It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here. Mallory and Andrew are busy in school, we've had lots of holiday parties, concerts and festivals to go to. My dad, grandparents and I took a little weekend trip to go to Uncle Howards funeral. Spencer boy is getting so big. I have not been very good at remembering to take pictures, I'll try to work on that.

Catching up

I got a new phone about a month ago and could not figure out how to download new pictures, here are some of the pictures about what we have been doing!

Not much going on...

I looked at my blog and realized I had not posted since school started...Oops!

 Malachi had his Annual "Silver Cowboy Poker Tournament" that he participated in September!

 Our Andrew boy turned 7- we kept it Very low key this year- just special pancakes, cupcakes at school and a special dinner with ALL the grandparents and (of course) presents!

 This picture was on my camera so the boys must have gone shooting sometime this month!

 The end of September we went to Court and Spencer's mom got custody back of him! Since she never really got to celebrate the pregnancy or birth of this special boy I threw her a baby shower to show her how much we all love and want to support her and Spencer! It really was great because she got some things she really needed to him!

last week we carved our pumpkins. Malachi and Mallory were on a team and Andrew and I were on a team. I will try to post pictures of the completed pumpkins when I post their Halloween costumes!

Besides that the kids go to school every day. Mallory is having a little trouble adjusting to all day kindergarten, but she loves school and has tons of friends- she is really turning into a social butterfly! Andrew is doing great! He is in the top reading group in his class and we just signed him up for basketball starting in November! Malachi is Very busy at work, working extra days and overtime. he just got a raise and overall really likes the people he works with! I keep myself pretty busy between my primary calling, cub scouts, trying to keep up on household chores, watching Spencer 3-4 days a week, volunteering at the kid's school and I've been trying to focus on loosing weight so I am at the Gym and walking outside as much as I can...We are all busy, but life is good!

First days of school, a Camel and The narrows

Here is Our Andrew boy on his first day of FIRST grade- when did he get so BIG?

 He was LOVING his Angry Birds shirt and Mario backpack!

 Mallory started Kindergarten the next day! She was HELLO KITTY from head to toe- Including panties!

 Granny bought her this backpack and she is in LOVE with it!

 After only a few days a school the kids had a 4 day weekend. We've had our zoo pass for almost 3 years now and for approximately 3 years the kids have been asking to ride the Camels- and I would reply "mommy doesn't ride camels you will have to wait for a time when daddy comes with us!" So since it was the LAST DAY until our zoo pass expired we went and daddy rode the camels with the kids!

 And we fed the Buggies! We saw our favorite animals the Elephants, polar bears, and sharks. Then we watched the show for the 105th time! I am going to miss going to the zoo all the time...

 Around our house we are trying to make some healthier lifestyle changes, and becoming a more active family. So Monday we drove over to the Narrows bridge and walked over and back- from where we parked it ended up being a 3 mile walk- with some monstrous hills! The kids did REALLY well, we are going on another family walk this weekend- stay tuned to find out where!

Squeezing out the last bit of summer! (caution picture overload)

As School time approaches I have been trying to squish in more summertime fun! So when my friend called and asked me if I wanted to meet her at the lake I was Very excited!

 Mallory is getting Really good at swimming and Andrew is starting to get more brave with his life jacket on!

 They LOVED Running to the dock and jumping off...Then we went to a friends house that had set up a HUGE slip and slide down a hill- too much fun!

 We wanted to go to another Rainers game before the summer was over...So a few weeks ago we did. Can you tell we got Free hats?

 We invited the Marini's family from church...Mallory couldn't care less about baseball, so it was fun to have her friend there to play with!

 Random picture- Our Spencer boy started Solid foods, this boy loves rice cereal!

 Last weekend we wanted to do a little weekend trip up to Seattle. Malachi and I both grew up here but haven't done many of the famous, tourist Seattle things...So we woke up EARLY Saturday and tried to see as much as we could!

 Our first stop was the Freemont Troll...it is pretty cool and the kids liked climbing on it!

 Then we went to Gasworks park. I had thought it would be HUGE considering how many people go there for the 4th of July, but it wasn't too big, and there weren't any toys, so we just ran down the arches (can you see Malachi on the top?)

 Then we ran to the top of "Kite Flying hill" that was pretty cool and a beautiful view of Seattle.

 They were doing a 10K so we ran though the finish line...

 Then we went and Walked around Green lake for awhile

 there were a few barges to play on

 we walked over to Woodland park, This was a fun park- it might have been the kids favorite part!

 Everywhere we went there were fun things to see and eat and smell...it really is a completely different culture- very interesting!

 Then we went to the Zoo...

 We saw some cute Monkeys in cages

 and hung out by the penguins- the Zoo really was cool. We love going to different zoos and seeing animals we've never seen before.

 After that we went to the Pacific Science center where they have lots of interactive exhibits where the kids got to learn and test out different Scientific principles.

 While we were there we watched a 3-D movie on I-Max. It was a butterfly movie and the kids kept putting out their hands like they were going to catch a butterfly!

 We saw all the exhibits at the Science center- but Malachi was disappointed that they had changed some of the things from when he was a kid!

 There is "Art" all over Seattle- and it all looks so fun to climb on, so we did!

 After that we went down to the waterfront (by FAR the most expensive parking) We did some shopping (they had a street fair) and walked though some of shops.

 Then we went to Ivars for dinner, I was planning on getting something fishy, but ended up getting Steak, but everyone else had fish- Seattle style!

After dinner we went on a 1 hour harbor cruise! This was a Very relaxing way to end the day. the sun was going down, we had been walking all day, it was nice just to sit back and enjoy the Puget sound and look at the scenery.

 The kids LOVED it, they thought it was so cool that we were on a BIG boat!

 After that we headed back to the Hotel and went swimming in the pool for a bit before we went to bed around 10- That's right folks, we did all of that in ONE day!

No time to rest- we need to have more fun...So we woke up early and had a very yummy continental breakfast at our hotel before heading out.

 First stop was the Space Needle- we went ALL the way to the TOP!

 Perfect time of day, just as the sun is rising and there were not very many people up there. ( Did you notice Andrew is using the telescope backwards? Such a cute boy)

 You would not believe it- we saw a real life Trolley- and we weren't even in San Francisco!

 Next we went to go ride the Ducks- I've wanted to do this for a long time and all day we kept seeing the tours go by, it looked like so much fun!

It was great with lots of fun music, Quackers, and everyone waved at you like you were on a parade! Then when we Drove into the water Andrew was SHOCKED!!! He was just certain that the driver had taken a wrong turn

 After the Duck tour we went over to the Seattle Children's museum.

 We ALL played pretend, Taco bar, grocery store, restaurant, theater, camping...

 A lot of it was geared towards younger kids, but they had a good time anyway!

 There was a whole section of different cultures...

 And Mallory's favorite toy ANYWHERE is the phone- silly girl!

After the Children's museum we caught the Monorail over to Westlake Center,,

We did some shopping at some of the stores and went to the cheesecake factory for lunch. The food was REALLY good. Malachi LOVED his cheese cake and offered the kids a bite...Andrew had a COMPLEATE tantrum because we wouldn't let him spit out his bite.

 Then we went over to Pike place market- I thought this sounded really fun but there were WAY too many people and walking though the crowds was stressful with two little children...we ended up buying some Pepper-jelly for Malachi and a bouquet of flowers for me!

 And of Course we HAD to see the famous gum wall- GROSS!

Then we headed home, it was such a FUN weekend. Just the four of us hanging out together! Okay now I feel like I am ready to get back into the routine of school. back to school night is tonight!