Daddy's Look Alike

Can't argue with this.  He is his daddy's boy! 

Carving Pumpkins

What would Halloween week be if we didn't carve pumpkins and make sugar cookies to "Boo" the neighbors?  Boring!  :)

We carved our 5 home grown pumpkins this year and the girls thought it was awesome as always!

Gross, pumpkin guts! 

Lincoln loved it too!  Ha!  A little pumpkin never hurt anybody, right?

The finished products & clean kids.

Ella decorated a pumpkin for her book report that night while we were carving and made her pumpkin look like Aslan from "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe".  The back side of it is Tumnus.  It turned out pretty great thanks to her dad's help on that one! 

It was FHE so Dustin decided our song was "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater"  Made me laugh because the kids had never heard of it.  It's been the highlight of the week on the piano.  Ha!  Who would have thought.  Alissa gave our lesson and talked mostly about how rude everybody was being for talking when only SHE should be talking about the sizes of the pumpkins.  We tried to direct her thoughts into something a little more spiritual, but she was pretty determined.  

I sure love this little family!

New Family Photos

We finally had an opportunity to have some family photos taken with little Lincoln in them.  I love it!

I love how each one of the kids pictures turned out and love our family picture too.  Natalie Williams took them for us this year.

Ella was on day one of strep, had a fever and some terrible, horrible mouth sores which lasted 7 days.  She wan't feeling the best that night and still looks cute as ever.

My buddy and I.  :)  

Mom  & Dad and all their grandbabies.

All the grandkids on my side.

The whole Wheeler clan.

Just the adults.

Grateful for families and for eternal families.  These guys are my favorite people! 

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

We are having fun as always with our Preschool Field Trips.  We were able to go out to the Pumpkin Patch again and the kids had a great time!

Cute Molly found her perfect pumpkin.  I just love how happy this girl is. 

The train ride was a hit for sure!   

And a highlight for us was that we brought our cousins Kourtney and Lily along with us.   

Being Mom

Let me just say 4 kids has been slightly crazy!  Less crazy than adjusting to 3 kids, but at the same time I feel like I suddenly have a million kids.  :)  I get confirmation from people saying, "3 girls and a boy seems like a great place to stop."  Makes me laugh!  I guess that's another one of the million times when you have to realize you are now living IN and not OF the world.  I don't dare have the courage to say, ".. and we are still not complete!"  ha!  

I listened to a podcast the other day on Mormon Channel that confirmed to me that the Lord expands your capabilities as you keep his commandments.  It is without a doubt that the Lord has showed me how to do this and helps me daily (along with a little Dr. Pepper lately) to do what needs to be done.

In fact the other day my sister called and asked, "what are you doing?"  I had a hard time answering because it was something like this: listening to a podcast while taking occasional notes and folding laundry, rising dough, listening to kids play and actually just finished nursing the baby on the clean laundry piled on my bed.  You don't even want to know what was going on in my head - there had to be at least 100 topics I was mulling over.  I decided to lay down and have a picture.  This is real life.  Every day pony tail, sweats, many days with no make up and sleepy eyes.

I have been having a hard time lately feeling like I need to have some sort of break and recuperate after these long days and nights.  Dustin stayed with the kids last week while I had a couple hours out with a friend and I found myself on the phone with them at least 3 times and wishing I had them with me.  Why?  The break I need is only from the repetition of what I do every day.  I want to be with my kids, and especially my  husband.  Just outside of the house or away from the constant nagging of dishes, laundry and more messes to be picked up.

Without a doubt I have the most rewarding job in the world.  I am grateful!  I am blessed!  I love these little people that call me mom.

No Training Wheels

This cute girl started riding her bike with no training wheels a couple weeks ago.  She is cruising all over now!  Good job Molly!!

Summit Hills Fun Run

The school the girls go to - Summit Hill Elementary was doing a fundraiser to earn money for play ground equipment since this is only the 2nd year they have been operating.  They had the kids get pledges and commit to a certain number of laps they would run.  Ella said she'd do 7 and Alissa said she'd do 2.  The Kindergartners went first and ran for a whole half hour!  Well more than 2 laps, I'm sure it was closer to 10.  I was proud of my little red faced girl who ran her heart out.

All the Kindergartners.

Alissa

That afternoon all the rest of the school started to run.  It was a crazy mad house but the kids were loving it!  They had the Aaron Dog, Chukars Bird and Chick Fil A Cow as well as a radio station blasting music for them as they ran.  This is one of Ella's best friends - Jennifer.

I never really did see Ella run because they started a half hour earlier then they said they were going to and Ella had done more than her 7 laps by that point.  It was fun to see her in her element of friends though.  

I was a proud mom, watching my girls run.  Makes me feel so blessed that we have healthy bodies and happy spirits.

Hunting

So Dustin, his brother and nephew decided they would go hunting for some deer.  Dustin asked Ella if she might want to go and she jumped all over the offer so she got to skip one day of school and head on a hunting trip with her dad.  He bought her an orange hat and jacket and she thought that was the absolute BEST!  She couldn't want to wear them.

Ella is going to finish this post in her words.

After we climbed half way up the mountain I looked down through the binoculars and saw my uncle Devin.

My uncle Devin,daddy and cousin Brian cut the heads off the deer.

It was gross!  

I climbed the big rock that was by the ATVs. There was rocks that had crystals in the middle. I stayed by myself while dad went to help Devin bring the deer back to the ATV.  

 

I liked it and it was fun.  I want to shoot my own deer next year.  My favorite part about this trip was when I got to climb the rock.

We did cute Molly's hair in rag curls that night for the first time and we also got "boo"ed at like 10pm and it absolutely freaked me out cause Dustin wasn't home.  We didn't realize that's what it was until morning and had a good laugh.

General Conference Weekend

Molly and Ella came down with a virus that caused terrible mouth sores.  Ella also tested positive for strep throat so the girls were on an antibiotic and poor Ella's sores got worse before they got better and she had them for a full 7 days.  Under her lips, top of her mouth, back of her throat, in her cheeks and all over the tip of her tounge.  It was horrible and extremely painful. 

It landed over General Conference weekend so that made it nice to not feel any pressure to leave.  However, Saturday afternoon we decided to get a Maverick drink and go for a drive to the windmills and shoot the BB gun.  It was refreshing to get out and helped the girls forget about their woes for a moment.

  

It is always fun watching their daddy teach them to do something within his element. 

He's a good one! 

We all took a turn shooting the cereal box.

  

Even I practiced and made us realize I should probably practice a bit more. :)  I can honestly say Ella is a better shot that I am.

What a blessing to have a family and to live in such beautiful country.  I love these people and love where we live.  We are so very very blessed!