Joy School Halloween Party

Last Thursday we got to go to Cameron's Joy School Party.

Tyler and Jake got all dressed up for the fun!

Cameron was SO cute when he was performing the songs!

Ben was able to stop by too.

Yeah for joy school!!!

Hanging out in PJs

Here are my cute boys hanging out in their pjs. I thought it was funny how they were all wearing green and blue. Maybe we could use these outfits for our Christmas card???

Tara's Wedding

On Friday Tara got married! The sealing was beautiful, the luncheon was lovely, and the reception was a ton of fun! Ben and I keep talking about what a great day it was. We didn't get many pictures, but thankfully there was a whole group of wedding photographers. At times it looked like the paparazzi had come. Tara looked beautiful, and she and Scott make a wonderful couple.
I love how Scott is so nice to my boys. Here he is parading Cameron around.

The boys had a great time getting lots of attention. Jake loved being passed around all night.

And so did Tyler!

Cameron got groovy on the dance floor.

And looked so handsome in his suit.

The boys were very lucky to dance with such pretty girls!

It was a really great time! When can we do it again??? Katie? Jennifer?

The Death of our Camera

On Monday night we went to a Halloween festival at Thanksgiving Point for FHE. The boys were having a ball racing rubber ducks down plastic shoots with water pumps. Cameron politely asked me to get him a yellow duck that had gotten stuck in the back of one of the big metal buckets. I almost told him to just play with the ones he had, but then told myself, be a good mom, Karen. I reached my hand down into the bucket and heard a big plop. My camera fell out of my pocket into the water, and despite our best efforts, it is now totally dead. So much for trying to be a good mom!

Tyler's First Food

Today Tyler tried rice cereal for the first time. He did pretty well, and I think he actually liked it. Maybe I'll finally have a baby that likes baby food!

Cameron's Photography

Recently Cameron has been getting my camera and taking pictures. He's pretty good for a three year old. These first three were taken while I was running into a house to get Jake.

The rest are from when I ran upstairs to get Tyler and left Cameron and Jake eating lunch. I love these next two pictures because they totally typify lunch at our house---Cameron just messes around and doesn't even touch his food.


While Jake makes a huge mess.

Cameron even figured out how to put the camera on some weird neon setting. I thought he had broken it, but I was able to switch it back. Great pictures Cam!

Back for More

Today we went back to the park so Jake could feed the ducks. It was cold and rainy out, but it was a good thing we went because the ducks were HUNGRY! The kids really wanted Ben to ride in the back with them. Look at that cute ham Jakey!

Joy School Adventure

This week it was my turn to teach Joy School. On Tuesday we learned all about nature and even made some "nature viewers" out of old toilet paper rolls.

On Thursday my friend Jen and I loaded up the kids and we headed out for a nature excursion. Who would have known I could fit six carseats in my car???

First we fed the ducks.

Some of the ducks were pretty feisty!

Cameron loved it.

We then took a walk and collected interesting leaves and acorns. I think they would have gathered acorns for an hour if we had time.
Of course we had to stop for a quick photo. Can you tell what the color of the day was? One mom forgot.
I then started a fire while the kids glued their leaves on a paper. The flames were pretty high, and I was afraid we were going to catch the park on fire.
When the fire wouldn't settle down, I finally just closed the lid and put it out. The kids roasted their hot dogs on partially hot coals.
The hot dogs never actually got hot. They didn't really even get warm. Okay, truthfully they were rather cold, but no one complained. (Only later did I see that the package said to heat them to at least 165 degrees...oops.)They then "roasted" marshmallows. Next time I won't even bother lighting the coals, we didn't need them anyway!