Temple Leaves

 Every Fall I take the kids to the temple and we look for leaves to bring home and do crafts with. The kids love running around the little trails they have and try to  find the best leaves. I always bring the camera and force them to sit for just a few minutes for pictures.

 My boys are so handsome! Noah was a little miffed at me when I told him he couldn't wear any camo cause I wanted to take nice pictures today. That boy would live in camo every day all year if I let him! It reminds me of Kendall when he was that age!

 I love the girls blue eyes!

 My mom came with us this year!

 My kids can't just do nice smiley picture.....they have to have at least one silly picture! Ha, and you can't really tell in the picture but we noticed after the pictures were all taken that Jacob not only has his shoes on the wrong feet, but both his pants and underwear were on backwards! Sadly, that's not abnormal for him!

 I even got out from behind the camera and let my mom take one of the kids and I.

This has always been my favorite tree!

Encampment

Noah is an 11yr old scout so he was able to go up to encampment Friday and Saturday. They had a great time hiking

They hiked to a rock garden and had fun climbing around.

They even got to go to the shooting range and shoot 22's. They had a great time and he can't wait til next year when he can go to camp the full week.

Noah Meets Elder John H. Groberg

Have you ever seen the movie The Other Side Of Heaven? If you haven't, I highly recommend it! It is one of Noah's favorite movies. It's about a guy, John Groberg, who goes on a mission to the Tongan islands in the 1950's. It's an amazing movie! Noah has always wanted to meet him. Well we found out that he was going to be a speaker at encampment this year so Kendall took him up to hear him speak. After they went up and met him. Noah asked him if he had ever eaten grasshoppers. He said that he's eaten insects before but he didn't think he'd eaten grasshoppers.

They both came home super excited about the whole evening. I love that Noah got to meet him and speak to him! 

Water Fight!

 Last night around 7pm the kids were outside playing with the hose when the missionaries arrived home from an appointment. I was in the house when I hear this loud yell coming from outside and the kids all start screaming. I look outside to see wet kids, an elder with an umbrella and lots of water! From what I heard, Noah was teasing them when they got home with the hose....then the elders come out in plain clothes and cups of water and it all went down hill from there!

 The Elders didn't really have much of a chance since Noah had the hose and longer range, but the Elders did the best they could under the circumstances. We helped out by turning the hose off every once in a while.

 

These Elders work well as a team! Elder Young (in the red) held back at the start and just refilled Elder Udall's cups for him, but towards the end he was right there with his companion.

 The missionaries are supposed to do lots of service. Tonight they watered our lawn, created a great memory for my kids, and helped get the kids cooled off and tired so bed time would go smoother for us. That's awesome service!

Blog's name change

I

 Look closely, can you see IT? (By "it" I mean the big ugly grasshopper.) We have been thinking that the blog needed a name change and Kendall came up with Grasshopper Ranch. It seems to fit on lots of different levels.

Noah caught IT today at the garden and it's the biggest one caught this season. So far the kids have caught over 70 of them and they are all in a bag in the freezer (with their heads pulled off, cause you don't eat the heads, of course). Noah says they are saving them for the winter when there are no grasshoppers to be found. (If you think I'm teasing you about this, sadly I'm not.) We can blame this whole thing on Survivor Man. Noah saw this guy eat a grasshopper in one of his shows and decided he was going to try it. He was hooked from the first grasshopper, says they taste like french fries. If I ever meet that survivor man I'm going to give him an earful! Every summer for the last 5 years Noah looks forward to summer time. For that is grasshopper season. I think every kid in the neighborhood has tried one, even the Elders living next door have come over to try one of his fried grasshoppers. I have to say I have NEVER eaten one, and NEVER will! Also I have to have to say I do not encourage this in any way. I wonder if they will out grow the grasshopper hunting. I guess they won't ever start to death.

Family Photo Shoot

 Darien, Emma, Noah, Hyrum,Daniel, Cale, Jacob and Addie

 Granny with her great grand kids

 You just can't have a photo shoot without a silly faces picture!

 My brother Jeremiah and his family

 Kendall had to work during the picture taking so this one is just me and the kids.

 My sister Jessica and her family.

 Love this 4 generation picture!

Family picture

Family Fun

 We have had 12 kids and 9 adults at my mom's house for the weekend! Yes, Jacob is just in a t-shirt. He was so busy playing that he didn't make it to the bathroom. And of course we didn't think to bring extra pants.

 

We had a great time visiting!

Jacob just loved his Granny!

My brother, Jeremiah teaching his son Hyrum how to shoot the BB gun.

Addie was so cute and kept calling Jane her baby. She was snuggling with her mom and Jane and singing to her.

The kids had a great time playing in the water. I have a ton of pictures of them playing but I can't post most of them cause 2yr old Alexander decided to take his swim pants off and most of the pictures have him running around naked!

 She looks so innocent, but don't be deceived, that bottle is full of dirt and as you can tell from the next few pictures the dirt didn't stay in the bottle and the bottle was refilled and emptied many times!

 I gave Emma and Jacob a bath later that night and the water was so dirty they had trouble finding the soap when it dropped in the water!

Yes, Jacob has a bit of a black eye. He ran into Hyrum's foot when Joshua was swinging Hyrum around. It happens every time we want to take a family picture, some one has to get hurt!