outings & happenings

We took a fun little trip to Conner Prairie with the Goffs. 

It's been on our bucket list for a long time, and we're glad we could finally tag along for the ride:) 

It's an interactive history park with lots of stuff for the kids to see, learn, and explore.

 They loved the mini-hot air balloons, and begged for a ride on the big one.  

Too bad it cost extra:(

sheep and goat petting farm

(we caught that sheep nibbling on my boot..ha!)

Brody is one of Jaden's best buds.  They had such a great time!

Jaden started swim lessons!  He really enjoys it, and I'm so proud how far he has come!  He just started Level 2 this week and is doing great.

Brielle just hangs out on the bleachers watching the swimmers... with purse in hand of course:)

We love when Daddy gets off work in time and can meet us there.

We've had some sunny park days...

(this sweetie is 18 months old!!!)

 and rainy park days.

 Jaden's friend, Ethan, turned 4 this month.  The kiddos had a blast at his birthday party, and these pictures were shared with me.  I love them!

Jaden could have spent the entire time coloring his rocket ship.  He was so focused!

Jaden's preschool class took a field trip to Apple Works. 

 They have over 50 variety of apples and thousands of trees!

He and Ethan are pretty tight:)

Isn't it gorgeous?!?

Sunday afternoon walk.

It was a beautiful Fall day.

and Little Miss has been testing the waters in Nursery

(her official first day is this Sunday... is she really that big already?!?) 

Casey came to visit for a weekend and so we thought we'd check out the progress of the Indianapolis Temple.  It was freezing, but exciting to see!

We also took a quick trip to see Dr. C in action...

and picked out a few pumpkins as well :)

  Most of the time was spent hanging with the guys of course:)  

We had a great time; thanks for coming Uncle Casey!

 A few other randoms...

Our ward campout was rained out so we camped-in.  Jaden LOVED it! 

S'mores over the stove, tent in the living room... you can't go wrong:)

playing in the backyard leaves

Apparently we have lots of lounging pictures:

football game, hanging after preschool, and conference

Cody has been teaching J some golfing skills.

Jaden can't get enough of this awesome dinosaur hat made by Lacey.

Brielle is getting so big... she even wants to sit on the potty these days:) 

and Jaden doing dishes at preschool:)

Happy Halloween!!!  

(more updates to come)

Jaden is 4!!!

My guy is now 4 years old!!!  Oh how we love this kid:)

: from baby to now :

We had soooo much fun celebrating our J-man.
This year it was all things DINOSAUR.
This kid loves dinos and roars like one too:)

B-day breakfast included dinosaur shaped biscuits and fruit.
We also made some sugar cookies to take to his preschool class that day:)

It was a late night with swim lessons, so we opened presents in our PJs.
You could say Jaden was up quite a bit later than the usual with all the new toys distracting him.
He was spoiled... by us and grandparents alike:)

and of course he had to blow out some candles!


The dinosaur theme was an easy pick for his birthday bash:)

We started things off by welcoming all the little dinos to our cave.
They got started on painting their dinosaur stomping feet (empty tissue boxes with sponge toes), and then played around in the garage/driveway while waiting for everyone to finish.

The kiddos then followed the dino tracks to the kitchen for some grub.

(invite and picture collage displayed)

They all looked so cute in their dino spike party hats.

: the spread :

dino chicken nuggets . brachiosaurus dogs .  dino claws . dino bones

lava juice . dino eggs . dino spikes . green food (for the herbivores)

: sweets and treats :

: decor :

After lunch, we headed back out for a Dino-Dig!

The kids each had a bucket and shovel to collect their dino fossils.

Then back inside for cake and presents:)

Jaden LOVED all his gifts and hasn't stopped playing with them.

We finished off the party with a Dino-Stomp!

The dino feet were mostly dry by this point, so the kids put on their dinosuar masks & feet and went to town.  The roaring was loud and ferocious, but so fun to watch.

We all had a great time!  

Included in the favor bags: dinosaur sticker book/activity sheet, plastic toy dinosaur, "dino droppings" (aka whoppers, milk duds & sugar babies), and dino fruit snacks.

Thanks to everyone for coming and making it such a fun day!!!

Happy 4th Birthday Mr. Jaden!

He's 29!

My hubs is inching closer and closer to 30.  He turned 29 years old a couple weeks ago, and to celebrate we thought we'd run a mini-marathon.

Rewind a few months earlier...

We were in the middle of packing up our home and scrambling to make adjustments for our new plan of staying in Indiana.

Cody casually mentions there is race coming up in the Fall and we should run it together.

He's been trying to coax me for the past couple years and it's easy to make excuses when you have little ones and such.

He said it's on my birthday, you have to say 'yes'.

So I did.

Cody was home in between school and staring work, so it was a great jumpstart to our training being able to swap kids.

Training slowed down a bit once he started his job, but we still managed to punch out a 12 mile run before race day.

: pre-race :

Notice how it says "Happy Bday" on our bibs?

The funniest moment was for me was when a spectator was cheering us on and said, "Good job Happy Boy" to Cody.  I was laughing so hard.  She didn't notice it said ''Bday' until we got closer. 

We ran the entire thing together and Cody kindly let me cross the finish line first... what a gentleman;) 

 : post-race :

The night before we enjoyed some yummy pineapple coconut cake with our friends, the Bakers, who took our kiddos for the night for us:)

We ate a late dinner at Olive Garden to stalk up on our carbs.

Happy Birthday Cody!  May the count down to 30 begin:)