busy...

 Yet again I have no excuse for keeping my blog updated except that I am busy! 5 kids! Sometime it still shocks me that I have 5 kids! Needless to say 5 kids keeps me very busy! I am going to try and quickly update our lives for journaling purposes so this post might be ginormous! 

Of course lets start out with the monster! Yep, he is still a monster! There are too many things to name! The bathtub pictures are a weekly occurrence. And yes we have a locked bathroom door and yes he has figured out how to open it! 10 seconds can't go by without wondering where he is and what he has destroyed! He is our little sweet and sour! Mostly a monster but so dang cute and loveable at the same time!

The top picture is of a leaf bug, not the official name. My kids loved these and found them all over our yard this summer. Our garden did awesome this year as well. We have a green house and we started tomatoes and peppers from seeds in there this year and we got TONS and TONS! We made yummy salsa, ate lots of homemade potato chips with our potatoes and made raisins from our grapes! It was a great harvest! 

We love playing apple golf with our rotten apples and this year we invented a new game, tomato tennis! Because we weren't sure if our seeded tomatoes were going to grow we planted tons, well they all grew wonderfully and we had way too many! So we smacked the leftovers with tennis rackets. It was so fun and so messy! My whole house had tomato smears all over it!

Labor day weekend our little Zoe got blessed. It was wonderful! Her daddy gave her a wonderful blessing and we had so much family here supporting us. Even Blake and Meichelle who live in New Mexico right now were here. Afterwards we had a fun little picnic at the park with all the families. Zoe's blessing dress was my first "big" sewing project as well. I got a sewing machine for Christmas last year and have been teaching myself how to use it. I am a WAY beginner. I didn't take anything in school and I knew nothing about sewing! Nothing, like I didn't know there was thread on the top as well as the bottom! Well I have fallen in love with it and attempted her blessing dress and it didn't turn out too bad!

This little smiley bug is almost 5 months old! At her 4 month check up she weighed almost 13 lbs and is 24in long. Very long and lean! She is loved so much in this house! She loves smiling, her tongue, drooling, talking, chewing on anything and her brothers and sisters!

 Jed's grandma passed away, so for his birthday we got to spend it in a hotel room in Idaho! The 

kids actually had a blast! We got to walk around the greenbelt and visit the Visitors Center. It was a great trip.

 (This boy absolutely love his uncle Matt!)

Over UEA break we went to a cabin in Alpine. The kids had a blast!! They love being outdoors and exploring up in the mountains! In fact we decided for Christmas this year we are getting a camper because we just love to be outdoors! 

Izaak also turned 6! He is growing up so much! He is is kindergarten this year and loves it! The middle picture shows Megan, Izaak and Hadley smelling Izaak's new shirt, it was a scratch and sniff! :) 

Then of course it was Halloween! We carved pumpkins, mostly star wars themed, since my family is obsessed! The kids were angry birds, another one of my sewing projects, but they turned out very cute! Halloween was a success! The weather was perfect and the kids all had a blast! 

And finally I just got to brag about my oldest for a minute! Hadley is turning 8 this month and will be baptized! She is ecstatic! She is the smartest almost 8 year old I have ever met! She just won her division PTO Reflection contest and is going on to district. She is an amazing reader and can read almost 200 words per minute. She can finish chapter books in about 20 minutes and is now reading at a 5th grade level! She is also an excellent speller and will be in the spelling bee at the end of the year! She is very spiritual and knows the scriptures very well. She even fasted with us yesterday for the first time! She ate dinner Saturday night and didn't eat again until dinner Sunday! I am so proud of my little smarty pants and I know she is very ready to be baptized!!

And finally Thanksgiving! We had a great Thanksgiving at home with just our little family! We then spent the weekend decorating the house for Christmas! The kids can't wait! Now I am finally caught up! Hopefully it wont be another 3 months before my next post! Wish me luck!!