And so it goes

Back to school. Again. The girls were so excited and could hardly wait to leave the house. Meagan had a hard time getting to sleep the night before; I think it was 11:00 before she finally fell asleep! Meagan wanted to ride the bus with her friends the first day, but Lindsay wanted me to take her (thanks Linds).

The traditional "sit on the front step, first day of school" picture

Meagan, 4th grade

See how antsy she's getting with my picture taking....she's actually looking over at her friends at the bus stop.

....Lindsay, not as antsy, had time to pose :)

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While walking Lindsay to her first day of 3rd grade, I let Tanner and Ellie wear their new shoes too. Tanner LOVES his new shoes. He even stopped random people in the hall to show them his new shoes.....true story.

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Today, Day 2 of school for the girls, and Tanner is having a tough time with waiting 2 more weeks until his preschool starts. We made a paper chain this morning to hopefully help with the 20 times a day, "Is preschool today Mom?" I'm glad he's so excited.

The kids watched Minute to Win It last night.....this is Tanner's made up version. I found him and Ellie playing it this morning. He even does the countdown. Funny.

Happy Back to School to ya'll!

yummmmmm

I love Sunday afternoons. Church is over (not that I don't love church, I do; but just that my weekly responsibility is over and I can relax), I can take a nap if I want, the kids are somewhat occupied, and if I'm really lucky, my hubby makes dinner. That's what happened today. He really outdid himself today. Steak and shrimp! Yummmmm! AND he made dessert: Huckleberry Crisp. This recipe is one of my favorites for summer (or anytime of year for that matter) - it came from my SIL Steph. Trust me, you'll love it too!

Oatmeal Crisp

3/4 cup quick oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 can pie filling (any flavor)

Spread pie filling on the bottom of a small casserole dish (8x8 size (I actually have an 11x7 that I use and it works good)). Mix oats, sugar, flour and butter together and spread on top of pie filling. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. And of course, serve it HOT with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Easy and yummy.

If you've never tried huckleberries before, they're delicious. Kind of a like a blueberry, but smaller and more ...tart. I guess. We made our own pie filling (you can use any fruit for this).
1 cup fruit (if you're doing something other than berries, like peaches, I'd probably mash some of them up and keep some of them sliced)
1 cup water
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar
2 TBSP cornstarch
Put fruit, water, and sugar in a saucepan. Add a little bit of cold water to the cornstarch in a separate cup then add to the saucepan. Heat to bubbling and a thicker consistency, then remove from heat.

I know I just gave you a recipe for the pie filling, but I think we've tried the oatmeal crisp using canned fruit or even fresh fruit (like peaches) and it works good too. ......Peach Days is coming soon!

Fashion statements and Friends

Don't you always scooter in your princess heels?

Ellie does!

I totally had the cutest video of her too, but I can't figure out how to get it on here. Oh well, the pictures are hilarious as it is! Love her!!!

Our super cute and super fun neighbors came over to ride with the kids!

~Meagan, Emma, Lindsay, Hyrum, Ellie, Abbie, and Tanner~

Happy Thursday Evening to ya'll!!!

A Weekend with Jessica

Clear back in July we had our niece, Jessica, stay with us for a few days. She was such a joy to have and I could've kept her for a month! Thanks Melissa and Troy for letting us have her! For FHE we hiked to the M:

Lindsay and Jessie on the "M"

Cheese face!

Maybe cheese face runs in the family?!

They both look like they've done something naughty ;)
And just so my mom doesn't have a heart attack looking at this picture: NO, Tanner is not going to tumble right down the mountain, you just can't see the GENTLE, LONG slope behind him. No worries, okay?

On a different day, we stopped and got us a sno cone......delicious!

So goofy!

Thanks for staying with us Jess!!!!

Buckle up....it's a long one

So I haven't posted in quite awhile....as evidenced by this ginormous post. I guess that's what summer will do to ya!

First off, the Drive-In Movie: Toy Story 3
As soon as summer started, we made chore charts for the kids. If they completed their chores for the day they could put a sticker on their chart. Once the chart was filled up our family would go and do something fun. It took about 2 weeks for them to fill up their first chart. They decided to go to the drive-in movie...just in time for Toy Story 3!

We've got a good system all figured out. Turn the back seat around, add lots of pillows and blankets, add a few camp chairs, and of course.....the treats!!!!

Passing the time while we waited for the movie to start. It took FOREVER!!!

....but everyone had fun!

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A couple weeks later, the kids filled their second chore chart and decided to go to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. We picked the worst day to go I think. In my opinion, the Dinosaur Park is cool, but all you're really doing is walking around and then playing on the playground. Fun, but not super awesome. The day we went just so happened to be the day they had a big fundraiser. They had those big blow-up carnival type rides there (bounce house, slide, etc) and of course, that's much cooler than just walking around. But you had to buy a ticket for each thing. I know I'm just being cheap, but c'mon, these family outings are supposed to be realitively inexpensive. And when you've got 4 kids things add up quick; so we avoided the rides as much as possible. Meag and Linds were super good about not going on the rides, but Tanner didn't get it. Thankfully, we got there at the end of the day and they started taking things down after about 45 minutes. We ended up having a really fun time and they played forever at the playground.

Just to let you know, I edited quite a few pictures.......Meagan wanted her picture taken by just about every dinosaur in the park. :)

Lindsay

I think the slide was a little hot!

Ohhhhh Tanner. He lives with 3 sisters, what can we say.

Meagan had a great idea.....stand under this dinosaur and pretend he's going to eat you! Cute.

These pictures make me laugh every time I look at them.

Meag's face kills me....."Uh Mom, did you get the picture yet, I can't stand here much longer."

If only I could figure out how to get that prison home......only kidding! (ok, half kidding)

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Doesn't Ellie look so sweet sleeping...

Oh yeah. Major tantrum. Threw every last thing out of her crib...I guess she showed me (or we'll just let her think she did) ;)

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Summer Tennis Lessons

Despite what it looks like in these pictures, Lindsay really enjoyed herself.

Both girls improved quite a bit. Poor Tanner was so sad that he couldn't go too.

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Bear Lake

What's a summer without going to the lake?!

The lake has gone down a bit and left behind lots of "puddles" (huge puddles I guess) separated from the lake by sand bars......a little murky, but lots lots warmer!

We always have to come back with more shells.

Eating some delicious strawberries...they were so yummy! You can kind of see the "puddle" on the far left.

This girl is cute! And full of spunk! Ellie absolutely LOVED the beach! She referred to the lake as the "big water"....in comparison to the "puddle".