Fall Fun 2009

I definitely am a big fan of fall. It is so fun to do all of the fun activities with the kids and to watch them get so excited. Of course we couldn't have fall without a family pumpkin carving night. This year was awesome, the kids did all of the carving and cleaning out all by themselves. I have never seen them so focused and quiet when carving pumpkins. They did a cute job and of course they were all proud of their creations.

We had the annual Holt Family Halloween party. We all got dressed up and went to Grams for the party. We played games, ate and the kids had a cake walk. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and playing Halloween games. Thanks Grams for the fun time!!

One of our very favorite activities to do in the fall is go to Cornbellys. Bill and I love to do the corn maze, the kids don't love it as much as we do, but they do along with us anyway. Jake had a blast running up and down the corn stalk aisles. We were lucky to have Michelle and her kids with us this year. It is always more fun to have the cousins with us. The kids had a blast, they loved playing in the corn kernel house. It was messy but they thought it was a riot. They also had fun shooting corn cobs and riding the tractor hay ride. Luckily we went at the first of the month when the weather was perfect.

It has been a great fall and I am sad to see it end. Of course there is nothing better in fall than Halloween, I can't wait for Saturday.

Happy Birthday Rylee!!

Here it is, the year Rylee would have turned five years old. I can't believe it has been that long since she was born. Those were some dark hard days when she was born. When the season changed to fall I started to feel like I did before she was born. I always remember things by the smell and feel. I was feeling a little sad this fall and I couldn't figure out why and thing I realized it was because it was fall and I remember so vividly the season and how I felt after Rylee was born. In a few more days it will be official, she will have been gone longer than she was with us. I knew this day would come, but I just didn't think it would come so soon. It is definitely a milestone to have her gone longer than she was living. As hard as her birth and life were to us I will never regret anything that happened to us. I am the person I am now(for better or worse) because of what I learned from that little dolly. I just seems so weird that we are going to visit her grave and then come home and celebrate with a cake and talk about our favorite memories. I think of how she would look if she were still alive. She would be going to school and be in a big wheel chair. I can't even begin to imagine how big her body would be. She would have still been very small but she would have been a little bit bigger than when she was 2. We continue to miss her everyday but we are so grateful that families are eternal. Thanks for all of the love and support we have received from all of our family and friends over the past 5 years. Rylee, Happy Birthday little dolly, WE LOVE YOU!!!!

I AM BACK

I can't believe what a blog slacker I have been these past few months. My computer was wacky for a while and I couldn't type without it taking hours, but now I got that all under control. We have done so many fun things as a family this past summer and I will never be able to blog about everything with the detail I would like. So I guess I am just going to have to give a re cap with a few pictures. I need to do a little catch up because when it comes time for me to make my blog book for this year I will have a huge gap during the summer. I am sorry that this is going to be long and boring but at least I will have it documented for my book.


We had so much fun playing with our cousins. Spencer and Andrea came and stayed the whole month of July. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins everyday. Michelle and Travis moved back from Australia and they were here with us for a few weeks before they moved to Arizona. It was so great to be together again.

We went fishing. We didn't catch anything but that was OK, because we had a fun time.

We rented a trailer and went camping for a week. We had such a great time. We rode our ATV's, fished, hiked,laughed, played and we even had our neighbors the Johns come and ride ATV's with us. It was awesome. I would love to do that every year.

We went down to the gully by our home and played in the water and on a rope swing that was there.

We went to the Highland Fling. It is the best parade ever because we always know a lot of people in the parade. The kids always get a ton of candy every year. It was fun to have cousins with us this year.

Bill had to go to St. George to do a closing so the rest of us went with him. It was a fast trip but very fun.

We hiked to Stewart Falls with the cousins. It was so fun and the kids did a great job hiking.

We had tons of fun sleep overs with the cousins. Megan and Amanda made up some very fun pioneer games for the 24th of July. Brady and Hailey had to be together as much as possible. Parker got to play his Nintendo a lot with his cousins and helped them get to new levels in their games.

Megan was in a cute play with the city arts council. They sang a bunch of Broadway songs. Megan did a great job.

The kids played with their friends and ran through the sprinklers.

We had Sofiya come and spend some time with us. She is such a cute girl. She came to play with Megan but all of the kids had a blast with her. We also went to Liberty Land a lot. We all loved to play laser tag, it was a great family activity.

Back To School

Here we are again, time to start another year of school. We had such a great summer, there was never a dull moment. This year will be Megan's last year in elementary school,that is crazy to me. The kids are all excited about their teachers this year. It always helps when the kids are excited about the new year. I have to say that I was sad to see them go back to school this year. As Jake and I were walking home from dropping the kids off at school I was getting a little emotional thinking about how old they are getting. I as alSo thinking that I Still have 4 more years before Jake goes to School. I don't know if I should be happy or sad. Here We go again With another School year, I hope it's a good one!

My Two Little Athletes

It is crazy how long it has been since I have been able to get to my blog. I have a lot of things to blog about, I just didn't have time. I am going to get all caught up, but it is going to take awhile.


Here are my two little athletes Parker and Hailey. This past week Hailey had her summer gymnastics recital. She has been in level 3 this past year. She has had fun and she did a great job. This next year she will be on a team. The gym where she is going is starting a new type of team called Team Gym. She will be competing with other teams that have this new program. She will be competing around the state with one meet being at Disneyland. I am excited for her to have this opportunity this year. It is going to be a good experience for her and I think she will learn a lot. I love that she will be training and competing as a team. The only down side is that there is no car pool, oh well the sacrifices we make for our kids.



Parker has started playing football this year. His coach from basketball is also the coach of the football team. Last year at the end of basketball he asked Parker to be on his football team. Parker was very nervous because he didn't really understand how to play the game. He started practices a few weeks ago and has loved every minute of it. I think that the boys look so cute in their team uniforms. Parker is trying to decide if he loves football as much as basket ball. Parker had his first game today. I was amazed at how people get into football, it is pretty crazy. The little 4Th and 5Th grade cheer leaders were there, I always wonder Where the little girls cheered now I know. I guess I have a lot to learn about being a football mom. It is going to be an exciting year with my little athletes.

Cherry Picking

When Bill and I were dating one of his professors that he worked with told him that we could pick cherries off the trees that he had at his house. We had a blast picking cherries and we always remember that date with fond memories. For years we have talked about taking our kids to pick cherries and finally this summer we did it!! It was so fun to pick a cherry then eat a cherry then pick a cherry. Even Jake loved the cherries, of course he would find some great ones on the ground and he would want to eat them. We all had a really great time and I think that the cherries taste the best when you pick them yourself. I think that we need to make this activity a family tradition.

My New Hobby

I have been wanting to get a SLR for about a year and in March I finally was able to get one. I had taken a photography workshops last month, but tonight my SIL and I went to a workshop in Draper. It was a lot of fun and I was able to bring some of my kids to practice on. The kids did great and I learned a lot about my camera, amongst other things. I am going to share some of my favs because I think they look really cute. I was worried about Jake because he is at that crazy age, but Emilie, the teacher, did a great job of getting him to smile and look cute. Check out my side bar for a couple more cute pics.

This one of Parks cracks me up, I have never seen him look so serious in his whole life.

There were way too many cute Jake pics, but I liked this one because he is looking right into the camera.

The cute photogenic cousins had a bunch of cute ones. I love their pout looks. Abbie is such a ham she cracked me up.