A trip to the temple

We got to go as a family to visit the Idaho Falls, Idaho Temple on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful (but crisp!) day. Not a cloud in the sky! The visitors center had been re-done, and we wanted to show the kids. Then we walked around the temple grounds. Of course, there were plenty of photo opportunities! It's great that we can go back to where Adam and I were married- and show the kiddos how lucky we are to have a temple so close. In front of the temple.

I love this picture! Beautiful colors!

They thought this was a cool "secret tunnel". :)

Hello Livia! She loves to point!

They were so excited to see everything.

They had to touch the temple of course. :)

There is a beautiful statue of Christ in the visitors center now. The kids were so excited to touch His hands and feet.

What a special day.

Gotta love those cheesy grins!

Extreme room make-over!

I know I put some of these pictures up on the last post- but my mom just sent me these final pictures of the extreme room make-over! Before- Blue/ purple spongepaint.

Ta Da!! Adam did such an amazing job with the moldings and paint.

The full effect. I just love how it turned out. I know my parents have gotten a lot of compliments already. Good work Adam!!

Over the river and through the woods.....

To Grandma's (and grandpa's) house we go!!! We had so much fun in Washington this weekend with my parents. This is a picture overload- but it should give you an idea of all the fun activities we got to do. :) First on the list....RIDE! The kids love "Danny".

Ashton loved throwing apples to the cows! He was watching that bull closely. (So was I).

My dad playing with Livia. He is taunting her with a dog toy. :)

Ella loved to be with the horses.

Aaron on Danny.

I had to document this. Yes, even I rode!

Adam and Ashton. I was actually surprised that Adam even hopped on.

Livia didn't know what to think.

We were off to have a picnic up their hill on their property. It was so much fun, and a beautiful view!

I love this picture. My mom is going to be mad I put this on because her hair isn't perfect! (The wind was blowing). Still cute.

When it rained, the kids decided to put grandma to work making dolls!

And teddy bears. (bad picture of Aaron. hehehe)

And we made applesauce. We ended up doing 17 quarts. Thanks mom and dad for the apples!

My parents sent Adam and I on an "all expenses paid" date!!! We had so much fun!! Yes, we even left Livia for the very first time, and she did GREAT!

We put Adam to work in "extreme room makeover"!! This is a before picture. Blue/purple-ish sponge paint.

Putting up some molding. My dad likes this picture, because it shows him helping Adam. :)

Starting to paint.

Finished!! My mom still needs to send me the final picture. We got some cute decorations for the mantel, but the paint was still a little wet. So look for the final picture later. But- WOW! That room looks amazing!!! Adam is so talented.

We had an amazing trip. It was great to spend time with everyone. Good memories!

Soccer season

Soccer season is in full swing again. Ella is on the "Real A.F." team. and she's #4. Her best friend's mom (Kim) is her coach, so that means her best friend Allyson is on her team again this year. Ella is definitely not an aggressive soccer player by any means, but she LOVES to run, and she runs with a smile the whole game! She's so fun to watch.

Practice time!

On the field. She's #4 in the yellow.

Who's boy is that anyway?! We looked over where Aaron and Ashton were playing and see that Ashton's pants were down around his knees. That's Ashton for you. Not a care in the world!

Another favorite game while Ella is playing soccer. Who can climb the highest on the fence. My next blog post will most likely be, "Guess who broke their arm trying to climb the highest on the fence." :) I love my boys.

She's 8 and a half months!!

I really can't believe she's 8 1/2 months already. Livia is such a sweet, sweet girl. She is very attached to Mom, but that's fine with me. :) She's very mobile now, and just today we caught her pulling herself up on a chair. AHHH! She could be walking before we know it! I even got a little flower clippy in her hair! (It didn't last much longer after I took the picture)

Yes, that is a ponytail in her hair!! And it actually lasted all day.

The boys held up our comforter as a back drop like we did when she was 4 months, and I think we got some cute pics again!

She did try to crawl away- but she was grinning. :)

So happy. We love you Livs!

Off to the races!

This weekend we went down to Salt Lake to watch Adam drag race. He's been working many hours on his truck and was very excited to do this! Since we were in Utah, we had to make sure and see all my siblings, so it worked out nicely! A splash park near my brother's house. It was freezing cold!! My brother's wife and I are huddled under blankets and telling the kids- "It's not that cold, go have fun!" :)

Ashton's not so sure it's "Really not that cold". hehehe

Adam had quite the cheering section. His mom came (his dad raced too!), and my sisters and their spouses, and my brother came. My brother's wife decided sitting on bleachers while pregnant- for several hours- didn't sound like the best of times. (smart girl)

There were 2 race tracks. Adam was on the drag race track, and there was a circle track, and some race cars were practicing. Ashton was in heaven- Ella and Aaron thought it was pretty cool too.

Here's a video of Ashton watching some race cars. He was loving life.

This is one of Adam's races. He did really good. It was fun to watch! (He is the white truck)

Random sampler!

Since nothing major has happened around here lately, I thought I'd just throw out a "random sampler" of pictures that I've taken the last couple of days. :) Enjoy!We were at the park and Livia fell asleep in the swing!! This is when she was almost asleep. I thought it was the sweetest thing. She loves the swing.

Yes- we really gave our baby a pickle. A dill pickle to be exact. She loved it!! Adam gave it to her mostly to see her pull a face- but she would not let it go. It's her new favorite food. They are great for teething babies apparently.

Now take special note of 2 things in this picture. #1 the coolest Spiderman shoes in the world. and #2 the happiest boy in the world. If only we had learned earlier on how easy this boy was to please- he would have a whole closet full of Spiderman shoes. He shows everyone, and talks about nothing else. This is his world right now. He has cool shoes.

Sorry this picture is sideways for some reason. That is Aaron up there on that pole. Aaron is our climber. He will climb ANYTHING. He is really good at climbing! We have to watch him though. He'll climb in door frames, he loves to climb swing sets obviously, and the other day, he climbed to the top of a yield sign while we were waiting to pick up Ella. He calls it his "sticky power". :)

Ella is officially in 2nd grade!!! Crazy! I think it gets harder for me to send her every year. She has a guy teacher this year named Mr. Blauer. She really likes him so far, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

She was all smiles when we picked her up on her first day. Let's hope it lasts. She did look adorable though. :)

So that was our "random sampler". It's good for me to look back on these cute moments- it makes me really appreciate these 4 awesome kids I've been blessed with.