Ellie has gone to preschool!

Ellie's preschool has the cutest new student ever! She looks so old and is turning four! I can't believe it!

Birthday Mania!

Now that fall has come Birthdays are everywhere! Gordy turned 40, Anna turned 11, and Ellie is turning 4 on Monday! For Gordon's birthday we had a full blown party of 30 people, complete with brisket and IBC. For Anna's we went to lazer tag and had a blast!

Ana and all her friends... so cute!

She got two birthday cakes?! One at lazer tag and one at home!

The one at home was a little overdone. Who knew timers could be so quiet? But the cookie cake was still delish!

Gord had the most elaborate cake I have ever seen at our house before. Vanilla with raspberry filling. YUM!

Don't you just love blue frosting?

Fish Lake Trail

Gord and Maddie and Gord's friends and their daughters recently went on a hike in Utah by SLC. They got back the day before school started and had tons of fun! After the hike they went and saw Linsey get married and toured Temple Square.

South Padre '09

The Bravest of them all...

Anna got her ears pierced this July and was the bravest child in our family to get their ears pierced. The whole thing was over in less than 30 seconds. She wanted blue earrings and after two years of uncertainty  it happened. She loves them and looks great!

South Padre Island, Tx

We got back from South Padre today after an amazing week long trip. We went with our friends the Fennegans to their most awesome beach house.  We had a blast and can't wait to go again. We went surfing, fishing, Schlitterbahning (water park), photographing, swimming, bbqing, and having tons of fun at the beach!! 

We woke up really early one morning and went to go take pictures on the beach for our Christmas card. Everyone looked super cute, thanks to the humidity. 
We went to a different beach and had a barbeque on the beach (hotdogs and s'mores) and played in the amazing wonders of the sand dunes! left to right (Reaves, Cade, Anna, Tanner)
Drizzle towers were everyone's favorite and here are all of the kids except for Reaves. We are at the beach closest to the beach house. It is only a 20 sec walk to the beach! 
Nothing to see here . . . move along . . . 

South Padre sunrise the same morning we took the first picture.  The sunsets and sunrises are amazing!

Claws said to be so sharp you can cut yourself just by looking! ahhhh! Feisty little creatures that show no mercy... 

TOAD!

A warning to all... do not be scared by the ferocity in this toad. 

Now that summer's here the toads have decided to set themselves loose. When we were cleaning up the backyard we found this monster underneath the tent bag! The toad is certainly not going hungry.  There has been some speculation as to whether it's expecting or not!  Anna tried to hold it, but it started climbing up Maddie's arms.  There was a moment of freak out and the toad hopped away.