Feels like Fall

Crunchy leaves, hot chocolate, and a cinnamon candle.

I love fall!

Happy November!

Happy Halloween!!

We had so much fun with Halloween this year. The kids are getting old enough that they really get into the fun. Spencer helped me carve pumpkins this year. We used a kit that came with tools and trace papers. He loved being able to work on them and see the results. He wasn't so sure about the gushy insides, but loved the pumpkin seeds when they were roasted.

Our ward had a costume parade and did trunk or treating afterwards, so that was an easy way to take the kids out to get some candy. Spencer was very good at saying "trick or treat" to each car and Sydney would hold up her bucket until she got candy from them. It was pretty cute!

Sydney has been sick this week, so she wasn't much of a happy camper, but I was able to get a few pictures.

She was very happy about her dragon costume. She would roar too...so cute!

I kept her home from church today and she wouldn't let go of her costume....she was using it as a blanket!

Spencer was a pirate again this year and he loved it!

Trick-or-treat!

Boo!

Arrgh!

After we carved the pumpkins, Spencer ran around in the snow in his barefeet...he's crazy!

Another successful Halloween and I'm already so excited about fall/winter in Montana! I can't wait to put up our Christmas decorations and bring on the Holiday music!!!

No girls allowed!

A few weeks ago, Spencer and David took a boys only trip to Yellowstone. Their main objective was to spot some wolves. We had just had a huge snow storm so they were hoping Yellowstone would be snow-covered and spotting the wolves would be easier. Unfortunately the snow was isolated to Bozeman. Regardless, they still got to see a wolf, a coyote and of course, some buffalo.

Is there anything cuter than a little boy in flannel?

Close encounter with a buffalo.

They used the telescope--- apparently it worked very well.

Spencer took this picture from his carseat.


These two love spending time together and I have to say that seeing them walking out the door with all their gear--sporting flannels and blue jeans, my heart skipped a few beats.

I love the boys in my life!!

Happiness is....

...throwing snow in your brother's face
...getting your first taste of the delicious white stuff...fresh from the frozen sky

...kissing Frosty


...the confused face of our Florida baby

...making snow angels....from your belly


...throwing snowballs at your sister and not getting into trouble for it

...throwing snowballs at your MOM and not getting into trouble for it


We couldn't have asked for a better start to fall.

Sugar & Spice

This sweet little girl has us quite perplexed. One minute she is happy, content, playing with her toys and dancing around the room. The next minute she is crying on the floor, rolling around, and giving you the meanest dirty looks you've ever seen. Right now we laugh about it...at the same time we wonder what age 13 will bring.

Here is a photo example: So sweet...

Playing with her toys.

Uh-oh...she is looking not quite so content.

There it is.

She has learned quite a bit in the last few weeks. She is getting very vocal. We can usually understand what she says. For example, "Wub you" (Love you) is my favorite. She loves her big brother and will wander around looking for him if she doesn't see him, calling "Spencer where are you?" For the longest time she called him 'Boots'.

We love her and wouldn't change a thing.

A park a day....a farewell to summer.

As the evening air gets crisp (okay...cold), I have been feeling an intensified desire to soak up as much of the sun as possible in these last few weeks of summer. At the same time, we have been discovering Bozeman a day at a time. Last week I decided to take the kids to a different park everyday--and Bozeman makes this a very easy task. It's a beautiful city with so much to offer!

I'll start with Saturday and go backwards...because that is how I loaded the pictures and I'm too lazy to shift them around! We decided to take a trip to Townsend to see if we could find some bears. Apparently they come down to eat the berries this time of year. Unfortunately we didn't see any...at all. What we did see were a lot of hunters, ATV riders, etc. Lesson learned- don't go looking for bears on a busy Saturday in the mountains!

The bonus was that we talked Spencer's cousin Blake into going with us.

Friday we re-visited the dinosaur park- you can see those pictures below- we also spent a lot of time at home. Spencer has learned to ride his bike without training wheels, so that has been very exciting for him.

Sydney loves throwing the rocks in our "backyard". Next spring I'm hoping to replace the rocks with flowers.


Thursday was a great day. Wednesday night David took us to what we call "The Beach". It's a large pond in town that has a nice beach area, picnic tables, a walking/biking path and the most popular feature, ducks! The kids and I spent a few hours here.

Sydney inspecting the sand-- not quite as soft as the sand in Florida, but we'll take it!

The water was cold, but that didn't stop Spencer from getting all in...

...and loving it!

Wednesday night sunset...

Luring the ducks....with sand.

Wednesday morning we checked out Bogert park. It had some funky equipment that I've never seen before at a park. Unfortunately I only had my cell phone, so the pictures aren't that great. It was a super cool park though and the kids loved it!

Due to an unfortunate incident involving a slide launching her into the air and smacking hard into the ground, Sydney refused to go down anymore slides. She was content to peek out from the top.

Spiderman web crawling.

Tuesday we checked out the dinosaur park. It is a new park with dinosaur bones hidden in the sand boxes for the kids to uncover. Our sand toys are in our storage unit. We took a quick trip to Target hoping to find some of their summer sand toys still in stock. They were out of course, so we got hard plastic kitchen utensils and they were a huge hit!

Finally, Monday we started the week with a trip to Lindley park. It's a beautiful park with the best swings in Bozeman.

Sydney checking out a helicopter.

So that was our week. Sunshine, swings, sand and a whole box of Uncrustables (best PBJ EVER).

I'm not sure what we'll do this week. By Friday, Spencer was ready to stay home and go to the park in our backyard.

Labor Day

We had an amazing Labor Day weekend! Now that David is officially out of the Air Force, it feels like our life is our own now. No longer do we have to worry about him getting called into work during the holidays! We have loved having him home more often and having the opportunities to take advantage of this beautiful place we're living in. Here are a few of the fun things we did over the long weekend.

David's brother Doug, and his wife Sheila and their kids came over for a nice hike and a BBQ.

We went on a beautiful hike to a waterfall, Palisades Falls. It's not too far from Bozeman and it's an easy hike for the kids.

Spencer at the base of the falls.

Family photo-op!

Sydney was looking for rocks to throw...

Spencer with his cousins, Brady, Mariah, Tanner & Dylan.

Spencer, Dylan & Brady

Spencer begged to walk the dog, Chloe, but I'm not sure who walked who the most. She was either dragging him or he was dragging poor Chloe! I think next time she sees him, she'll run and hide!

Walking up to the falls.

Sydney LOVES hiking. She's definitely fitting right in with the family. She does not want to be held, or even hold your hand!

On Saturday we took the boat out. The original plan was to go fishing, but we ran into Doug and his family, so we drove around on the lake for awhile, then joined them on shore for some swimming.

Spencer wanted to get in, but was a little bit nervous-- we were in the middle of the lake and neither David or I were getting in (too cold!!)

Doug & David--it's been SO great being closer to family!

Sydney doing what she loves...throwing rocks!

The fish weren't biting and it got hot enough that we were finally able to convince Spencer to jump in.

Cold, wet & very happy!

Sydney found a friend on the boat.

Spencer got to drive again...I have to say he's pretty good at it!

On Monday we decided to make a quick one-day trip to Yellowstone. We're less than an hour and a half to the entrance...which is awesome! We'll be going as much as possible...I'm especially excited to go with David's parents- they've gotten expert at spotting the wolves in the winter time.

Big hugs.

We found our perfect future camping spot- it's a few miles off of the main road and there is a beautiful creek running through it. It's in Lamar Valley and I really hope we get a chance to go back and camp there before it gets too cold. It was so tranquil and nice that I wanted to stay!

Apparently Sydney wanted to stay too. For her, it was rock heaven-- more rocks than even she could throw! She was not happy when we left!

Cheese!

Spencer & Sydney

We ran out of luck looking for wildlife in Lamar Valley, so we headed over to see some geysers.

David broke the geyser rules and felt the water temperature...of course Sydney and Spencer had to follow. For the record, the water in this particular area was cold. :)

Me and my little buddy.

Sydney with her Papa.

Sydney hitching a ride on David's shoulders...not by choice! She would have spent all day checking out geysers if we would have let her!

It was a nature-filled, awesome weekend! We're definitely looking forward to a few more weekends like this before the cold weather sets in.