Mesa Falls

We decided to take the scenic roads home from Idaho Falls through Rexburg, Island Park, near West Yellowstone, and Big Sky. It was so beautiful especially with all the fall leaves. We passed a turn off for Mesa Falls which is a place Brad and I have been wanting to see, so we decided to take the detour to see the Falls. It was worth the extra time in the car. It was beautiful!

Parades and Swimming

ISU's homecoming game was today so they had a big parade this morning in Pocatello. Calli and I took the kids while Travis, Brad, and Kade went golfing. It was a lot of fun! The kids got so much candy that by the end, Ryder stopped picking it up.
After lunch we headed to Idaho Falls to hang out with the Murdocks for the night. The kids were so excited to stay with their Murdock cousins. They got to go swimming in the afternoon and then Tenley also got to serve Bryson and his date and their friends for their high school homecoming dance dinner with Elly and J.T. The kids dressed up in their church clothes to serve them. It was so cute!

Century Games

Brad's brother Travis coaches high school football in Pocatello so it's fun to travel down to see a game in the ISU dome every fall. Brad, Kade, his brothers and Dad enjoyed the game on the sidelines with the team and the rest of us sat up in the stands. They had a great game and won! We enjoyed banana splits at their house afterward.
It was fun to road trip down in Brad's truck. We woke up to cold, rainy weather and were welcomed to Pocatello with sunny 70 degree weather. We even played at a park. It was really nice.

Brotherly Love

Ryder really loves Luke. He loves to take care of him and if he were a bit older it wouldn't worry me so much, but as for now I really have to keep my eye on him. The other day Luke was napping, I was cleaning the kitchen, and I thought Ryder was downstairs playing with cars because I could hear him making noises and talking to himself. Come to find out he had gone into Luke's room, crawled into his crib with him and was playing/napping with Luke. Yikes! I'm glad he was squishing him or trying to get him out of the crib.
Today I found him reading a book to Luke on the coach and it was the most adorable moment of the day! I'm glad he loves him so much!

Ryder's Singing

My sweet little Ryder has been singing a lot lately while he plays and I love it so much. He's been singing I am a Child of God, Follow the Prophet, and the Iron Man theme song. It's a pretty adorable compilation of songs!
I took all the kids to get flu shots after school. None of them were happy with me, but none of them cried when they got the shot! I was impressed, especially with Ryder. He's a tough guy!
Kade had his first football game this evening. He did great and he has nice coaches. It will be a fun season for him. I couldn't stay for the whole game because I had to get to Young Womens. We had a fun night with all of the youth playing a YM vs. YW battle to see who knew more about what the other gender does in their program. The young women won because girls rule! haha

A Free Afternoon

Ryder requested that we go to the library today. It was fun to take him and play with him there. He's such a cute boy!
Kade didn't have swim team practice today because there was a meet so we actually got to come home after school for once! It was really nice. We finished homework, practice the piano, and had dinner at a decent time. But we still had to leave to go to Kade's pack meeting. He earned his Wolf badge and is now a bear! He really loves scouts.

Double Rainbows

Life is going to be extra busy for the next month because we just signed Kade up for football. I was just thinking how different Luke's 4 month old life is from Kade's 4 month old life. Kade got good naps every day and was always fed regularly on our couch at home. Luke takes naps where and when he can get them, mainly in his car seat, and is fed in the car, at piano lessons, at the gym during swim team practice, pretty much where ever we happen to be when he is hungry! It's crazy. And having dinner happens at 4:30 pm or 8 pm depending on our afternoon schedule. But the kids are having fun at least.

After piano lessons today we drove to football practice. It was cold and rainy and Luke needed to eat so I stayed in the car with him. Tenley and Ryder played outside for a bit, and then hung out with me in the car when it started pouring. I tried to charge my phone because it was about to die, but then that killed my car battery. Luke was fussy and it was hard to calm him down in the tight confined space of the drivers seat. It wasn't the happiest of moments...But I told myself to find good in the moment anyway, to find something, anything, to be grateful for. Even just starting out with thinking how beautiful the rain was switched all my thoughts to be more positive. And then the most beautiful double rainbow appeared! And Luke started smiling! And it became a happy moment.

Brad met us at the park so he could give my car a jump and then we headed home for Ryder's family night. He gave a great lesson about Jesus like he always loves to and then we had pizza and watched his favorite show, America's Funniest Videos.

One of Brad's employees took this beautiful picture of the double rainbow.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

It was a busy Sunday today and I wasn't able to relax as much as I like to, but after I was finished eating dinner Luke needed to be cuddled so I 'let' the kids clean up the dishes for me.
As I was laying on the couch with Luke the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing my favorite hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and sweet little Luke fell asleep in my arms without a fuss. It was the best moment of the day!
Dinner was pretty yummy too, Lemon butter chicken, asparagus, and homemade zucchini bread.

Skating

Brad got to go on a fun guided fishing trip today on the beautiful Missouri River. He caught a lot of fish and had a great time. He's excited to get his brothers up here to do it with him again someday.

While he was gone we took Tenley to her friend Natalie's birthday party at the skating rink. My kids have never skated before so I decided to stay and watch Tenley. Kade skated as well and Ryder got a cool scooter with light up wheels. He was fast on his scooter and would lap Tenley and Kade a few times before they'd make it around the circle once. Ryder rode that scooter for two straight hours and was excited to come home and relax afterward. It wore him out!

Tenley and Kade both improved a lot on their skates! By the end Kade was skating without the help of the walker. They also fell a lot and have sore bums, but I'm so proud of them for trying something new and having fun even though they weren't really good at it.

The SIlver Car

Today was a day Brad has been looking forward to for a while now. For the past seven or so months he's been researching trucks trying to find the best, most efficient, most cost-effective and a few weeks ago he finally found exactly what he's been looking for. Ryder, Luke and I went with him to pick up his new truck this afternoon. It's really nice and I'm excited for him.
We traded in our silver car. I had mixed emotions about it. It was a really great car for us for the past 12 years and we have so many great memories with it. But it was definitely time to let it go.

My Little Boys

My two little boys keep me so busy during the day. Every day I wake up and write down a few goals of things that I would personally like to get done and at the end of the day I never seem to have had the time. You wouldn't think these little guys would fill up my whole day, but somehow they do. They are my life right now. We read a lot of books today and played cars. Ryder wrestled Luke and got him to giggle a lot. I honestly don't know how Luke puts up with Ryder wrestling with him all the time. But he just stares at him or smiles and rarely cries. I guess he thinks it's fun.

Teaching

One of my favorite things about being a mom is being able to see my kids grow, learn, progress, and do better at things then they did yesterday. Ryder is in such a great learning stage and teaching him things is so rewarding.
I got to be the preschool teacher today and we had a lot of fun doing crafts, reading books, and playing. We learned about the letter B. We went downstairs to play basketball, but the girls wanted to play Barbies instead. Ryder tried to get them to do anything else. He got out games and other toys, but nothing seemed to work. Poor Ryder needs another little boy with him in his preschool group!

On a side note we had such a fun Priest/Laurel activity tonight! One of my Laurels brought a game called '9-Square'. They even had us leaders join in. It was a blast! I love my Laurels and it's fun to hang out with them each week.

Racing

Ryder loves race cars. He points out cool cars to me when we drive around town. It's pretty cute. And he loves to race Brad when he goes back to work after lunch. It's one of the cutest things I get to see almost every day.

Time with Tenley

Tenley was in charge of family night tonight. She wanted to have pizza and watch the Secret Garden which is one of my favorite musicals. Unfortunately the version we found on Amazon prime wasn't very good and didn't have any music. We need to find a better version.
Brad was planning on picking up the pizza for us but he got held up at work so Tenley and I left the boys at home and snuck away to pick up her pizza. I love having one on one time with my kids and time with Tenley has been long overdue. She is a very talkative, happy girl and I love her!

Fort Benton

Kade got to go golfing this morning with Brad and his friends. Kade says his favorite sport is golf and he always loves to go with Brad. They tried a new course and enjoyed it. There were a lot of deer on the course.
Tenley and Ryder exercised with me this morning. I absolutely love it when they'll do a workout video with me. Watching Ryder doing jumping jacks is the cutest thing ever. He is such a funny boy. And his push ups are legit! He's a pretty tough kid!
When the boys got home we went for a family outing to Fort Benton. It's a small town just an hour away right on the Missouri river. It's really cute and we had fun exploring.
We came back home to eat Cafe Rio while we caught up on all the football games from today. We had a blast watching the BYU game! We couldn't believe they won!

Ryder is my little buddy when we pick up Cafe Rio. He downed two glasses of horchata while we waited.