Scarecrow

So yesterday when we got back from the snow caves I told Kendall and Joshua that they needed to help the kids make a scarecrow for our front porch. When my mom and I got back a few hours later this is what we found. I laugh every time I see it! It is a little freaky at night though as we don't have curtains up yet and when ever I look out the window I think someone is standing there.

Ice Caves

On Saturday my brother Joshua and niece Emily came for a visit. We took a trip up to the ice caves. When we went up there in June the caves had not formed yet so we were excited to go again and see the caves. We were not disappointed!

My brother brought his dog along for the trip. The kids just LOVED him! He is a pretty strong dog as Noah learned the hard way. He was walking the dog and the dog took off across the parking lot dragging Noah along. He's got some pretty road rash to show for it too!

We had a picnic lunch before we started on the hike.

Emma and Emily had a great time playing together along the way.

I like this picture with the kids all running ahead and the trees all around.

This was a really cool tree.

Emma and Emily standing next to one of the walls of the outside part of the cave. (No, I did not let the kids go into the cave, way to dangerous!)

The air coming out of the cave was so cold! Daniel loved touching the ice walls.

This is a shot of the inside of the cave. The kids wanted to know why it was "raining" in the cave. The ice was melting all over inside the cave.

This was our first look of at the cave. I was surprised at how big it was! You can kind of see the people standing around it in the picture.

Noah, Emma, Emily and Daniel sitting just outside the cave. It was pretty cold with the wind coming off the snow so we didn't stay very long.

My mom aka Manna and Emily.

I thought this was a funny picture of everyone. It was really hard to get everyone to sit still for a picture!

Daniel

We ran into Kendall's manager from work up at the caves and he was nice enough to take a picture of us.

Family picture.

Noah loved to hide along the trail and then jump out at us. Can you find him in this picture?

Emma and Noah in the hiding place under the tree.

One last break before the end of the trail. It was a wonderful day with minimal whining. We were smart and took a stroller this time so we didn't have to break our backs carrying Daniel.

This year Noah is studying American History. We were reading a book about Jamestown and they mentioned that one of the men was a master carpenter.

Me: "Noah do you know what a master carpenter is?
Noah: "Ya, it's a person who fixes carpets, and makes them look better."
Me: hahaaahaa.

Okay, maybe I shouldn't have laughed but it was so not the answer I was expecting! He was a little embarrassed, but I told him it was a very good guess and it was okay. I did say sorry for laughing too. And I did go on to explain what a master carpenter really does.

Sorry about the lack of new posts of late. School started last week. With school starting up all my time seems to be filled with teaching Noah and trying to keep up with my other normal house keeping/mom duties and I don't seem to have time for any thing else. It is really nice having my mom here as she can help out with the kids and she helps with the cleaning and cooking too. She keeps telling me that she has forgotten how fast kids can mess up a home! So for now, don't give up on me, I will keep posting, just not as often as before.

Life is Busy!

Okay, I know it's been a while since I've posted, sorry. Life has been really really busy! My mom moved in with us a few days after we got back from our trip to Utah. It's been a lot of fun having her here and the kids are just in Heaven!!
My mom brought this little piece of furniture with her and of course the kids had to try it out. I can't believe Noah fit into this little cupboard! Emma had a hard time getting into it. Noah is very ummm, how shall I put this....foldable (If that's even a word).

Look how small that space is!!

Since my mom is here and the weather has been nice I decided it was time to finally paint over all the awful walls in my house! The people who owned the house before us knew NOTHING about painting a house! They painted the kitchen in flat paint (who paints a kitchen in FLAT PAINT??) There were grease stains EVERYWHERE! Also, very strange, some of the living room walls were in flat paint and some were in semi-gloss. I was so excited to finally paint!! Kendall took the kids for the day while my mom and I painted the kitchen. The next Saturday Kendall took the kids again and we painted the hall and living room. I was so sore the next day after 12+ hours of painting. It was all very worth it though. I was kinda frustrated that the pictures don't show the color quite right, but you get the picture.

Okay, Kendall made me put this in the blog. Yes, he also made me ware this the whole time I was Painting! Yes, I know I am a strange person....

Kitchen before...

Kitchen after. I love the blue and it is 110% better then it was!

Living room before...

More living room before....

Living room after. You can't tell very well but the walls are light green.

More kitchen and the darker green in the hall. I LOVE this dark green, I'm just sad that it doesn't look quite right in the pictures.

So painting has been a very big project for us the last few weeks. I have also been getting ready for school to start up again. I home school so it's no small thing for me to get ready for school! We start tomorrow, with Emma going to preschool. I do a co-op type preschool with 5 other moms. It's good for Emma to get out of the house and be around other kids too. Sadly she is the only girl again this year. The kids are so excited to start.

Vacation

We just got back from a trip to Grover, Wyoming and Cedar City Utah. We had a wonderful time visiting with family.

I have to warn you though that there are a ton of pictures in this post.

We left Thursday morning early. The kids were all in good spirits as we started.

This was at the first potty break, kids are still smiling!

My Grandma Alma was traveling from Utah to Washington the same day as we were heading to Utah, so we met up at a little diner for lunch. It was nice to get to see her and visit a little!

Grandma Alma and Emma. The kids know her as "Grandma Cork".

Noah and Grandma Alma.

Grandma gave Daniel some new trucks, which he had a lot of fun playing with in the car!

6 or 7 hours into the trip...nap time!

9 hours into the trip, whining has started....we're in serious trouble!

Okay, I just have to say that when map quest says that it is only 13.5 hours from Marysville, Washington to Grover Wyoming DON'T BELIEVE IT, seriously, it's a lie!!! It took us 18 hours to get there!! We arrived at 12:45am Friday. We all slept in Friday morning. Grover WY is a little town with a population of 120 people. Kendall spent some time there as a child. His Grandmother passed away a few weeks ago and is buried there. I have heard about Grover WY since I was a kid too and have always wanted to visit. Kendall loves this place.

Daniel for some reason still wanted to play in the car, even after an 18 hour car ride the day before!

Daniel and Emma playing in the yard.

This is Kendall's grandmother's house on the farm. Kendall's great grandfather built this house. Some of Kendall's siblings were born in this house.

Daniel's favorite thing about the farm were the cows in the field!

The cows in the field...

Kendall and Daniel watching the cows....I know really exciting, huh!

An old storage shed on the farm.

Two of Kendall's older sisters (who shall remain nameless) once locked Kendall in this shed when he was about 3 or 4 years old and then left him there. His dad just happened to pass by the shed and heard him banging on the door to be let out and rescued him. This picture is of me locking him in the shed, I was nice and let him out though!

This is the old blacksmith on the farm.

Noah sitting on an old piece of farm equipment.

We stayed in Grover till about noon. We had planned on getting up early and driving straight into Cedar City, but an 8 hour drive was not something we thought we could do after the 18 hour drive the day before. We decided to drive to bountiful and spend the night at Kendall's aunt Londa and Grandpa Heaton's house which was only 4 hours away. On our way out of Grover we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Hepworth's grave.

A view of Star Valley from the cemetery.

Another view of Star Valley, pictures don't do it justice, it truly is a beautiful place!

Aunt Londa didn't tell Grandpa Heaton that we were coming, so it was nice to surprise him. They were headed down to Cedar City the same time as we were so on the way out of town we stopped by Grandma Heatons grave also.

Noah took this picture as we were getting ready to head down to Cedar City, as you can see Daniel didn't want to have anything to do with that car seat and it took a while to get him buckled up!

We arrived at Kendall's parent's house (the castle) Saturday around noon. The kids were so excited to be there. The whole trip Noah kept asking if we were in the desert yet.

They had made some swords out of swimming pool noodle and the kids had way to much fun playing with them. Here is Emma, Daniel and Grandpa Hepworth playing with them.

The big kids playing with the swords up on the stage. We also enjoyed playing ping pong during our visit.

Nephi, Liahona and Emma playing in the "reading tub". Emma just loved her aunt Liahona, and Nephi and Helaman.

Okay, this next part I want to say, is something I was against. Noah of course started catching grasshoppers about 7 of them. He convinced Grandma to cook them for him so here he is with Helaman pulling the heads and legs off.

Grandma cooking up the grasshoppers. She really was kind of grossed out about the whole thing.

This is Emma and her cousin Jonah who was born in June. Emma just loved him and was always at his side. I think he liked her too as he would give her some great smiles!

Emma and Jonah.

Okay they had some really fun toys: bows and arrows, blow guns, swords....This is Emma with one of the blow guns, which seem to never leave her side!

Noah would spend hours and hours outside with the blow guns and bow and arrows. The juniper berries provided and endless supply of ammo for the blow guns. He had a pretty good aim too, got me right in the bum!

Emma picking berries for her blow gun.

We took the kids to a really neat park in Cedar and the kids had so much fun.

Emma and Noah at the park.

On Thursday We took the baby goats to the Livestock auction. We have never been to an auction before and the kids had so much fun watching the goats, sheep (there was a ton of sheep) and bulls.

After the auction we headed to the shooting rang. Noah got to shoot Grandpa's old 22, and now is begging for one of his own! We told him he has to be a lot older to get one!

Noah even hit the target a few times!

Next Kendall got to shoot grandma's hand gun.

I was really nervous about shooting, as I have never shot a hand gun before! But it wasn't so bad.

This is Garrison, Helaman and Daniel just hanging out at Jenna's house and playing with a ball.

Doesn't Kendall look cute in a cowboy hat! :)

Emma saying goodbye to Helaman. I think Emma has had her first crush, to bad he's her uncle and 11 years older!

I just thought this was a funny picture of Emma and her wild hair!