Parker Posie, Ring Around the Rosie

This little princess of mine just makes my day! Her smile is so contagious.  She loves to try new foods.  She loves bananas right now (9 months).  I give her bananas every morning.  I just break them in pieces and she feeds herself. She also loves peaches, pears, and blueberries.  During the summer, we ate lots of fresh peaches and she thought this was great. Parker and I spend a lot of time outside.  This helps break up the day and she really enjoys it. She sits in her stroller while we go on walks or while I play games with Clayton.

Parker gets so excited when I start the bath water.  She kicks her legs and moves her body like she is ready to jump right in the water.  Most of the time, Clayton will bathe with her and she loves to have his company.  Every now and then she will tip over backwards but we are quick to scoop her up. 

This is one of most favorite outfits on her. She looks so cute in the picture and I love her bright blue eyes.  In this picture, we were in a jump house with her and Payton.  It started losing air and sinking into itself, so I grabbed her and we made it out safely!

I bought this cute little beanie for her a few months ago.  Turns out that it barely fits her head and she looks like a cabbage patch doll.  It looks so funny.

My poor little girl was so sick in this picture.  She was fighting off double ear infections.  She had run a low grade fever for a few days and she spent many nights in bed with Mom and Dad.  After giving her some Tylenol, I decided to quickly grab some "Fruit on the Go" and feed it to her.  She kept her eyes shut for almost the entire feeding.  She was so tired, but she was so hungry. 

Dad and Parker enjoying the slide at the party out in Paradise.  She was all smiles after going down with Dad! She has such an excitement for life. Bryce and I are so blessed to have this little angel in our home. She brightens our days! For her nine month doctor check up, she was 28 inches (53%), 17.9 lbs (39%) and her head measured 45 cm. 

Captions from Clayton

I took Clayton to Kohls to pick out a back pack for school this year.  He decided to try on all 10 of them to see if they were comfortable.  Then he decided that it would be smart to choose one that came with a lunch box.  That narrowed it down to four.  He ended up choosing Captain America.  He likes to put all sorts of things in his backpack.

The last few days, he has been dressing up like a super hero.  Today he was Captain America.  Yesterday, he was Mr. Incredible and the day before that, he was Wolverine. He will wear the costume all day long.

I signed Clayton up for soccer this Fall.  I told him he had 6 days till his first game. He said, "Mom, how am I going to be ready to play in 6 days. We need to practice a lot before my game and you need to go hard on me."

This was one of Clayton's favorite birdhouses at the Ogden Nature Center.  Clayton loves to spend time with his sister.  He likes to pretend fight her and sometimes he gets a little rough, but she smiles at him and enjoys the attention.

I am amazed at how much Clayton and Parker resemble each other.  Not only do they look alike, they also stick out their tongues, and they even laugh just like each other.  Clayton will help me entertain her by driving his RC Car next to her while she sits in her bumbo.  She loves this!

Ogden Temple

We had the wonderful opportunity to sit at the church and and be a part of the rededication of the Ogden Temple.  Cooper was able to attend this event with Bryce and I and it was a neat experience for all of us. Our stake was able to participate in many activities based around this event.  The youth participated in a Youth Cultural Activity for the prophet.

In mid September, we were able to go as a family to tour the inside of the Temple. I invited a few neighbors, but they were both wary about it, so we just went as a family.  It is such a beautiful place with such a calming and peaceful Spirit about it. 

Cooper loved seeing the baptismal fonts and expressed his excitement for turning twelve and getting to do baptisms for the dead. It made me realize that it won't be long before he is participating in these wonderful ordinances in the temple.  I am so thankful for my "forever family" and I'm thankful that Heavenly Father has a plan for us and for those who have come before us.  I am thankful for the temples here on Earth, for the refuge and peace one can find inside the Lords House.

Clayton's Crazy Life

I love to take the kids to the park as long as the weather permits.  One day in the end of August, I decided to take them over to Emma Russell park to let Clayton ride his balance bike on the walking track.  He was coming down a small hill and was trying to keep going without putting his feet on the ground, so he kept wiggling his handle bars back and forth.  Next thing I know, his face and body are slamming down on the cement.  I ran to him as fast as I could.  He banged up his face pretty good, but he was most upset about his cut on his hand.  We got him home, sprayed numbing stuff on his wounds, and then he fell asleep.  I was worried about a concussion, so I woke him up and kept asking him questions.  He answered them all correctly and then got up and started playing.  He healed up so quickly.  Must be nice to be young!

Our neighbors across the street have a fun tree in their front yard.This is where all the kids meet each afternoon to play.  It has been climbed on by many kids and they have enjoyed it being there.  Clayton has finally learned how to climb up part way, and he thinks it is so much fun. 

Clayton and Cooper love spending time with their cousins. Jaden and Addey came down to see the Ogden Temple Open House.  Afterwards, we met them for dinner and then headed down to Sub Zero for some tasty ice cream.

Clayton Turns the Big 5!

Bryce and I decided that we would do a birthday party with friends every other year for the kids.  This year Clayton turned 5 years old on a Sunday.  It was the Sunday after we got back from Richfield, so Jacqui helped me get a cake. He likes Lego Movie right now so we ended up getting him a Lego cake.  His favorite part was the candy Legos that he got to eat.

We invited Jocelynn, Steph, Jacqui, and their families over for lunch, cake, and ice cream.  We served pizza and lasagna and everyone had a great time visiting and the cousins enjoyed playing together.  We got Clayton a bike for his birthday.  I found it on KSL for $10 and it is a very nice bike for him. 

Richfield 2014

On Wednesday morning, we dropped off the kids at Jacqui's and then headed down towards Richfield.  We stopped a trail that is about 20 miles outside of town.  It was the Gooseberry North trail.  We ran into some small troubles right away when we realized that Bryce's machine kept overheating.  He could go for a few miles and then he would have to stop and let the engine cool.  It was a pretty ride.  As soon as we got back, the men sprayed out Bryce's radiator that was caked with mud. That seemed to help and we never had another problem.

I loved seeing the Quaking Aspens on the first ride.  We spent part of our time up in groves of them and they are were beautiful.  Every time I see them, it reminds me of Sherrie and I wish that she could magically appear and be with me to experience such beautiful places and trails!

The second day, we drove out to this little town that was about 45 minutes away.  We were planning on meeting up with one of our most favorite rides, but when we got up there, they had the trail locked, so we had to change our plans.

It was like we were out in the desert for some of it and then back up in the forest.  And then we would be near a river that had washed out part of the trail.  The scenery was gorgeous.  For not knowing where we were at, it ended up being very pretty.

I love the paintbrush of God.  I see rock formations and I think that He was so creative when he made them.  I love the contrasting red and white on these mountains and how jugged they were. We never would have seen them if we hadn't ended up taking the wrong trail.  Sometimes God takes us on these trails that we never would have chosen to go on, but we come out being a better person for going on them!

Look how little Roger looks next to this mountain.  The terrain was so different and unique in different spots.  This rock had a purple and green tint.  Its just amazing to see the all the different landscapes as we go on a single trail.  We ended up hitting a dead end, and so we ate lunch up there and then came back down and took a different trail.  This one was very rocky and rough on the wrists and forearms. We were all ready to be done with this trail, so we didn't stay on it very long. 

On Friday, Bryce and I had the impression, we were meeting up with Max Reed Trail, so were excited about that.  We headed up a trail in Richfield right off the road.  We drove for about 30 miles and then decided to turn off and head down to where we were supposed to meet up on the trail.  It was seven miles of down hill, extremely rough trails.  Needless to say, I was furious that we were on such a crappy trail.  Not only was it making my arms tired and sore, it was wasting our time.  By the time we got down there, we ran out of time and never made it to the Max Reed Trail.  Bryce and I were pretty frustrated because that was two days in a row that we felt like we kind of wasted our time on dumb rides. 

We finally hit our favorite trail on Saturday as we were heading home.  We stopped in Manti and did a really beautiful ride up the canyon.  This was a true ATV trail and it was gorgeous as it wound its way up the mountain.  The Fall leaves were in bright bloom and it was a fun ride.

The mountainside were painted with beautiful shades of green, yellow, orange and red.  This is my most favorite time of year to four wheel because of all the changing colors.  I love riding on a trail that is covered in Fall leaves. 

As we neared the top of this trail, we found a glowing patch of Aspens.  We all took a little detour over to take pictures and eat near the grove of trees.  Its interesting to me that some of the Aspens were still green, others were bright yellow and some had lost their leaves.  I guess they all grow in different stages and depending on where they are located, they probably receive different amounts of nourishment from the sun and water.  I like to compare that to our lives.  We are all on the path, but we all develop our growth and testimonies at different  times.  WE are all developing spiritually but some of us might have new, tender testimonies and others of us might be seasoned and have burning bright testimonies! 

As usual, we ended up having to leave the group early and head back to our cars so we could get home at our promised time.  We really enjoyed that trail and hope to go on it again someday. 

Electric Mice

Clayton has loved playing soccer this Fall.  There were 16 teams in his five year old league and each team had four players.  His team came up with the name of Electric Mice.  He scored on his first and last game of the season.  The other little boys were much smaller than Clayton because they were young 4 year olds.

At the last game of the season, only Clayton and one other boy showed up to play.  The other little boy did not want to play, so Clayton played the first quarter by himself against 3 kids on the other team.  Bryce and I were so proud of him because he hustled and tried his best.  His teammate eventually played and Clayton finally scored a goal. They won 3-2.  Clayton is so competitive and loves to keep track of the score. 

Every Saturday morning at 9 am, our entire family would come out to support and cheer on Clayton.  One game, Cooper told Clayton that it didn't matter if he won.  It only mattered that he had a good time.  Bryce and I looked at each other with puzzled faces. I said, "Who taught him that?"

Clayton Enters Best Friends Preschool

Clayton was so excited to finally get school started this year.  He had to wait two weeks after Cooper started, so he was waiting and ready to go when the first day came.  The night before, we had back to school night and Clayton got to meet his teachers, Ms. Aimee and Ms. Jen.

Clayton was happy to wear his new tshirt for the first day of school.  It is a Lego Movie shirt and he picked it out and was so excited to show it off.  He has fourteen kids in his class and he goes to school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the afternoons.  He has a rowdy class, so it makes him seem like an angel because he is so shy in public.