Best Surprise Ever!

Shelley, my sister-in-law, decided that she wanted to come up and surprise me for a visit. Chris told her to come on up so she invited my other sister-in-law Brooke and my mom. Bill was obviously in on it but I was clueless. On Thursday Bill told me he was going out of town for work and would be home late. Well, 7:30 rolls around and I get a phone call from Shelley so I'm talking to her explaining that I'm waiting for Bill to get home (she's in my garage) and the next thing I know Billy comes walking in with Braelyn, her little girl. I let out this scream, hang up on Shelley because I know she is here at this point. I was thinking that her and Chris came so I run to the garage and I see Shelley, my mom and Brooke. I was so happy I was crying! It was so much fun to see them, especially Braelyn. We left AZ right when she was born and only saw her a couple of times. She's so cute and so much fun. She loved being right down on the floor and playing cars with the boys. I'm also so happy my mom got to come. I'm not sure how she got away without my dad but she did and we loved every minute of it.

Here she is with Aunt Brooke. Her mom had her dressed in the cutest outfits everyday!

I thought this was a fun picture of her mother doing her hair.

Here she is again playing with the boys. I was very tempted to send them, especially Crew, home on the plane with them to keep Braelyn entertained. Crew has been a little hard lately with being a mommas boy which has been so hard for me because he has been so easy up to this point. I threatened him several times that I was going to send him back to Arizona.

I love this picture. Brazer is wearing a coon skin cap. The very same one Crew loves to stuff the tail up his nose! We had so much fun while they were here and I couldn't have asked for a better 4 days. Thanks girls for coming, we miss not having family around and this was such a treat for us!

Portland Temple

We took everybody to see the Multnomah Falls. It was pretty up there. We stopped to take a picture of the kids on this log. You should have heard all the people ohh and ahhh over these four.

Here is Brooke, Mom and me.

We stuffed Madi and Koye in this old tree log.

This was the funniest picture. Koye wanted to "pose" for this picture and this is what he came up with?! Notice the crossed legs and arms. Braelyn was just having fun hanging out.

Beautiful Day At The Park

We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and take food to the park and eat. Shelley made some yummy chicken tacos, Bill made salsa and guacamole and then we had home made ice cream waiting for us at home. Grandma made us all get together for this picture.

Can you tell that Madisen just loves this little girl. She couldn't get enough of her. Poor Braelyn.

Koye thought she was pretty cute, too. He would keep saying "she's so cute"!

A Visit To The Roloff Farms

Not sure how many people watch Little People Big World on the TLC channel but they live here in Oregon. We decided we would go and visit their pumpkin patch one day. Amy Roloff was standing outside meeting and taking pictures with people so we waited in line to get ours taken. Koye was a little unsure of her, as you can see in this picture. He just would look at her. She was such a nice lady to take the time to stand out there and greet all the people visiting their farm. Anyway, it felt like meeting a celebrity.

We pulled the kids around in this along with our pumpkins.

I thought this picture was sweet of Braelyn sleeping on her Uncle Bill.

We took a tour of the farm in this tractor pulled ride. The kids really wanted to go on it. Koye kept telling me "mom, this is going to be so much fun"!

They let us off at a little place that was like a ghost town and explore. Braelyn did so good, there was a lot going on and she just took it all in.

The kids wanted to hold this snake, a little creepy if you ask me. Shelley even made Braelyn touch it.

Koye loved this! The snake's head kept creeping up by his face.

Madisen thought this was fun, also. There were two other one's that were much bigger than this one.

Camping At The Farris House

I was tired of the TV being on all day so we tried to think of some fun things to do. I suggested roasting marshmallows in the fire place and then that turned into "camping".

We even pulled out the sleeping bags.

It's Offical.....We Got a Van

After looking at our options and numerous vehicles we decided that a van was best for us. Especially after gas being what it is up here and our kids being the age that they are. All around this had the most options for the money and the lowest miles. We never thought we would be van people (sorry to those who have vans) but after having it we really love it!
These are pictures for the family since they have been asking to see what we got.

This part is the absolute best, not only for our kids but for mom and dad, too! This will come in really handy for the trip to AZ for Christmas.

Shark Attack

Billy brought this home for Koye the other day as a clothes hamper but it turned into a "fort".
Madisen loved this thing more than Koye did, she's really into making forts lately and thought this would be perfect.

Fall is in the air

The trees around here are starting to change colors. It's hard to really capture on camera (mine anyways) the beautiful colors that they are turning into.
This one is my favorite, it's a bright pink color.

These are the trees in our backyard. Like I said before the pictures don't do it justice at all. They are this beautiful pink color. I've never seen trees turn so many different colors. Yes, I'm an Arizona girl who grew up where there was not a lot of trees that did this in the Fall. I'm sure some of you are thinking so what, they are trees and they change color. We really need to go get some family pictures done by some of these.