Two wheelin'

Delicious

Preschool boy

A few of the moms in the neighborhood, who have children close to the same age, are doing

a preschool co-op of sorts. It started Tuesday and I taught the first week. The kids are 

darling and it went incredibly well. Our sweet boy was so excited to have his 

"school kids" are our house two different days this week. I love being a mom.

And I love our Nathan boy so much. When I uploaded his photo on the
computer, it took my breath away a bit. This boy is growing up. I adore him.

Labor Day hike

August phone pics

Did anyone hear about the landslide in Utah earlier this month? I was in the area that particular 

morning and took the above picture. So very sad. I felt devastated for the family that lost their home.

Jacob's darling grandma celebrated her ninetith birthday and we were able to go to the open

house her children had for her. She is the youngest 90-year old I know. We loved being with her!
(Even if I was more than frustrated I forgot my good camera. I still love this picture of her though.)

This baby girl loves shoes. Even her oldest brother's cleats that could possibly rival her for

height. (Size 12 cleats are not small.) I love how thrilled she is that we let her wear them.

* Somehow (still a mystery to me, but my finger might be pointing toward a certain #5 child of ours), all of my 

August phone pics, except these few, were deleted off my camera. I was pretty sad to lose some other great ones 

I had, but such is life. And since it has never happened before, I will just be grateful. And hopeful it won't

 happen again. I don't love the quality of the phone photos, but I sure love what I can capture because I usually

have my cell phone with me. And I 'm so thankful to have them on the blog as a part of our history. *

Apparently...

 This little girl likes pasta.

And broccoli.

First day of school

Two in junior high, two in elementary, two at home.

I love being a mom.

Ogden temple open house

End-of-summer cook out

Ready to start.

 The handsome man that made it all happen.

 Love these darling kids.

 And even these crazy kids.

Yup. This about sums us up.

Double rainbow

Thanks for making sure I didn't miss this Megs!

A day at Lagoon

We were given several free tickets to an amusement park in our area by Jacob's work.
And because our kids have never been to Lagoon (their parents are too cheap), we made a day of it.

This morning, we went for about three hours. And while Jacob and the other kids went off to
ride a few of the more exciting rides, we mostly spent that time letting the younger kids
ride what they wanted, as they wouldn't be returning with the older crowd that night.

Nate, was surprisingly hesitant about any of the rides, but finally 

decided he would try the helicopters with Ben. He loved it!

 When the older kids came back and they went on several of the kiddie rides

together, Nate became much more brave and tried several new rides.

Nate loved this roller coaster with his dad. And as you can clearly see, Jacob enjoyed it also.

Sweet Gracie. She was so good, even though being so young at Lagoon is terribly lame.

Ben is right at the age where the kiddie rides are a bit juvenile and the big kids rides are

a bit scary. He was so sweet to make things fun to Nate and tried several rides himself.

I think the bumper cars won for being a little more exciting, without being too much for him.

Our sweet older kids were so good to try anything with the two younger ones. It may

seem like a small thing, but seeing their sincere kindness melted my heart for sure.

And sometimes they would just join the group, even if they were not accompanying

one of the littles. Because as you can see, these rides are thrilling at every age.

But sadly, our morning time came to an end, and just in time for Grace girl. Stick a fork

in this little one, she is done. Joking aside, she was ridiculously good the whole time.

After a few hours rest at home, four of us headed back for the evening. And I have to say, at least

for me (and I'm pretty sure the darling three you see above), this was the funnest part of the day.

Love these kids of mine so much. And their sweet dad. 

Days like today make my heart happy.

Chef Nate

Lettuce, rice krispies, brown sugar and water anyone?

Okay, but really, how could you turn down this face?

The oldest and the youngest

There is something hardwired into brothers that makes them wrestle with each other 

whenever they are together. They truly can't help it. Or at least that applies to Allen brothers.

Rodeo night

And we had cousins join us, which was double the fun! I'm glad I didn't take a picture of the group at

any time during the two hours we were in the arena watching the rodeo. After all, the picture outside
 in front of the brick wall screams both "rodeo goers" and "group mug shot" all at the same time.

Almost to a year

I cannot believe we are less than a month away from this little girl turning one.

She makes our family complete, makes us all happy and we love her like crazy.

Oh soccer

Soccer is in full swing again (well, it actually never ends, but slows a tiny bit here and there). And we have three boys playing club this year.

Soccer and I have a love/hate relationship. I absolutely love sitting and watching their games. I love how much each of the boys independently love the game. I love that it pushes them and gets them physical exercise and makes them do hard things. But what it involves as far as practices, trainings, games, tournaments, extra practices, extra trainings, makes me crazy on a pretty-much-weekly basis.

But/So for now and for the foreseeable future, soccer will be a big part of our life.

And I'm so glad. And so moderately to muchly overwhelmed.

But mostly glad.