Updated Family Pictures

All I can say is thank goodness for a very talented sister in law that takes some AMAZING pictures!  I seriously don't know what we'd do without her.  As always, she graciously agreed to take a bunch of pictures of our family this last weekend and they turned out wonderful!

Here's the family - I'm continually amazed at how we get a good one every time she takes them.

Here's Zach (8 years old).

Here's Hailey, our little princess (almost 6 years old).

And of course our little Bubba.  Tate is 16 months old.

We were also able to snag a picture of Nana and Papa with the grandkids for their yearly grandkid picture.  It was a bit rough the first go-round when Tate started crying and got Libby going.  But after some resting and a couple of other pictures, both of them calmed down enough to get a good one.  They aren't really smiling, but at this point, we were just happy they weren't crying!

In all, a very successful photo shoot, despite all the stress and crying.  Again, thanks to my sister-in-law for helping us get some fabulous pictures - you are the best!  We are so very happy with the results!

(P.S.  For members of our family - we had these printed today and they will be in the mail on their way to you tomorrow!)

Looking for a Good Necklace?

Tate has found one that is stylish and festive (yes that's a soft trick-or-treat bag with frankenstein on it). 

Silly boy, where does he come up with these ideas?



Crazy Hair Day

Last week at school was Red Ribbon Week or Say No To Drugs Week.  During the week the school always has days where the kids can do or wear something fun and crazy.  The best day of the whole week was Crazy Hair Day.  Hailey has seen Zach have so much fun with crazy hair day that she has been dying for it to be her turn to wear her hair all crazy!

Zach of course had to have a mohawk.

For some reason, he thinks this hairdo is just the neatest thing ever!

Hailey was a bit more picky on what she wanted.  In fact, she took all morning thinking about it and finally settled on some bobbies all over her head.

I thought she looked so cool! 

The back was definitely my favorite!



She was a little nervouse that everyone would laugh at her when we got to school, but once we picked up her friend to carpool, she felt much better because the two of them had the exact same hairdo!

And it turned out her worries were for nothing because everyone had crazy hair that day and thought her hair looked really neat.  She came home all excited to tell me all about how crazy everyone's hair was and how much her teacher loved her crazy hair!

Now we're already planning for next year's crazy hair day - we can hardly wait!

The Circus

Two weeks ago (gasp, has it really been that long and I haven't posted about this yet????), we took the kids to the circus for Family Home Evening.  We found a great deal on a smaller circus that was coming to Orem and decided we would take the kids.  They have actually been to a larger circus before - a couple years ago and they loved it, so we were pretty sure they would enjoy this one too.

We got there plenty early as our tickets were for the general admission seats and we wanted to get ones as close as possible.  Of course, because we got there so early and they were really late starting, we ended up waiting over an hour.  The kids were a bit restless and were so happy once they got going.  Here's Jeremiah and the kids waiting patiently.

And of course here's Tate and I on the other end of the row. 

Tate was definitely back and forth between Jeremiah and I during the waiting time, but he stayed on my lap during the entire show.  He did really good and was interested in almost everything he saw.  He especially loved the elephants at the end and was mesmerized the entire time they performed. 

Unfortunately, just as they were getting going, they informed the audience that taking pictures of the show was definitely not allowed, so I only got pictures of us sitting in our seats.  Very exciting, I know, but even though there are only pictures of us, we had a great time and think we'll try to go again the next time they come to town.

Flag Football Season

We have been looking forward to the next sport season for Zach for a few months now.  At last, mid September got here and the start of Flag Football.  This is only Zach's second year playing flag football, but he is really doing well.  We have loved watching him learn new things at practice and then implementing them during his games. 

This year Zach's team is wearing a lime green shirt and their team name is the Cobras.  Isn't he cute?

This year the league is for 3rd and 4th graders, so there are quite a few kids older and taller than him.  But he did great.

As usual, Jeremiah was roped into being the assistant coach.  It's been a lot of time away and a lot less help with the other two on the sideline, but it's been fun for the two of them to do this together, so it's been worth it.  Jeremiah was mostly in charge of defense, so it was fun to see the two of them out there when they were on defense.

Zach's main position on offense was the center.  He was about the only one who could snap the ball decently, in fact he was leaps and bounds above all of the others.  I don't think they fumbled the snap once with him as the center.

During the last half of the season, the main coach realized that Zach could perform well as quarterback as well, so he's been having fun doing a few plays as quarterback during each game.

 

He's also played extremely well at blocking.  He seems to understand the concept and does a great job creating a gap for the runner on his team.  He definitely reminded me of his Uncle Taylor when he did such a wonderful job blocking - he had a great example on how to do it right!

One of the other things he's been able to do is kick-off.  He's actually got quite a good foot on him.

 

As exciting as the games are, the sidelines are almost equally as exciting.  Between Tate and Hailey, it seems there was always something interesting going on.  Tate has determined that he is old enough to get out of the stroller and sit on a little kids camp chair.  He loves it and spends most of his time getting in and out of the chair, as well as ...

... playing with a spare football.  He was hilarious, he would walk around with it, throw it, pick it up, sit down with it, etc. - you get the picture.  He just loved it and couldn't enjoy the game without it.  I think he's aspiring to be just like his older brother.

We've loved having Nana and Papa come and see a game or two so far as well.  It's always great to have more than just Tate, Hailey, and I cheering on the sidelines!

Zach has a few more games left and we'll be sad when the season ends again.  Although the practices have been many and a little tiresome, we've loved watching Zach play!

Gymnastics!

With much anticipation and a summer off, we finally got to the starting day of gymnastics for Hailey.  We gave her the choice between gymnastics, dance, and cheerleading this fall and at first she couldn't decide, next she would rotate between all of them and it would be different each time we would ask, but finally she settled on gymnastics.

Since she is in afternoon kindergarten, we were able to find a morning class to put her in and it works really nicely with our schedule.  Especially since when we started, we found out another friend of hers from our ward is in her class as well!

After a few classes, it was obvious that she remembered quite a bit from the previous class she had taken and although she wasn't perfect, she did remarkably well.

Here she is on the balance beam.

And on the uneven bars.

They even did a little bit of work on the parallel bars.

And then finally had fun running and jumping on the springboard as well as up and down on the mats.

She is absolutely darling to watch and we are so happy that she is having such a great time. 

Daddy Season

Ever seen Looney Toones?  Remember the scene with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd?  It always went something like this:

Elmer Fudd:  Ssshhh, be verwy verwy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Bugs Bunny:  Rabbit season?  What?  No, it's Duck Season!
Daffy Duck:  No, it's rabbit season!
Bugs Bunny:  Duck season!
Daffy Duck:  Rabbit season!
and on and on and on.

Keep this in mind as you read this post because at our house:

It's not Rabbit Season ...

It's not Duck Season ...

It's DADDY SEASON!

Zachary:  Be verwy verwy quiet, I'm loading my gun ...

Zachary: and practicing my aim because it's ...

Zachary:  DADDY SEASON!

Oh no, it looks like the tables have turned and the hunted is now the hunter!

Don't shoot the picture takers!  Hailey, Tate, and I are innocent bystanders!

There you go, maybe it's not Daddy Season, it's Zachary Season!

Ah, finally got his gun back - funny how everyone wants to shoot us three!

Off on another hunting expedition, wonder who he's hunting this time?!?

Too funny!  Zach always likes to follow his dad around with his gun while he's mowing the lawn.  I'm not sure what prompted this whole idea, but it's pretty funny to watch.  Yep, at our house, every lawn mowing day is Daddy Season!

P.S.  No innocent bystanders (or onlookers) were harmed in the making of this post!