Good big sister

Often times I will walk into a room and find Sadie sharing a seat on the baby bouncer with Riley.  She will keep her happy for a long time.  She loves to make her laugh and smile.  It is fun to watch.

Fall Leaves

Fall in Utah is beautiful!  I forget every year how much I love fall until I see the leaves starting to change colors again.  There are a ton of trees around the canal so in the fall there are leaves everywhere!  The kids love it.  So one warm-ish day we walked down there to play in the leaves.

 First I needed a picture of course!

 Then they let the fun begin!

 I think I was picking leaves out of their hair for a few days after this.

 For a service project for one of Rob's mutual activity they raked leaves around the neighborhood.  Rob got some of the leaves for our garden.  THe kids had a blast spreading them all out.

 Emery probably stayed out there the longest playing with the leaves.  She had found a ton of ladybugs and put them on the ground and was playing with them and the leaves together.  In this dance outfit.  Of course.  ha ha

Back to Idaho

 Last week we went back up to Idaho again to visit Rob's parents.  It is really nice being only 5.5 hours away rather than 9+ hours away.  The last trip we made up there was pretty good, but Riley did cry quite a bit and didn't sleep much.  We thought that maybe she wasn't comfortable in her car seat.  Emery was the same way it seemed like and she had the same car seat.  So we went and got one that can be rear facing or forward facing and gave it a try.  It worked like a charm!

 She was a pretty happy traveler this time around.  

 Rob's sister Crys came up with us (I can't believe I didn't get ANY pictures of her!!!) so I got to share the back seat with Sadie and Zac.  It was rather fun, but kind of a tight squeeze.  Those booster seats can be pretty wide. 

 Riley enjoyed playing with toys and playing peek-a-boo with me, but most of the time she looked like this:

 She really slept most of the way.  Both ways.  It was great.

 As we were driving up we ran into quite a bit of snow.  It was seventeen degrees on this day, but two days later it was down in the single digits.  Crazy cold.  I'm so glad ROb is comfortable driving in the snow.  He got us there and back safely.

 We went straight to the rehab hospital place where Rob's dad is and gave him a visit.  It was so so so good to see him feeling so much better than the last time we visited.  He is making some great progress!  Riley said hello first.

 Then Zac showed grandpa a card that was sent to him (I don't know who sent it) but it sang a song.  My kids played that card over and over and over and...well, you get it.

 Then they had to she Riley.  It was pretty funny.

 Then we made the trip back to where we were staying.  Too bad we didn't bring our snow gear!  Zac played outside in his crocs.  ha ha.  

 Then they came in and warmed up under our blanket.

 Grandma stayed with us that night and gave the kids a ride in the spinning chair.  They are lucky...I usually tell them no because it makes me feel sick just watching them spin.  ha ha

 Rob got the fun job of scraping the car off.  It snowed 6.5 inches I think.  Crazy. 

 While we were visiting grandpa, they transferred him to a fancy wheelchair and he showed us the PT gym.  First Zac got a ride.

 Then Sadie got a ride...

 And of course we couldn't leave Emery out.  I think we probably wore him out so we decided to make the trek back home.  Thanks to Crys who stayed home with Riley for us!

 We left for home early the next day because Sadie had a birthday party to go to.  :)  She better really appreciate us waking up at 4:45 am.  ha ha.  I looked over at one point in the drive to see this lovely scene.  See that drool?  ha ha.  He is so cute!  We made it back safely thanks to Rob's expert driving skills. Until next time...

Halloween

 A few weeks late, but I wanted to document our Halloween costumes this year. 

 This was for our ward party.  Emery was a Minnie Mouse ballerina, Zac was Buz Lightyear, and Sadie and her friend Payton were Elsa. Emery was supposed to be Ana, but she didn't want to and I didn't feel like fighting that battle. 

 This was Halloween morning.  Sadie had the day off of school so we lounged around in jammies and tried on some fun mustaches.  

Then in the evening, Luke and Taylor came over.  Riley hung out with William for a while on his blanket.  Aren't they both so cute?!?!  Love William's face in this picture. 

 

 Here is the crew before they set out trick or treating. (I kept Riley home of course) Zac changed his costume to the Flash, and Emery is now wearing one of Sadie's old dance outfits.  Sadie is the only one who stuck with her original costume.  ha ha.  

This was our last minute costume for the church party.  We are bank robbers, and Riley is our bag of money.  He he.  Maybe I'll try a little harder next year...

Can you guess which baby is which?

 There are two pictures of each child.  I'll post the answers in the comments.  Good luck!  It was really fun looking back at all of my kids as babies.  Why do they have to grow up so fast???  Oh well, they just keep getting more cute!

 1.

 2.

 3.

 4.

5.

6.

 7. 

8.

Riley

 Riley is just shy of three and a half months old.  I can't believe it!  She is just such a cutie!  Zac tells me about twenty times a day that "she's a cutie huh?"  ha ha.  I love it.  She is very calm and mellow.  The only time that she cries is when she gets startled (by a big brother who loves to yell BOO at her...ha ha) or when she is tired.

 She normally sleeps wrapped up like a burrito (that way she doesn't startle herself awake with her arms) but this day she fell asleep in my arms and I put her down and I just thought she looked so comfy.  ha ha.  Of course, not ten minutes later she woke herself up by moving her arms.  

 She is liking her Bumbo chair.  So glad I got this!  She mostly likes to stand up, but she will sit in this until she falls over to one side and can't recover.  

She is such a smiley, happy baby.  We love her so much!

Pumpkin patch

We took the kids to a pumpkin patch last week.  We had been driving past a few in our neighborhood for weeks so the kids were really excited that we could actually go and pick out some pumpkins to take home.  (Last year we didn't need to buy any pumpkins because our garden produced a lot of them...but we didn't have room to plant any this year.)  So we got a quick family shot (minus Rob) and then let the kids run wild among the pumpkins!
 

There was a sign that said we were supposed to find the perfect pumpkin...Sadie took it very seriously.  ha ha.  She looked at lots of different pumpkins before she chose hers.

Sisters.

Then the kids got a ride to the very end of the patch so we could see ALL of the pumpkins before picking the perfect one.  Rob is such a fun dad.  

Zac liked trying to pick up the big ones.  ha ha

Then there was a fun tractor to climb on.  

Here is daddy showing off his muscles.  Look...one hand!

Zac driving Sadie on the tractor.

Emery.  She could barely reach the steering wheel!

And of course we couldn't leave Rob out! Hah!

The corn pit was strategically placed right by where you stand in line to pay for your pumpkins...so while Rob waited in line, I watched the kids swim in the corn.

And Zac did cannonballs over and over.

RIght before we left, the kids HAD to climb the hay bales.  By the way, I love that in all of these pictures Sadie's hair is crazy.  It was crazy hair day at school!

Riley even enjoyed the trip!  Can't wait to do it again next year!