This is the Place Monument

The weekend before Halloween, my Grandpa Erickson invited us to go to "This is the Place Monument" for their Halloween celebrations...  Being able to go Trick-or-Treating at a few buildings was fun, but I think they definitely all thought that the train ride was the MOST fun thing we did!

The kids were able to do a fall craft with leaves & a pumpkin craft for Halloween at one building, then pound shapes into a piece of leather at another building.  Laron wasn't able to make it for the first few hours we were there because he was working that day, so it was nice to Grandma & Papa there to help the kids with the fun activities!

After that it was announced that they'd be shooting off the "Candy Cannon" on Main Street in a few minutes, so we headed over there to see what that was all about... Well, it was pretty much what it SOUNDS like it would be-- A cannon that shot out Halloween Candy!  The only problem was that the candy was pretty burnt & smelly after getting shot out of a cannon, so then they had people throwing out OTHER candy onto the road afterwards if you wanted something a little fresher.  Kind-of interesting!

Then we headed over to the Storybook Witch lady & heard a few Halloween stories & songs...

And then found the Old Schoolhouse where the kids enjoyed drawing on the individual chalkboards left at each desk... Skyler thought it looked like a pretty fun classroom, but I just can't imagine teaching ALL the different ages of kids in ONE classroom back then!  It makes me grateful for the schooling our children are provided with TODAY!

Then we went on to discover all the ANIMALS!  Surprisingly, Bailey was the only one brave enough to actually PET the animals, especially a little goat that she became rather fond of.  This was about the time that Daddy met up with us & the kids LOVED running around & showing him all the animals & exciting things!

And then, much to Kimberly's delight, the kids were all able to ride on some horses!  Skyler was nervous, but proud of himself afterward, Bailey started crying as soon as the horse started MOVING (even though I held onto her & walked right by her the whole time) & Kimberly just BEAMED from the moment she got up, to the moment she got down!  It's always so interesting as a parent to see how different all their little personalities are!

After pretending to milk a cow, exploring some old pioneer houses (they were SO tiny!), & having one last train ride back to the entrance of the park, it was time to head home for our ward's Halloween church activity.

It was a fun day, but I'm sure glad we don't walk around quite that much EVERY weekend... I was a little nervous it was going to put this very pregnant Momma into labor!

A Fun "Family Home Evening"

Just had to share about our fun "Family Home Evening" last night... We were getting rid of some old "Church News" newspapers & Laron got the great idea to cut up a bunch of pictures & tape them on some boxes to show our kids how we need to build a strong foundation on Christ & in the Gospel to be able to withstand the fiery darts of Satan. So we taped on pictures of Jesus Christ on the bottom box (our strong foundation!), then pictures of our living Prophet, temples, family & service on other boxes to remind us that these things are what help keep us strong & protected from Satan's constant temptations in this crazy world of ours. Then we all hid behind our wall of protection while someone shot STRONG arrows at the box, & amazingly, the boxes hardly moved! What great ACTUAL protection is the truths that we learn from the scriptures & from following Jesus Christ's example! I am SO thankful for the truths our church teaches!

Fall Break

 This year Skyler's "Fall Break" happened to fall on Laron's off-week, so we decided to come up with a few fun things to do around town each day as a family... The first day we went to a movie at the Dollar Theater (our kids think that's a very SPECIAL treat right now!) & then took them Minature Golfing.  It hadn't really crossed my mind until just that moment as I was watching them attempt to hit the ball into the hole, that maybe they were too young for something like this... Eventually they each figured out that it worked better to just try & KICK the ball into hole.  It wasn't quite what I had imagined, but like Laron kept pointing out to me, they were having fun, so I guess that's all that mattered.

The second day, we got some work done around the house in the morning, then went out to eat for dinner (another very special treat around here!) & then to a local "Trampoline Park" that Laron's been wanting to try out for awhile.  We decided afterwards that that was the FUNNEST thing we did all week!

We weren't quite sure WHAT to expect there, but they had all sorts of different things to do & even SEPARATE areas made JUST for the little kids.  They had a slide for the little kids to slide down into a foam pit, bigger foam pits with delayed TV's (so you could watch an instant replay of your cool tricks), a dodgeball area & of course, LOTS OF TRAMPOLINES!  The kids were in heaven, especially because Daddy was right in there with them, bouncing the night away!  I think we'll definitely be going back there AGAIN sometime!

On Skyler's third day off, we went down to Salt Lake to get free Flu Shots at Laron's work (I know, NOT such a fun thing!), then we stopped & got Slurpee's at 7-11 for their REWARD (they all did SO awesome!) & then we spent the rest of the day at Temple Square & even watched the "Joseph Smith" movie on the big screen there, which the kids LOVED.  All-in-all it was a pretty busy weekend for us, but Laron was determined to make some fun family memories, so I think we definitely accomplished that goal!  Happy Fall everyone!

Skyler's loosing MORE & MORE teeth!

Well, the official tooth-loosing count is up to 6 now... And 3 of them have just been within the past 3 weeks!  The first tooth came out as Skyler was biting a BANANA (yep, it must have been pretty loose!), he pulled out the second tooth as I was tucking him in bed one night (he was determined he wasn't going to go to bed until he PULLED IT OUT!), & he pulled out the third tooth while we were watching the "Joseph Smith" movie on the big screen at Temple Square this weekend!  This kid is on a roll!  He better slow down, because the Tooth Fairy is starting to run low on change... :)

34 Weeks

So I just had another routine Pregnancy Check-up today... Almost 34 weeks!  My doctor does an ultrasound at EVERY appointment & I'm getting a little worried about how much this little guy supposedly weighs now: 6 pounds, 1 ounce... With 6 weeks left to go!!!  That's almost how much Kimberly weighed when she was BORN!  At this rate, my doctor says he could be a 9 pound baby!  Crazy, huh?!  I know that their guesses are often off by a few ounces, but he has been consistently measuring EXTRA big for the last several appointments.  Oh well, I guess having a BIG baby is always better than having a TINY one!  Just glad the little guy looks healthy still!  :)  Can't believe his arrival is coming up SO soon!!!

Riding in a FIRETRUCK!

So last year I had a few neighbors that had asked me if we went to our local "Fire Station Open House."  I told them I hadn't even HEARD about it, but wasn't sure if that sounded very exciting anyway.  They assured me it was an event WELL worth going to.  And I thought they had said something about being able to have a tour inside a Firetruck, but what I hadn't realized was that we could actually have a RIDE inside a real Firetruck!  So this year we finally got to try it out & the kids had a BLAST!  It was, of course, a REALLY long line to ride around the block in the Firetruck, but after seeing Kimberly's beaming face as she sat up in the front seat all by herself & got to ring a bell occasionally & seeing Skyler jumping up and down in line because he was SO excited, it was WELL worth the wait!

They also had a helicopter you could sit in (no rides in THAT unfortunately!) & some kitchen fire demonstrations where they actually lit a grease-fire, then showed you how best to put it out.  They also had a blow-up slide the kids could go down, they served popcorn & cookies & they passed out lots of free stuff like black or pink fire-fighter hats, railroad hats, stickers, coloring books & much more!

So, for being FREE, I'm so glad we went!  It was worth every penny we spent (or not!)... :)  So thanks to all our neighbors that encouraged us to go!

Preschool with the Girls!

So my sister Emily recently moved down to Layton (just 15 minutes away!) so we decided it would be the perfect opportunity for us to do a little preschool together with our girls this year & we've all had a BLAST!  We trade off who's house we do it at & what letter to focus on each time, but mostly the kids just think that they are having FUN!  A few of the fun things we've got pictured here are the girls making letter "B's" out of bread, writing letters in shaving cream, making a colorful rainbow by sorting multi-colored buttons & wearing some rabbit hats.  What fun!

The thing that I've been MOST impressed with though, is how well Bailey seems to fit in with the other girls, even though she's a year & a half younger...  She definitely can't WRITE quite as well, but she is learning quite a few letters already & has already memorized how to spell Kimberly's name (now I guess we need to start working on HER name!).  What a smart girl she is & what fun we've had with our favorite cousin, Rachel Belle!

Miscellaneous Pictures of LOVE...