Elizabeth is completely obsessed with plastic princess shoes.  She wears them from early in the morning until bedtime. When we leave the house she wears regular shoes, but when we are home, she goes downstairs to play with the shoes.
 We have four pair (Thanks to Uncle Adam and Aunt Katie) from when Emily was two years old, and also loved princess stuff.  Lizzie likes to rotate through them, but she usually always has the correct pair on together. It's so adorable. 
It's so funny to see her walk in high heeled shoes.
Lizzie is such a little diva!

Taylor and Emily made these cool haunted houses out of cereal boxes this week, they had tons of fun creating their spooky houses.

Here's Isaaac and his lady friends eating lunch one day.  He sure looks happy about it!

Our Honday Odyssey hit 100,000 miles this week. It's been a fantastic car for our family.  I can't believe we've had it almost five years!

This is Lizzie's seat while driving around all day.  She is pretty good in the car while we drive carpools etc.. As long as she has a snack, books to look at, and her "milky" sippy cup.  She whines then work "milky' when she says it.

The kids are winding down their soccer season, before winter starts.  Taylor scored two goals at his game on Saturday! 

The kids had some Halloween parties, parades at school on Friday.  Emily is a butterfly and Taylor is an alien.

Here's Natalie after a rainy run in Portland, OR.  She placed 4th overall and did great!  Way to run Natalie!

The weather was so warm we decided to carve our pumpkins Sunday after church.  Everyone had fun scooping seeds, eating the roasted seeds, and designing their pumpkins. 
Elizabeth gets all excited when she sees pumpkins on porches.  She says "punkey's, punkey's" and then laughs.

We can't wait for Halloween!!!

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Emily's birthday on Wednesday.  She has turned into such a beautiful girl, from an adorable little baby.

The night before her bday she went on her Birthday date with
G & G Shields.  They go out for dessert and then to the bookstore to choose a book. She was thrilled with her choices.

On her actual bday Emily chose Lucky Charms for breakfast. 

She went to school and was given cards, etc.. by her class friends.
After school we did homework, played, and then she went to soccer practice. 

After her practice she wanted to eat at Red Robin for dinner.  So we headed there for burgers & fries.  They also gave her a huge ice cream dessert with a brownie, hot fudge, whipped cream etc.. But it was eaten so fast I couldn't get a picture.

Lizzie has been torturing Emily all week by stealing all of her Bday stuff and playing with it.  She has stolen her Zu Zu pets, tea set, and Art sruff, and then she runs arouns yelling "mine, Mine!"
Emily is so patient with her and just laughs and then shares.
Happy 7th Bday!!!

Emily is 7!

Happy Birthday Emily!
I can't believe it's already been seven years since she was born.  
We were thrilled when Emily was born, to learn that it was a girl! Taylor was a sweet big brother to her, and loved her right from the start. 

Emily was a calm, mellow baby, with a big beautiful smile.
She has brought so much joy, love and kindness into our family.

I think she looks similar to Lizzie, and they both have the same mischievious smile.

Here's 7 things we love about Emily:
1. Emily is a planner; she likes to plan her day, week and weekend out ahead of time.  She likes to know what's going on and what we will be eating for meals etc...
(she gets that from her mom)

2.  Emily has a contagious smile, and laugh.  She gets really goofy when she's tired or with her cousins/friends.

3. Emily is a wonderful, sweet sister to Taylor, Isaac,  and Lizzie. She is so kind to everyone. She tolerates a lot before she gets angry.

4. Emily is a great helper, and doesn't whine when asked to do things. She helps around the house so much, especially with Lizzie!

5. Emily is smart; always asking questions and learning about things. She is doing great in first grade, and enjoys learning.

6.  Emily is a fantastic friend, she shares her stuff, plays well with other and has lots of friends!  She plays great with boys & girls.

7.  Emily is an overall amazing daugher- we feel so blessed to have her in our family. 

We love you Emily, Happy Birthday!!!

Fall Break



We had Fall Break this week and the kids had no school for three days!  It was fun to relax and spend time doing fun things and have no schedule.  We went to the zoo on Wednesday with some friends, it was a perfect day to be outside!



We saw the cousins on Thursday and played at the park, made forts and spider cookies and had a sleepover too.  It's always great to spend time with the cousins.

Talyor tries to help and play with Lizzie but it usually ends with her crying about something.  She doesn't like having people tell her what to do.

When Lizzie gets grumpy in the car, she cheers up if I give her some chapstick.  She usually eats it like a sucker, but it keeps her happy!

Saturday we went to Goofy Grandma & grandpa's house. We had a great BBQ dinner and then picked pumpkins from their garden  The kids were all thrilled to choose their own pumpkin.  Taylor's was huge, he could barely carry it.
We also celebrated Emily's Bday early with cupcakes, ice-cream and opening gifts. 
We had a fun night spending time with them!

Then on Sunday we had a family dinner with the Shields to celebrate the October Birthdays; Emily, Rebecca & Turner.  It was another fun party, with cake and the spanking machine!
Emily is going to be spoiled by the end of this Birthday week!
I can't believe she is going to be 7!

We've been trying to spend as much time as possible playing outside, before the weather gets cold.  Lizzie and Isaac love spending the morning at the park.

Isaac is such a good big brother to Lizzie.  He plays with her, shares, helps her and rarely gets mad at her (even when she steals his stuff or breaks his legos).  It makes me happy to see my kids playing with each other, smiling and enjoying themselves. 

Looking cute in her nightgown, ready to eat breakfast.

This tree is at the church behind out house, the leaves are so beatutiful right now.  I love fall, but wish winter wasn't coming!

Taylor was wrestling with Elizabeth during Emily's soccer game.

The exciting news of our weekend was that Isaac learned how to ride his two wheeler bike!  He's been so close to riding it all summer, but hasn't had the courage to just do it!

Yesterday I forced him outside and bribed him with a trip to the store to choose any treat he wanted, and it worked!  He was so happy and proud of himself.  How he wants to go on bike rides every chance he gets. 

Lizzie all ready for church and making funny faces. 

Isaac fell asleep sitting up, and a volleyball game. I guess he was tired from biking so much!

This week we went to Wheeler Farm with some friends.  The kids loved seeing the animals and riding on the tractors.  It really feels like fall now, the air is cold and crisp in the mornings.

Taylor has been anxiously awaiting this book
"The Mark of Athena" to come out.  It was released on Tuesday, so he rushed home from school and hurriedly did his homework so he could read it.  It was a good incentive for him, he has been mowing and doing random chores to earn the money $ to buy the book.   He loves this book series, and stays awake late at night reading.

On Friday night we took the kids to Frightmares at Lagoon.  Lizzie stayed home with Grandma & Grandma Deppe
 (which was so nice-she would have been awful).

It was the perfect night at Lagoon, there were no crowds or waiting in lines, and the kids had a blast!  We made Isaac go on a few scary rides, and he did great.  Emily was brave also, and even went on a few that went upside down.  Taylor is crazy and loves the really wild/scary rides and wanted to do them over and over.  After a while Danny & I had headaches, so he would just ride them alone while we waited for him .  It was nice because we didn't spend any time waiting in lines.
By 8:30 we were done with the rides, and were all tired and cold-so we went home to warm up.   

We had a wonderful General Conference weekend.  It's always so nice to relax at home and and get spiritually rejuvenated listening to the talks.  The kids played witht the cousins while watching conference, they did arts and crafts for over an hour.

Taylor and Danny went downtown to the Conference Center for the Sunday afternoon sesssion.  They had a great experience, and learned a lot from those inspiring talks.

Taylor is growing up too quickly, he will be 12 in just over two years!  It's crazy how fast time goes. 
I wish I could freeze time right now, and keep my kids little forever.  I love this stage of our family. It's exhausting and sometimes crazy and overwhelming, but I love it and wouldn't change a thing.