Sleepin' Monkey

I've been looking through pictures on my phone and found these. They aren't the best quality pictures because I still have a dumb phone, but you'll still get the idea

only made it to the top of the stairs

Mouth wide Open

Like Father Like Son

Zangeef, get some clothes on!

So Tired

Asleep before dinner

Found outside his room at 11pm

Playing at the park

                                                                       

I LOVE his face in the morning

 

It would appear that this kid only sleeps! I love that he can fall asleep anywhere, clothed or naked, upright or laying down. Tate is such an important part of our family and is constantly making us laugh. He is our sweet, crazy, funny boy. I guess it requires that much sleep to be that awesome! We love you Taters



A Little Family Rivalry

It's that time of year again: the leaves start to change colors, the weather starts to feel cool and crisp, holidays are just around the corner, and college football season is in full swing. The last part I really don't care about at all. It does still affect me however. Spencer and Ayden bleed blue, Cougar Blue to be exact. They religiously follow their team and cheer, yell, rally, and yes sometimes cry for their team! They record and watch every game so they can agonize over the loss or cheer over the victory. It's quite comical how serious it can get.
When we found out that BYU was playing Utah State University (my alma mater) in Logan, we thought it would be fun to attend the game as a family. Over the weeks leading up to the game, there was friendly banter back and forth about whose team would actually win. My Aggies have actually had a decent year so I thought we'd have a good chance of beating Spencer and Ayden's inconsistent Cougars.
As is typical Utah fall weather, the weather leading up to the Friday night game was crazy. One day it was in the 70s and the next it was freezing. On Friday morning, we actually woke up to a few inches of snow on the ground. So we prepared ourselves for a very cold game. We packed lots of blankets, coats, hats and gloves. And to throw another hitch in the plans, Tate ended up being very sick with a nasty cold and cough. We decided with the cold weather, he probably shouldn't go. Thankfully Aunt Dani came to the rescue and let Tate stay with her for the afternoon and night.
We drove up to Logan and arrived at 3:30pm for the 6pm game. We thought we'd be there early to get good seats for our general admission tickets. Wrong! There were huge lines already formed with fans for both teams waiting to get in. There were lines that wrapped down the street and around the corner of the stadium. It was fun to talk with people in line and banter with them about what team would win. Most found it funny that we were a "house divided" between BYU and USU. At the start of the game Spencer, Steve and Ayden were cheering for BYU and Ellie, Carson (Ayden's friend) and I were cheering for USU.

Watching the teams warm up before the game

We didn't have any Aggie gear for Ellie so we had to improvise and turn her BYU shirt inside out and tape an 'A' on it.  We actually ended up with pretty good seats in the end zone. Of course, we were surrounded by Aggie fans. That didn't deter Spencer from being an overly exuberant BYU fan! He was pretty loud and at one point Ellie covered her ears and ducked her head and said "Dad, you're embarrassing me!" After the first 2 BYU touchdowns, Ellie betrayed me and switched her loyalties to BYU. She had Spencer turn her shirt back out and cheered for BYU the rest of the game.

But I forgave her quickly and we enjoyed teasing each other about our teams.

Ayden and his buddy Carson had a blast watching the game and being boys. They ate everything in sight and went to the bathroom 5 times, not kidding. They had smaller bladders than the 34 week pregnant lady!

I'm glad we went to the game. It was so much fun to be at the stadium and to be in that environment. We all had fun teasing and bantering about the teams. Even though my team lost substantially, 31 to 14, I am so glad we went. It honestly is best that the Aggies lost because I don't think the car ride home would have been endurable if BYU lost. They would have been pouting and mad!

Smoke Detectors, Showers and Tears

This morning started out as a normal morning. Ayden and Ellie woke up early to get ready for school and I got into the shower to get ready for work. Tate was still snoozing, snuggled in the covers. I was in the middle of washing my hair and had conditioner in it when the smoke detectors started going off. I honestly wasn't too worried about it and started to ignore it with the intention of finding out what was going on after I was out of the shower and dressed. Right about this time I hear my older 2 children yelling "Fire!! Fire!! Fire!!" Which caught my attention a little more. Ayden bursts into the bathroom yelling "Mom! The smoke detectors are going off. We have to go!" Then Ellie starts yelling "Ah, I'm naked! I've got to get dressed." And she rushes out. By this time, I'm still not worried about a real fire, but very curious as to what's really going on. I quickly got dressed and went out to investigate. I find Ayden sitting on his bed wiping tears from his eyes. Ellie is still naked trying to get underwear on quickly. And Tate (who had been abruptly woken up because of the smoke detectors and frantic older siblings) is standing by Ayden shivering.  The whole situation was quite comical!
There was no fire, just the smell of burned dust. We had gotten out the kids' small space heaters for their rooms and Ayden had turned it on for the first time. Because it sat all spring/summer, it had some dust built up inside. So when he turned it on, it burned the layer of dust. For some reason that smell was enough to trigger all the smoke detectors upstairs. Glad to know they work! My poor kids! I'm so proud of them for knowing what to do in case of fire: alert an adult and get ready to leave. (thank you FHE lesson). Here's hoping tomorrow morning is less eventful! 

Dinner Helper

Tonight for dinner, I decided to make home made chicken noodle soup and corn bread. It's the first colder day of the season: 50 degrees and stormy. I love it! It totally put me in the mood for warm soup. Tate was my little helper in the kitchen.  He helped me mix the dough for noodles and helped roll it out on the counter. Then he got to cut it into strips with the pizza cutter.  Next he helped me make the corn bread. He was ever so careful putting the measured ingredients in the bowl. Once it was all mixed up, he said "uh, that doesn't look very good." But I promised it'd be so good once it was hot out of the oven! I had a lot of fun with my dinner helper. He's such a good boy and hilarious to be around.

Tate putting the noodles in the soup

I love that silly smile

Piano Recital

Ayden and Ellie had their piano recital right after school started. This was Ellie's first piano recital and she was nervous. Ayden wasn't worried at all because "I've done this before, mom."

Ellie was first on the program but she was a little nervous and didn't want to go up. After a few minutes and watching someone else go first, she went up. She did such a good job.

 Ayden was a little nervous even though he didn't want to admit it. But he did a very good job too.

So proud of our piano players!

First Day of School

So Summer came and went and all too soon the kids started school. They were more than ready to go back, however. And they laid our special clothes for the first day and packed their lunches in their new lunch boxes.
Ayden started 4th grade and was excited to learn that a lot of his friends are in his class again. And of course he had to start off his year sporting BYU. Go Cougs!

Tough face

handsome 9 year old

Ellie started 1st Grade and was very excited to go all day because she would get to eat in the lunch room with Ayden.

All ready to go

We carpool with neighbor kids and they happen to be Ellie's best friends. So they were all excited to share their first day morning together.

Ellie, Rylie, and Ayden



Rylie, Katie, and Ellie: cute little 1st graders

Tate also started preschool (just a moment while I wipe away my tears). He was so proud to use his Lightning McQueen backpack.

Cheesy grin

Handsome 3 year old

I'm glad to have the kids back in school and on a better schedule. I'm excited for all the new friends they will meet, experiences they will have and things they will learn, but part of me is sad at the same time. My little ones are growing up and I'm not fully ready for that. I'm proud of each of them and wish them the best this school year.