Fall

Its officially fall.  My favorite time of year!

New Bike

With all of the bike riding going on in our house we are going through bikes like crazy.  Ethan has been due for a new bike for a while, so after destroying his bike tires the other day we decided it was time for a new one.

This week we took Ethan to the bike store and got him a new bike.  Here he is anxiously waiting while his bike is getting checked out.

He is so excited.  He rides before and after school, shows everyone who comes by the house, and says over and over how much he loves his new bike.  Last night he kept going back out in the garage reporting that he just needed to look at his bike one more time.

Secret Fort

I pick up the kids at 3:20pm everyday after school.  They usually stay for a few minutes to play with friends, but then head home shortly.

We walk across the street and in the front door.  Backpacks and shoes are immediately kicked off and thrown all over the floor.  It's homework time.  Liv usually has some reading and coloring.  Cole has reading, spelling, and a math page, while Ethan has the most.  Usually reading, math, spelling, social studies, etc.  The kids also have a daily job they have to do.

But, once this is done they race for the back door.
Ethan yells, "meet at the secret fort."  They all hop on their bikes and take off.
Every day they take a different route, but always meet at the same spot.

It makes my heart warm every time I see all three of them riding off together for their "secret fort".  It's not so secret.  Shawn and I know where it is.  They come home an hour or so later covered in mud with dripping wet shoes.  They smell of outside, dirt and sweat.  They are smiling.  They are happy.

I love this time of day.  It happens every day after school.  It first started because I told them they couldn't play their PS games until they played outside for at least an hour.  They didn't love it at first, but now it is their waiting for them every day after school and they can hardly wait.

They ride hard and play hard (and dirty).  Ethan came home this past week with a shredded tire.  They ride down big hills covered in mud which they often crash down.  They have all told me stories of being picked up off the ground by complete strangers who witness their crash.  But, they get up and do it again.

I love the mud on their clothes.  It means they play hard.
I love the soaking wet shoes.  It means they are having fun.
I love the smiles they come home with.  It means they are happy!

No Manners

The other night we had a "No Manners" dinner.  Cole often has a difficult time during meal times.  He chews with his mouth open, slops food down his clothes, burps, etc.  So, we have been working extra hard to have better table manners and I promised Cole that if he worked hard we would have one dinner where no one had to use any manners.  He really got excited when I told him burping and slurping were aloud.

I wanted to have messy foods on the menu for the dinner so I chose ribs and wings, couscous, fruits and vegetables, and chocolate pie for dessert with cherry limeades to drink.  Utensils were optional.  Two out of my three children opted for plates, only one for utensils.  Ethan is kind of a manner snob and refused to eat his food straight from the table.  In fact when I dumped the ribs straight on the table he got up and stomped away stating that he "would not eat that!"  So dramatic.  Anyway, he came back because he likes ribs and wings and did eat, but with manners :)  We squirted ranch all over the table to dip our veggies in and just used our hands to get what we wanted.

When we got to dessert I changed the table cloth because the last was very dirty and we had a pie eating contest.  Surprisingly Cole didn't want anything to do with this.  Liv won, hands down.  The girl dug right in, even beating out Shawn.

tennis and gymnastics

This past week has been the beginning of all the fall classes and activities.  We are slowly adjusting to our new schedule of running kids around.  Ethan and Cole are taking tennis lessons right now.  They have been begging for tennis lessons ever since this summer when we played tennis behind my mom's house in Utah.  Ethan loves to hit the ball as hard as he can, and actually has a pretty good hit.  Cole seems to have a natural instinct, but is still working on maneuvering the racquet to do what he wants it to.  They are both having a great time.  They are in a class of 8 boys.
These boys are pretty wild and have lots of fun.

Liv started gymnastics this week.  She was really nervous about starting something new, but she has been wanting to try gymnastics for a while.

Shawn and I are still working on getting better.  We are taking lots of these.

The other day we were both at the doctor's office and we had to wear these masks.  It was funny, so we had to take a picture :)

lately...

Since returning from our trip last weekend we have been busy sharing a cold.  It all started with Cole, then Shawn and I got it about the same time, followed by Ethan.  Liv has yet to catch the cold, cross our fingers she never will.  We have been feeling pretty crappy.  I even resorted to bringing my own tissue box to work the other day because my nose was so sore from using their cheap tissues.  We've stocked up on Nyquil to help us sleep, and I'm hoping we are finally almost all on the mend.  Friday night while Shawn was busy sleeping off his nasty cold the kids and I went for a late night hot tub soak....with glow sticks.  Easy entertainment :)

Leavin' on a jet plane

We took another quick plane ride this weekend.  We flew back to Utah for Shawn's brother's wedding. We left Thursday morning and spent most of the day traveling and waiting in airports....lame.  The boys spent time playing games, while Liv and I did this.

Upon arriving in Utah we did our best to keep the kids under control but they pretty much went crazy with all the cousins.  By midnight they were still going strong and didn't actually fall asleep for a few hours after that, and then were up bright and early at 0600.

Friday was the Wedding.  It was in Salt Lake at the temple.  It was beautiful and so fun to be together as a family again.  The kids had fun playing around the temple grounds while waiting for the bride and groom.

 Finally they came!!

Shawn and all his siblings and parents.

My Family

Later that night we helped set up for the reception.

Here is a quick pic I took of Shawn during his speaking part.

 It was an adults only party....no kids!  It was nice for a change to relax and socialize.

Saturday we started by going out to breakfast.  We had scones as big as our heads and twice as delicious.  Then we took the kids to a bike store to test out some bikes.

Following this we had a swim party and BBQ.

That evening we took the kids up driving in the mountains.  Shawn and I used to do this a lot when we dated.  Despite the fact that we didn't have a jeep like Shawn used to drive, our GMC Acadia worked perfectly fine climbing some hills.  The kids however were scared.  They screamed the whole way in the back seat telling Shawn to slow down.  It was funny.  We watched a beautiful sunset and then went home.

Then we got up early Sunday morning and flew home.   My kids are sad, they miss their cousins already!  It looks like we will have to plan another trip home soon.