Photo shoot city

So this past conference marked 6 months since I've worked.  The last time I worked at the Roof was for the April conference, then I went on maternity leave and just never went back.  It's strange to think that I've been out of work that long.  But it is nice to actually be home for conference!  It's been 10 years since I've been home to see all sessions.  I even got to go to the Relief Society session the week before. AMAZING!  

Well we tried something new to keep the kids in check during conference and it worked so good so I figured I'd share.  We had conference concessions.  During the first session they earned "dollars."  One for being good during a talk, or 2 for telling us something that was said in the talk.  So they earned all kinds of money during the morning session.  Then they redeemed it during the afternoon session however they choose.  For Kate that only earned $5 she could only buy a few snacks, but Rach earned I think $18 and she got a ton.  So they got lots of snacks as we listened to conference.  It was a hit!  They loved it. I think we'll do it again.

 As for everything else.... the best way to get wiggles out it to bounce while you're bouncing....

 We dug up the garden (aka Rachel took a machete to the garden)

 We finished fall soccer.  Can I say that my kids are awesome?  Okay.  They are awesome.  Josh has improved SO much in soccer this fall and really did so good.  Rach had an amazing last game. She was goalie for the last half and had so many amazing saves.  The parents on the other team were even giving her compliments after the game for how great she did.  You could tell she was so proud too.  Best way to end the season!

 I have 2 little knitters on my hands.  We've been busily making hats to donate and the kids have really taken off with it.

 Then we went to Wheeler Farm and had a massive photo shoot.  I like to pretend that I'm a photographer and take cool pictures of my kids. The colors there were so pretty so I tried to get some good shots.  So brace yourself...and here you go....It helps that I have cute subjects.

 Had to get one of grandma and William too...

 I know this isn't a smiley picture of Rach, and yes, she's in tie dye...I know.  But I love the coloring and think her eyes look beautiful in this one. 

What cute kids I have!  We had such a blast and I love fall!

Smiles and Soccer

So this post is dedicated to all those dimples that we find in our house.  They are just too cute to resist. 

 We also have ourselves some soccer players!  Thankfully they let them play because sign ups were when I was in the hospital and I totally forgot.  I had to go into the rec office and beg to let them play.  Josh is now a Blue Ninja....

 This kid is not the most aggressive player on the team but he loves to play goalie and is really good at it!  He looks pretty tough too.  He is also an excellent trash talker.  His first game they played a red team and he said, "I bet I know what their team name is...the red chickens."  Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not the name they chose.

 We also had a stake fair a few weeks ago.  We had a good time getting tattoos, eating scones, popcorn and cotton candy, and getting rained on.

 Rachel was in a dance performance with these cute girls.  They danced to "Eye of the Tiger"  Notice the black and orange?

 Here we are back to smiley McGee.

 Rachel's first week of soccer she had a 'bye' then the next 2 weeks got rained out.  So when some other teams had 3 games she hadn't had any.  Her team name is Gold Rush and they are pretty awesome now that they actually get to play!

 My little Utes.  I think they look so much alike in this picture.

 And sometimes you just play so hard you pass right out.

 Ummm.....I don't know what to say about this boy and peanut butter sandwiches.

Labor day weekend

So we usually don't do anything too terribly exciting for Labor day weekend.  Trav was supposed to go camping with the scouts but it got cancelled last minute so we decided to live it up.  We went to a movie, Josh had his first soccer game of the season, and we went to the zoo.

 

 

Trav said,"Rach, I'm going to take a picture of you, look like you're having fun!"  This is the pose of "fun" apparently.

 This was Will's first trip to the zoo and this is pretty much how he spent the whole time.  What a cutie.

 They also put in a splash pad area that I had never seen before.  The kids LOVED that (and got nice and wet).

 And it was the last day of the Lego animals.  The polar bear was definitely my favorite.  Josh thinks they should get rid of all the animals and just have Lego animals.  Much easier to take care of.

 It's kind of hard to read William's shirt but it says "bananas for mommy."  I thought he needed to wear that one to the zoo, and had to get a picture with mommy too.

 Also on Labor day weekend every year we get hot air balloons at the park across the street.  They do it every year and just launch from there and it's so cool to see that happen.  Well, this year they launched on Friday and Saturday like always, but they were also there on Sunday.  So Trav and Kate walked over to see and they were giving rides!  They've never done that before!  So they went on a little hot air balloon ride.  Our neighbor was nice enough to take a picture for us.

 They ran home and woke the rest of us up and me, Josh and Rach ran over and got a ride too!  It only lasted a couple minutes but there was hardly anyone there and it was so fun!  And we were only 3 minutes late to our 9:00 church, which is actually a miracle.

 There's been some bad ducks riding around the neighborhood.  This one is "Hollywood Duck." Neighbors, lock your doors...

 I guess you don't need to worry too much, cowboy Josh will take care of it. 

 And then last night out of nowhere we had a crazy downpour.  We got a ton of rain in a short time and of course someone had to be out there playing in it.  Our road was almost completely flooded over.  So crazy, but so needed. 

So that was our Labor day weekend.  How was yours?