brothers' to go swimming. It was definitely a time full of fun in the sun! So, here are the few pictures I took!