Decorating the Tree

Logan has been begging us for weeks to finally put up our Christmas Tree.  He has really been excited for Christmas this year.  Sunday was finally the day to put it up.  He was so excited.  He said, "I am so excited I don't even know what to do with myself!"  This kid is full of one liners!  Both kids had so much fun decorating.  Logan really got the hang of it this year and knew just where he wanted to hang each ornament.  Brooklyn just held onto one ornament the whole time and pretended she was talking on the phone.  After she got sick of that she just wanted to play with the Finding Nemo ornaments.

 

Each year we get the kids a new ornament and one for the family.  Since we didn't do anything big as a family this year, David got a Notre Dame ornament and I will be getting a New York ornament to represent our trips.  For Logan we got a soccer ornament for his first year of soccer.  We had a hard time finding one for Brooklyn so we got a picture frame that we will put a picture of her and Santa in.

 

And our finished tree.  I absolutely love the feeling in our home when we have our tree up.  And now that our tree is up Elfie (our Elf on the Shelf) has come back to keep an eye on the kids!

 

October Pt. 2

Our October continued to be busy right up until Halloween night.  My kids went to my parents trunk or treat while David and I went to the BYU basketball game.  The next day we had our ward trunk or treat.  Needless to say we hadn't even had Halloween yet and were already overflowing with candy.  After our trunk or treat we went to Provo to go on the Halloween Cruise.  We did this a couple of years ago and it is really fun.  You get on a boat and a pirate tells you a ghost story and pulls you along the river as you look at hundreds of carved pumpkins.

 

We also carved pumpkins.  Brooklyn started crying when she saw the inside of her pumpkin.  We knew that meant she was tired so we put her down for a nap and had fun carving our pumpkins.

 

Logan had a lot of fun scraping out the pumpkin guts and choosing which design he wanted for his pumpkin.

 

Brooklyn's is supposed to be Minnie Mouse, but I really am not a very good carver.  After Brooklyn's I just did a face on mine.  After carving Logan's dragon David wanted simple, so he made a body to go under my face.

 

On the Monday before Halloweeen we had the annual Johnson Family Halloween Party/Spook Alley.  It was a lot of fun as usual.  Brooklyn was really traumatized by the gorilla, (My grandpa has rented a gorilla costume for David to wear for the last two years.  Brooklyn was hysterical from it and had nightmares that night.) and Logan was too nervous to do any of it too.  Hopefully next year they will like it all better.  All of the grandkids were going to be pirates, but Mark and Ashley found this cute shark costume for Jett.  It still worked out great for the theme and they all looked so great.

 

The day before Halloween we went to Gardner Village and rode the ponies.

 

Brooklyn refused to ride the pony.  But she did LOVE the chickens.  Unfortunately, I only took pictures of the petting zoo with my phone.  But both of my kids and Lincoln loved the petting zoo.

 

 

And on Halloween we went to two parades, a 2nd grade program, trick or treating at Grandpa's work, and finally Halloween night.  The kids had so much fun trick or treating! 

 

Our month was so busy, but so fun.  Now bring on everything Christmas!!

October

We have had a very busy, fun filled month.  We have had a lot of fall activities that I wanted to do before the month was over.

We started out with our annual glow in the dark Halloween jammies.

 

Then we painted pumpkins and decorated Halloween cupcakes with our friend Lucy.  Brooklyn pretty much only liked the frosting.

 

Logan had a lot of fun with the sprinkles.

 

We also went to Gardner Village for the annual Witch Hunt.  This is always one of my favorite fall activities.  We went with Annie and Leslie and will go again this next week with Emily and Lincoln.

 

Logan had his preschool Halloween party.  They played lots of games and had a lot of fun. 

 

Playing BINGO.

 

Last weekend David went to Southbend with my Dad, brothers, and Grandma and Grandpa.  While he was gone we did a lot of fun things.  We went to the Scarecrow Festival with Hilary, Stephanie, Dominic, and baby Kenna.  Brooklyn and Logan had so much fun on the rides.  Brooklyn could have bounced all day if I had let her.

 

While Daddy was gone we also made caramel apples.  They turned out better than we have ever done them.

 

We have a lot more we have done (and I will blog about later), and a lot more to do before Halloween is over.  I love this time of year and I love that my kids have had so much fun!!

Family Pictures 2012

We were finally able to get family pictures done on Sunday.  Considering Brooklyn had a 20 minute nap, they went really well.  My sister did a great job.  Not only did she take our pictures, but she also made Brooklyn's skirt for the pictures!  She is a lady of MANY talents.  I just cannot decide which ones to print so I am posting them all here to get some suggestions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am pretty sure this is the one of him I will print.  It is just so great of a picture.

 

Love these two so much!

 

 

 

 

And one more family one.

 

Thank you so much Hilary for taking our pictures again.  I love them so much and can't wait to get them printed and hung up!

State Fair

A couple of weeks ago we went to the State Fair.  It was a lot of fun.  We were worried it was going to rain so, unfortunately we didn't do much.  The kids had a lot of fun anyway though.

 

First we saw the farm animals.  Logan loved them...

 

...Brooklyn, not so much. She is so scared of so much and the farm animals were no exception.

 

Next we did the hands on farm.  This has always been Logan's favorite thing at the fair and Brooklyn loved it this year too.

 

She loved holding her own basket.

 

Digging for potatoes.

 

Digging for onions.

 

 

We also did the all you can eat ice cream tent.

 

We were so scared it was going to rain so we ended up not buying the ride passes.  Each kid went down the big yellow slide and had a lot of fun.  The rain held up so we could have done the rides.   Oh well it will just make it that much more fun next year!

Soccer and Football

At the beginning of September, Logan started his second season of soccer.  I really haven't gotten any great pictures, but he is having so much fun and has really improved since the spring.  We are really liking AYSO and are glad that each team gets to be their own color.  Our team name is the Orange Ninjas.  They haven't won any games yet, but in the last game Logan made his first goal ever!  We were so proud of him and he was so proud of himself.

His jersey is huge on him.  Its the smallest they had and it still drowns him.  He is constantly pulling his shorts up.

Brooklyn loves watching him play.  She tries to go on the field so she can play too.

After Logan's first soccer game of the season we took Logan and Lincoln to the BYU game.  Several months ago we got the Cosmo Kids Club for Logan and my sister got one for Lincoln.  The boys were so excited to be able to go to the game.

Because of the kids club, after the game we were able to go down on the field.  When we went down there we found Logan's cousin Braden.

Laying on the letters on the field.  It was very cool to be on the field.  None of us had ever done it before.

Grandpa Quinney was at the game with Braden, Jason, and Heather so he lifted Logan up to almost touch the field goal post.

We had so much fun at the game and get to take the boys to another one at the end of the month.  They are so excited!  It will be a great fall season of soccer and football!

Labor Day

I have so much to catch up on, but I think each thing deserves its own post.  September started out with our annual Labor Day Breakfast up in the canyon.  It didn't dissapoint as usual.  Logan started out by playing by the river.  A few years back the kids discovered if you get the rocks wet it makes "war paint".  They painted their faces and then just played by the water.

Then, we ate breakfast and headed off the the cave.  We weren't sure how Brooklyn would do, but she went in and was a trooper.

Brooklyn and Daddy in the cave.  My mom gave the kids these headlights and they were a big hit.  Even with David.

Logan in the cave.  We have a tradition that if we kiss the back of the cave we will have good luck for the whole year.  Logan even kissed the back this year!

Mommy and Brooklyn climbing out of the cave.

The Labor Day activities are always so fun.  After the canyon we just relaxed at home until we went to Mike and Kate's for the annual jump and dive contest.  I was a judge this year and lacked picture taking.  It was a great contest though.  Logan even did his first front flip off the diving board.  I am so sad that summer is over.  But, now that it is September I guess I will just embrace the cooler weather and all that comes with it!