reese loves to color

lately reese has really fallen in love with coloring.  she wants to color pretty much every single day.  she'll tell me,

     "i sit in the green chair.  you sit in the yellow chair.  now color."  and even sometimes, she'll quiz    me on the colors of each crayon. 

 

i asked reese to make some silly faces.  this is what a got.  we sure love this sweet girl.

 

katelyn's first piano recital

katelyn started piano lessons at the beginning of the school and has done so great!  she absolutely loves her piano teacher and loves playing the piano (although sometimes getting her to practice can be hard when everyone else is playing). 

 

katelyn worked really hard to get ready for her recital.  she had three songs to play, which she memorized quickly.  the night of her recital went smoothly.  she stood up and said her name then sat down and played each song perfectly.  she did such a great job.

 

blocks

tanner and reese have loved playing with blocks lately.  after we send katelyn off to school and get them dressed, tanner and reese will ask for the blocks.

tanner was putting all of these letter blocks together in line then asked me to read the word he spelled.  i told him it didn't spell a word, but he insisted i read it, so i did the best i could.  obviously it didn't make sense when i read it, so he said, oh it must be in spanish.

caleb leaves for florida

caleb was called to serve in the tampa florida mission where he will serve the Lord for two years teaching the gospel.  he left a little before thanksgiving.  most of us were able to get together that morning at a restaurant to eat breakfast with caleb one last time.  you could tell caleb was nervous all that morning we were together.

 

before caleb was dropped off at the mtc, we stopped at the big field in front of the provo temple to grab some pictures with him.  it seemed everyone else had that same idea too.  there was quite a bit of missionaries!

 

my lovely camera is broken, so everyone once and a while the picture you are taking will randomly go dark.  it's fantastic.  that happened with our family picture with uncle caleb, but it's the only one we've got of all of us, so it will do!

you can only bring one car to drop off your missionary, so we said our goodbyes to caleb, then waited inside the creamery for everyone minus caleb to come back.  our kids didn't mind one bit.

 

we'll miss caleb during these two years, but are incredibly proud of him for making such a great decision to serve the Lord.

sleeping

reese loves to pretend to sleep.  she lays down on the couch, asks for covers and pretends to snore.

here's the real-deal.  cuddled up in her crib with her blankie, binky and her assortment of stuffed animals and dolls

all dressed up

miss brynn always looks so cute in her sunday best. she's our little sweetheart who has started following us around the room with her head and eyes.

ward trunk-or-treat

this year our ward decided to have a trunk-or-treat.  our kids were so excited to go.  we ended up being a little late due to a potty accident from our son, but we made it just in time before it got too dark and everyone packed up.

 

the kids didn't want to look. they were too busy checking out their next candy station.

 

miss brynn stayed in her car seat where it was nice and warm.

 

and yes, even i was there.

playmat

i love that brynn can now focus on toys above her because she can now use her playmat!  what a helpful little toy when i want to shower.

reading

katelyn is such a great big sister.  i was cleaning up after dinner and came upstairs to find katelyn reading to tanner and reese. 

 

i think because i normally shoot in manual, reese does not know how to handle the flash when i use it.  i most pictures where i use the flash, she looks like this.

halloween night

this year for Halloween, katelyn was cinderella, tanner was iron man and reese was the cutest mouse you've ever seen.

i let all of the kids pose on their own.

 

who knows what tanner is doing, but what a crazy kid.  he cracks us up

 

we had a great night and the kids got loads of candy!

our traditional halloween dinner

for our Halloween dinner this year we decided to spice things up by letting the kids wear some dinky dress-ups from the dollar store.  the kids loved it.

we ate our traditional taco soup, orange punch, witch finger breadsticks and spider web dip.

day light savings

tanner has had a really hard time adjusting to day light savings.  he crashes every afternoon because he just can't make any longer.  hopefully his little body figures it out soon!

zoo day with cousins

my sister, erin, invited us to join her and her kids at the zoo.  we jumped at the chance to go.  i just love taking my kids to the zoo, and the warm weather wasn't going to last too much longer.

group shot on the rhino.

reese started to get tired so we stuck her in erin's stroller to see if she'd go to sleep.

 



cute elle-belly

 

my awesome sister with her new baby, charlotte.  i think charlotte was 3 months old?

this was my first big outing with brynn.  she was one month old at the time, so i was a little nervous taking all three of my little kids out for the first time.  mainly because brynn was a crier.  she hated her car seat and had never been put in the bjorn.  but surprisingly, she did great and even slept pretty much the whole time.

the zoo trip was so great until the very end.  my kids were so tired and hungry, so i decided to leave.  reese was so tired she had a hard time staying in the stroller, tanner wanted to ride in the stroller but their wasn't room for him and brynn was mad i put her in the car seat.  so i had two screaming kids and one that i was dragging up a big hill to the car.  i was never so happy to get inside my car.  but thankfully, all three kids promptly fell asleep.

crazy hair day

Katelyn's school gets all of the kids involved during red ribbon week by letting them participate in themed days. they do crazy sock day, crazy hair day, wear red to school, etc.

 

  crazy hair day kind of snuck up on me, so this was the best i could do that morning, but katelyn loved it!

 

sibling fun

this is just a guess, but i think every mother gets a thrill seeing their kids playing together well.  these family relationships these kids are building are so important!  i know i love seeing them playing well and getting along, even if what they're doing doesn't make much sense.  love these little ones.