Happy Halloween!!

We had a great Halloween this year, the weather was AWESOME!!  The kids got to dress up for my parent's ward Halloween party one night (that's why some of the kids are wearing different costumes) and then of course they all got dressed up again for school and Halloween night.  I could NOT get Scarlett to put on a costume, in fact it's pretty rare that she will even wear shoes and a coat, so I was beginning to think she would be the first kid who would not get dressed up for Halloween!  She still wanted to be part of the pictures though, ha ha! But somehow her Daddy has a special way with her and he managed to convince her to do it.  She was absolutely adorable Trick-or-Treating too!  She memorized very quickly the whole routine of saying "Trick or Treat", holding out her bag, and then saying "Thank you".  Of course in her speech, only I could tell that was what she was saying, but it was pretty darn cute.  Dakota left us to trick or treat with Laura, I couldn't say no to those cuties.  So we just took the boys and Scarlett.  We went and did the lake homes to get full sized chocolate bars and pops - the boys were pretty thrilled about that, and it was fun to see half the ward doing the same thing, walking by each other!  I only went out a little while with them, and then I figured I should be at home handing out candy!  They all got a haul as usual, and Scarlett was NOT about to let go of her bag!  So funny.  I let them all pig out for a couple days, and then I actually got them to sell me their bags of candy for $10 each!  I was sick of hearing them fight over candies, and ask me constantly if they could eat some more!  Good deal for all!

 

 

 

Dakota's Baptism

On October 12th, Dakota was baptized!  She was so thrilled to take this step in her life, and we were so excited for her.  We decided to do a combined baptism with her 2nd cousins?!  Not sure exactly what they are to her, but they are my cousin, and my cousins son!  Anyway, she was baptized with Blake and Sawyer!  It was so nice to be able to do it all together since my Grandma and Grandpa Cooper only had to make one trip to Calgary to see them all.  He was very happy to be able to feel healthy enough to be at this family gathering, and thinks it might be one of his last.  We were happy to have my Grandma and Grandpa Nielson make the trip as well.  We even had representatives from Lee's family in Edmonton here as well (Cody and Kim and Karin all made it!) Dakota sure felt special!  The baptism was a wonderful experience.  We had a nice program with 3 talks.  My mom spoke on Choosing the Right and did a fabulous job.  We had some nice musical numbers as well.  Scarlett surprisingly fell asleep in Melanie's arms, don't know how that happened!  One minute she was watching the baptism and wanting to get her swimsuit on and join Dakota in the water ,and the next, she was sleeping! We also had Dakota's best friend Laura there, and also Pam and Quasie and Yasmine (our friends who aren't members of the church) were there to support her as well!  After the baptism we had a big Luncheon with around 80 people representing all 3 familes.  We had soups, buns and desserts.  It was nice to be able to visit with everyone.  What a special experience as a mother to watch your children get baptized!

 

Dakota's 8th Birthday!

It may or may not have been a couple months ago, but at least I'm finally get around to posting it!  My darling daughter Dakota turned 8 this year!  She's getting so big, and thankfully is still maintaining her sweetness!  I don't know what we would do without this angel in our household, she is so patient with her siblings (including a baby sister who loves to drag her around and tell her what to do), she's so happy and grateful for everything in life, is very obedient, is always so positive and always trying to be her best.  We just love her to bits.  Couldn't ask for a better daughter.  Seriously.  We had a very small get together on her actual birthday, and then a week or so later she had a "Zumba" birthday party!  It's sort of a latin dance fitness class, and this instructor came to our house and entertained these girls for an hour!  She said we could invite however many kids we wanted, so I kind of let Dakota ask whoever, but it turned out that all of them came, so we had 17 girls!  Yikes!  The dancing part was totally fine, but I hadn't thought through the chaos of dinner and the overload of presents!!  Oops!!  (as you can tell from the photos, the singing of Happy Birthday got a little loud, ha ha),   Oh well, it actually went by very quickly and wasn't too bad!  Dakota had a blast and so did all the girls!  The instructor (Tamara was her name!) was SOO good with the girls, and had so much energy.  It was a great party.  And I'm so glad Dakota has so many great girls her age.

September

So we're adjusting to the back to school schedule now, we've got some good carpooling and play date structures going on, and I'm feeling pretty good about it so far.  The kids are all loving their classes and making good friends.  Although life is getting busier as usual with all of the sports and stuff starting up, and of course our church callings are taking quite a bit of time as well!  It is quite rare for us to have an evening where there is nothing going on!  But we are excited for the kids to start basketball, 3 of them are in it now, and Dakota is in Hip Hop and Mason and Dakota are still taking piano.  Lee's basketball has started up again too.  But the biggest consumer of our time this month has been the renovation of my Dad's office at Glenmore Landing!  Lee was absolutely consumed for 2 weeks straight trying to get it all done, and it just seemed like problem after problem occurred, and people kept letting him down.  He worked all day, and all night most days too!  Seriously, he literally pulled 4 all nighters where he never came home, never laid down or rested at all!  I truly don't know how he stayed alive and healthy.  And it sucked for me being a single Mom for the first 2 weeks of school!  But we both prayed hard and the Lord helped us through that tough time.  And thankfully we are out of it now, and things are going back to normal.  My poor husband was so sleep deprived though, his face and hands were swelling up, and his back was so sore he could hardly move.  He felt like he was going to pass out at times, but somehow he just kept pushing himself.  I am actually quite impressed with his level of commitment!   When he commits to something, he REALLY commits to it and will follow through at all costs!  Hopefully that character trait carries through to our marriage as well! :)  He even left me a note on one of the last days as I was starting to lose steam and getting low that said how much he loves me and can't wait to get back to me and the kids.  He said the whole experience helped him realize what is really important and that he wants to be a better husband and father when he gets back.  It was so sweet and gave me the strength to get through the last couple days.  What a great guy I have, I feel so lucky to have him.
And even as he came off his last all nighter on Saturday night, he still went to all his church meetings the next morning.  (With little naps in between things in his truck, but I was impressed!)  He looked like he was started to lose it during the Sacrament though and had his eyes closed.  Griffin noticed him and called out in a very loud whisper, "Wake UP Dad!!"  And sure enough Lee's eyes popped open and everyone around us had a good laugh.  It was pretty funny!
Anyway, the office is pretty much done, I will have to post some before and after pictures, because it's a huge change, and we are very happy with how it turned out!  It was a lot of fun for Lee and I to plan and design it together!!
We had a fun weekend this last one where we finally had time to do stuff together!  On Friday night my parents took us out for dinner as a thank you for all of the time Lee put in.  We had a great time, and it was a wonderful treat!
And on Saturday we went Duck Hunting with the Leishmans and the Irvines.  We had so much fun!  We went out for dinner first then changed into our camo gear, grabbed all our hunting stuff and their dog and headed out together to storm some ponds!!  Unfortunately it was a very slow day at the pond so there was not much action at all, but Jason did manage to shoot 2 ducks!  And the rest of us took a few shots at least!  I actually did shoot a duck, but the sad thing was that it was already dead but just sitting in the pond.  Lee told me it was sleeping so I shot at it, but when we found it we could tell it had been dead for a little while!  Still felt cool to shoot it though!  And the funny thing was that we had a deal on with the other couples that whoever shot the least had to buy dessert after for the others... so we kinda used the dead duck to say we got one and tricked the Irvines into buying dessert!  It was only after they were dropping us home that I revealed our confession that my duck was maybe not as alive as it could have been when I shot it... they thought it was funny but still wanted payback, so apparently they toilet papered our house while we were sleeping! Ha ha, it was a funny night!  We had a lot of good laughs.  Here's some cool pics of us:

And then there was one...

Well, this school year leaves me with one child left at home!  (At least in the mornings).

Griffin started Kindergarten, and man was he ever excited!!  He couldn't wait to go.  And I was so happy that he ended up with a great teacher (a man that reminded me of what Dr. Seuss would look like) and 2 boys from our ward in his class.  Mason and Dakota are very happy with their classes this year as well, even though they didn't end up with a lot of their usual friends in their classes.  They have both been making new friends, and coming home happy every day, so WHEW! Sigh of relief on the part of a worried Mama!  Dakota was a little nervous about starting, but mostly excited, and Mason was a lot nervous and a little excited! They all got blessings from their Dad on Sunday night, and they were pretty excited about that whole experience.  They are already asking when they can get another one!
Oh and yes, Dakota chopped her hair off! I was sad at first to cut off so many beautiful curls, but now it's growing on me, I think she looks cute and older!  She asked me every day for a week if we could cut it, but I kept putting it off.  I made her ask Lee first, and he kinda said No at first.  I could see she was fighting back tears, so I told him privately to reconsider!! Obviously it meant a lot to her, and that sweet girl doesn't ask for much!  So he gave in!
So we are figuring out the whole new school routine, and I must say it's nice in a way to be back, but I also miss our relax days, and I especially miss my amazing helper, Dakota!  Scarlett has really taken to her lately - she calls her "Owa", and asks for her a million times a day.  When she's home, she follows her everywhere and wants to hold her hand and tells her to "mon." (C'mon).  It's very sweet, and a wonderful break for me!!  Dakota is the best big sister ever, so kind and patient with her!  Scarlett is a little lonely with everyone gone in the morning, but most days she goes to the daycare at Spa Lady while I work out, so she's doing fine!  And it's been fun to do the pick ups from Kindergarten - it's quite the Social party right now, with all the Moms talking while the kids play all around.  Mine never want to go home!  I am glad I put Griffin in Chaparral school with all the kids his age from church - there are so many of them, and it's so fun to have them all together!
Anyway, so far so good with the school schedule!!
And here's a picture of Dakota helping her baby sister at the park!

Couldn't Get Enough!

Well, since we didn't get enough of the goodness, we just had to go back to Ashley Lake again in August.  I mean, just look at this place!!  That water just calls to me!

We had so much fun, with my parents, and some time on our own and with friends!  I don't know if it's possible to ever feel like you get enough time there though, we were still sad to leave!  One of the highlights this time was the Lily Pad that my parents bought!  The kids spent hours on it, wrestling, running back and forth and jumping off - even the adults enjoyed have wars on it too!

  

 Then of course, we spent a lot of time waterskiing!  I love these pictures of the kids, they totally show their personalities out there!  Dakota is confident and happy on the water, Mason, although he's quite good, is always hesitant and nervous to do it, and he literally squeezes his eyes closed sometimes when he is scared to cross the wake or something!  Although he actually did get really good at crossing back and forth, and if you caught him in a good mood, he had a big smile and was confident too!

 Griffin is a big talker, and thought he'd be awesome at waterskiing and totally wanted to do it.  Yet as soon as he got ready to go, his skis kept "magically" falling off, or else the rope would fall out of his hands or something!  CRAZY how that happened over and over! Ha ha.  He's hilarious, that little sneak.  He never did have an official attempt with Lee, he chickened out.

  But later in the trip, he tried again with me, and got up for a while!  Still very nervous, but at least he gave it a shot!  Guess all he needed was his mama!!

 And of course, Lee and I enjoyed our Slaloms 2-3 times a day, or as much as our tired bodies could handle!

Another highlight was the new Bow and Arrow that Grandpa bought and taught the kids how to use!  They seriously loved it, and shot at the target for hours!  Dakota especially loved feeling like the real "Brave" from the Disney movie!

 And yet another highlight was the new kids wakeboard that we bought this year.  The kids really wanted to do it, but we were nervous that they might not be able to get up.  But it turned out to be a huge success!  Dakota got up her 2nd try, totally excited and not evern nervous, and she got really good by the end! She was so cute and got really confident - doing her hang loose sign, feeling her spray in the water, crossing back and forth like a pro, and trying to jump on the spot.  She loved wakeboarding even more than skiing.

Mason of course, was a little more nervous, and didn't really want to try!

 But with some bribery and coaxing, he finally got up after a couple days of trying, and near the end he got quite confident on it as well!!

 Scarlett enjoyed tubing with her brothers and sister and the occasional wakesurf with her Daddy!

 And this picture is classic, it totally looks like Lee is forcing Mason's head into the water!  But actually, Mason and Dakota both think it's fun to dunk their own head in while they are surfing.

 And the kids always seem to love to spend time in the hot tub, even when the weather is HOT!

And some other highlights are building fires (Grandma is the master, and she taught our kids well!!), roasting marshmallows, catching a frog, and just hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa! (Scarlett was especially obsessed with Grandpa this year - she constantly called out "Bapa!" and asked for him whenever she woke up.  It was very cute.

And then we had a couple days with some good neighbor friends of ours, Meshel and Rob, and Griffin's best buddy Jack!  (And Scarlett's boyfriend Nash!) They had a blast together!

And then we had the Leishman's stay for a couple of days as well.  They brought their Jet Skis which was a new fun thing for the kids to try - they LOVED them!  And Lee and I actually enjoyed the stand-up one, which is actually a lot harder than it looks!!  You start out laying down, then move up to your knees, then try to stand up, and they are very wobbly, especially if you go over waves!  So we both had some good wipeouts and got a bunch of bruises on our knees and elbows.  It was fun though!  It was great to teach them and their kids to wakeboard, ski, wakesurf, etc!  And Mason and Dakota loved having some older kids to do "wild" tube rides with!