It's A Circus Out There

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus came to Everett this month and we wanted to take the kids to it. I've never been to a Circus and so I was excited to go. The tickets were only like $13 on opening night so they were cheap. It was a fun night. They had lots of juggling, a few animals (dogs, camels, horses and elephants), motorcycles, a high wire act, acrobats and trampoline. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting. The kids did really well. Even Chelsea didn't do too bad. I was worried about her because she is awful at Church, she just wants to go go go. There was an aunt and mom sitting behind us with 2 kids and they even commented on how good they were. I told them I was surprised too. Ha! My trick was to bring lots of snacks and candy.

The favorite act was the elephants. I've never seen elephants move so much or so fast! At the zoo they are slow and boring. Lindsey liked it when the little pony ran underneath the camels. It was pretty cute and funny. Then the tiniest dog ran underneath the little pony. Why are little things so cute?

The 2 motorcyclists rode around in this ball. They would go around and around super fast. Then one time they turned out the lights and the motorcycles were lit up. It was pretty cool.

Mud Stompin' Fun

We went to a pumpkin patch for playgroup one morning. We walked around and saw some animals and looked at the pumpkins. Chelsea found the mud puddles and thought those were the best. At first she was just stepping in them. Then she was stomping in them and eventually fell down in one. I just let her keep playing in them because she was having so much fun. I was kind of dying about how dirty she was getting and was hoping her clothes and shoes would come clean! I had to strip her down naked and then I dunked her in the trough full of water they use to clean pumpkins. I hurried and got most of the mud off and ran her to the car to get a diaper on her and put her in her carseat. She fell asleep on the way home. Her clothes came clean. The shoes took a while to clean and dry and the socks were thrown away. It was worth it though. She had so much fun!

Joyce Wright Christensen

My Grandma Joyce's funeral was so good. The talks were heartfelt, the musical numbers were amazing and the memories shared were so good. It was bittersweet to say goodbye. She had a good life and did many wonderful things in her life and saw many wonderful things. She had to endure to the end though the last few years as she dealt with Parkinson's. It was sad to see her body slowly shutdown over the years, but she kept fighting and kept trying to be involved in things. She was a fighter. I'm grateful for the memories I have of her and I'm so glad she was my Grandma. I know she is in a better place with her own Mom and Dad and 2 brothers who already have passed on. I hope my Grandpa can feel of our love for him and is comforted through this huge loss for him. 

 My Grandpa and his kids...my Mom, John, Tom and Jim

This table had a lot of the things my Grandma had made throughout her life. Seeing the car rug again brought back a lot of memories from when we played on it with all her cars. 

The pallbearers- Brady, Steve, Brandon, Jeff, Austin and Bryan.

My Grandpa Bill giving a few comments and thoughts

My Grandpa with his sister Catherine

Kyle and I

Watching the casket get lowered into the ground. They threw rose petals on top of her casket. 'Til we Meet Again Grandma!

The Relief Society from their ward put on a dinner after the graveside services at the Church building, which was really good. Then we all came back to my parent's house for dinner that night and a family get together. About 100 people came. It was fun to see everyone. Daneen, my Mom's cousin, brought food for everyone which was SO very nice of her to do that. 

Preston's Birthday Bash

Happy 6th Birthday Preston!

We celebrated on Sunday after both conference sessions. Melanie and her kids came out as well as Dee Ann. It was fun to have everyone there to celebrate with him. He was excited to have his cousins there. I did a Lego party for him since he loves Legos. I got lots of ideas off Pinterest and online. It's great to have those resources. 

Sara and Aubree helped me draw on the faces on the plates to make Lego Head plates. We made funny ones for the dessert plates. We had the kids guess how many Legos were in that vase and the winner got a box of Lemon Heads (or as I called them, Lego Heads).

The Lego cake. I was showing Preston ideas for his birthday cake and he was picking pretty extravagant one's. I finally showed him a couple I knew I could make and then we went from there. haha. I found this one off of the Betty Crocker's website. You make a 9x13 cake, cut it into thirds then one of the thirds into half to get the 2 squares. Then you cut marshmallows in half and dip in slightly melted frosting and stick on top.

"I spy a Lego Head"

I hid 70 of these around the room and the kids had to find them. We couldn't find 5 of them. My Mom called a couple days later saying she found a couple while cleaning. Funny.

Lego Memory

I printed off various Lego pictures and glued them to the back of circles. The kids really had fun with this and it was even better that it was girls against boys. The boys were winning big time at the beginning, but the girls came back and WON! It was a great game. 

L-R: Nathan, Dane, Carter, Kate, Lindsey (in way back), Kathryn, Aubree, Preston, Reed and Paige in front in blue. Most of the cousins, missing Hailey, Owen and Chelsea.

Owen and Chelsea were playing outside while the other kids were doing a relay race.

Lego Relay Race

Kids had a cup of Legos and they had to carry the Legos one by one on a spoon to the other cup (a little bit away from them) and the girls won at this too!

Who can build the tallest tower in 2 minutes? Go!

Preston trying to build one fast...It was supposed to boys against girls on this too, but he decided to make his own.

And Preston won! He might have had some help from Jeni and Derek. haha. The other kids were good sports about it too. :)

Opening gifts from us. He got magna tiles. These are spendy so he actually got them from us and Dee Ann. Our friend Allegra had them and my kids loved them whenever we went to her house. Then another friend, Kati got them too. They were fun to play with so I knew I wanted them. I actually ordered Magformers first from Amazon, but sent them back and just bit the bullet and bought the magna tiles. So far the kids have loved playing with them. They are worth it. And get the 100 piece set. You'll want all those tiles.

My Mom gave him a Star Wars Lego set and a pair of Star Wars pajama bottoms she made. He was pretty excited. 

He was excited for everyone to sing to him. He kept asking if it was time for us to sing to him. haha!

Happy Birthday Buddy! 

You are smart and funny and we are glad you're in our family.

Birthday Extravaganza

My Grandma Joyce's funeral was Thursday October 3rd. I'll post about that later. That weekend was also General Conference, Zane's birthday on Friday, Sara's birthday on Saturday and Preston's birthday on Sunday. Whew! It was a fun family filled weekend as we saw lots of family for the funeral and then more family gatherings for all the birthdays. 

The kids playing outside on the "playground" as my kids call it. On Saturday, we also took the kids up to the town park to play then to the local dollar store where they got to pick out something thanks to Grandma. The boys were once again riding motorcycles up above Ellensburg. This time Jeff and Sadie were here so he got to go with them.  

Zane turned 1 on October 4th. He is a cute kid with red hair and big kissable cheeks. He drools a lot which is pretty funny to witness. Sara did an alligator theme for his birthday. His bedroom is decorated in that theme as well. She did a good job planning everything. It was all so cute. She had fun names for all the food. She is a good little homemaker and crafter. Derek's family and all of us were there to celebrate and eat yummy food.

Baylor and Zane (on the right) checking out his new toy

Preston, Reagan (Jeff and Sadie's) and Zane

Paige and Kate showing us their new hand clapping routine with each other. I remember doing that with friends too.

Back-up to Catch-up

Ever since my Mom got a fancy camera I have relied on her pictures more and more. They take way better pictures than my camera and it's convenient when we are home to grab hers and go take pictures. Other people will grab it too and take pictures so when my Mom uploads the pictures to Google+ it's fun to see the pictures everyone took over the weekend. :) With that being said she uploaded a bunch of pictures and I wanted to include some on my blog even though they were from Labor Day weekend. 

My Mom made donuts Sunday night and she took this picture to send to Jared. 

Sara cut all our hair one day that weekend. She was busy. I finally let her cut Kate's hair into an a line bob and I'm glad I did. I like it. It makes her hair look fuller. She has super thin hair. I had her cut Lindsey's into the same type of bob. We were joking that pretty soon Kyle and Preston were going to get an a line bob and we'd do family pictures with us standing with the backs to the camera so you could see our matching hair! 

The boys went on a ride above Ellensburg. They talked Derek into going too. It was his first time and he did great...other than there weren't enough snacks according to him. haha. 

A pretty sunset picture taken by Sara.

The kids playing in the dirt pile. Kate and Lindsey are in dress up most of the time we are at my parent's house (especially Kate) and so this picture was appropriate because the girls are both in dress up. 

Chelsea being a ham for the camera. She thinks she's all grown up and can drive the gator. She's fun.