We get pretty territorial about our cookies around here.

Happy Birthday, Aimee!

Aimee's chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. (She decorated it herself.)

Waiting for presents....


Daddy made us his yummy breakfast burritos in honor of the special day.

Seven things we love about our 'seven-year-old':

1. She has a very cute and contagious laugh.

2. She loves to have fun.

3. Aimee is an entertaining big sister for Nathan and a best friend for Anna.

4. She makes a mean fruit salad (her own secret recipe).

5. Aimee is great at spelling. She even out-spelled most of the third graders in her 2-3 combo class's "Spelling Olympics."

6. She has a remarkable fashion sense for a little girl. She's been putting together her own cute outfits for four years now! (I should ask her to lay my clothes out at night...)

7. Aimee has a very vivid imagination. She loves to play everything from school to church to "Rachel Ray." I love to eaves drop in on her "conversations" when she plays.....you'd think you were listening to a 30-year-old!

We love you, Aimee!

Halloween

Pre-Trick-or-Treating party with Friends (Nathan, the only boy once again, refused to pose for the picture with all of those girls!)

Carving the pumpkin with Daddy's Dremel (it's great to have power tools around...)


Our beautiful (and good) witches.


The bag started getting a little heavy...

Halloween Project

Here are some pictures from the art project we did last week. Quite the little artists I have. They love to paint.

UTAH

At the airport...

Sweet Baby Ava

Much more effective...

Bella to Nathan: "Come on, Nathan, let's get out of here!"

A cool map that shows where the dinosaurs lived.

Not sure about the Dinosaur museum.....those things are a little scary! This reminds me of when we took Aimee to the museum when she was Nathan's age. Before we went in she asked (with concern in her voice), "Are the dinosaurs in cages?"

Funny faces.......

Completely exhausted!

Scott was scheduled to do some continuing education stuff at BYU a couple of weeks ago, and we were lucky enough to tag along. The trip was made even better when Grammie found an amazing deal on plane tickets, and we got to fly. The kids were in heaven!

We got to see Aunt Fifi's sweet new baby, Ava, which was definitely a highlight. The girls could've sat and held that baby girl all day long! And, of course, Nathan and Bella played their little hearts out. So fun to be with cousins!

We met Scott for some bowling at BYU one night with Grammie and Poppa. Nathan discovered that it was much more effective just to kick the ball down the lane. All three kids ended up beating me! Hmmm.....need to brush up on my bowling skills.

Saturday evening we took Grandpa to the BYU vs. New Mexico game for his birthday. We had so much fun. I'm hoping the game (and the hot chocolate, and the nachos) helped our efforts to convince the girls that the Y is where they want to be! (ha-ha)

We were also able to squeeze in a trip to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, an early birthday party for Aimee, and a visit with Aunt Karla and Uncle Pete. And Sunday morning we woke up to about two inches of SNOW! The kids were in heaven and played out in it until it was time to come in to get ready for church. Toolie (mom and dad's dog) went out with the kids and started scooping up mouthfuls of snow. Aimee ran over and said "Toolie! Don't eat all the snow!" (They loved it that much!) It was great to pack so much fun into a short trip......

Trunk or Treat

Our ward's annual Trunk-or-Treat was last Saturday. The kids were so excited to get all dressed up, and to get a good start on the Halloween Candy! Anna and Aimee were "beautiful" (good) witches, while Nathan was a very cute little fireman. I think he'd eaten half of his loot by the time we got home. The next morning he carried it all around while we got ready for church, and when we pulled into the parking lot, that Halloween bag was safely clutched in his little hands. We had to do some talking to get him into the church minus the bag of candy. (He did manage to carry in a licorice stick, however...)

As soon as we got home from the Trunk-or-Treat, the kids held the great "candy swap" to trade for their favorites. Then Aimee immediately took inventory, catagorizing each candy and writing down how much she had. Very imoprtant!

What a fun evening! After our 90-degree heat wave last week, it finally felt like "fall" in the cool air with chili and popcorn and homemade rootbeer. And the best part? We still have Halloween ahead of us, so we can do it all over again!

Re-living the Olympics

The other day I heard the "thump"-ing of little feet over my head as Aimee and Nathan were practicing their gymnastics moves. I went up to check on them and noticed a bowl of flour on the floor. Hmmm....there were little flour-hand-and-foot-prints on the mat. Then I saw four little flour-covered hands and four little flour-covered feet. Ah, yes, of course. It just wouldn't be the same without that white powdery stuff those gymnasts at the Olympics get to play in. Leave it to Aimee to remember those little details.....