Logan

For Logan's birthday we kept it very low key with just a family dinner and movie.  Logan is such an incredible kid.  He's extremely kind, smart, and all around good kid. By turning 9 he also earned his Wolf Badge.  He loves scouts and was very excited to become a bear. 

Logan 9 year Birthday Interview:

1. What is your favorite color? Blue

 2. What is your favorite toy?  DS, Electronics

3. What is your favorite fruit? “None, I mean Apple!”

 4. What is your favorite tv show? Pokemon

 5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Hamburgers

 6. What is your favorite outfit? T-shirt and Jeans

 7. What is your favorite game? Pokemon

8. What is your favorite snack? Granola Bars, Smores

 9. What is your favorite animal? Monkey

10. What is your favorite song? Holding On Cherie Call

 11. What is your favorite book?  Fable Haven

12. Who is your best friend? Braden and Aiden

 13. What is your favorite cereal? Frosted Flakes

 14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Play soccer

15. What is your favorite drink?  Root Beer

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

 17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? “I don’t take stuffed animals to bed! I like taking my DS”

 18. What do you want to be when you grow up? Video game maker or scientist

Aunt Holly's Visit

Aunt Holly came out to visit us this last week and we had a lot of fun with her.  I think we weren't as relaxing as she was hoping we'd be, but we had a lot of fun.  

Olivia wanted to know where Holly was every second so she could play with her.  We made graham cracker houses together, went to Jungle Jims, went to Woodland lights, she went and watched Brandon do surgery one day and then helped me help my friend who had her baby another day.  It was a quick trip but we were glad she came.

Logan is in a Service club at school and they made plates to give away to someone.  He wanted to give his to Holly and surprise her with it.  Hopefully Holly knows how much she is loved by this family out in the middle of the US. 

Thanksgiving/November

November seemed to fly by.  We had Nate and Jami and their kids come out for Thanksgiving this year.  Brandon and I have fun with Nate and Jami and the kids have tons of fun playing together. We have to say we're lucky we have some family that is only 8 hours away.  So for holidays and big events we can be there for eachother.

These two little tomboy princesses are so cute and fun to watch.  They just run around and play with eachother all day long.

 

I had a birthday in November and had a great day. My family and friends did a lot to make me feel loved.  It was a great day!

Henry also turned 10 months.  I can't believe how fast he is growing up.  I love this little bear so much!  He truely is a JOY to have in our family.  We call him our little bear because he bear crawls, he grunts/snorts/breaths hard when he crawls toward something he really wants, and he eats EVERYTHING! He's also very curious! He has learned to open cupboards and he can empty cupboards pretty fast.  He tries to sneak going up the stairs (he hasn't learned how to go down yet and we have steep stairs.) He is quick to smile/laugh even through tears.  We all just adore him.

Christmas Activities

I can't believe Christmas is a little over a week away.  Time is truely flying by.  We've been keeping ourselves busy this Christmas season by doing little activities every night.  We've read Christmas stories, had indoor snowball fights, made cards, and done other things.  Here's some pictures of a few of the things we've been doing.

 We bought gingerbread men kits.  Lesson learned on this is maybe only buy one, because they are NOT good to eat!

 We went to our cities Woodland Lights.  They have carnival type rides and lights that you walk through.  The kids loved it and it's so much fun to hear Olivia exclaim, "YAY!!" everytime she sees something she likes.

Our library did a Polar Express night.  The librarian read the story to the kids while they drank hot chocolate and ate cookies.  They then made elf hats and bell necklaces.  It was a great family outing!

 

We love this time of year and enjoy spending it doing fun things with eachother.  I go to bed every night feeling like I have the best kids in the world.  They are thoughtful, caring and I wouldn't trade them for the world.  

Family Pictures Fall 2012

 

 

The end of soccer Fall 2012

 Soccer is (finally) over.  The boys ended with a great season.  Logans team came in 5th place and he had the most blocked goals on his team.  He loved playing goalie and became really good at it through out the season. 

 Porter's team was undefeated throughout the season.  They were kind of the dream team of little league soccer.  They knew how to pass the ball and play as a team.  It was so much fun to watch his games.  Porter was great, he scored almost every game and was a great team player.

At the end of the season there is a tournament for each age group.  There were games on Saturday and Sunday.  When we first found out about the Sunday games we talked with our boys about not playing on Sunday and that we weren't going to play the Sunday games no matter what.  As the end of the season got closer the harder it got to keep that commitment.  My boys both really wanted to play.  Porters team really needed him and so did Logans.  It felt like we were letting the team down.  And it was only one game that was after church.  I was feeling a lot of guilt and anxiety because of it, then the friday before the tournament started I read an article from the first presidency about keeping the sabath day holy.  It was so what I needed to hear as a mom and to be able to be strong for my boys and to help them to make right choices.  Saturday came and the boys played hard.  They both felt good about their games and were okay with being done on Saturday.  It also gave Porter a great talk for primary on Sunday:)

Halloween 2012

For Halloween this year we celebrated for about a week straight.  It was fun when it all started and by the time Halloween got here, along with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy I was ready for it to be done.  We started out the festivities going to the boys school Trunk or Treat.  It's something the PTA puts on.  They donate all the candy to pass out, each family gets a pumpkin and they have food to eat.  It's fun for the kids to see their school friends and teachers all dressed up, and it's short and sweet. 

The next event was our ward Trunk or Treat.  They have a chili cook off and then everyone decorates their cars and passes out candy.  This one is fun too for everyone to see our church friends. 

Then here in Ohio they have Beggars Night which is when the city decides when trick or treating will happen and the time frame for it.  Like this year it was on the 30th from 6-8pm.  We had Hurricane Sandy hitting us throughout the day and the night before, so it was freezing.  We didn't have very many trick or treaters.  Olivia was done fairly quickly and Logan and Porter hit every house at least once:)

 Our kids couldn't decide what to be so for each thing they dressed as something different.  Porter was a Mummy, Captain America (which I didn't get pictures of) and a mad scientist.

 Henry was a lion for the school trunk or treat and he was done with that about 15 minutes after we got there. 

 Olivia was little red riding hood, but everyone thought she was dorothy so the next thing was was Dorothy, then on Halloween night she was Aurora.

Logan was Frankenstein at both trunk or treats.  Then on Halloween he decided to be Harry Potter.
It was busy, but fun! And we'll probably end up doing it all again next year!

The little things!

There is nothing better than finding notes in your childs back packs that are to you and are so cute.  Porter had this in his back pack the other day and it just brought tears to my eyes. 
I know everyone thinks their kids are the best, but I really think mine are:) There are so many moments, especially this week, that I've just been overwhelmed with their sweetness.  Porter had his second grade program this week and just seeing him up there shaking his little booty to the songs and singing his little heart out just made my heart full.  Both boys finished up playing soccer on Saturday.  This weekend was their tournament and the games were on Saturday and Sunday.  We told our boys that they couldn't play in the Sunday games and it was really hard to know that their team might be playing in the championship game on Sunday and they can't be there to help out.  As the end of the season got closer the boys became more okay with it but it was hard.  Being able to see their courage to choose the right was inspiring.  I just love these wonderful kids of mine and feel so honored with the priviledge of being their mom.

Henry 8 and 9 months

 This little boy is seriously the cutest, and turning into the busiest! He is crawling up a storm and can basically get to wherever he wants to go.  He loves to explore and he loves to put everything in his mouth, EVERYTHING! He's getting his top teeth in right now, he sleeps good and he eats good and he's all around just happy.  The poor kid defiantely spends more time in the car than the others because of all of the others activities, and he's a trooper.  We love our little Henne!

Windmill Farm

 A friend in our ward puts together a ward/friends wagon, pumpkin picking ride during the fall every year.  We went last year and loved it and went again this year and had so much fun.  It is the bumpiest, kind of scarey hay ride I've ever been on.  The kids love it and what can I say I love Pumpkin Season!  Olivia got to ride with her friend Paislee and Porter with his buddy Sage.  Seriously Fall in Ohio is gorgeous, people really need to come and visit us at this time of year instead of the cold winters and hot muggy summers, just sayin:)

Porter's Hero

On friday I was going through the kids paper work, sorting out what we needed to keep and what could be thrown out and I came upon this sweetly, some what incorrect paper written by Porter.  It says," My Hero By Porer Bishop,

My hero is my Dad. Csue he help peple from dieing. he also is a foot dater he puts nails in peoples foot."

I'm not going to lie when I read this I got a little teary eyed.  It was so funny and so sweet.  I was so excited for him to give it to Brandon.  Brandon loved it! It's moments like this that make parenting SO much fun. Love that boy!

 

Talk like a Pirate Day = Free Doughnuts:)

 Aargh Mateys! We talked like pirates and the kids dressed up and we got free Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for it.  What a great reward!

Soccer is in the air!!!

We've been at the soccer field every saturday since Mid-August in one my favorite time of the year, Soccer season!! Logan is on the Green Lightning or as one of the other coaches called them, "the highlighters" :)

Porter's team started playing a few weeks after Logan.  His team is called the Red Dragons.  They both ended up on really good teams, and with coaches that match their personalitys.  Logan's coach is VERY patient and good at teaching skills.  Porter's coach is a LITTLE intense, but he's good at feeding Porter's aggressive side.  We're having a lot of fun this season.

Romney Rally

 Friday night we decided on a whim that we were going to take our kids down to Cincinnati to see Mitt Romney.  It sounded like a great idea, the event would be inside and it was hot outside.  So we got ready to go and when we pulled up there were people everywhere.  We had to park a couple of blocks away and walked up to the building.  It was hot! When we got closer to the building we saw the line to get in went all the way through the parking lot.  It was hot! We figured we had driven down there so let's see what we can see.  The line moved pretty fast.  Once we got up to the front of the building they told us that the fire marshall was doing a capacity check.  If they could they would let us in.  After a few more minutes of sweating, crying children, almost loosing crying children, and going through security,  we got in.  They escorted us to the basement of the building, the rally was on the main floor, and had us wait in this dark crowded room.  We were still hot! At this point Brandon and I were wondering if this was really worth it.  As we started to debate if we should stay or go the speaker that we were listening to cut out and like a breath of fresh air, in walked Mitt Romney and Ann Romney.  I'm not going to lie I was star struck! The room was screaming "Mitt! Mitt!"  My kids were freaking out with excitement, Henry with fear! And it was so exciting.

 Logan got up on Brandon's shoulders and took some pictures for me, that's why the quality is so great, but you get the point!

Like I said we were in the far back of the room and they were just quickly speaking and making an appearance to us in the overflow before going upstairs to the main rally.  Mitt started to go around and shake hands and I thought there was no way we were going to get up that close.  So I took the boys and started to head back upstairs and outside.  Brandon stayed with Olivia and actually got to shake his hand. It was definitely worth the heat and the cramped spaces to see him.  My kids loved it to.  Porter now will talk smack to anyone who won't vote for Mitt.  According to him though all of the kids in his school are Mitt Romney fans! ;)