November - December

I can't get my picture to load to blogger in the order I would like so they are all mixed up. Of course we are starting off with the "DOG" The kids thought this was a great halloween costume for him an old tank top and his ears tied back. The kids had so much fun though and he didn't mind them messing with him. Hanna's birthday party She was so lucky to have family in town for Thanksgiving so we had a fun party We love uncle Josh Grandma Carter surrounded by her grandkids Aunt Mari stayed with us and fixed the girls hair so cute. You can't really tell from the pictures but it was so so so cute! Halloween - Prisbrey kids and cousin Lily (dressed as a queen) Carter loves noodle and tackles him at least 20 times every day. Noodle just endures! This is the best tree in the whole world. My kids have had countless hours of fun climbing and swinging on it. It's a mess in the fall, but makes up for it the rest of the year.

My 1/2 Marathon

Well this was in November but I'm finally loading the pictures from 2 months ago onto the computer. I would like to thank my sis-in-law Sara for these professional photo's and also for making me act like a fool for the photo's. A half marathon is 13.1 miles and my friends and I chose one that has 1200 feet elevation change and about 6 miles up hill...augh!!! I won't say it was fun, and I won't say that I plan on running another. I will say that I learned a lot from running and I'm surprised how much my new insights have carried over into other areas of my life. I hate to admit it but I've hardly run over the past two months and now as I'm sitting here typing about it I really miss it. Maybe I'll go run....tomorrow...

Family pictures

My friend Wendy just got a new super cool lense for her camera and wanted practice taking family pictures. We were happy to humor her and went down by the river on halloween. I like her photographer fee - free!

Carter's Preschool

Carter's preschool had picture day a few weeks ago. There are 7 girls and 3 boys in his class - I guess that works for him since he's used to girls out numbering boys.

My Allie girl, I love taking pictures of her almost as much as she loves having her picture taken! Carter's first day of preschool. I can't believe that I have all 4 kids in school at one time (even if its only for 2 hours, 3 days a week). I can't believe that he is big enough for school and I dread the day that I can't pick him up and squeeze him! I thought that I would get so much done while he was at school but now I find that I am busier than ever and I don't know where my time is going, augh! The girls first day of school. They all get on the bus together and then come home together in the afternoon. I love that they have each other! Crazy Faces (I should also mention here that I basically took the whole summer off of fixing hair. It just wasn't my thing and I didn't take the time to do it. They were still clean kids, just not fixed-up kids.) Introducing -Noodle the Doodle- Sometimes I like having a dog, other times I wonder what I was thinking! It's hard to be the mom that doesn't want a dog when the whole rest of the family wants a dog so bad. I am really taking one for the team with this dog! He is very well behaved and I'm not allergic to him so those are both pro's but he likes to follow me around the house after the kids go to bed and I wish he understood me when I tell him, "This is my alone time!!!!" Noodle is a labradoodle, he was born in May, he loves the river just as much as the rest of the family and yes, he is way bigger than I thought he would be!

The Boise River

One of our favorite things here is the river and now we wonder how we ever lived without a river close. We go to this spot a lot because it has a pretty shallow spot that the girls can float around on tubes safely and then a place to play in the sand or build a dam or read a book. We also see little water snakes and tiny fish. A great way to spend a summer day!

Bear World - Rexburg Idaho

We had a blast at this place. You could drive your car around a little forest and see the bears, wolves, deer, and other animals right out your car window. Susan was there just a few years ago and it was pretty cheap. We went and it is now $75 per car and it only takes about 10 minutes to drive through but we decided it was worth it because we had crammed about 11 of us in my van. So we drove through 3 times and laughed a little harder each time and then we spent a lot of time in the little petting zoo and on kiddie rides. We had so much fun.

Yellowstone

The kids and I took a little mini-vacation with some of my family. My niece Katie was performing in the opera at BYU-Idaho and so we drove the 4+ hours to watch her. While we were there we drove up into yellowstone. For kids yellowstone is kind of just a day in the car, they kept asking when are we going to be there and I would say, "we are there!" It was still a lot of fun! This is most of our group by a pretty waterfall above Jenny's Lake A boat ride around Jenny's lake We stopped at some "hotpots" and they stunk like sulfer. There was all this mist coming up off the ground and it really was pretty gross, but everyone else was walking around taking pictures so we followed suit. Notice the buffalo in the background. Carter didn't want to be in this picture but I had Hanna hold him there and told him he would thank me for it one day :) I'm sure there will come a time when he wonders if he saw a buffalo when he was in Yellowstone and now I have the picture to prove he did! As a side note: Old Faithful went off while we were eating lunch about a mile away and we saw the steam shooting up in the air. The traffic was so bad that we decided that was good enough because we didn't want to wait another 90 minutes for it to go off again. Now I'm thinking maybe we are pary poopers!