Ice Skating with the Kiddos

My youngest siblings and I

Crystal

Stewart

Rachel

These guys sure know how to make me feel like a kid again (although I did dress more like a marshmallow to stay warm)!

We sure love these guys!!!

Dad, Stewart, Sarah, Brandon, Rachel, Crystal and Mom

Bowling with family

Crystal

Stewart

Doug

Dad & Rachel

Shanie & Kyle

Crystal & Brandon

Rachel, Kyle & Blake

A Collection

I am building a small collection of these little stackers. Here's the Christmas one!

5K Race

This morning my friend Hollie ran a 5k with me here at the U of I campus. It was soooo cold but very fun and I am so glad that Hollie could run it with me!

Ok, so I am pretty sure I did not know we were trying to get a picture here. I was pretty tired at the end and kind of zoned out. But this race certainly got me all excited about the race we will run in a few weeks in Walla Walla. The Turkey Trot- our Thanksgiving tradition!

Fun week with the kiddos

I recently had the experience of filling my parents' shoes (well, mostly my moms) for 4-5 days. My parents left Friday night to go to San Diego, CA. I arrived Friday afternoon. Thankfully, Brandon was able to come up and help on Saturday afternoon and stayed through all of Sunday. I could not have done everything those few days without him!! Then he left and I was on my own for all of Monday and Tuesday. I really realized how much work goes into raising the kids. Even though there are only 5 of them left at home and the youngest is 8, there are always meals to be made, kids to run around, dishes to keep up on, etc. I really don't know how my mom does it. The picture above was taken shortly after my failed attempt at making Orange Julius for the kids on Sunday night. I twisted the blender before pulling it up and apparently that detaches the bottom. So all of the Orange Julius came out of the bottom. The kids had a good laugh though. Today I drove home to Moscow, ID. I am so relieved to be home but at the same time I found myself really sad that I was not able to pick the kids up from the bus at the end of the lane. I miss those guys already!

Brandon turned to me with this potato while we were preparing Sunday dinner. I thought it was pretty cute.

Saturday night was party time since Brandon was with us. We all went out to Dairy Queen (with the exception of Blake) and had a great time!

Crystal kept wanting me to take pictures of her all buried in the leaves, except for her head.

I love this picture. It reminds me how good these two play together and how much fun I have when I am around them and the rest of my siblings.

Yesterday afternoon Stewart had a basketball game. So I took the two girls to watch. Here he is squatting ready to guard his coming opponent.

Here he has the basketball. Sorry- the picture quality is not all that great.

Here he is #12 standing on the side of the key.

Costume Cop-outs

I really just did not prepare for Halloween this year as much as I should have. So Brandon got lucky and did not have to wear anything too crazy. I don't think we will ever do the clown thing again. But I really just could not let us go to our ward party without some kind of costume.