BB guns and Greg's 46th b-day

     Remember when McClane and his buddy 'little' Isaac decided to shoot each other point blank with BB guns thinking the guns weren't loaded!? Well guess what? Isaac's gun was loaded and now McClane has a small hole in his finger. I'm pretty sure he was in shock. He thought all his blood was going to run out and he was going to die and he asked to go to the hospital to get a new finger and it was officially the 'worst day' of his whole life. DUMB kids!

This is the same hand that's scarred from the treadmill incident he had as a baby.  He should probably just get a whole new hand at the hospital.

     We had quite a nice time celebrating Greg's 46th birthday. He took the day off work and we did a little birthday shopping and he found a couple cool camping gadgets for himself. Kayli was very generous and bought him the home cameras he requested. Now we can spy on the kids when we're not home. And out of nowhere, our neighbor invited a few other neighbors over for a small impromptu party on Greg's behalf. I have a feeling Greg will be looking for a way to 'pay' him back for the 'love'!

A tiny german chocolate cake and a few donuts to honor the best dad and husband!

Thanks for the birthday card and money mom & dad. (I'm not as thankful since I'm getting the shaft this year, me and my big mouth!)

    Kayli was entertaining us with her video filters and Greg thought it was pretty awesome. He also was super excited about the fun package that arrived from 'down under'! (Thank you Atkinson girls, Greg loved the cards/notes and candy!)

Thanks to Kayli our RICH, married daughter. (I can't wait for my birthday gifts, this years going to be epic!)

We have some great neighbors! Last minute parties are the best! Notice our great neighbor Micah in his pjs/bathrobe!

Fun times!
  I can't believe we're less then a week away from Thanksgiving! Time flies when you're having fun!

So this happened....

       So this happened! Isaac is officially a licensed driver and he's pretty excited about his new found freedom. He's currently driving Mark's little truck "The Red Pearl" and he's going to need a job ASAP so he can start paying his way with fuel and car insurance now on his list of responsibilities.

Stay off the sidewalks people!

     I also had the opportunity to 'love' on this little cutie a couple times this week. I'm so glad I have someone to provide me with my 'baby' fix on a regular basis.

Sweet Mary Sue!

     So that's our week. A little simpler then some but a good week over all.

Birthdays, Halloween, 'graduations' and bonus material.

       This week we celebrated Isaac's 16th birthday! Only time will tell if he will survive the next two years unscathed. (This is when all hell breaks lose and my kids lose what's left of their minds.) We also celebrated Halloween, of course! And a few other bonus events.

Dinner at Chili's was a meat extravaganza for Greg.

The big  1 - 6!

Just a little fake cheesiness. 

Thanks G & G Baker for the card and cash!

The custom Xbox remote he designed and requested.

Chocolate cake from Costco!

     Earlier this week I overheard one of Carter's friends ask why we always have so many kids at our house so I thought I should document how true that can be. I know it's because I have a lot of kids but some days it does seem a little overwhelming that we have so many extra friends here. This particular day we had 10 extra kids throughout the yard and house.

I can't lie, I don't always hate that they're all here as long as they're not making messes or fighting.

    The Halloween parade at the elementary school this year was a milestone! It was the first time I've attended this parade with no small children in tow, AWESOME!

McClane as ?

Brock and his buddy as twin Halo characters. (I have no idea exactly but Brock was happy.)

Cute Sarah and Charlie enjoying their first time in the school parade.

A less blurry photo of these two cuties!

How these buckets should look all the time not just in preparation for the trick or treaters.

     And I finally got a photo of Mark to document his graduation from High School and the diesel mechanics program from Mtech. I guess he's earned a ride on the Harley.

Greg and Charlie found a hotdog spot on their trick or treating route.

Here's the 'witches' candy haul.

McClane didn't do too bad on the candy collecting.

Brock did a little better candy collecting.

But Carter definitely wins the prize for candy collecting.

      So that's how we spent our week. Now it's November and we're cruising full-speed towards the holidays! Let the stress and madness commence!

Fall!

     Fall festivities are in full swing here in Utah. We had our ward party this week and the kids had a blast. Charlie participated in the pie eating contest and would have most likely won but her plate and pie fell on the ground when she only had a couple bites left, she was pretty bummed but hey, free pie!

She's getting really good at the front flip.

Face painting started the fun at the ward party.

Charlie and her fellow pie eating contestants.

Carter participated/cheated in another round of the pie eating contest. (He was too dainty to put his face in it.)

     I love my walks around town every morning and this view was so amazing the other day I had to stop and photograph it. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do it justice but you get the idea.

   And we couldn't resist a stop at our favorite cupcake store this week. Charlie had their 'candy corn unicorn' and devoured the frosting and later Brock devoured the cake. So YUMMY! The caramel apple is probably in my top 3 favorites!

     So that's the fun from the week. This weekend we celebrate Isaac's 16th birthday! I thought for sure he'd be getting his license Monday but he didn't get scheduled for the road portion of drivers ed. until next week so he's going to have to wait a minute more, oh well.

The rest of it.

      Last weekend was great celebrating McClane's big baptism day and spending time with family. Here's a few more photos.

Mark supporting McClane.

Fun with Grandma, Grandpa, cousins and Aunt Marie.

Cupcakes and Skyping with our Aussie family.

Cute baby Rowan with her cousin Tanner.

And we've also been enjoying our triple dog snuggles all week. 

      So that's that. We're in the midst of our fall break and we're really taking a break and doing a lot of nothing.

McClane's big Day!

     We've had a fun week with family visiting. McClane's big day, Baptism day, was today and he was happy to have so many family members come and show him love and support. We may have got the time wrong and been 30 minutes late but it all worked out in the end! It's great to be 8!

Lottie and Charlie taking a cute selfie!

McClane thinks baby Rowan is adorable!

Grandma and Grandpa are surviving all the chaos!

Baby Rowan is just as sweet and happy as can be.

McClane in the midst of a melt down just before heading to the church for the big event.

McClane and Greg sporting the all too flattering white jumpsuit.

All the family that came to McClane's baptism.

Family photos after the baptism.

      Well aside from drama and heartache over Mark it's been a nice week and we're so thankful for all the family that came to support McClane on his big day and his important first step back to his Heavenly Father. We're so blessed to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and to have the potential to be an eternal family.

A little more birthday fun & a little more

    We did a little more celebrating in honor of McClane's 8th birthday. We did a little babysitting and Mark brought home his official High School Diploma. (One step forward but then about a 1,000 steps backward.)

This cracked me up, they both kept watching with the tablet on her lap even though she was asleep.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Baker for the birthday card and cash!

Cool new long-board from Mom and Dad 

And the Minecraft lunch bag he requested.

He also requested his very own Jello-cheesecake and who can blame him for that, so yummy!

    Our neighbor gave Charlie some of her daughters clothes and this outfit had to be worn immediately. Apparently our neighbors mom made this outfit below and it fits Charlie perfect. She was well dressed for our primary program!

     And no matter how much I want to deny the change of seasons I never mind pulling together my front yard fall decorations.

We babysat for our neighbor and even got to keep tiny little Mary Sue and she reminded me why I waited to purchase such a high maintenance piece of furniture. This glass was pretty slimy by the time she had to go home.

I didn't mind cleaning up after her, she's pretty adorable as McClane says.

    And here's the official document! The plan was to get him in a cap and gown so we could take a photo and then he was going to take the Harley for a ride as a reward but he chose to celebrate in a less conventional way and won't be around for the next several days.

Proof!

     Now we get to enjoy, as best we can, General Conference weekend! So far the announcement of two hour church has been well received!