Busy November

November is the busiest month in our family.  With two birthdays, our anniversary, and Thanksgiving, we always feel overwhelmed. But we had a good one.

Have we mentioned that Ethan loves Legos?  We find these kinds of scenes around the house all the time.  We got him some Lego books from his book order, and he reads them every day.  It's really helped him be motivated to read.

Halloween. That was a long time ago.  Ethan wanted to be a Lego police officer, but settled for a regular police man when we couldn't find anything that specific.  Brooklyn was happy to be Jessie (which was a costume we already had for dress-up.  It's nice to have a little girl who is so easy to please).  To quote Ethan, "This is the best Halloween ever!"

Jen had a birthday.  It was nice to spend it with family. The kids were very sweet and excited that Mom had a birthday. The treated her very special.  Kyle too.

Mid November we had a nice snowfall.  Together, we built "Snowy" (named by the kids) and we got to try out our new sled. This is one of the few benefits of having a hill in our front yard :)

 Brooklyn had a very exciting Birthday.  She was so happy all day.  She was so excited to turn four, and had a very special day. We even had a pizza party with root beer (her choice).

 Brooklyn asked for a chocolaty cake.  That's our girl!

 She got all of the candles out in one breath.

For Thanksgiving, we visited Grandma and Grandpa Morrey.  It was fun to see all of the family together. Even Justin flew out from San Francisco.  Brooklyn made a special connection with her Aunt Kristina.  All Kristina had to do was play with her for a few minutes, and Brooklyn became her shadow.
Grandpa Morrey got a new baby horse a few months ago, and Brooklyn helped take her out for a walk around the pasture.

Grandpa Taylor helped Ethan give his Lego mini-figures a train ride.

 This afternoon, we got to attend the blessing of John Max Morrey.  Little Max is the 7th John Morrey, all of which are the first born of the first born in their generation.

Brooklyn-isms

The other day, Kyle and Brooklyn were playing with the play kitchen.  Brooklyn handed Kyle a cup to drink.
K: "What's this?"
B: "Coffee!"
K: (thinking this would be a good teaching experience) "We don't drink coffee.  It's not good for you. Heavenly Father doesn't want us to drink coffee."
B: "I like coffee!"
K: "I don't want coffee.  Can you get me some hot chocolate?"
B: "Ok."
Goes over to the sink, pretend-fills up the cup.
B: "Here's some hot chocolate."
K: "Thank you. It's yummy."
B: "That wasn't hot chocolate!  That was coffee!"

Apparently, she learned about coffee from Lego City cartoons.

Tonight, while sitting on the potty:
"I have to go poop.  It's a hard poop.  But it's ok. My bum is strong.  My bum is strong like a house."

Grandma's Halloween Party

Kyle took Brooklyn for a hike a few weeks ago to look at the pretty leaves up the canyon.  When we first got there, Brooklyn was thrilled to see all of the colors, and started helping the leaves fall off the trees. 

After about 20 minutes, she got cold and wanted to go back to the car.

I've never noticed a tree with red, orange, yellow, and green leaves.  Quite stunning.

The kids get a Lego Jr. magazine every other month that has a competition to see who can come up with the most creative, original design. The most recent contest was to build an alien.  Here's what the kids came up with.  Ethan's alien has an antenna, missiles, and jet packs. The prize is a $100 gift card for the Lego website.

 Last weekend, Grandma Taylor had a Halloween party for all of her grandkids.  Ethan wanted to be a Lego city policeman, but settled for a regular policeman.  Brooklyn loves being Jessie.

Grandma worked hard making lots of yummy treats. Check out these yummy cupcakes.

 For lunch, they made their own pizzas. Grandma had some fun Halloween cookie cutters to cut the cheese into spooky shapes.

 They also had mummy dogs.

 Yesterday, Brooklyn asked to dress up in Ethan's old Buzz Lightyear costume.  Later, the kids surprised us by gathering all of our Buzz paraphernalia we have collected over the years.

September Stuff

Last weekend our family had a fun outing hiking to Donut Falls.  Afterward, we went and got donuts.  Creative, aren't we?

 Ethan's been saving his money to buy some Lego sets.  Kyle took them to the local farmer's market last Saturday to help them earn some money.  Between Ethan and Brooklyn, they earned almost $11. Ethan was very excited when we counted his money and we had enough for the Lego City Police Car.  And both Ethan and Brooklyn were happy to take their tithing to the Bishop on Sunday.

 Brooklyn got hungry during the farmer's market, and stole a bunch of basil to munch on.

 Later that day we went to Kyle's work party at the zoo.  The kids had a pretty fun time (especially since Grandma and Grandpa Morrey came along).

 We loved the new "Rocky Shores" exhibit at the zoo.  It was neat to see the seals and polar bears swimming.  Ethan freaked out when we told him we were going to see bears.  We couldn't get him to even look at them. Kyle thinks he was scared they would eat him.

This last weekend, Kyle went with some friends on a camping trip in the Uintahs.  They hiked a few miles in to Teal Lake and set up camp.

The kids got their first Morrey cousin on Friday!  John Morrey VII.  He is such a cute and happy baby.

 We got to meet him this afternoon.  Brooklyn was very excited to give him hugs and kisses.  Ethan didn't care one bit, but had fun watching Duck Tales.

August In Review

Ethan started Kindergarten this week.  When he grows up he wants to be an engineer and work at the same company as Dad.  Either that, or he wants to be a space ranger.  

He was pretty excited about his new Mario backpack.

 The big "thumbs-up"

 Here is is as a space ranger with his wings extended.

Ethan has really been enjoying Kindergarten and loves his teacher Mrs. Jones. He has several friends in his class and in the ward. We don't get to hear much about what they've been learning about, but he loves to talk about recess, of course. 

A few weeks back, Kyle took the kids to the park for a picnic while Mom was "at a meeting" (whenever she goes anywhere, we tell the kids that she is "at a meeting."  They don't ask any more questions that way :) ).  Ethan decided it would be fun to play Lego City Police at the park, so he got dressed up to be a cop.

During our last trip to Logan, Grandma and Grandpa Taylor pulled out their newest toy for the kids.  It sure was a big hit!

 The old swing set in Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's back yard is always fun too.

We dropped by the Brigham City temple open house with Grandma and Grandpa Morrey on our way home from Logan.  To Ethan, it was our last home in the Parade of Homes (we had gone to about 20 Parade homes in the preceding weeks.)  What a beautiful building!  

Pickle

Brooklyn recently decided that her name is now Pickle, so that's what we've been calling her (sometimes).

Pickle's been experimenting with putting together her own outfits.  This is what she came out of her room dressed in this morning.  "Purple shirt and purple in the pants!" she stated, as if she's trying to justify how her outfit matches.  

Earlier this week, Pickle was watching a couple of flies buzzing around the room.
"That fly is on top of the other one!" she exclaimed.  "I didn't know they could do that!"

Jen and Pickle were playing on the bed, and had the following conversation:
Pickle: "What's the magic word?"
Jen: "Umm, Abracadabra?"
Pickle: "No"
Jen: "Please?"
Pickle: "No"
Jen: "What is it?"
Pickle (struggling a little to get the word right): "English"
We thought it was funny that she would come up with such a silly magic word - we don't know if she even knows what it means :-) .

Pioneer Day Celebration

Last weekend we went to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's house for their annual 24th of July sleepover.  The kids had tons of fun playing with their cousins that they hardly ever get to see.  On Saturday, Grandpa Taylor set up his blow-up waterslide/swimming pool, and the kids had hours of fun play.

Instead of running through the sprinklers, Brooklyn decided to crawl through the sprinklers.  We're not sure why...maybe she was trying to not get wet?

Brooklyn is scared of getting water in her ears.  That's why she's plugging them :)

Brooklyn has been so sweet on babies lately, and seeing her baby cousins was a special treat for her.  She is so gentle with them, and loves to shower them with hugs and kisses (even though she knows they're probably going to pull her hair).

This year was the first year that we've been able to take the kids to a fireworks show without crying kids.  Ethan watched the first three or four fireworks, and then came and hid by Mom and Dad. We got him to peek at a few more by telling him that he could use his glow-stick as a light saber and pretend he was attacking the fireworks.  Brooklyn enjoyed the entire show.

Here are a few pictures Kyle's been taking around the Salt Lake area.
State Capitol:

 Kennecott copper mine:

 Stansbury Island (a common view looking out over the Great Salt Lake on Kyle's drive home from work):