Pumpkin Walk

We went to the pumpkin walk last weekend. It was a fun little family outing, and the good news is that it was free. The whole concept of the pumpkin walk is to walk around and look at the neat little pumpkin displays that people have put together. Here is a picture of Tanner and Lexi in front of the Noah's Ark display. There was a lot of people there so I wasn't able to get a very good picture because people were waiting behind us, waiting for us to keep moving.

I didn't get a picture of it, but my favorite display was a hospital doctor scene. A pumpkin was having surgery and it's guts were hanging out. Another person was bent over with its pants down getting a shot in its little pumpkin bum. The kids talked about that the rest of the night, they thought that was pretty funny. Here are a few pictures of us strolling through the pumpkin walk.



After we were done seeing all the pumpkin displays the kids wanted to have their picture taken in these Disney character cut outs. Here are a few of those pictures.

Jeff makes a beautiful Cinderella, don't you think.

I don't know star wars at all so I have no idea who this is, but this was my favorite picture of Tanner.

Don't I make the perfect mermaid.

Nope I was wrong, Lexi definitely makes a perfect mermaid.

There's my little pooh bear. Isn't he the cutest little boy ever!!



Finally we got the kids away from all those things ( I don't really know what to call them) and went home. The kids and I had a great time at the pumpkin walk, and Jeff....well at least he came.

Trip to St. George

We went to St. George last weekend. It was UEA weekend so Jeff was out of school, and we had planned to go there with the Barlow family, and stay in the condo. We just recently bought a rhino so I was really looking forward to go down there and ride in the nice weather.

The kids loved playing in the pool, and going on rhino rides. Right by the condo was a bunch of trails. So on Friday we rode those trails and played at the pool. On Saturday we went to Sand Hollow sand dunes. This was a blast! The kids loved playing in the sand, climbing on the rocks, and looking for lizards. Jeff had a lot of fun playing around on the rocks with the rhino.

Tanner said his favorite part of the trip was playing on the rocks.

Lexi has got a mind of her own. She wanted to be in the rhino and then she didn't. She wanted to ride with grandma on the 4-wheeler, and then she would want to be in the rhino. She ended up having a lot of fun though. She said her favorite part of the trip was swimming in the pool.

I love this picture of Jeff and Lexi.

Nixon loved being outside. He never made a peep while he was in the rhino. I can't say that though for the first night we stayed in the condo. We ended up getting to St. George late Thursday night around 11:30 P.M. and Nixon had been asleep in the car for about 3 hours. So when he got woken up he wasn't tired or ready to back to bed. To make it even harder to get him to go to sleep I didn't have any milk to give him (he normally still goes to sleep with a bottle of milk). Anyway, he didn't go to sleep until 1: 30 a.m. Yea, that was fun. Oh well that happens when you go vacations with kids. On Sunday we drove home. I wish we would of had a few more days to stay and play. I would of loved to go to the sand dunes another day, and had more time to play in the pool. The ride home was okay. We dropped the rhino off in SLC to its new owner. Yep that's right its new owner. A few days before we left for St. George Jeff listed it on the KSL classifieds at like 10:00 at night, and 20 minutes later. We got an offer. We thought it would take a while before it would sell. I was sad because I was so excited to go riding down in St. George. So Jeff just told the guys who were buying it that we had a trip planned with it, and he was cool with us just dropping it off on our way home. The rhino was really fun to have. I'm sad to see it go, but maybe we'll get another one someday.

Nixon turns 1

Nixon had his first birthday back on Sept. 28th. So for his birthday we had grandma and grandpa Low, and grandma and grandpa Barlow over for dinner. Then of course we had cake and ice cream. Then it was present time!

Unfortunately Nixon wasn't a very happy boy on his birthday. He wasn't interested in his presents at all. So Tanner and Lexi pretty much opened his presents, and then played with them too. I got Nixon this little lawn mower that played music and did a few other things. I thought that it was so cute, and it would be a good toy that he could push around and help him learn to walk. However, there was these little balls that would pop around when it was being pushed. That popping noise was so loud and annoying. You couldn't even hear the music that it would play. So I ended up taking it back to the store. And I'm a terrible mom I haven't replaced his present with another one yet. I'll probably use the money to get him something he will need like pants or something really fun like that.

Nixon is my sweet little buddy. He isn't walking yet or even very interested in walking yet. He walks around the couches, but when I try to walk with him he lifts up his feet or just tries to go down to his knees. I'm not to worried about it though. I know he'll walk when he wants to. Nixon doesn't say to much either. I'll hear him say an occasional mama when he is whining. And a few times I've heard him say hello with a phone up to his ear, but that's about it. Here are a few pictures I took of him one day since I didn't get very many pictures of him on his birthday.

Jeff's new Toy

Jeff finally got him a rhino. He has been wanting one for a while now, and he found one that was a pretty good deal so we bought it. I have to admit I wanted one just as bad too. I think our family will have a lot of fun going on rides,and getting up in the mountains. The day after we bought it we went on a ride with my parents, Chad and some of his kids, and Brandon with his two kids. We started at Willow Flat, and went over to Bear Lake. The ride was awesome. The kids loved it! The trees were so beautiful. The quaking aspens were a bright yellow and some were bright orange. And the weather was perfect.

The kids fit in the backseat pretty good. We put in Nixon in his infant car seat and strapped it in. The other two kids were just a little bit squished with the car seat strapped in though. In the spring time I think Nixon will be a little more sturdy and he will just use the seat belt, and then I think all three kids will fit comfortably in the back seat.

When we got over to Bear Lake we had sandwiches and this little dump, but the sandwiches were super good. We ate outside on some picnic tables, and there was this tree that the kids had a ball climbing in it.





The ride home was great. Nixon slept almost the whole ride back. The kids loved switching rides, they would ride with grandma, grandpa, with us in the rhino, and also with Chad in his prowler. There was one bad thing that happened though. As we were driving Jeff started swapping at his leg, and then he started cursing. A bee had got up in his pants and stung him on his leg. It was a really fun day on our new toy!

Tanner's Birthday

Tanner turned four on Sept. 3rd. That evening we gave him his present from Jeff and I, and let him choose were he wanted to go to for dinner. To know one's surprise we ended up eating at McDonald's.

Tanner's gift from us was this race car track. I think it's called Crash and Go race cars. You shake the cars and then put them down on the track. If the cars collide they make a crashing noise and the hood and doors open up. Anyway, his present from us, and going to McDonald's was basically it for the day. But, the next day he was having a pirate birthday party, and he was pretty excited for that.

THE PARTY

We invited the neighbor kids, Tanner's cousins that were around his age, and his grandma's and grandpa's to the birthday party. I have to say that the party was a hit or should I say a swashbuckling good time matey.

First as the kids arrived they got eye patches, pirate tattoo's, and a pirate mustache if they wanted to. Then it was time for the games.
We had made a bunch of swords out of balloons, and so the kids played around with those for a while. Then the kids played pirate pirate captain which was the pirate version of duck duck goose. After this game we opened presents because Tanner insisted that is what we needed to do next. Then we played walk the plank. The kids really enjoyed this game. However I think I was running the video camera at the time, and only got one picture of Marissa doing a cartwheel on it.
After the kids played on this for a while it was time to eat. We grilled up some hot dogs, and I made some little sails that I sticked into the hot dog to make it be a boat, and then we put some goldfish crackers around on their plate.
After eating it was time for cake and ice cream. I had found this really cute pirate ship cake online, and thought it looked pretty easy to make. Let me say this, it looked really cute for a minute or so.

Pretty awesome cake right. Well this is what the back of the cake looked like.

And then 15 minutes later.







This cake was beyond repair. Oh well, I just said that the pirate shipped was attacked. Anyway it all taste the same. After cake and ice cream it was time for the treasure hunt. I had set up a scavenger hunt for the kids, and then at the end each kid got a little bag of goodies. It was a really fun party and all the kids had a great time, especially the birthday boy.

Tanner's first day of preschool

Tanner started preschool on Sept. 2nd. He was so excited he woke up and wanted to eat, take a bath, and get ready for school. Any other day he's not that fast to eat breakfast and get ready. He was ready for school about 45 minutes before we needed to leave to get him to school at 9:00 A.M. As you can see he was was pretty excited. As he was getting ready for school of course Lexi thought she was getting ready for school too. I took some pictures of him before we left, and of course I had to get some of Lexi too.

This is the perfect picture of Lexi. This picture describes her personality to a Tee. Most people wouldn't guess that because she is so shy around people, but at home this girl can be the sweetest little thing ever, and then the next minute she can have attitude like no other.

Tanner's birthday was the next day, so at school he got this hat and a little bag of goodies. When I picked him up their was two other kids with the birthday hat on also. He wore this hat all day, and he really enjoyed his first day of preschool.

Wrapping up the Summer

It's been a crazy month, and I haven't had time to write, and post any pictures of some of the things we have done before summer would come to an end. All to soon summer flies by, and then Jeff starts teaching again, and this year Tanner will go to preschool two days a week. It's not much, but it will be a good little break. Not necessarily for me (because I still have Tanner and Lexi), but for Tanner. So I'm going to sum up a few fun things we did in July and August. In the end of July Jeff and I took the kids to Downata Hot Springs up in Idaho. It was kind of a cool day for July. The sky was over casted,and it looked like it might rain. It was nice though because we weren't so hot, and there was hardly anyone there. At Downata there is a big pool with several different small slides that go into it. There is this little kiddie park which is awesome for our kids. In this picture Lexi and Nixon had a lot of fun playing around in there.








Then there is the big slide. Tanner had so much fun there at Downata this year because he loved the slides. He went on every slide, but he loved the big one the best. He was so proud because he could do it all by himself. Well, you have to do them by yourself because they won't let you go down the slides with an adult. However, he didn't need any help when he came out of the big slide though. Last year he went down it one time, and got flipped over on the first turn and I could see him coming out of the slide on his back head first. Jeff took Lexi up to go down the slide because she was winning, and said she wanted to go, knowing she would not like it, I let her go so she would stop winning. Sure enough she was flipped over on the first turn, and I saw her come out of the slide on her back and head first. Jeff was not far behind her and helped her out of the pool. She was not crying, but the look on her face was one of fright. Sure enough she did not want to go again. A few days later she said the slide was really fun. Go figure.

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A few weeks later in August we went to Bear Lake with the Barlow family and stayed in the condo. The first night we went to a park over in Bear Lake and had dinner, and let the kids play.
My mom had a parachute that the kids had a lot of fun playing games with it. They especially like the shark game. To play the shark game you sit around the parachute with your legs under the parachute. Someone is the shark under the parachute, and they go around and pull you under the parachute, and then you become a shark too and help pull the others under.
After the fun games the kids went on a treasure hunt. When they found the treasure all the kids got to pick a prize. Nixon got a toy tractor, Lexi got some play dough, and Tanner got a gun that would blow bubbles.

The next day we went to the beach. The kids had fun playing in the sand. They sculpted a mermaid in the sand and had fun burying the kids in the sand. Tanner wanted to be a banana in the sand, as you can see from the picture. So the kids played in the sand, but nobody played in the water. It was fairly cold on the beach. It was really windy and not very warm. I remember wishing that I had a jacket. We played around for 2 or 3 hours, and then went back to the condo and swam in the pool.




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One day we went out to my parents house, and my dad took the kids out to the ditch over in Cornish to catch frogs. Well they came back with a lot of frogs. When it was time to go Tanner was so sad and he wanted to take some frogs home. We took around 5 frogs home in an ice cream bucket with the lid on. When we got home we put some water in a 5 gallon bucket and put the frogs in it, and put a towel over the top of it for the night. The next morning Tanner went outside to see the frogs. He took the towel off and then came in to get us so we could go see them too. It was probably about 5 minutes before we made it out, but the frogs were all gone. Tanner was so sad. Later I was watering the lawn, I was walking and one jumped right in front of me. I'm glad none of my neighbors we out because it completely shocked me and I screamed. The kids were so happy, and they had to show all the neighbors. That frog was dead by the next day. It was probably 2 or 3 days later we were in the yard talking to one of our neighbors and I looked down and I saw a frog. It probably wasn't even a minute later and Jeff found a frog too. Lexi absolutely loved the frogs. I couldn't keep her away from them. She was a little rough with them though. A few times I had to save the frog from her tight grip around the frog. She asked me if I would take some pictures of her with the frog and we got a few silly pictures

We had these two frogs around for a few days and then Jeff And I let them go.