Did you know.....

...if you eat one M&M you have to run the length of one football field to burn it off.

Caden shared this information with us at dinner ( rarely will he tell me what he learned at school, but this, he must have found fascinating). After hearing this I decided we better take a long walk after dinner.

Hannah thought it would be a good idea to take bags along and turn our walk into a treasure hunt. How could I say no.

Sarah wanted to look like a "real mom", so she had to take a stroller.

Hannah just likes to copy.

Caden insisted we stop at construction sites....there are always lots of TREASURES there!

Hannah kept leaving her stroller at every stop.

Luckily Caden was willing to rescue it for her.

Sometimes I could get everyone walking at once.

but treasures were reasons for frequent stops.

Caden tries to catch bugs to put in his treasure bag.

Another stop to capture the beautiful sun set.


I think we walked the length of a football field.....in an HOUR.... Caden never mentioned anything about time.

Snack or Art?

Hannah is definitely our messiest. I don't know why she can't just eat her food. In fact. She has an assigned seat at the dinner table (luckily her choice) that way we keep the mess contained. However, I couldn't help but love this little snack time creation, as it did come with a cute little happy birthday song. How can you get mad about that?

What have I been up to?

Canning, CANNING, CaNniNg!!!!

Canning went so much faster with the help of my assistants. Their job was to peel the peaches. They really did make it go by so FAST! They were speedy little peelers. You can definitely tell which jars I did on my own and which ones were done by my little helpers.

I am finally done with the bulk of my canning. I got peaches done, tomatoes, and my favorite from this year, SALSA!! I still have a lot of tomatoes to put up, but I have been freezing them and I will can them when we get back from our trip.

Mixed Feelings!!!!

Today I had one of those moments as a mom where I just didn't know how to react (I'm not going to lie, I have those often). Up until this week I have been Caden's teacher at church. I was just asked to work with the Scouts as a den leader, meaning that I am no longer going to be Caden's teacher. It somehow came up in a conversation today and Caden had a complete melt down. Caden rarely ever cries, but this news resulted in 20+ minutes of huge sobs and many tears. Caden kept saying over and over, "you should have said no....I want YOU to teach me.....don't you want to teach me....I want you to always be my teacher...."

I must say I felt quite SURPRISED that he even noticed I was in his class,

I feel OBLIGATED to this new commitment,

I was very SAD for him that he felt like I took another calling instead of teaching him,

But I also felt quite HONORED that the time spent together is that important to him.

SO with all these sudden emotions running so high, and not knowing what the heck to do, I just did what I know best. We sat on the couch and read books for about an hour. We will see what Sunday brings when it gets here.

Another Summer Flashback

Here are some pictures of a really fun FHE night we had over the summer. We went up above Lucky Peak with several other families for a picnic/four wheeling. (inspiration to our recent purchase of 4 wheelers)

Sarah loves to hold baby Sienna

Sydney tries to give Sienna a grass hopper

Caden and Sarah

Cute girls gather up all the random items out of the back of our car and have a "yard sale."

Hannah and Keoni enjoy the food

Beautiful view of Boise!

Beautiful Evening Bike Ride

Now that school is in session, we have to take advantage of any free time we have to go play. We went on a bike ride with friends on our favorite trail in Eagle.

The girls had so much fun riding together in the trailer.

A slide full of kids! I just thought this picture was so fun. Karin Always has such creative picture ideas.

My little Gymnast

Sarah recently learned how to cross the monkey bars! We went to the park today and not only did she cross them with great speed, she also SKIPPED a bar. She was so excited!!!

Week of firsts!

We survived Caden's first week of school last week, but only because he got Fri. and Monday off. Now we celebrated firsts for the girls. Sarah started her first day of school at Mrs. Wolfs. She was so excited because that is where Caden went and her really good friends from the neighborhood are going there too. I addition to this preschool, she also started the little preschool co op we have in the neighborhood again.

What a goof!

Hannah's first day at "baby school"

A few Moms in the neighborhood decided to do a little toddler co op once a week the same day Sarah does her preschool co op, so the girls get to have fun with friends and mommy gets to

have alone time. What ever will I do?!?!

I know I am so super cheesy, but this day was just so precious to me that I had to put little vignettes around the picture to capture the special moment. If you know Hannah, you know that she is my super feisty, strong willed, determined, yet cuddliest cuddle bug around. That girl has got a strong personality!

I was hesitant to join this toddler co op in fear that if I tried to leave Hannah would just throw a fit making the whole effort pointless, and even if she did stay, I was worried she might bully the other girls. Well.......

Hannah surprised me by talking about her school all week long. Every morning when I took Caden to school she would say, "am I going to baby school now?"

Yesterday she said, "Hurry mommy, I don't want to be late for baby school. Hurry before the bell rings."

This morning she wore her back pack from the minute she woke up til we took her to school. When we got their she seemed a bit apprehensive, but she put on a big smile and waved as we drove off.

She talked about school the rest of the day. She told us that she got to draw, have pretzels, and

look for treasures. My little girl is getting so big!!!

Summer flash back

You know we are facing hard economic times when........

Not even a face as cute as this one can sell a cup of lemonade.

Caden and Zach decided that they wanted to have a lemonade stand. Our subdivision was having a neighborhood yard sale so we thought it would be the perfect time. Although many people drove by (even people we knew), their efforts were in vain.

We moved our stuff to the Healy's down the street because we thought it got better traffic. Thanks for the rented space!!! (They got their payment in cookies and lemonade)

In the end, they ended up splitting about six to eight dollars amongst the group (over half of which was given by their sympathetic mom' and dad), which they promptly spent on treasures at the Healy's yard sale. (Caden bought a candle just in case the lights ever go out. Ever prepared, just like his dad)

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So proud!!!!

Caden was working on his homework today which included memorizing (or "rememberizing", as he says it) a poem, and practicing his spelling words for the week. I gave him a practice spelling test which SArah also wanted to take. She got 9 out of 10 correct! She was so proud of herself, as was Caden. He kept telling her what a good job she did and even taught her the poem, which she has memorized. Sarah starts her first day of preschool tomorrow, but she has completed all of Caden's first grade homework tonight! What a little smartie.

1 week down, 39 left to go!!!

My Boy's a First grader!!

Despite all the complaining Caden did as the day to start school got closer, he was actually excited about the big day. The night before he told me that he wished he was Justin from Wizards of Waverly Place (tv show) so that he could do a spell to forward time and make it the first day of school. He had gone to Meet and Greet at the school earlier that week to meet his teacher and that made all the difference. Her class looked exciting, and she told Caden that she was a big Patriots football fan (Caden's flag football team) and she couldn't wait to hear how his team was doing. When we left her class he told me that he couldn't wait to start school and be in her class.

When the big day arrived, Caden was up bright and early ( not a usual habit for him). He walked to school so proudly with all his new supplies in his HEAVY back pack.

After the SUPER LONG day, and two little girls anxious for their brother's arrival, we went to get Caden. What did he have to report? The day was SOOOO Long that he couldn't even remember what his friend was wearing in the morning.

We sure have missed having Caden home during the day, especially Hannah. Once Caden gets home, Hannah does not let him out of her sight.

Only 15 more weeks and we get him home for Christmas break-wooohoooo!!!!

I am so glad that we had such a wonderful summer together.

P.S. That is why I have not kept up on my blog, I was way too busy having way too much fun!

Friends from his new first grade class