Tater's Earrings.

Tatum decided she was ready to have her ears repierced.  We had tried once before, but she changed her mind at the last minute, so we haven't talked about it much since.  A couple weeks ago she asked, "If we have time when we're in Utah, can I get my ears pierced?"
We had time on Monday, so we headed to the mall.  She was amazing.  She never faltered. They were pierced one at a time and she barely even flinched.  That is my little Tater.  Once she sets her mind to something, there is no going back.
 

 

 

Halloween!

{Jake the Pirate}

{Tatum the Witch}

{Cambrie the Crazy Justin Bieber Fan}

{All 3 crazy kiddos}

{Jason the Chick Magnet & Me the Witch with Tatum & Cambrie}
Jake behind the camera!

Such a fun day! I LOVE all of Tater's witch faces. She was great at getting into character.

Raspberries!!!

We headed out to a friends to pick raspberries this morning. My goodness, we were surrounded by delicious raspberries. It was incredible how many there were. We picked and picked until all of us were worn out.

Tatum liked to go deep into the middle of the patch to do her picking.

All the kiddos.

Jake ended up with raspberries inside his boots. Apparently a few fell in while he was picking! Look at the size of that patch behind him.
Yummy goodness! We ended up with about 4 gallons. Delish!

Huckleberry'n

It wouldn't be summer in Teton Valley without picking huckleberries. We didn't get out as much as we'd hoped, I guess I'll have to ration myself through the winter months. Anyway, we did all head out together, but with all the bear encounters this year, I was a little nervous.

Cambrie just getting started.

Evidence of success.

Although Jason kept teasing me about bears, he must've been a little worried, because you'll notice, he was packin'. I actually took bear spray and kept telling him that if we were attacked, I'd be better off. He still believes a gun is the way to go. Hopefully we'll never actually have to find out which of us is right.

Yummy goodness! Nothing is better than these babies!

Jake BuStEd!

Getting ready to head back home!

The Big 35!

Well, it's arrived. . . the big 35! It was quite the day!
Cambrie and Tatum brought me breakfast in bed. Cambrie being the uber observant child that she is made me a protein smoothie and eggs. I came out to find the gifts she had made me. A book on Yoga and some bath salts that she had made herself. What a creative little girl. She knows me and what I like pretty well.

I also received a cast iron skillet so that we could replicate our favorite dessert at home. Here is our first attempt. It looks pretty yummy!

Everyone digging in. Tatum was a little tired, but still managed to shovel in the dessert.

Ogden Half Marathon

I coerced my friend Heidi into running the Ogden Half Marathon this year so the kids and I headed down to Utah for the weekend. We couldn't have had a better day! The weather was amazing and the run was beautiful and mostly downhill!

Heidi's brother drove this whole group right up to the starting line which was so great because we didn't have to get there at the crack of dawn to catch the shuttles, then wait for an hour out in the cold!

Heidi and I after the race!

Sean and Heidi.

a real-life author . . .

Each year we've set goals with Cambrie for AR points. This year, she far exceeded her goal. I was trying to come up with a special something to do for her when I heard that Aprilynne Pike was going to be at Dark Horse Books signing her newest book, Illusions.
Cambrie had already read Wings and Spells and absolutely loved them. (This is a series about faeries. Aprilynne Pike is a Teton High graduate.) I told her about the book signing and she was ecstatic. We headed to the book store to as Cambrie would say, "Meet a real-life author!" Cambrie had been talking about it all day at school, so her teacher Mrs. Smith was super sweet and came too. I haven't seen Cambrie this excited in a long time. She got her book, signed by Aprilynne and a picture too! Woo hoo!

WICKED!

I spent a great few days with my friends Katie and Heidi in Boise, Idaho. We had a great time shopping, eating yummy food, seeing WICKED and just being together! We've decided we need to try to make this an annual event.

 

Brophy's Visit

 The Brophy Family came for a visit and we had a great time playing in the snow.

Sean & Heidi

Jake and Natalie on the snow mobile.

Mason pulling Natalie.

Jason pulling Sean around.

Hershey, Jake and Cambrie.

Natalie pulling Cambrie.

The guys took the kids ice fishing, here is Tatum's catch.

Heidi and I were even able to sneak away and go snowshoeing.  Here's our timer shot.

Moose Creek

 We headed out to Moose Creek the other day with our friends the Bagleys.  They were all so excited to go, but Jake was out before we even made it down our road.  He must've been really tired because we just transferred him into the tube, covered him up, and he was good to go.

We stopped and took a hot cocoa & snack break a bit up the trail.  You can see Tater enjoying a big hunk of snow, her favorite treat.

 

Me & Jason

 

Jason hung out with the kiddos while we headed a bit further up the trail. 

Once we made it up the hill, the girls tried to ride the tube down, but they weren't moving much. 

Cambrie and Tatum loved Cross Country skiing.  We just picked up some new skis for Cambrie and Tatum was able to use Cambrie's old set, so it was the first time on them and they did awesome. 

Once Jake woke up he was raring to go.  He pretty much ran the whole way until he ran out of steam, the he rode on Jason's shoulders the rest of the way.  If only we could teach him to pace himself. 

Tater was loving the downhill part of the skiing.  I think she's really looking forward to Winter Sports this year.