September 2016

Woohoo, its my favorite season of the year! I haven't had a real autumn season for 6 years while living in Texas - we are loving this cooler weather. Makes me want to wear sweat pants and eat good food so I can hibernate for the winter :) We got up to a lot of fun stuff this month and are excited for all the fun activities we have planned ahead.

We have a resovior near the house - the kids love playing in the sand and wading in the water. We will have to go more often next year. I felt like this summer we were always busy doing projects/decorating, so hopefully next year we explore our area here in Denver more. 

Griffin was hit into the door frame by his crazy older sister. Luckly he didn't need stitches, just glue.

New hair cut for this princess.

Their favorite ride at the grocery store. Best penny spent!

Flag football saturdays with these two. So fun they get to be on the same team together!

Griffin always trys to be a part of the action - he will love playing one day!!

We spent a couple hours at Oktoberfest in a nearby town. Ryan had fun taking Griffin down the huge slide.

Jaxson made a bed out of toy crates and a spare blanket so Griffin could sleep next to him. It was so cute. I guess if they are being this sweet to each other, I don't mind if they stay up hours past bedtime :)

Snuggling with my babies while watching a movie. It doesn't get any better than this.

Dessert date with my wild child.

At the park waiting to drop Avery off at preschool

At the pumpkin patch with friends

Poor Griffin...

Hay maze

Petting zoo

Griffin LOVED the animals

Giant tractor with the Gertsch kids

Such a fun visit to the pumpkin patch!

Another morning of football. Griffin loves to sit on the sidelines with the boys.

After football, we drove 8 hours to see our cousins in Utah. It was conference weekend and we had fun playing the conference candy game, playing with cousins, and celebrating Papa's 60th birthday!

Afternoon conference is really hard to stay awake for ...

Happy Birthday Dad! Its catully on Oct 16th, but we had fun celebrating early.

Kid table

Nice decorating Brian B! Nice posing Brian L!

I took the kids to temple square to look around for a little bit before meeting Julie & her girls for lunch. I love these crazy kids of mine!

Joseph Smith building

Visitors Center - so neat!!

SLC tempke in the background

Play area in the mall

These girls had a blast playing together - the twins were born only a few weeks after Avery.

I met up with some of my high school BFF's and had fun cathing up with them and looking at year books.

"This is the place Heritage Park" let us ride ponies - so fun!!

Someone is in heaven!

Griffin loved it too.

Train rides, homemade donuts, crafts, panning for gold, etc... the kids had a blast!

Someone was really good at finding gold. Looks like he was born about 150 years too late for the big gold rush!

The kids had a blast at the park. Then we spoiled them and headed to the bounce house.

Kids loved the bounce house too. What a fun weekend of great food, good laughs, and great memories. Thanks for hosting us Julie & Brian!

It was a long 8.5 hours back to Denver. This kid knows how to catch some Zzzz's when he is tired.

Daddy was gone while we were in Utah, and he got home the day after we did. The kids (and I)  were sooooo excited!

That night we took the kids to the circus because our friend got us free tickets - yay! Avery really wanted her face painted - Daddy gave in and let her do it. Cutest butterfly we have ever seen!

Such a fun night! Thanks September, you were fun!

August 2016

The notion of each day going by slowly and the years flying by quickly rings so true to me! I can't believe another month has come and gone, but sometimes each day drags on and on. I am excited because we are getting into my favorite time of year - fall and Christmas time. I love that the weather is cooling off, I get to wear my sweat pants, bake yummy (pumpkin) treats, and Ryan loves that football is back on. It is going to be a great couple of months! I didn't as many photos in August as I normally do, but this is what I've got.

I love this kid. I often have people ask if he is always smiling - the answer is yes. One of my friends likes to joke that Griffin has a perma-smile. We are sure glad we have this ball of sunshine lives in our house! 

 This kid. He put the basketball headband on himself. The duct taped diaper is a desperate attempt to keep the diaper on this kid. He prefers the nude ... but our carpets don't! Was that too much info?!

 Looking fly eating ice cream

 Ok, so the main grocery chain here in CO is King Soopers. I love that they have a horsey ride after checkout that is $0.01. My kids LOVE doing that at the end of each shopping trip and I love the price tag associated with it. Plus, it brings back old memories of the orange horsey ride at the IGA in my hometown - good times!

 Avery started preschool this month. She has been begging to go and has loved every day of it. She is a social butterfly!

 Lucky girls! Avery's best buddy (Reese) here in CO is in her preschool class too. They are so cute together!

 Griffin helping Daddy. Ok, someone get this kid some pants on! Obviously we struggle with it.

 Avery's teacher sent me this picture. I love that Avery is raising her hand to answer a question. I bet she didn't know the answer, but was super excited to talk! haha

 Ok, so I Instagramed about this photo. Avery loves sitting in the bathroom and doing her makeup while I do mine. In this particular makeup session, she asked 1.) If she could wear a bra when she turns 78. AND 2.) Wear mascara and ride a crocodile underwater when she turns 59. Then she topped it off by saying it was a good idea to keep the bathroom noise fan on so our eyebrows wouldn't stink. I seriously don't know where she gets it, but it keeps us laughing!

 Jaxson started a flag football season a couple of weeks ago, and Ryan is the coach! Jaxson's friend Boston is also on the team and his Dad is the other coach - Fun!!

 Girls lunch to Kneaders! I loved this one on one time with her and need to do it more often!

 I bit the bullet and took away Griffin's pacifiers. Ironically, it was earlier than I had done with any of my other kids, but I didn't want him to get so attached to it that it would be brutal to take it away later. I took one last picture of him before nap, and took it away that night. Break my heart! He always was so happy to go to bed because he got to suck on it. It was really cute. His sleeping has been a bit off since I took it away, but I hope he can get into a better habit.

 Avery made gingerbread men at school because they had been learning about their bodies.

 Trip to Ikea with our friends.

 We attended the Fort Collins Temple Open house last weekend with the kids. It was neat being able to show them the inside of a temple. Avery LOVED the glittery chandeliers and Jaxson thought the baptismal font (and Brides room lol) were so cool. It was a great learning experience as we were able to talk to the kids about the temple and why we go there. Love my family and the knowledge that families are forever! We also bought a beautiful piano on our trip home - picture to follow!

 Aparently the target stores have painted some of the red balls to look like pokemon balls - the kids (and I) thought it was so cool!

 Happy 10th Anniversary to this hubby of mine. Time flys when you are having fun! I am so grateful he convinced me to date him. I love the life we have built together and am looking forward to many more years, decades, and forever with him.

 We celebrated with a yummy Korean dinner - yuuuum!

 My friends yummy smelling house inspired me to buy some candles from Bath and Body works. Well, this little girl is kind of obsessed with smelling, touching, looking at them. I swear if I turn my back on her, she will burn the house down.

 Another ride on the King Soopers pony.

Jaxson has his schools fundraiser fun run on Friday. He can 32 laps (2 miles) and Avery joined in and ran 10 or so laps. Love these kiddos and their sweet spirits!