14th Annual Gailan Carve Off

You know, every year when I do this post I feel older. Seriously, how are we at 14 already??!! Well, at least we made the best of it with our awesomeness.

Kristina and Fred took it up a notch with their gigantic ghost pumpkin. They got relegated to the floor because of it's girth.

 Pretty sure this laugh was right before Fred took a sucker swipe at his bride:)

 We tried it at tables this year and I think it was a success. At the very least, it allowed Ben to carve and talk on his phone simultaneously.

 Dana really went all out with his one circle eye and one triangle (sarcasm heavily laid on there) but since I never carve I really can't blame him.

 All the pumpkins were spectactular this year! Kristina and Fred's won for "best in show", the Kearns took home "Most Surprising" for their U pumpkin (they are BYU fans...get it:)), and the Barfus' "barfing" pumpkin took home "Scariest".

Death March 2.0

Fred and Dana said they wanted to do a hike on this last 70 degree weekend of October. I assumed that meant they (aka, the boys) wanted to hike all by themselves. Silly me.

The 3 hour roundtrip drive was a bit daunting but well worth it once we caught this glimpse of Mt. Rainier in all it's splendor. It was perfect hiking weather and even though Mom took a diver in some mud, we all still had a blast. Yes, even Char up in her bird perch. Clark hiked all 3.2 miles plus most of the walk back to the parking lot (Aunt Kristina took pity on him at the very end) and let's just say there were some wiped out humans in our car on the way home.

Mosquito hotspot lake. You can see Char just sitting on her bum by Dad taking it all in. Then everyone turned into billy goats and tried to scale this rock formation.

 More lake time and of course some rock throwing fun.

 And these silly besties.

Thanks for the memories, outdoors, we'll see ya in a few months!

Silly Char Char

Oh baby girl. She changes so much every day! The walking thing is a full on run now. And somehow being up on her toes and opened up a new realm of things she can break into and couches she can climb off of. Let's just say Mom spends most days trying to keep her out of the oven drawer, the bathroom drawers, Clark's books and just about everything else. Zzzzzzz.

New favorites are bath time with Clark. This is not Dad's favorite time since most of the water ends up outside of the tub but oh well. One funny bath story: Dana likes to let her run au natural (aka nude) through the house after bath time and I keep telling him she's going to pee on the floor one day to which he replies "naw she won't". Well, this week she not only peed but dropped some cute little powerball poops out of her booty right on my kitchen floor. And since they were cute little balls, she threw them around for a second before we noticed. Eww. But, yay, I guess, for me being right:) Now she gets a diaper immediately after the bath, go figure. 

 While Clark is at school Char gets to join me for chores around the house, chilly walks with Trish to the park and grocery shopping. She's the best and cutest little helper.

 Last weekend was conference and she loved watching T.V. with her piggie and cheering Clark on while he shot jumpers. Mom and Dad loved the announcement of 2 hour church starting in 2019. Just saying.

 Meal time is probably her favorite. She and Clark can get a bit crazy at lunch and we usually spice it up with a dance party. She'll only sit in the high chair for 10 minutes or so, then she insists on walking around he being fed like a baby bird. It's sweet so I indulge her (and thus establish a bad habit for the rest of her cute life)

 Miss Char plays hard and sleeps hard. Just the way we like it. Love you to bits, baby.

Preschool Shenanigans

Wanted to throw some photos of Clark's preschool hijinks up for posterity. His teacher, Miss Allen, is basically a saint because she somehow agreed to watch 16 four year olds (12 boys and 4 girls!) half day all week. Wow!

In September they got the lay of the land and the cool "blue" and "green" rooms. Then it was apple time. Yes, they made their own applesauce and yes my son is holding a knife which freaked me out a bit but he survived.

 They made apple art which is currently hung up in Clark's room on his cork board because it's serious Louvre quality.

October was mostly pumpkins and learning letters A-F. Clark has some serious writting skills which he did not learn from us. Clark's new friends are Jack, Ava, Arianna and of course Steven, Gabe and Beckham. 

 October was also Clark's first fieldtrip - to Johnson's pumpkin patch in Naches. Since all the classes came, he got to hang with Timmy and Xylie (his on again off again girlfriend:)

We started off with the pumpkin cannons which he did NOOOOOT like, which is why he refused to look at the camera while we took this hilarious "fail" picture. Charlotte looks pretty peeved too. It was seriously cold.

 But then it warmed up and we got to see piggie chases and run around in the mud and hit trees with sticks so he cheered up. We waited forever for our turn on the hayride but the company was worth it.

 And running around in the corn maze was the icing on the cake. Special thanks to Briteny for the photos since I lost my phone that day:) We are loving this Preschool thing!

Family Photo Shoot 2018

Gonna let these cuties speak for themselves. We have the best kiddos! Even if Miss Char Char was determined to sneak her tongue into every photo:)