Fall Fun

We did a lot of fun things in October and November. See some of our Fall Fun below:

Here are Katie and her two friends Kinsey and Kendra painting pumpkins:

The finished products, pumpkin masks:

Chris grew a great garden this year. He had tomatoes, peppers, onions, and squash

and carrots:

and only one pumpkin grew this year but it was a big one:

Here are Chris and Katie with our huge pumpkin:

We had Deedra, Nikki, Garrett, and Jack over and we all decorated pumpkins:

Katie wanted to dress as a fairy princess because her friend Brooklyn was going to be one. The only color of wings they had left at the store was orange. She was disappointed because her favorite colors are pink or purple. But then she had the idea of dressing as a BSU fairy princess. So we bought orange wings, and orange and blue necklaces. Then we made a blue and orange crown at home and she wore a BSU shirt and blue skirt:

Here's Katie at our church Halloween party with some of her friends. We have 2 fairy princesses, Rapunzel, and a mermaid:

On the Saturday before Halloween we went out to the national wildlife refuge. They had live animals for families to see while they hiked on a short trail. There were spiders, bugs, alligators, owls, and other creatures. Katie also got to do a craft project where she made a homemade trick or treat bag.

Chris and Katie on the trail:

Me on the trail. It's a beautiful area. We've hiked this trail several times with the Cub Scouts.

Chris and Katie checking out an owl:

Chris dressed as Sherlock Holmes for work:

Katie and I made cookies on Halloween day for her kindergarten class (their party was the next day). She wanted shape cookies but not sugar cookies. So we made chocolate chip cookies and cut out shapes for about 6 of them.

We went to my brother Stillman's house to go trick or treating on Halloween night. My brother, Colby and sister, Deedra and their families joined us as well. I didn't get any good pictures but the kids had a blast trick or treating!

Katie started taking a dance ballet class. She absolutely loves it! Here she is in her new dance outfit:

And here she is practicing. She has 2 other girls in her class. Her teacher says she is a natural and can't believe she never took dance classes before.

Chris' cousin Kyle was married in November. We traveled to Utah for the reception.
Here we are with Kyle and his new wife Lark and with Kyle's brother Brandon:

They had dancing at the reception. Here are Chris and Katie having a father daughter dance:

Katie really wanted to make pies this year. So Katie and I made 2 pumpkins pies for Thanksgiving dinner:

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandpa and Grandma's house the next day. Here are the finished pies:

Katie cutting rolls with Grandma Lynn:

Katie and her cousin Livvie with olive fingers:

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner and had fun watching movies and chatting.

Check back in a week or two for December pictures.

Lots of new posts

I've had a lot of catching up to do. See lots of new posts below. I finished our August vacation posts and also one from first day of school and our new swing set. Stayed tuned for more Fall posts.

Swing set

In September we bought a new swing set and put it together. It was a lot of work.
Katie helping:

I helped too. Don't worry, I did more than just put nails in the holes :-)

Almost all done. The kids couldn't wait to play on it:

Here it is all finished:

We also had help from my brother Colby and our neighbor Shawn. Thanks!

First day of school

Katie started Kindergarten this year at the end of August. She was really excited but also nervous. She got a Tinkerbell backpack, lunchbox, and folders, plus all the usual crayons, scissors, glue, etc. Chris and I went with her on her first day for orientation. We met her teacher and saw her classroom. We went early so she could have breakfast. She was able to sit by her cousin Alex during breakfast time. Chris left after orientation to go to work, and I asked Katie if she wanted me to stay. She said she was fine, but I stayed (for me) until after lunch time. I left her playing on the playground. She was having fun playing with a girl we know from church who is in the other kindergarten class. I must say it was really hard for me to walk away and I was a bit teary eyed on the way home. This was a bit step for both of us. She had a lot of fun on her first day. On her second day she had fun too but she was a bit teary eyed when I picked her up. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she missed me. She has gotten used to going to school now and really enjoys it. She loves her teacher and her favorite thing to do at school is to paint.
Here's a picture of her on her first day:

Summer Fun, part 5

See the rest of our August vacation in the last several posts below (when you get to the aquarium you'll be at the end of our vacation). We went to Utah around the beginning of August for my cousin Alivia's wedding (see an earlier post) and spent the following week there having fun. The first weekend we stayed at my brother Derek's house. The cousins had a blast together. They had so much fun sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor. It was so cute. They were lined up all in a row. We also had a really nice time visiting my mom, Grandma Hansen, and a few other Hansen relatives on Sunday. They had a really nice lunch for us and we played games like croquet, ring toss, bean bag toss, and a few others. I was bummed I didn't get any pictures because I accidently left my camera at Derek's house. But Deedra got some great pictures and posted them on her blog a few months ago. Then we moved to my grandparent's condo for the remainder of our trip.

Here are some of the kids having fun playing with boxing gloves:

And playing video games:

Derek and Rachel had a fun Wii game where you learn to dance. We took turns dancin it up. I didn't get pictures of everyone, but here's a few:

Katie and I:

My brother Stillman:

My nephew Garrett:

My sister Deedra:

And her husband, Curtis:

We had a lot of fun with Derek and Rachel's family. Thanks so much to them for letting us stay at their house.

Summer posting update

Just a few more pictures to add from our August vacation. Pics hanging out at Derek's house. Stayed tuned.

Visiting Jess and Diane

On Monday we moved over to our grandparents condo to spend the rest of the week there while on our vacation. That evening we went and visited my aunt Diane, uncle Jess, and their dog Ralphie. We had a nice time visiting and eating Papa Murphy's pizza.

Katie took the above picture of us and this picture of Ralphie: