Halloween Fun!!

We had a REALLY FUN Halloween!!! It started with......

a Halloween train ride......

Carving Pumpkins.......

went to the Trunk or Treat......

as Timberwolf.......

Ariel......

and Lightning Lad......

It was all worth the hard work to see the biggest smiles on their faces.......

Jacob turned 5!

I don't like that my kids are growing up. It seems like just yesterday that I held one of my babies in my arms. I can't believe how fast time goes by. I remember when Jacob was born. When the doctor put him on my belly, I couldn't BELIEVE how heavy he was! He weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs. 9 oz.! He was such a cute, soft and squishy thing. He still has those yummy, squishy cheeks that I love to kiss and I hope they never go away. He is very sensitive and still loves to cuddle, which of course I love. I'm so grateful for such a wonderful little boy who brings so much joy to our family everyday.

He was such a serious baby. It took A LOT to get him to smile........and now he can't stop!

Jake and Lauryn decided to "help" me with the cake. Oh boy, was that a huge mess to clean up!!

But, they had A LOT of fun!

Dan "pimped" out Spencer's old bike that he grew out of, and Jacob was very excited about it!

He loves Ben 10!

I think it turned out pretty cute........Jake thought it was really cool!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Jacob!!!

Spencer turned 8!!

Well, it finally happened. I wasn't ready for it, but it happened anyway. My oldest child turned 8 today. It's baptism time already? Am I really that old?

I remember the day he was born. I never loved anything more in my entire life. He was the easiest baby. He ate well, slept well, was happy all the time. The older he got, the more independant he became. Less hugs, less kisses, and more go, go, go! With that came a very strong-willed personality. He loves to learn and invent things. He wants to be a paleontologist and an oceanologist when he grows up. He is reading the 4th Harry Potter book.....in 2nd grade, I might add!! I'm very proud of him. He is excelling in all aspects of his life. But don't get me wrong, he is not a perfect child. He has his moments and they seem to be more and more recently and we are working through them everyday(and praying really hard that he'll grow out of it). I am so excited for his baptism. My sweet family is driving down from Cincinnati for our special event and Spencer couldn't be more thrilled! I'm so grateful that the Lord has sent me this wonderful little boy that has blessed my life in so many ways and has taught me more than I'll even know.

2 days old

He requested a Bakugan cake. So after much research, came up with this little number, but don't look too close........I'm an amateur!!

Thank you Nana and Popi for the fun gift!

He absolutely LOVES his new bike! He wanted to ride it to the bus stop and back today. He grew out of his old one WAY too fast!

LOVE YOU, SPEN!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Burnett Family Pictures

A really awesome family in our ward let us stay in their home in the mountains of North Carolina last month. Dan's brothers and their families, Mom, Stepdad, and Grandma drove all the way from Arkansas to spend the week with us and we had a GREAT time!

The whole family. I love how you can never get everyone to smile....

Dan's Mom and Stepdad.

Dan and I riding the 4-wheeler! Woohoo!

The boys and their Momma.

The brothers.

All the cousins. Nice face, Jake!

Our little group.

LoLo

Jake

Me and my almost 8 yr. old. I can't believe he will be baptized next month!

Spen

I think it's about time......

to update my blog, don't you think? Since the last one was June!!

Well, my cute boys started school. Spencer is in 2nd grade and Jacob started preschool. They were SO excited to go and did SO great and are STILL doing great! They absolutely LOVE to learn and they LOVE their teachers, so Mom is one happy camper! It took Lauryn about a week to adjust to the new routine. She would say, "Where is my Gakop and my Feser?" and "I wanna go to school!" There were some fits and tears, but she is doing great now.

On the way home from dropping the boys off at school, LoLo decided to draw on her legs instead of the paper I gave her! How can you be mad at that face?

I am so proud!

(she got into my lipstick in this picture!)
My sweet Lauryn said her nighttime prayers all on her own last night. I was so proud and it was the cutest thing I've ever heard!

Lauryn: "Dear Heav'ly Fader, dank dee for home, church, "chew-boy," and baby Machew. The End."

She is SO cute, I could just eat her up!

And within the past week, she has become quite the dare devil at swimming. It makes me SO nervous! She stands on the side of the pool and says, "Do by self! 7, 8, 9 GO!" and she jumps in whether or not I am ready. She does really well, but I have to help her a lot still. I can't wait to see how much she has progressed at the end of the summer!

Jacob has grown in swimming this week as well. He has gone from holding onto the wall with fright, to doing the "froggie" (breaststroke) all on his own. I showed him how a couple of days ago and he picked it up really fast! The only thing is that he keeps his head under the whole time, instead of coming up for air after each stroke, but he doesn't care, he is SO excited that he can swim! He can also hold his arms out and kick really hard to get from one place to another. I'm so proud of him! I hope that by the time he turns 5, he can be on the swim team!

Spencer is another story. He is my difficult, hard-headed, stubborn, and insecure child. I really hope it's just the age and he'll grow out of it. With anything new that he tries, he wants to do it perfectly RIGHT NOW. He has no patience to just learn and grow slowly. At the YMCA pool, the lifeguards give the kids a swim test to see what level of swimming they are at, and then they receive a colored necklace according to what level they are on. Red is for beginner, Yellow is intermediate, and Green is advanced. Spencer has been really embarrassed to have a RED necklace. He compares himself to kids his age or older. When he sees that they've got green necklaces on, it makes him very jealous. I tried to explain to him that he needed to try harder to improve and then when he felt ready he could test again. Well the other day after swimming for a while, he said, "I feel confident. I'm going to test again." So he got the lifeguard and started the test. He was suppose to swim halfway across the pool without stopping. He tried really hard, but he hasn't learned that he can just lift his head to take a breath and then put his head back down and keep swimming. He just stands up in the pool when he needs to take a breath. The lifeguard gave him about 3 tries, but he couldn't do it. He was SO upset!!!!! He was crying and punching the lawn chairs. I hugged him and gave him a long pep talk about not giving up and to be patient, but I don't think it helped.

Today, I invited some friends to come swim with us to see if it would motivate Spencer, and think it did a little. When his friend took the test and got a GREEN necklace, he was pretty jealous. But after a while, he got over it and they had fun together. He kept telling me that he wanted to get a yellow necklace REALLY bad! So I told him that he would have to swim halfway across the pool for me first and THEN he could get tested again. He said, "OK." So, we'll see when that will be. I hope soon, so he can be happy and confident in himself.

Hawaii (Oahu)

We flew to Oahu on Wednesday and boy, was it different from Maui! Honolulu was a very busy city with lots of people everywhere and we immediately missed the quiet, laid back feel of Maui. We stayed at the Waikiki Courtyard Marriott with all the other co-workers right in the middle of downtown. After we got settled in and a good night's sleep, Dan went to work and I walked around doing some sight seeing of my own and these are a couple of things that I saw....

This was a beautiful place to shop!

The marketplace was built around this really cool banyan tree.

I thought it was pretty cool to watch this guy carve these tiki statues.

Waikiki beach

Polynesian Cultural Center dancers. They were SO FUN to watch!

Ko'Olina

Dan and I met up with an old companion from his mission and his family at this beautiful man-made lagoon.

Dan's old companion, Mark, and his cute family. We had a great time at the lagoon. We snorkeled a little and I saw a sea turtle!! (sorry no photos)

We watched the beautiful sunset,

and went out to dinner.