Winter is here again!!

So the forecast this week was to be colder and have some snow and rain, on Sunday night it started to really get cold an I wondered if it might snow during the night but I figured if it did it would just be a little bit, however this is what we woke up to!!! At least 4-5 inches of snow!! The boys were beyond excited and quickly got dressed to have some snow play time before school however the trees as you can see in the background weren't quite ready for it, since they still have leaves on them. Some of the snow has melted since then but not a lot it keeps, sleeting and hailing and today's high is around 30 I think. So needless to say unless things change soon it might be one cold Halloween for trick or treating, oh well this the season and we are excited about the weather change for now, at least until February and then I will wish we lived in AZ again.

Don't hate me becuase I'm beautiful

Sophie found a pair of my cheap sunglasses and decided to try them on Saturday while Shay was mowing the lawn. She looked too cute and she knew it she enjoyed posing for the camera and then Zach decided he wanted in on the action too. I love my kiddos.

Random September Photos

Steel on his Dad and Son night out, his reward from working hard for 2 months to fill up his chore/good things  jar. We started this hope it works. They did a great job trying to earn marbles for chores and doing school stuff and just being good, when bad, marbles were taken away. I'm hoping they will be just as motivated to fill up the jar again this month.

Steel wanted to go out to Chinese food but the restaurant was closed that day so he opted for Mexican and then they went bowling. So jealous I am hoping that next time they will want to go on a Mom and Son night out.

Sophie is practicing her monkey skills , maybe I don't feed her enough

The kids and I enjoying a nice Sunday walk at Dusk it was fun, the weather was great and the sunset was beautiful

So September is over already I can't believe it. Despite having a cold first week of school, the weather turned out to be very pleasant and warm the rest of the month. I am so happy too because I was not ready for the cold yet. But since it is October and Fall is in full swing I guess I am okay with the fact that starting next week it will be getting cold.  We have had lots of fun this month with school stuff and enjoying nice walks and play time at the park. Only bummer I got very sick with Giardia but hopefully I am over that and can hopefully never get that again, if only I knew where I got it but thank goodness for modern medicine. Now on to October and all the fun holidays that await us I do love Fall!!! 

Birthday Girl

Yesterday was Sophies' Birthday. I can't believe she is 2 already. The last 2 years have flown by. We are sure happy she is in our lives it has been so fun to have a little girl and to have her be as girly as she is, is even better, after having a couple boys. She is defiantly in the terrible 2's though but she is so cute I can't get too mad at her for all the trouble she gets in. She loves to sing, color, I am not sure if she knows how to walk.. she just runs!! She climbs up on everything, thought girls were supposed to be more tame, she loves treats, she is learning to go potty, and she wants to be wherever her 2 older brothers are. We love her.  We had a fun day celebrating her big day and by the end of it I think she stopped singing happy birthday to Mom but happy birthday to me!! I made her a cat cake since she loves animals and decorations were of course pink!! Her favorite gift was her new baby doll that came with a bottle,bear and change of clothes she couldn't be happier now she sleeps with all 4 of her babies each night.

A look back at her official Birthday 

Turning 1 

Saying yes it is my birthday!!

Proud of my cat cake, just don't look to close

Super excited about her baby

Such a good little mommy, making sure her baby is not hungry

Such a girl, multi-tasking already.. she is pretending to go to the store with her baby in her little car but all the while feeding the baby at the same time, it was a fun birthday!!

Back to School

School started yesterday for Zach and today for Steel. Steel is in Preschool twice a week in the afternoon I am looking forward to some time for just me, after this week, Zach is home every afternoon due to testing in school. Yesterday our summer felt officially over not just because of school but the horrible weather. It was 40 degrees and rainy when I dropped Zach off at school, all the kids were freezing waiting to go in to class. Today was nicer but it feels like fall it is about 60 degrees with a cool breeze but the sun is nice. I suppose the cooler weather is good since it makes it truly feel like fall and time for school. I can't believe how big my 2 boys are getting it makes me a little sad but I am happy for the experiences that await them.

Goodbye Summer

Zach starts school on Monday and Steel starts preschool on Tuesday. I am so sad and yet happy at the same time. I thought I would put some of our fun summer pix's that I haven't posted. We have had a great summer we have been super busy and have traveled lots to see family and do other stuff,  but it has been fun and I am glad that we were able to take advantage of everything around us this summer, to make it one of our busiest and most memorable summers.

Zach and Steel with cousin Josh, best buds!!

Fun with Grandma and cousins

Swimming fun with cousin Jackson at his community pool 

Sophie relaxing soaking up the sun

 Sophie being cute as always eating her yummy breakfast

Dinosaur Park kinda scary

All our friends that went to the park with us

Riding train at roundhouse festival

Steel with Smokey the Bear, the only one brave enough to take a picture with him

At library end of summer party

Yellowstone trip

This weekend we met Shay up north to hang out and go to Yellowstone for a day trip. We picked the perfect weekend to meet him because he was able to get off early on Thursday and had Friday off yeah!!! On Thursday night we took the kids to tour a dairy farm, Shay is working with the owners on a project right now. The kids enjoyed seeing all the cows and riding in a tractor. It was actually very interesting for me too since I have never been to a dairy farm before. Everything is actually quite high tech, more than I was expecting anyway. On Friday we left early and drove up to Jackson, Shay had to drop off something at another firm, then we headed up to Yellowstone. It was a beautiful drive through the Tetons however it was busy holiday weekend so lots of cars and RVs made the trip slower than we were hoping. Needless to say our idea of driving around one of the main loops quickly became lets just go to Old Faithful walk around and head back. The kids are still pretty young to appreciate much and can only handle so much time in the car before the trip is not any fun. So after driving for about 2+ hours from Jackson, we had to make a couple of stops, we made it to Old Faithful. I think the rest of the world had the same idea as us, wow lots of people. But lucky for us we made it at the perfect time we only had to wait about 15 minutes to see the eruption, it erupts about every hour and half. so we felt lucky. After we saw the amazing site and were heading out on our walk around the other geysers I ran into my old college roommate, Lindsay!! It was wild of all places to run into someone and having so many people there it is amazing that our paths crossed. She was there with her family we chatted for a few minutes and then went on our way. The kids enjoyed the walk and it was amazing to see such colors and hot spots not to mention the intense sulfur smell. After walking around we decided to head on back. Luckily the kids fell asleep for part of the way. We stopped in Jackson for dinner and made it back to Star Valley around 7pm. It was a long day but fun. We decided that Yellowstone is not a day trip at least not from the south entrance. I think one should allow at least 3 days there and spend the night somewhere in the middle of the park because all the attractions take a few hours of driving to get to. But I am glad we went anyway and saw it now I can check that off my list of things I have seen. Saturday we took the kids fishing a couple of times, Zach caught one, and went swimming, Shay ran into an old mission companion at the pool, small world,  it was a fun trip. The only bummer we all got the sniffles, major allergies!! So we headed home to get some R&;R before we start this weeks adventure.

 feeding the baby cows

Pretending to drive one of the tractors

Boys riding in the tractor

Steel driving the tractor

View from the window of the Tetons

Waiting for Old Faithful to Erupt

Old Faithful 

Fishing