October 2014

October was another busy month! We went to my parents cabin in Shaver Lake with Jeff's parents and his brother Rob's family for conference weekend. It was nice to watch it together and get out in between the sessions to enjoy the beautiful weather.

 Jackson and Grandma relaxing on the deck in the sun

 Exploring the big sequoia trees

 Jamisen and cousin Sarah

 

 Jamisen turned 5 years old!! A whole hand!!

 He had a party at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Friends that came are (left to right) Brennan Evenson, Cole Jolley, Gretel Thackeray, Nate Pedersen, Malachi Cope, Cohen Evenson, Elijah Koberlein, India Jones, and Lilah Canon.

 Jeff made THE coolest cake!! Not sure how he will top it next year! It was a big volcano with dinosaurs around and he put dry ice in the volcano so it "erupted". The kids faces were priceless watching it explode!

 Jamisen and cousin Kaitlyn

 Best pals Jamo and cousin Cole

This picture is hilarious...Lilah has a little crush on Jamisen and she was being a little territorial about him with other girls at the party. Her face says it all, "this is MY MAN!" ;)

 

 

 The kids had fun at the Dino Dig. I think Jackson could have stayed there all day digging in the dirt.

 

 Rainbow pancakes...a birthday tradition!

We had fun at our ward Halloween party. Jackson stole the show in his cute little scuba diver costume and Jamisen loved being a shark!

 Nana and Papa came for a little bit

 Grandma Schill was also able to come!

Jamisen and his good friends, Brennan and Cohen Evenson

   

After all of the Halloween festivities in Fresno the boys and I boarded a plane and headed for Houston to meet up with Jeff.  The boys and I managed to squeeze in some fun activities in between working and advertising for Colorjam.  We went to the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory to sample yummy flavors of ice cream! 

 We went to Jo and Carl's ward trunk or treat party.  This little boy LOVES candy and treats!

 Our family costume was finally complete with daddy the surfer that survived a shark attack!

 Jackson ready to test out his "scuba equipment"

 Jamisen loved being a shark and getting into character!

 Hunter and Jackson trick or treating

 We met up with Bonnie and her boys in downtown Houston to go to the dinosaur exhibit.

 After the museum we went to our favorite pizza place downtown called Star pizza

 On Halloween night we went trick or treating with our cousins Abby and Claire to a really fun neighborhood that goes all out for Halloween.

 I've never seen a neighborhood like this one go all out for Halloween.  Every house had a display. One house set up barbed wire and boarded their windows, at another house pictured above they had a lab setup in the yard and they were dressed as mad scientists, and at the house pictured below there was a massive Yoda inflatable and a lit up dance floor in the driveway where people could stop and dance.  They say everything is bigger in Texas and Halloween proved that true!

September

September was a busy month! Here's the recap:

 We helped at our annual grape picking for the church welfare. Even though it is 100+ degrees, dirty, sweaty, and full of spiders, I love picking grapes with other members.  There really is a special camaraderie that comes when you serve together.  I have many memories growing up at the church vineyard and I can't wait until our boys are a little older and can join us out there.

Jeff and I left the boys with my parents while we went off to College Station, Texas to advertise for the Colorjam Festival we were putting on in November.  We spent the week making contacts, handing out flyers, surveying the amphitheater for the event and many other logistical aspects. 

 

 
 
 

We did a whole lot of this...walking up to random strangers and groups of people to tell them about the event.  After a few days of walking around in the humidity and handing out probably a thousand flyers I told Jeff I was done and he was quick to tell me this was like his mission for 2 years! Yikes! 

 Luckily for us, Rudy's BBQ was down the street so when it was lunch time we recharged with some delicious BBQ, creamed corn and chocolate pudding!

 You can see Kyle Field behind us where they play their football games.  The whole campus is built around it.  I have never seen so much school spirit in my life as we did at A&M.  These people are Aggies for life! They go to a camp called "Fish Camp" as a freshman for several days where they learn all of the "traditions" and let me tell you, there are tons of them! People told me that they will even buy maroon cars because it's the school color.  I thought I "bled blue" as a Cougar fan but you won't see me buying a blue car just because it's my alma mater's school color! Another crazy thing about campus life is that every girl wears the exact same thing to class....running shorts, some super oversized t-shirt, and nike shoes.  Not just any tennis shoes, they have to be Nike.  I'm not exaggerating when I say every girl on campus was wearing this "uniform".  We said, "it's like they sent a memo to everyone telling them what to wear!"  This is totally opposite for BYU where a lot of people look like they just walked out of Nordstrom's.  We came to the conclusion that at BYU you have to try harder because you are looking for a husband while going to school! ;) Come to find out, it's actually a Texas thing because my niece in high school said everyone dresses like that because it's comfortable and cool.

We were in Texas for my Birthday, which also happened to be Labor Day.  To celebrate we had a family get together at my brother-in-laws parents house.  They live on the lake north of Houston so we got to ride their wave runners.  It was a blast!  We couldn't figure out what Jeff should make for my cake so he decided on a huge Oreo since I love oreo flavored milkshakes, cupcakes, etc. Everyone that it was because I must eat a lot of Oreos, but actually I never eat oreos out of the package.  

 Birthday Lunch at La Madeline's. 

Our friends John and Bonnie came with their boys to the BBQ.  It was so much fun seeing them after being away for so long.

We barely got on and Jeff gunned the wave runner.  I'm glad I was holding on tight because I would have fallen off!

  I wish our boys had been with us because they would have had so much fun playing with their triplet boys.  I definitely missed being with my boys on my birthday but it was still a really fun day!

I flew home a few days before Jeff so I could get back in time for Jeff's Mom's shoulder surgery.  The surgery went great and we were relieved to have it over with.  I spent the next few days playing nurse, chef and driver! It was fun having them!    

 Making a dinosaur puzzle with Grandpa.  This picture sums up Jeff's Mom.  In spite of just having surgery and a non working arm, she still found a way to play with Jamisen.  She is totally a hands on grandma and even if she was too tired to play she would never tell him no.

 We went to Tailspin Tommy's for breakfast one morning. It's so fun seeing the airplanes land and take off at the little airport.  They boys love it!

Jamisen had his first school field trip to Storyland.  This is Arlen, Brianna and Jamisen sitting in the chairs of the 3 bears.  I remember going to this place when I was little so I was really excited to chaperone and see it again. 

 



 This picture is out of order but I wanted to remember it - Jamisen and I had a date to get him ready for school.  We got frozen yogurt and shopped for his backpack. He picked a dinosaur one.

 These two crazy boys crack me up! Jamisen went to Cole's house to play one day and Lynnsey told me they ended up taking their clothes off and playing in the mud.  They have so much fun together.

 Jeff had work near Monterey so we tagged along and played at the beach.

 There is nothing better than a clean baby fresh out of the tub! He is too cute!