Fall

Reading the title of this post, one may think that it's going to be an embarrassing story about my graceful self and a good trip. Well, that has indeed happened to me more than once, but this post is actually about the season. You know, Autumn...it was months ago. Here's my attempt at catch up. Warning: This one's super long with some picture overload.

Matt and Rachel started back to school. Okay, Matt started back and Rachel just plain started. Matthew is in 6th grade this year which is in the middle school. He was super excited (and is doing awesome), but I was having issues with it. Middle School?? When did that happen?!



Rachel started preschool. She was super excited as well and had her outfit picked out days ahead of time. She goes to the afternoon session and we all just thought we might spontaneously combust before noon came. Bailey was very sad to see her sister go to school without her -- in fact she cried for a good 15 minutes after dropping Rachel off and kept asking me to go back and get her. Rachel did fantastic. For those of you who may not know, our Rachel just started going to Primary by herself this summer. She went through some serious separation anxiety and we weren't sure how she would do going to preschool. She hardly even took time to say goodbye. So proud of her!!
When I picked her up she showed me a self-portrait she made. There was a big O-shaped mouth that took up most of the face on her picture. She told me it was her yelling,"I love this place and I never want to go home!" She came right home and sacked out on the couch. Totally worn out, but happy.



Our Rachey turned 5 in September. Again, How did that happen? One of the things that she was very most looking forward to was getting her very own library card. Ta-da!! (She doesn't look too thrilled in this pic, but she was so excited! She even did a special "I got my own library card" dance while in line at the library.)






Rachel started her birthday celebration with a big family party at her aunt and uncle's house in Ogden. We celebrated all the family b-days in the month. My uber-talented sister made a very cool Pac Man cake and the kids just played, and played, and played.



The Saturday before her b-day, was her party with her friends. We are so fortunate in that there are some really great families in our neighborhood with kids Rachel's age. She has some very sweet little friends. She chose to have a Princess and the Frog party. They started the party by making Mardi Gras masks.



They played a game like a cakewalk, but jumped between lily pads. They then had froggy cupcakes and lemonade.



The weather was wonderful, so we went outside to play a version of "duck, duck, goose" which Bailey thought was nothing short of hysterical! The girl laughed her head off! (Wish I had a picture) The kids then did a little obstacle course. I had it all set up for them to run though -- dodge crocodiles, escape the frog catchers, find Mama Odie, eat a bug, and hop back. I thought I was so clever, too because they had to wear flippers -- like a frog. So cute, in theory. The reality was that the flippers were too big and it quickly became apparent that somebody was probably going to fall and crack their head open. I tried to convince the kids that it would be way more fun without the flippers, but to no avail. They were so excited about the dang flippers. So, Steve and I ended up holding their hands and "helping" them hop through the course. "Helping" meaning carrying them through and letting their little flipper feet touch the ground a few times while we ran back and forth across the lawn. We were sucking air and dying laughing because of how out of shape we are, and because we must have looked REDICULOUS! The kids loved it and each had several turns.



It was a lot of fun, but as it always is after a kid's birthday party, we were pooped when it was over.





Cute cousins getting ready to go home after the party.



At least 6 months prior to Rachel's birthday, she began telling us she wanted a surprise party. Okaaay... Try to explain the lack of surprise in a self-planned surprise party to a four year old. :) You've totally got to admire a girl who knows what she wants, though. Well, we didn't have a surprise party, so to make up for it, we all waited at the bottom of the stairs with cans of silly string to surprise the birthday girl the morning of her birthday.

(Don't know why that last paragraph is showing as a link. I tried to fix it. I'm technologically disabled. Sorry.)




She opened her gifts from us.



Then we headed outside to take her to birthday breakfast. One of her presents was a new booster seat for the car. Notice the lovely purple seat. Also notice poor Rachel being totally blinded by the morning sun. Also, also, notice Bailey bawling her eyes out because she wanted a new lovely purple carseat, too.



We went to Angie's for breakfast. Rachey loves that place and the rockin' chocolate chip pancakes. They sang to her and she acted all shy, but told me later that she loved it. They even gave her a special birthday sundae -- 'cause you should eat an ice cream sundae with breakfast.






It was a fun birthday week. We love that crazy little girl so much and can hardly believe she's five. We've now had her for as long as we waited for her. It took us five years to get pregnant with Rachel and she screamed for the first year of her life because she had such horrible colic and reflux. We joke that the Lord knew that we had to want that baby pretty darn bad because she was such a difficult baby. :) Even so, she is so worth every second of the wait. She's worth all of the frustration and heartache we experienced in trying to get her here. Our Rachey is beautiful, strong, stubborn, gentle, kind, intelligent, and so funny! We love her with all of our hearts. Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!

Later that month we took a trip to the big city and visited Hogle Zoo. I love that place, and it makes me heart happy that my kiddos do, too. I grew up close to Hogle Zoo and went there often. I made the kids pose next to the primate pics because it's exactly the same as when I was little. There are just pictures you have to get. You know, drinking out of the lion-head drinking fountain, sitting on the big metal rhino... ya just do.



I wanted a shot of the kids outside on the wall that says Hogle Zoo. My error was taking it at the end of the day. It was pretty funny. There are only three kids. It shouldn't be too hard to get one decent shot of all three at least looking in the general direction of the camera. I took quite a few trying to do just that.



One look at this one told me it was time to go! Seriously, look at their faces. Gives me the giggles. At least Matt and Bailey are trying...




As the warm weather was coming to an end, we finally decided to give in and make the clothing changeover. Am I the only one who loathes that? You know, putting away all the warm weather clothes. Deciding what is too small or will be too small by the next time they'll be worn, passing down small stuff, and stowing away okay stuff (aka stuff you hope will still fit in the spring, but will probably be too small by then). Then comes the job of taking out the winter clothes from last year -- a portion of it, remember, is too small this fall even though you hoped it would still fit from last year. Whew. So, I don't so much enjoy this task. Matthew hates it. Yep, hate's a strong word, but it works here. He can't stand it because it means he has to try on tons of clothes -- ones being put away so we can guess whether they'll still fit next year, and the ones being taken out from last year to take up residency in his drawers. Well, folks, as much as Matt dislikes it, Rachel and Bailey LOVE it! They dig into those bins of "new clothes" like it's Christmas. It's all "ooohs and ahhhhs" and an all day fashion show.

To add to Rachel's excitement, some sweet friends of ours who have a girl a few years older than Rach gave her some hand-me-downs. Now, we have been super fortunate with Matt because we have boy cousins who give us hand-me-downs. It's a great big boy circle with us handing back down to other cousins after Matt outgrows things. For Rachel, on the other hand, we've never really had anyone to hand down to her. So, for her to get two big bags of clothes at once was like pure heaven to my little fashionista.



On Oct. 10th we figured we needed to celebrate and have a 10/10/10 party. We proclaimed it a Foster Family Feast of Favorites. We all chose our favorite food and ate it together in one meal. This isn't the best picture, but our feast consisted of beans and rice, french toast, chocolate milk, cheetos, and banana cream pie.



This year Rachel played indoor soccer again. It was her second year and it was fun to see how she's changed over the year. She's still quite a bit more concerned about being by her newly made friend on the team and having a bow in her hair that matches her shirt (just like her friend on the team), but this year she actually cared about the game and wanted to score a goal. She still didn't care who won, in fact, I'm not really sure she even really understood the concept that one team technically wins and one loses, but she did want to score a goal. The first time she did, you'd have thought she won the lottery. It was awesome! (Yep, and we were all cheering like she'd won the lottery, too.)



It's one of those things that isn't very convenient -- it was kind of late in the evening, the parking at the rec center is terrible and you end up parking a block away and hoofing it, dragging everyone out of the house, trying to contain a two year old AND watch the game -- but one look at her big old smile that was pasted on her face the ENTIRE time made it more than worth it. We can't wait until next year!





There is a really great place here in the valley where we go to buy our pumpkins every year. This year was even better because our sweet girl cousins from the Salt Lake area came to town for the weekend (with their folks, who we adore, too) and they went with us to pick our pumpkins.








Bailey and Rachel both painted their pumpkins this year.




Matthew chose to carve his.



It has become a Fall tradition of ours to go to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk. There is a theme every year and then different organizations, families, groups, etc. create scenes using pumkins. It's always fun to see how clever and talented people are.




We actually went twice this year; as a family and with Rachel's preschool class. I'm not really sure about the funny little head tilt the gals have going on here.



My brother and his wife are super dooper talented and creative and were the activities committee leader people in their ward until very recently. So, at Halloween they invited us to their ward Halloween party. It was awesome - because those guys totally know how to throw a party, and because my oldest brother and his so cute family were in town from California and we got to see them too! This pic was at my sister's house on the way to the party. I wish that we'd have gotten one of all the cousins together at the party, because they all looked amazing!



Another thing we look forward to every year is the USU Homecoming Parade. Steve and I both graduated from USU, so we tell our kids that they were born Aggies. I do realize they may very well choose other schools to attend when that day comes (and they know that as well), but we will always be Aggies at heart. :) We love the parade and the kids always come home with loads of candy and treats.


Whew. That was a long one. Thanks for hanging in there with me.