Overheard between Ariel and Cinderella

Ariel (aka Josh) : I love to read.

Cinderella (aka Ava): You love to sing. You can't read underwater.

Poor Ariel. She uses a fork to brush her hair and now she can't even read :) By the way, love that Josh was such a good sport and agreed to play with Ava and her princess dolls.

Dont mess with Chuck

What is all you need?

{Ava's response to my singing}

Me: (Trying my best to pull off the chorus to All You Need Is Love by the Beatles)

All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

Ava: That's not true, you need more.

{Ha ha ha. I'm so funny}

Love Miss Smartie Pants.

In the zone

The YoZone that is. I would go there every night if I could. But I've had to settle for just 3 times in the past 9 days. To top it off, their newest flavor is Pumpkin Spice. Heavenly. I wonder how expensive it would be to install my very own frozen yogurt machine in our house.

It's been awhile

It's been awhile since I have been able to capture one of Reid's adorable smiles on camera. I'm just not fast enough to keep up with this kid. But here he is, all proud of himself for being able to sit in the back of the tractor. We just love him to pieces.


On the Reid news front, he's talking more and more every single day. Which means he is also voicing his opinion more and more. He can say mo (more), boo (book - can't get enough of this right now), my (mine - hmmm, wonder why he learned that one), doggy (every animal is a doggy), peeeese (please), and he still won't say Ava (isn't that the easiest sibling name ever, and he still won't even try it...little rascal!). He also knows a few animals sounds like moo, whoo whoo, baaa, and neigh.

In Ava news, she's still loving preschool. Her favorite class is music. She's learning the letter T this week and is a pro at crossing those Ts. During cooking class this week they made Tortilla Soup (love how they coordinate all the classes with the letter they are learning that week). Anyways, I asked Miss Picky if she tried some. She said "I just ate the chips, but the big kids ate it all up." There are only 3 years olds in her class. So who are these "big kids". But most of her classmates are a head taller than Ava. So she calls them all the "big kids".


She still gets excited to do her homework. Gotta love that I can use homework as a bribe. How long do you think that will last?

We were in, and then we were out

Thankfully one thing that we didn't have to sacrifice with the move to Utah was getting to eat at In N Out. I think a lot of the college kids from CA would fullheartedly agree. I am always surprised by how long the lines are at this burger joint. But I would just like to note that the fries, burgers and shakes taste just as good as the picture looks.

Just a little icing

Looked out the window while preparing dinner and saw this. I know, you were totally disgusted, just like me. It's only the first week of October people!

A few of you might be a little confused. Here's a closer look at Mt. Timp. Yep, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, it's snow. S-N-O-W. Ack. Is it weird to be a little scared for the arrival of snow? Those wussy CA winters have really made me freaked out to start driving in the fluffy stuff again. I keep telling myself that something that looks that pretty atop a mountain can't be all that bad.

Idaho is more than just potatoes

Now that we are within a few hours drive from my sister and her family, we decided to take a weekend trip for a little visit.

Here is a shot of my favorite Idahoan (Don't worry Krys and Jared, you both tied for 2nd place)

Ava had been talking about visiting Krysten all week.

My little girl just loves her Auntie Krys.

While we were there Cole showed off his awesome walking skills. Now that he's getting walking down, he now needs to work on his running skills. Which is the only way Reid gets from point A to B.

While Jared was working, Krysten took us over to the Snake River to feed the ducks. Reid decided he would much rather eat the bread himself! The river had a great view of the temple.

Later that afternoon, while the boys both took naps (loved having both kids on the same nap schedule!), Ava and her Auntie decided to make M&M cookies. M&M's and cookies are on Ava's top list of favorite foods. Her Auntie sure knows her well!

Mmmm...these cookies were addictively good.

Ava and Coley became quick little buddies. Ava loved being able to show/help Cole and he loved letting her do it.

After taming Ava's crazy bed hair, we all piled up in the van to go to Bear World. Oh wait, wrong Bear World, try this link instead. Ava has been wanting to come here ever since she heard that Grandpa and Grandma got to go on their last visit to Idaho. Now before you get the idea of us taking our small helpless children on a stroll through a forest of bears, don't worry, they were in the safety of the car the whole time. Here are a few of the gang peering out trying to find the bears.

Found one. If you look closely, you can see another one in the background.

Besides bears, we got to see buffalo, elk, deer and wolves right outside our car windows.

After driving through the park we hit up the petting zoo and the amusement park.

It took awhile, but eventually Ava got brave enough and petted the deer...with Krysten's help of course.

Then she felt she could pet the goat all on her own...with us right there of course.

And then she started sneaking off to pet the animals all on her own. Password: goat.

Cole sure couldn't get enough of the animals.

Reid wasn't quite fast enough to actually catch a chicken, but it didn't stop him from trying.

After the petting zoo, we headed off to the amusement park. Ava was just tall enough to ride the rides by herself. Wow, I don't think Ava has ever been tall enough. It was a picture worthy event!

Here are all the kiddies on their first rollercoaster.

The girls were having fun, the boys not so much.

Krysten tried taking Cole on another ride and he just wouldn't have it.

Cole would much rather go on a real ride any day. He squealed and couldn't get on that horse fast enough. I've never seen him so excited. We were lucky enough to get to go visit Jared's Dad's house/ranch while we were up in Idaho.

Reid was not a fan. Here he is trying to wiggle out of Jared's arms.

It took a little coaxing, and I'll admit it, a bribe in the form of candy, to get Ava up on the horse.

It might not look like it, due to her death grip on the horse's saddle, but on the drive home she said that riding the horse was her FAVORITE part.

And I think it was Cole's too.

Besides getting to ride a horse Ava got to go collect the eggs from the chicken coop.

Then Jared brought out the finale, a ride on a 4 wheeler.

This was Josh's favorite part. Well besides kicking everyone's trash in a game of Settlers.

See, Idaho is way more than just potatoes. But you must admit, the potatoes are pretty dang good.