Our Fall in a Nut Shell

I know that I have been a slacker with the blog posts. Now for serious picture overload of all of our goings on this fall.

Austin started school in September and he is loving it. He is in Mrs. Ashcroft's afternoon kindergarten class at North Park Elementary. I worried about him in school because we were not able to afford to send him to preschool, but he is doing very well. He can read a little and comes home excited to tell us about what he learned each day. Jeremy and I are getting to be experts at kindergarten math and reading. He feels that it is his job to constantly quiz us about the stuff he has learned. We are trying not to get frustrated with it and just be grateful he is enjoying and learning at school.

My baby on his first day of school.

The tree was his idea.


I love the fall, it's the best. The wonderful food, changing leaves, and fun activities. Did I mention my candy corn addiction. Anyway, we went to a corn maze with my family. It was a lot of fun to go to with the whole family. I think we have learned or lesson not to take the kids by our selves. After we went to Jason and Melissa's for dinner.




Sarah stirring the rootbeer.


The exception to my love of fall is Halloween. I've always disliked Halloween and wished it was something we could just forget about. Jeremy got really into Halloween this year. He decorated the yard and dressed up as a zombie. I made him take Austin around trick-or-treating I stayed home to hand out candy.

It was one of the most relaxed Halloween's I've ever had. I am trying to be better about it. See I even made something from Pinterest.

Austin could not wear masks to school on Halloween. He had been planning on being the Transformer Bumblebee,(we got his costume on clearance after Halloween last year for $2)but what is the point without the mask. We came up with costume #2 for him to wear to school. And so he was Harry Potter by day and Bumblebee by night. I think the Harry Potter one was so much better, but he was determined to be bumblebee.



We went to a USU hockey game with Jeremy's cousins. They were playing against BYU so i had conflicting emotions the entire game. I grew up watching BYU sports. We have always been fan's of USU hockey team, but do not care for any of the other Utah States teams. I did want to see Utah State keep their undefeated record, but it was still hard for me. It was Austin's first hockey game. I think he had fun for 3/4 of the game. Those return missionaries didn't stand a chance against all of those Canadians on USU's. USU won 17-5


We had a really bad snow storm a few weeks back. It killed our apple tree. I know, I should have picked the apples off, but I don't really like granny smith's. I the only one that is not sad that the tree is gone.
This picture was after the snow melted, so you can see it better.

Austin playing after the storm.



Thanksgiving was good. We went to Jeremy's Grandpa and Grandma Kartchner's house. As always I get so excited about the food that I didn't think to take any pictures until after the food was consumed. I made all the pies for Thanksgiving. Some were great others not so much. My meringue shrunk on my lemon one and my caramel apple experiment didn't turn out like I had hoped. My french silk pie was a great success and the fist to go, and the only thing I took a picture of that day.



Austin's birthday is usually on Thanksgiving weekend. We had a party for him at our house with my family. As usual he was spoiled to death. He chose a Harry Potter birthday cake.



So that is our fall.

Austin vs. Food

I've decided that it is not a good idea to write a post on 2 different days. I completely forgot about on of the funniest things of our day at the lake. The pictures were on my phone and not the camera, so I am going to blame it on that. After swimming we stopped and had a burger at La Beau's. What is a trip to Bear Lake with out stopping there, right? Jeremy ordered a La Beau's special for Austin even though I warned him that it was going to be huge. I was right it was gigantic and I thought there is no way my 5 year old is going to finish this. We had to cut it into 4 pieces so that he could even hold it. Watching my baby eat this burger was reminding me of when Jeremy watches episodes of "Man vs. Food". I kept thinking that there was no way he was going to finish it.

He came so close. Only had about 1/5 of the burger left. He even ate fries or I think he would have been able to do it.

I promise I was not starving my boy. We had snacks at the lake. I figured that he had eaten so many chips that he would not eat very much. Once again I was wrong. This little guy is growing like a weed and I guess he has to eat a lot to keep up with his growth spurt.

Not so boring

It's been quite busy for our family lately. I actually started this post on July 4th but had to stop because it was getting dark and Austin wanted us to do the fireworks that we bought. Anyway, we went to see Cars 2 the night after it came out. I had to have a picture of Austin in his 3D glasses he was so excited. Sorry the picture is so dark, I waited a little to long to take it and they had already turned out the lights. It was a cute movie and we had so much fun.

Jeremy's cousin Geno came with us to the movie and then we went out for dinner at the Black Pearl after. Jeremy loves this place because he can get his sushi and we can get our safety Chinese food. I'm not a big fan of fish, but I'm trying to get better. I got brave and tried the tuna. I'm not talking about a sushi roll with mostly rice and a tiny sliver of raw fish. This was just a chunk of raw fish. Jeremy put on plenty of wasabi (so I couldn't taste it) and I did it. I think I'll stick to my safety Chinese food that doesn't have a slimy texture.

Last Monday we had the day off of work and we decided to make the most of our day. I convinced Jeremy to go to Bear Lake. We have never taken Austin. I have wanted to wait until later on in the summer so it is warmer. Then life gets so crazy at the end of the summer that it never happens. I was not going to let this happen again.

I know he looks excited but I think he was really nervous. Swimming pools scared him a little bit and he get extremely clingy when swimming. I tried to tell him that it was going to be nothing like a swimming pool, but I don't think that he had any idea what I was talking about when I was trying to describe it.

He is in love

We spent the afternoon splashing around at the North Beach. It was pretty much the only place that had a beach(about 100 ft of it). The lake was so full and you had to walk for ever to get to water above your waist. It was perfect for Austin. Austin enjoyed collecting shells in the water and we built a sand castle.

This is how far we got before we got sick of castle building and went back to the water.

Godzilla destroying the castle

It was such a fun day. I hope to be able to go back soon.


This is a picture to show you how far out we had to walk to get to deeper water. I think that the water was at my waist here.

I'll try to get to pictures of our 4th of July weekend soon.

Sorry we're boring.

I like to blame my lack of blogging on the fact that we don't really have anything exciting going on in our lives. The truth is, I just really have just not felt like doing it. I have gotten really bad about not taking pictures. All I have are a couple of goofy pictures that I have taken with my phone. I've made it a goal to try harder.

Shopping wears him out. When he fell asleep Jeremy put a hat on him. Any way I thought it was funny


Austin skinned his nose on some cement stairs. It really wasn't that bad, it didn't even bleed, but my little man believes that band-aids have magical powers. So, when we got home 5 hours later, he just had to have his band-aid. I just made him promise he would not wear it to church the next day.


I guess I better do a little update on the goings on in our little family. We registered Austin for kindergarten in March. Some days I really have a hard time with him growing up. This was one of those days. One of the teachers asked me if I was having a hard time letting go and I broke down crying. I'm just a worrier. I'll be fine after the first month, or year, or so. Right now he is just enjoying his summer and being a happy little boy. He has really become a good helper to his parents. This may have a little bit to do with the fact that he has to complete a job chart before we buy the things he wants. It has worked out well for us. It has made him a little more responsible and probably saved us a lot of money.

Jeremy has started working at the fairgrounds again. Its is still a seasonal position so he continues to check all of the job boards. He does have a chance of maybe staying on through the winter and being cut down to 30 hours a week. This is still better than unemployment. It has been so good for him to go back to work. Even if he has been a little sore, he has been happy to be back. He had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. I hope he had fun at his birthday parties. Even though he did have to cook his own meal, I did buy the steaks for him. He is still enjoying experimenting with new recipes and trying new things, so I don't feel too bad.

I have tried to eat a little healthier and have started to exercise a little. I'm not being obsessive about it. If i want to eat my chocolate, I am going to, just not as much. Anyway I've lost 19 pounds, I'm just not sure where. I feel like I look the same and haven't gone down a clothes size yet. Maybe soon, we'll see. Things are crazy busy at work and I have done a lot of going in early and staying late. I am hoping that in a couple of weeks I can get some of my sanity back.

Anyway, that's us. See we are not too exciting, just celebrating other peoples exciting news. Congratulations to Jared, Stacy, Nicole, Nathan and Lindsey, Colt, Kinsey, Heidi, and Aly for graduating this year.(I hope that I didn't forget anyone) Congratulations to all that have had or will have new additions to their families this year. Hopefully we will one day have some exciting news of our own. Until then I'll work on taking my camera out a little more, and posting a little more so that I can make my mom and aunts happy.

I almost forgot. After my last post Jeremy was upset that I posted a picture of his son in such a girlie apron. He went and bought material to make him a new. I'll have to take some pictures of Austin in his new Transformers apron that his daddy made for him.

I guess I'll leave with another funny picture. It is the only one that I took of Jeremy's birthday. I know it isn't even of Jeremy but it makes me laugh. Blake looks even shorter when he is wearing Austin's Darth Vader costume.

My Little Chefer

Tonight when I was cooking dinner Austin came up stairs and asked if he could help. I was making broccoli cheese soup and biscuits. I was almost done, but told him he could help me put the last of the biscuit dough on the the baking sheet and cube the cheese. He insisted on wearing my cupcake apron. I guess is good, because in the time it took him to get the last two biscuits on the pan, he looked like this and had dough in his hair.

When he was cutting the cheese for me he was telling me all about how you need to be safe while you are cutting things. According to Austin when you cook together you are "Chefers". I love being a chefer with my little man. He keeps life interesting.

"If I Run" - Official Music Video

This is my new favorite song. It has been hard to find the video for it. Kind of excited that I figured out how to load it on my own. I'm not very good with computers.