October at a glance

So many fun and wonderful memories this October... 

Taking the kids to Frosty's for good behavior at school...

Grandma Sue came to visit and help while Jake was out of town.  She was such a lifesaver and made everything SO MUCH easier to have her help!  Thanks for coming mom.

For some reason I can never remember to take pictures when my mom visits, but I got TWO this time!!!

We went to lots of festivals and enjoyed so much candy!

Jansen got to hold a chicken, probably the highlight of his LIFE!

We won 3 gold fish... it helps when you know the girls working the booths...

I made 20 freezer meals and exchanged them!!!  So proud of myself!

Dressed up for parites... Reesa modeling the tail we added to her cat costume.  She was very happy!

Went to the pumpkin patch during the day on Jake's day off and did the pony rides.  Look how cute and happy Reesa looks!

Jansen Loved it too!

Mitchell trying really hard to be a good sport...

We did the family photo booth

Jansen wanted to be a pirate and kept making this face in most the pictures I'm not posting...

Then we had to carve the pumpkins we picked...

Reesa insisted we baked the seeds so she could try eating them...

Jake and Reesa drawing her pumpkin face.

This is the cutest thing... Mitchell loves to blow raspberries, and here is a precious moment of Jansen taking turns "talking" to Mitchell by blowing raspberries back.  These moments of interaction with Mitchell are so few I almost cry every time I see one!

Reesa carved her pumpkin all by herself!!!!  She did such a great job!

The kids got to wear their costumes to school, so here's me dropping them off for the day!

Happy Halloween everybody!

Aunt Chelsey visits

I am SO LOVED!  My sister came out to visit us for TWO whole weeks!  To say "amazing" is an understatement. It was so fun to have someone to just live my life with me.  So of course we mainly did the mundane things of daily living but it was SO FUN! 

The kids picked out these flowers to decorate our house for Aunt Chelsey.

 We took the kids swimming almost everyday to get out some energy...

 Rascal fell in love with Chelsey... look at him snuggled up to her!  

 I was applying for my California Hygiene license and Chelsey volunteered to be my patient, (she had to get Nitrous, 9 shots, and STC.  What a great sport!) so we drove to Sacramento one weekend and got some alone girl time while I finished my course and exams.  

We seriously ate everything we wanted in Sacramento!

 Went to card club and had a super fun craft night.

 Volunteered at "Cougars Rock the Walk" for our elementary school

 Reesa was a super star and ran for the entire hour!!!!!

 Mitchell being cute after a blowout in church...

 We finally took her to see Yosemite and those curvy roads reminded me why I don't go more often... I was SO CAR SICK!  

 Jansen loves every dog we see and wanted a picture with this dog...

 Gorgeous views!

 Went to dinner at Bass lake

Put Mitchell's chair up at the table and he LOVED being part of the group!

I had such a great time with Chelsey, of course I'm a little worried her husband will never let her come again because she stayed so long...  Thanks for all your help Chelsey!!!

First day of school, Jansen's five, Mitchell

Aren't you just dying to see how cute Mitchell's gotten?

A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E!!!

 First day of school.  Reesa started 1st grade this year.  Jansen is in Kindergarten and Mitchell started school too.  He goes 5 days a week from 8 til noon and he LOVES IT!  I think he likes knowing something is just for him.  I had a lot of anxiety sending Mitchell and didn't think it would work. But honestly we have the best teachers!  They love Mitchell so much, they rock and hold and cuddle him when he needs it.   Everything I ask them to do, DONE!  They never make me feel dumb for all my special requests, like Desitin with every diaper change.  They use his g-tube to vent and hydrate him, feed him juice through a sippy cup, and do all the therapy I HATE doing.  (because it's hard for Mitchell and he cries. a. lot.)  He's so happy every time I pick him up.  So of course I'm loving life!!!!  This has been wonderful for me too!!!

 We celebrated Jansen's 5th birthday with the traditional swim party.  So easy and super fun...

 Our new life...
Here's the best part... we took Mitchell to school and took Jansen and Reesa to the zoo.  Mitchell requires so much that it takes 2 parents to care for him... so R & J often get the shaft.  We decided we needed to spend some time with these two kids doing what normal families get to do.

 Jake had the day off and we all had so much fun.  Then we picked Mitchell up at noon, and checked Reesa and Jansen into school.  I felt like we were breaking the rules.  AND... to be honest, we felt incredibly guilty we didn't have Mitchell.  Even though he would have hated being at the zoo it seemed mean...

Summer Beach Reunion

We had a lot of fun with Jake's family this summer.  We rented a motor home so we could take Mitchell camping on the beach for the family reunion!  It was perfect.  Seriously the only way we could have gone with Mitchy.   We had a little pirate them going on... "We be one hearty crew."  and talked about the scripture, where your treasure is there your heart is...

It was perfect!

I didn't take any pictures, not one.  So these are all stolen from Shauna... but look at these great shots she got of my kids at the beach!!!  I love 'em!

Here's the proof I helped cook for the masses... 

Then to top it off Allison and her family drove up and visited a few days.  Here's the best photo we could get.  Typical right?  So much fun, thanks for coming guys!