November

November started off busy with visits from both sets of Grandparents. We were so excited to see all of them. The weekend they came to visit was also the primary program. Zak read a scripture by himself and they both did good on their parts. Makelle was a little crazy because she had super curly hair and she had gotten to open some of her Birthday presents early. She had on a new dress and new shoes. She was all smiles and in her own world as she was sitting up front. They were fun to watch. During class time Makelle also pulled out her first tooth!




After church she got to open her presents from us and her brothers. She was pleased with the new table and tea set.



She is showing off her new stuff.



While Zak was at school on her birthday we had a tea party. Makelle made the entire meal and served us and shared her table. She made scrambled eggs, toast, sausage, and hashbrowns!



Showing off her new fancy coat.
Grandma Valynn helped to make Makelles castle cake. Makelle did the final decorating of it!

The day after her birthday I talked her into a fancy party instead of a friend party. We all dressed up fancy and John served her dinner. We had her favorite, tacos (super fancy). She got us all glasses and made us name tags. We had flowers, fancy cups, sparkling cider, fancy mints and all sorts of yummy treats. We had music playing in the background and ate by candlelight.

I think this Grandpa loves fancy parties!
Makelle in her "Fancy" clothes.
Zak didn't want in the fancy photo but here are the rest of the participants.

After dinner we all joined in dancing.

We had a fantastic time celebrating Makelle's birthday and having company for the weekend. The kids love when grandparents come because it means lots of goodies and quality time.

September and October quick update

Zak on his first day of school. Crazy that I have a first grader that is gone ALL day. He loves school, he loves his teacher and he loves playing with his friends. It has been a great year so far. He can read chapter books on his own and finally loves to read to himself and others. His favorite subject is math and he thinks it is easy. He still wants to be a biologist and he loves having a pet chinchilla in his class. It feels like he is seriously gone the whole day but he loves it so that is good.
We got leashes for our bunnies and the kids loved to PULL them around.

Random pictures of the kids posing.


Zak on his first field trip and first bus ride. I got to go with him and we rode the bus to the Falls of the Ohio and looked and learned about fossils.

We love fall because we get to have some free entertainment at Montgomery farms. We love going on tractor rides, feeding and petting the animals, swinging in the loft and picking out pumpkins.

Zak in his Peter Pan Halloween costume. The batteries died before I could get all of the kids pictures. Even though there isn't pictures to prove it the kids had a fantastic time trick or treating for the first time. We only went around the block but they got tons of goodies.

last week

I'm finally up to my last week of Indiana. My mom came to visit for my last week, and then we both flew back to Utah. I was happy to see my mom since it had been a couple of months, but I was also so sad because I knew that I had to leave when she left. I had such a great summer with my niece and nephews (and John and Ashley) and I am so lucky that I have had the summers off to spend with them.

While waiting for Grandma we played at the park. Her flight got delayed a few hours, so we had lots of time to get excited!
Since it was my mom's birthday when she arrived, we made her a minion cake (Despicable Me is her favorite). Makelle helped me make the cake, Zak helped John frost it, then Lantz stuck his fingers in it while we made the minions. Zak was responsible for the cutting of the cake a little later.

We took a trip to the zoo and saw the new baby giraffe and went to the sea lion show. It wasn't quite Sea World, but we still got a show (right Ash!?).
One of the mornings we played at the park. We were having a great time playing on the spider web, until Makelle and I were both climbing out and I stepped on her "favorite finger". She cried and cried and told me "you want to know the worst part? The part when you were stepping on my finger". I felt so bad, luckily she forgave me!
We had a very exciting trip to the Science Museum. We had been there for maybe 45 minutes when the fire alarm went off and we all had to evacuate in the middle of a huge rain storm. We were soaked through by the time we got to the car. Before we had to leave we were playing at the water station, and Zak turned the PVC pipe the wrong way a couple of times and looked like he had an accident. Luckily after going out in the rain the rest of his clothes were just as wet! We also had a sleepover movie party in the living room, made a family mural, and read tons of books.


At the park we found a fort that someone had built. I tried to get Zak to say he built it, but he told me that was dishonest because he didn't make the whole thing! They did make some improvements however, and Makelle swept all of the surrounding dirt so that it looked nice.

For our last day we played at home. We tried to fit everything in one last time. Zak and Makelle painted my nails, we played lego's, did tricks, played with play dough, colored and just spent the day together.

One day we watched Charlotte's Web and we all loved Templeton the rat. Lantz loved him so much that he made up a song for him!

Zak climbing a tree at the park. He is getting so tall and can do everything on his own!

No trip is complete without a game of Hopscotch, and Makelle is a pro!

Well that is the end of my summer in Indiana, so now I will finally turn the blog back over to Ashley. I had a wonderful summer and miss the family all terribly. Hopefully I will be able to get to Indiana again soon!

Virginia

I know it has been over a month since I left, but I still have things that I haven't posted that are awesome and need to be seen! A couple of weeks before I left, we took a trip to Virginia to see Ashley's dad and Joan. We had a great time. We went swimming, ate great food, went to the Little Debbie store, swam some more, ate some more, ate some more, and did some more swimming!

We had so much fun in Joan's pool. It was stallow enough at one end to play in, and deep enough at the other to practice our dives. Plus she has a million pool toys. We spent a lot of time "just sitting on our noodles minding our own business"!
When we weren't swimming, we were eating. sometimes we didn't even get up from the table between meals, we would eat lunch, snack and chat, and then eat dinner! There was also a never ending supply of Little Debbie snacks, and homemade salsa from John.

Here is a video compilation of Lantz singing. They were all so hilarious and adorable that I couldn't decide which one to put on the blog, so put them all. Enjoy!

Thanks for the great trip Richard and Joan! and thanks to John, Ash, and Kiddo's for taking their trip while I was there so I could join them!

more summer

Here are some more pictures of our summer. Most are just us at home, but they are my favorite part of visiting John's family. The pictures are pretty random, but mostly in order. Hopefully the descriptions aren't too confusing.

We had the chance to go to the Mullin's house and Zak and his cousins rode their horses in their pond. I am terrified of horses, but did pet one (mostly so it wouldn't get any closer to me). The horses were really good, and even let the kids jump off of them into the pond. Zak had a great time.
Playing at the Science Museum and in the water. John and Ashley were at Youth Conference when we went to the museum, so LaDonna took Ashley's pass and ID because they look a lot alike. The guy at the museum asked her to see her ID three times before telling her the pass was expired (I handed her the wrong one). Oh well, makes for a funny story.
For the activity for Family Home Evening one night, we played the flour game. The purpose of the game is to cut away at the packed flour without having the penny fall of of the top. If the penny falls off of the flour on your turn, you have to dig it out with your mouth. Naturally I was the first to make it fall (in my defense, it was my first time playing). We all took a turn digging out the penny, except for John, so Ashley decided to just put flour in his face. It didn't turn out so well for her, and Lantz was just disgusted!
We went to a new lake (well the lake isn't new, but it was my first time going), called Hardy Lake. It was beautiful and not too hot, and we had the beach pretty much to ourselves for a couple of hours.
We went to the Fair one night to look at the animals, and Zak and Makelle wore their cowboy boots. They looked too stinking cute! Lantz fell while playing by the window and smacked his eye on the window sill. He got a nice goose egg and a little black eye. Have I mentioned that he is a nut?!
There are always silly pictures in forts when I come for a visit. Some of these pictures truly terrify me, I went into the fort with my niece and nephews, and somehow got pictures of three little monsters!
One day while the older kids were watching a movie, Lantz and I built a "tall tall tower". He told me what face we should make in each picture. I love this kid!
For the 24th of July, my mom sent the girls Pioneer bonnets (and Makelle a matching apron). Makelle wore hers to church, and Ash and I wore ours to dinner at a friends house. Makelle looked adorable. Ashley and I looked a little ridiculous, but we had fun. John and Lantz love chips and salsa! Ashley and the kids reading a book on the computer. Ashley will be mad that I put that picture on, but I think it is funny! Before doing our nails one day, the kids had to organize all of Makelle's nail polish. I don't think we ever actually go to the painting part!
More fort fun. This was our most amazing fort, we could all lay down comfortably in it and we watched Madagascar 2 while we were in there.
Lantz eating yogurt is almost as messy as Zak eating yogurt. Makelle's church smile. She is super shy at church, and won't smile or talk to anyone one, so we came up with the church smile. She has no trouble showing that off to people! Zak, Makelle, and I went on a date to see Ramona and Beezus and out to lunch. Makelle accidentally bit her finger while eating her french fries, so Zak bit his so that she wouldn't feel bad. What a good big brother!