And then it was Halloween!

Here are just some fun pictures from the fun things we did last Halloween

You can't have a Repunzel with short hair

nice and simple witches tea party not a lot of pictures for this one just had dinner but still fun!

Flag Football and some fall fun

Then Garrett Played football and it was for afternoon practice and freezing for Saturday morning games!!!! But he loved it

Embrie did a cheer/dance camp for a couple of days and got to preform at a half time game at Herriman High School

We took a little Halloween trip to Wheeler Farm with friends. I am mostly posting these so that everyone can document Embrie's hair... its about to do a disappearing act. 

Last Summer/Fall

Garrett started 2nd grade with a new teacher Ms. Lockwood. He was sad to leave 1st grade and I think a little hesitant but he soon found 2nd grade was great!

I specifically recall (the fact that I can recall anything like I previously mentioned being a big feate). that he did not want to pose for any first day of school pictures for me so I had to catch what I could.

Then Embrie started pre-k preschool. Super excited to be back with her old classmates and beloved teacher.

Also just before school started Dad, Garrett & Maren ( I can't remember what Embrie I were doing that day) met up with Grandma Peggy and the Callahan cousins to pick raspberries! Fun, yummy day!

see that scrape on the check? Maren got that on her 2nd b-day ( a week before this picture) when she fell out of a chair. The scar is still there.

and last but not least. Remember our little lizard? Well we let him go. Be free Liz... be free!

Wow! Can you say' life is busy'?

So I got onto my blog today for the first time in almost a year, What!!!??! So I am going to get back into the swing of things! lets see here where did I leave off..... oh yes Bear Lake last year.

Well then what did we do after that? I actually have to run my mind reel backwards (and lets face it my memory power just ain't what it used to be) ..... Oh yes

My Grandpa Clyde Niederhauser had just had his surprise 75th Birthday Party. So fun! love my grandpa tons. He has always been fun for as long as I can remember. One of the hardest working people I know and also one of the most giving.

This summer while we made mini trips around to see our families I realized that I am very grateful for the more untouched parts of the world. 

I really like where I live in the city. But I love that there are still places that are wide open, without houses in every direction, where the air smells fresh and clean. It's just really nice. And I am glad that I came from a small town.

Bear Lake

I just have to share this story about my nephew Jaxon. So in the picture above we have Bear Lake and you know how it is at the lake sometimes where you have the little pool of water, a bar of sand and then the rest of the lake, sand bar right? 

Well while we were on vacation at bear lake this lined the whole beach.At one point we sat talking a little bit to Jaxon and Garrett and we looked out and one of the girls (I really don't remember which one) was laying in this first pool of water with her hair all in the muck. And so we called out not to dip your hair in that yucky water. Jaxon pipes up and says: "Why not? is that where you're supposed to pee or something? because I peed in the other side." 

Ha! we all laughed and everyone said "no" and we pointed to where bathrooms were (far walk of course). He laughed and said " I really didn't I was kidding." 

Was he? ....was he? ha ha ha I guess we'll never know, but that stuck with me, it was pretty funny. What can you expect from a son of Jared's? ... oh yeah Garrett once peed in the vent ... in our house .... hmmm

Summer Va-ca

For our vacation this year we went camping at the ranch, a 4 day trip.

There were a lot of fun things to do.  

The day that we left was Maren's actual birthday. She turned 2!!! 

So she was able to open a gift from Brad, the kids and I while we roasted marshmallows around the fire.

The kids (and Brad and I too) were thrilled to sleep in a camp trailer! I mean I don't mind tent camping but we haven't tried to sleep all 5 of us in our tent and it was tight with 4 so we're probably due for a new one.

But this was really exciting for the kids.

It was Maren's first time sleeping outside of a crib and first time sleeping with another person (me). She did fine, the first night was a little rough but she got the hang of it after that.

The next day, when more of our family joined us at Bear Lake we had a little party for Maren and opened gifts from the rest of the family.

When I asked Maren earlier on what she wanted for her birthday she said "Pink" ... well ok that is fairly straight forward. So she had pink cupcakes to share with everyone! 

(you'll notice a big scratch on her cheek she got from falling the night before, dang! its still a scar months later, ouch!)

Everyone had lots of fun at the lake.

 And everyone got to ride the horses around a little bit. 

Embrie is our animal lover, she was eating it up!

The last day was spent shooting skeet, and then going to Minnetonka Cave, near bear lake.

I was excited to take my kids here because I loved it when I was a kid. It's 800 stairs, up and down, round trip in this cave. I would say I got a pretty good work out carrying my 2 yr. old. Feel the burn in those calves! The kids thought it was pretty cool (despite the grumpy look on Garrett's face). 

Wonder what next year's vacation will be....

The End of 1st Grade

During Garrett's last week of 1st grade they had 'camp week'. They got to have a tent in class, eat lunch in class, each class had their own tie died shirts that they made in a specific color and picked a camp name for their class, and went on a walking field trip that their families could join them for. 

Garrett LOVED his teacher Mrs. McMullin, and his whole first grade class.

(we loved her too! she is a fantastic teacher)

On the second to last day of school, they watched a slide show that his teacher had put together with pictures of all the class through out the year. Many of the kids shed tears that first grade was over .... apparently Garrett shed lots of tears. He's not usually very emotional, but I guess he ended up crying for the last 45 min of school after watching the video and couldn't even be coaxed to play a game.

Poor guy! When we got home he just kept his backpack on, he wasn't sure he wanted to move on to second grade and be in a different class with different kids and a new teacher. But he was able to sleep on it

and the last day of school was field day and he had tons of fun!

I'm glad that he loved 1st grade so much and we saw him make lots of improvement through out the year. He did so well in school, it was amazing to see how much he learned.

 I hope he'll love 2nd grade just as much.