Gratitude

Loved this.....enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Here is to the gooey, sticky, sugary, spooky, dress up, dentist nightmare (or dream....depending if he needs work :) fun we so lovingly call Halloween! What can I say.....my sweet tooth out does my kids! Happy Haunting!

I wasn't finished!

Now that we have finished our basement, we usually have Camden bath downstairs while we do Myah upstairs. Well Myah is our little water baby. She LOVES the water and bath time is her very favorite time of day. Sometimes if she is lucky she gets two in one day! Well a couple of weeks ago, we had got her out of the tub and ready for bed. Camden was down in the tub. Apparently Myah heard the water going and scooted herself straight down those stairs and into the bathroom. Camden started yelling and by the time we got downstairs, this is what we found. She looked at us like "What....I told you I wasn't ready to get out of the tub yet!"

Hiking

Over UEA we went hiking with my family up High Creek. I use to go up there all the time when I was a kid, but it has been a long time. I forgot how pretty it is up there. The fall colors were so bright! That weekend was a little chilly and we even had some snow flurry's, but it's a pretty good hike and kept our hearts pumping. The kids did pretty well. Our friends borrowed us a hiking back pack and Myah slept most of the way up. Camden did great and Carter....well he made it...barely! Here are just a few shots of our day. My dad was such a trooper. The rest of the family took off with out us. Carter is my dreamer and has a hard time hiking when there are so many sticks and rocks to play with. He got tired and didn't want to walk anymore so my dad volunteered to carry him. I gave him a break for a while and tried carrying him as well.....it almost did me in! Thank heavens for good dad's!

This is Carter when I told him he could no longer be a free-rider. He didn't take it well and my dad was to much of a softy to make him walk.

Grady....I had a little fun with him on Picnik.

My cute hubby.

I doubt we will ever get all of us looking at the camera again. We gave it a valiant effort though. I guess I am going to have to cave and learn photoshop so I can learn to cut and paste heads!

I'm not sure what happened when Camden turned 6.....he forgot how to smile normal. Regardless he is still cute!

Sweet little Clara Belle

Homecoming parade

So I've lived here my whole life and never made it to the homecoming parade. This year we finally made it. It was good as far as parade's go. Pretty long and way more candy then my kids needed, but they had a blast with their cousins!

Dallin, Carter and Camden

Saylor

Myah.....couldn't get enough treats. Who needs a bag when you just eat every piece of candy you pick up?

Sporting our Aggie gear!

Rwanda?

So having a private blog...I know all of the readers. However one of you is viewing me all the way from Rwanda (Gabegi, Gikongoro to be exact) ....I'm intrigued....leave me a comment, I would love to hear of your adventure! I can't seem to figure out who you are?

Congrats Ashley and Paul

About a year ago I was posting about my little sister and her husband getting married. Their wedding was picture perfect. This year marks another picture perfect day. A beautiful couple being sealed for time and all eternity. Congratulations you two! It really was an amazing day!

*pictures courtesy of Ashley Mae photography

I'm one and a half!

Hey everyone, it is me, Myah. I just wanted to let you all know I am officially 18 months old. It really is quite old and old enough that I should write my own post so you can all hear about my life from my own point of view. I've really matured lately. In fact I have grown up so much that I am ready to be one of the big kids. I like to follow my brothers and big kids around the neighborhood. I don't really like to walk much any more because running gets you where you need to go much faster. I prefer the princess prance. I run on my toes so that my pigtails bounce when I jog. I think the boys dig it! I like to feed myself....I am no longer a baby and if you try to feed me with a spoon, I will pucker my lips and turn my head. I can say a few words but prefer the uh uh uh method. You should try it sometime. If you grab your mom around the leg and repeat uh uh uh long enough, you will get whatever you want! And if that doesn't work, well just hold your breath until you pass out. Your parents will be so worked up they will give you ANYTHING just to keep you from doing it again. It works like a charm. I have given up the bottle....I mean really a sippy is just as good....except if I wake up in the night. Mom is too tired so she will treat me with a warm bottle. I am pretty good though and only do that every once in a while. I love my binky, I love it more everyday. My mom should get smart and take it away, but it usually keeps me quite in important situations. I am a great sleeper....except when I don't want to be. Sometimes I'm just not tired so I kick my crib and talk to myself all afternoon. I don't usually cry though. I know my mom needs a minute to re-group. I love to smile, and sometimes giggle so hard that I tip over. I love my brothers. They have already taught me to wrestle and I am pretty sure I will beat them at it soon! I love music. Head banging in the car with my mom is one of my favorite things. Really I am just a doll and I have my whole family wrapped around my pinky...especially dad...I think he melts every time I look at him! It is great! Today my mom wanted to do a photo shoot. I wanted to play on the playground. Take a look....you can decide who won!

*note from mom: Little does she know I think she is just as cute when she cries!

Hungry anyone?

Buzz game

A few weeks ago, we met Darin's brother and his little boy at a buzz game. The Jones family was also able to come with us. The boys had a great time running around, wrestling and watching America's favorite pass time. Here are some of the highlights from the night.

Carter, Camden and Dallin

So this was the rule....

...and this was how well we obeyed the rule.

Dallin, Camden, Kyler, Carter and Kaden.

I thought Kennadi's hair deserved a spot on here as well!

We had a great night. Thanks everyone for making it fun!

Summer recap....It's already past the first day of school!

So blogging.....yeah that has kind of taken a back seat in my list of things to do this summer. However I have still enjoyed looking at all of your blogs, thinking to myself how I should be updating mine instead of reading everyone else's, but that just isn't as fun! Well I have taken about 3 hours today (when I could have been napping mind you) and tried to re-cap all we have done this summer. You might find it a little long and a little boring, but it was fun for me to re-live my summer and remember all of the fun things we did. So in backwards order, (I have to do this so it's in order for my book I will make) here is our summer fun. And what better way to start that with first day of school pictures. Here we go! I was a forgetful mom on Camden's first day of first grade and didn't remember my camera, so here he is when he got home. He has been really thrilled with afternoon snacks. It is quite a novelty for him. And boy is he hungry when he gets home. Who knew 6 hours of school would increase a six-year-olds appetite so much!

And here was his second day on the way to the bus. He's turning into such a handsome little fellow!

And here is Carter on his first day back to preschool. He was excited to see his friends again, but not as excited as he was to wear his new school shoes!

Miss Kris. We love her!

And now me and Myah have some time to ourselves to twirl around the house in our tutu's and eat cereal right out of the bag! (this is actually her new favorite thing to do!) I miss having my boys around, but at the same time it is nice to get a few things done around the house with a little less chaos and grocery shopping....well who can't say that it's much more fun with only one screaming child than three! I hope you all had a fabulous summer.....Here's to fall. It's coming faster than I want, but I look forward to pumpkin picking, caramel apples, costumes, hot chocolate and crunchy leaves.

Saying goodbye

My Grandma's funeral was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect, almost all of her posterity was there (amazing in and of itself). She looked beautiful (not something I say about the deceased often, but she really looked great). I was truly amazed to look around the room during the family prayer to see how many people loved this woman. It was almost breathtaking. There were so many of us they had the prayer in the gym. Which seemed perfect, because it was the gym where we have had our Thanksgiving reunion's since I was just a little girl. I am so thankful for families and for the gift we have been given to be sent to earth to be together. My grandma amazingly really loved, cared for and knew what was going on in all 150 + grand, great-grand and great-great grandkids. I loved her dearly and am still sad she had to go, but so thankful for the knowledge that I will see her again someday and am so happy to know that she is happy hanging out in heaven with all of her family! What a great reunion for her! So grandma, if you can, get me a spoon that says "Heaven".

Chatterton family fun

Every year we get together with all of my mom's extended family for a 3 day fun-filled reunion in Paradise. There are snakes, rivers, mosquito's, games, lots of laughter and very, very good food! The boys love having so many cousins to play with...most of which they only see a couple times a year at most. I love visiting so many of my cousins and it is just fun to see how many people I really am related too! This year was no exception. It was really neat because 8 out of the 9 kids in my mom's family made it this year. It is something we look forward to every year!

Laura, this is for you. Since you still haven't updated climbing Kylie, I thought I should post a picture for you :) She is just too cute not to share with the rest of us!

We played a really fun game. I can't remember the name of it, but you get into teams and two people sit at the front of the room and read off random things you might find in your purse or wallet, in the room or what you might be wearing. The first team to bring it to the front win points. Well Camden's team won and he couldn't be happier! Not only does he like to win, but if candy is involved it makes it even sweeter! However he was a little defeated when I told him to share with all of his cousins.....there are a lot of them :)

Butschek family reunion

Darin's mom comes from a small family. Just her and her sister. Which equals very close cousins. We decided that every year we wanted to start a big family reunion with Darin's family and his aunts family. Darin and I decided to be in charge this year to start things off, and if all goes as planned, we won't have to be in charge for another 9 years or so. We will see how it goes:). We rented a couple of town homes in Eden. They were great! We just went swimming, to the lake and played games and ate lots of good food. It was a four day long event, and other than the stomach flu that hit Camden the last night and the mysterious hole in the wall, things went great and we had a fun time. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Yes this was a monumental moment....one that he has been waiting for forever! He was in the tub and I just yanked it. It gave him a little scare and a moment of tears, but once he realized it was ok, he was the proudest 6 year old boy in town!