Halloween - The Ingalls Family...and their pumpkin

Our whole family LOVES the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Brielle wanted to be Laura this year so the rest of us decided to follow suit. 

From left to right:

Nathan as Almanzo Wilder from Farmer Boy

Brielle as Laura

Jacob as Jack the bulldog

Jared as Pa

 And Kristen as Ma

Yesterday we went to a trunk or treat at church (costumes pictured above) and the rest are from trick or treating tonight.
Doesn't he make a handsome little farmer?!?

 And a beautiful Laura

 And a contrary 2 year old who very emphatically insisted on "no dog!"

 Here is most of the group we trick or treated with:

From left to right: Jim w/ Alli, Katelyn, Kenni, Kanza, Chris w/ Vienna, Cheyenne, Nathan, Libby, Brielle, Jaimie, Everly, and Kristen w/ Jacob (who consented to pumpkin outfit Brielle grabbed as we were loading in the van. The Ingalls and Wilder families grew pumpkins right?!? I seem to remember a story where Laura, as a young bride, forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pie that she fed to all the workers who came to help with the harvest.).

Not pictured: Whitney, Stacie, Brett, Madison, Emily, Zach, Moses and Heber.

 Off to the next house...Nathan was always in the lead. He is all about this candy getting stuff!

 A full size candy bar. Woohoo!

 Bre helping Jake. That is probably what touched me the most this evening. I hardly had to worry about Jacob. Nathan or Brielle or Cheyenne or Libby or one of the other kids was always taking him by the hand as we walked, making sure he got to the door, getting candy for him if he was in the stroller etc. Tonight I truly felt like I had family in Wisconsin. And my kids had cousins. We are so blessed.

 Too cute!

We all came here for soup, salads and pumpkin bread afterwards. It was a delightful evening!!

2 Years Old!

Here is our sweet birthday boy! Can you believe he is two? He said he wanted to "help" me frost his cake, so he pushed his chair over, grabbed the spatula and immediately began "helping..."

 I'm not sure when, but sometime we started the tradition of birthday candles in our birthday breakfast. It probably started with our pyro Nathan. Anyway, Jakie LOVED it too. He got 3 rounds of the birthday song with the "hip, hip, hoorays" at the end...

 The cinnamon sugar is the best part!

 His cake is a truckin' down the road. Pretty cool huh?

 Until you see it from this angle. Aaah. Okay Jare (who is at work and can fix anything) how can I fix it?

I was SO thankful that he woke up in time to see it before it collapsed completely that I had to get some pictures and video. He didn't seem to mind that it was falling apart:

"Helper!"

This morning as my 2 oldest children finished their breakfast I enlisted their help in emptying the dishwasher. As the 3 of us began, Jakie started calling, "Helper! Helper!" from his highchair. I took him out, washed him up and off he went to help. Who knew my 1 year old could sort the silverware?!? He had a very supportive cheering section from his siblings as well. It was one of those treasured moments of motherhood.

 Hooray!! Good job Jake! 

Now they are off to "clean the rest of the house" together. And regardless of the actual outcome, I will remember it is the thought that counts. 

Nathan's Cake

Nathan turns 5 in just a few days. He is growing up so fast. Since we are going to be out of town for his birthday we are celebrating it today with cake and presents and favorite meals. It is fun to see him feeling like the king of the world. I sure love this tenderhearted, bug-lovin' boy.

 Here are some of his favorites:

Breakfast: Pancakes (We tried a yummy new recipe this morning. You can find it here.)

Lunch: Macaroni and Cheese

Dinner: Pizza

Color: Green

Thing to Do: Fish and find toads

Book: Cars Search and Find Book

Movie: Cars (So he says. He asks to watch Chuggington a lot more than Cars)

Scripture Story: Ammon cutting off the arms

Song: Oops. Can't tell that. That would ruin our game at the upcoming family reunion.

Most Excited About for School: To learn what Brielle learned. I'm excited to learn how to do art.

Thing about summer: Going Fishing

Season: Christmas

Why? You play in the snow and eat it. (He thinks it is Christmas as soon as it snows)

Here is our construction cone making crew:

 And our rock border crew:

 And my darling, silly boy who loves to try and make people laugh:

Happy Birthday My Nathan!

Video Update

My poor blog is being neglected. Each Sunday our extended family sends a family update via email. It started as a quick email, but everyone slowly realized what a great family history it was becoming and we have started doing quite detailed updates with pictures etc. Since a Word document is so much easier to print than a blog, I have become more dedicated to making those nice than my blog for family history reasons. I miss the blog world though. Here are some videos we have taken recently of our sweet little ones:

Jacob loves hugs (and kisses...lip kisses actually. We have always just kissed our kids on the cheek, but that isn't good enough for Jakie. He will grab our face in between his hands and do all in his power to get us to hold still long enough for a kiss on the lips. Too cute. Anyway, I digress...). If I want to get him to go somewhere I tell him who is there and ask if he wants to give them a hug. "Hug! Hug! Hug!" and he is off. I decided to capture one such moment on video. He and I were in our kitchen and I needed to go downstairs so I told him Bre was down there and...

Password: hug

Jakie prays. Is it bad to film your child praying? Jacob is just so cute I longed to record it. Unfortunately I chose a night when we had removed his shirt to avoid tomato soup stains, but hey, I guess you get the real thing, right?

password: prayer

The previous post was of Brielle's concert. I had a blast watching her watch her concert. Sadly she toned it down significantly after I got out the video camera, but it is still pretty cute.

Password: bre

One evening the kids and I watched Mary Poppins while Jared was on a scout camp out. They loved the "Supercalafragilistic" scene and watched it over and over and over. I loved to watch them dance to it as well. Here is a little snippet of the fun.

Password: poppins

Nathan loves summer. He loves that there are lots of bugs and toads and frogs etc. to catch. Jared took him fishing, but Nathan ended up spending a whole lot more time frogging. He is all boy and I love it.
password: frog

This summer I have had fun working with Nathan on beginning reading skills. When he wants to he does a great job. He is a smart little cookie. Here he is reading a book we worked on for the first time all the way through...and Brielle is trying really hard not to help. :)
password: read

Brielle's Kindergarten Performance

Brielle is almost done with kindergarten. Did I just say that? My little girl is growing up too fast. Sniff. Sniff. Anyway, they had their spring performance yesterday and it was such a delight. It was titled "Barnyard Moosical" and each kindergarten class was a different barnyard animal and the program consisted of highlighting each animal through speaking parts and a song. The songs each had their own style and were so fun and creative. Brielle got the "honor" of wearing the full chicken costume for her class and felt like a million bucks. When I asked her what her favorite part was "the chicken costume" was her answer. Unfortunately the concert was the day after her recital and we stayed out way too late the night before as we had to go get ice cream to celebrate her first recital, so poor Bre was pretty tired the next day. She kept rubbing her eyes during the performance, but she was still super cute. Man, I love that girl.

 Here are a few excerpts from the show (for Grandparents...and anyone else up for a fun little show). Brielle is on the front row towards the right in the chicken costume. In this first song I kept noticing her staring off into space a bit. But when I looked where she was staring I saw that she was simply distracted by her new love...sign language. One of her friends has parents who are deaf and there was an interpreter there signing the program and Bre had a hard time taking her eyes off of the interpreter.

Password: chicken

Here is the song about the chickens. Her good friend Ethan is on her right and her best friend Ally is next to him...the darling animated one.
And the goats: (I sure wish I had recorded the cows. They had a kindergarten kick line going. Dar-ling! Apparently one of the kick lining cows felt a little sick afterwards in their morning show and as Nathan energetically informed me, he "throw-uped". Nathan got to watch the first show with his class too. Lucky! Bre said that due to the mishap they skipped the rest of the songs and just did the speaking parts. I guess it happened front and center. Poor kid.)
It was such a fun way to end the year.

A pic before the show:

 Bre and her friends: Jennifer, Taylor, Bre, Ally, Arianna

 Bre and Nathan with the amazing Mrs. Domask, Brielle's teacher this year and HOPEFULLY Nathan's teacher next year. I'm prayin'!

Brielle's First Piano Recital

As Brielle's piano teacher told us tonight, "Brielle stole the show!" She was just darling tonight as she bounced up onto the stage for her first ever piano recital with confidence and enthusiasm, scooted onto the bench, smiled and waved at her family, propped her music on the piano, tried to figure out to do with the name card that she accidentally took up with her, hopped back off the bench, walked across the stage, slipped the card to her teacher and practically skipped back to the piano just beaming with delight. All the while her teacher, Miss Donna, was announcing that Brielle had only taken 7 piano lessons (she started at the end of March) and had asked to be a part of the recital so here she was. And she definitely was...there soaking up every second in pure joy. I think she was born to perform. The idea of being nervous never even crossed her mind (and I hope it never does!). She did a great job too! Here it is:

Password: recital

 Brielle before the performance - her friend Kanza is warming up to the piano behind her

 Brielle getting her warm up time

 Supportive hugs from Nathan afterwards...flower from the boys in hand

 "The Little Cutie" as another mom called her tonight

Bre and Miss Donna

Bre and the boys with flowers from the Allens and flags from Miss Donna. Each student marched down the aisle with a flag while Miss Donna announced their name and their parents names and put the flag in the display at the beginning of the recital.

Paper Unit

A month or so before Spring Break the kids asked how paper got from a tree in the forest to a piece of paper in our house. I thought about it for a second and realized I didn't exactly know. Considering Jared's job is all about the paper industry and this city was built around making paper, I figured it was something we all should understand a little better. So, for spring break we learned about paper together. It was an absolute blast. I learned so much. 

We started with several questions and answered them through studying books, watching a DVD about a paper machine, experiments and going to the Paper Discovery Center here in town. The kids represented some of their learning on an empty wall in our dining room:

We also wanted to be able to share some of their learning with their grandparents, so we videoed them teaching Jared. I wish we could have captured them just telling about it in their excited moments instead of when they were feeling a little more scripted due to the video camera, but this captures some of their learning none the less:

Password for both is paper.

What are your thoughts?

When we were in St. George at Christmas time (see post below...like 3 down) we had our family pictures taken with everyone and in individual families (Thank you Grandpa and Grandma). Now I am trying to decide which one to blow up big for our wall. We have never had a picture bigger than an 8 x 10 of our family and I am quite excited at the prospect, but now comes the pressure of deciding which one to use!

I had originally thought to do this one as it is the most formal:

So, I made an 8x10 of this one for another place in the house:

Having this one up has made me fall in love with it though. I love the personality it shows...especially in Nathan. My biggest hang up is Jacob's facial expression...poor kid!

Other Christmas Fun

I came home from some evening activity I had a day or 2 before our trip hoping that maybe some of the preparations had been accomplished while I was gone. I came home to find this instead:

It was better than a gazillion preparations!

We were lucky enough to have Santa and Mrs. Claus visit us one Saturday evening. Silly Mom forgot they were coming and happened to put the kids to bed an hour earlier than usual. Arg. Luckily Nathan was still awake.

We couldn't get Brielle to wake up for the life of her. Luckily we got a priceless picture of Dad sitting on Santa's knee though!

In a Timely Fashion

Brielle filled her fuzzy jar! Yipee! She has been practicing doing things in a timely manner. What was her prize? A pink watch! Hurray!

Hinton Reunion 2011

We got an extra special Christmas treat this year! We got to fly to St. George on December 17th where we joined my parents and both of my sisters and their families for a family reunion. It was SO wonderful to be together, especially at such a meaningful time of year. Here are just a few of the wonderful memories:

Our adventure actually started in Las Vegas. Jared was called into the bishopric a few days before we left for our trip. While the member of the stake presidency was extending the call and giving him instruction, Jared really struggled focusing on what was being said because his mind immediately jumped to wondering who would ordain him to the office of a high priest. He really cared about that. Little did we know that we would be blessed to have both our fathers there for the occasion. Jared's dad rearranged some business and personal travel plans in order to fly into Vegas a couple of hours before us. He booked a hotel room for the night where we met him and my father (who drove down to Vegas on little sleep after a very busy week) for the ordination to take place. I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with how blessed we are to have such wonderful fathers who would make so many sacrifices in order to do this for Jared. Just seeing these pictures brings tears to my eyes again. What wonderful men I have in my life!

Grandpas and grand kids (who happen to be a bit squirrel y and tired after a long day of travel)!

Jared and his father at Olive Garden where we enjoyed dinner together after the ordination.

We went to the St. George temple to see the nativity, the Christmas lights and to touch the temple. Little Caleb led the way in climbing the stairs so he could touch the place that he loves so much. The rest of the cousins followed:

Grandpa Ken, Brielle and Baby Lily - Bre loved having a couple of baby cousins to dote on and "help" with.

All the cousins! Not to bad of a picture huh?!?

Grandpa is helping Nathan get his shoes on.

Feeding the ducks was a favorite spontaneous activity

Possibly my favorite Christmas tradition is the Hinton Family Nativity Play.

Here is the camera crew:

Our Mexican-style wise man

Our shepherd, Mary and Joseph

The sheep visits the newborn child

Mary and Joseph sing him to sleep

Brielle discovered a pioneer "Laura" dress in Grandma's dress-up...and wore it more than one day in a row.

Aunt Kristen and Gabbi make a Christmas ornament together...after some wonderful child beauticians had worked their magic on Kristen's hair.

Aunt Shonna helps Nathan and Brielle

The grandkids love playing the piano with grandma Kay

Pajama time!

I think they like them. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa

Princess cousins--Brielle and Gabbi model the crowns they got in their Christmas crackers

Can you see it Nathan?

The Princes (well, at least one form of them)

This is probably my favorite picture from the whole reunion. I love seeing our wonderful men chatting and cleaning together in the kitchen. We are blessed to have these wonderful priesthood holders leading our families.

Ready for "Christmas morning"

The boys are exploring their new pj's together. They found fire engines, police cars...the whole works!

Jakie helping Grandpa out..."that's me and Caleb and..."

Loves for Grandpa Ken after a very happy Christmas morning

BUBBLE MACHINE! Grandma and Grandpa have the funnest bubble machine. We all loved it.

Jakie and Grandpa

Get it Gabbi!

We had a game night for the parents one evening after all the kids were in bed. It was fun to laugh and enjoy each others company...as well as a little friendly competition.

The marshmallow relay

The "performer" cousins have a blast dancing together. These two both love to sing and dance.

All ready for our family Christmas hike.

Off on the walk on that beautiful autumn-like day.

Michelle and Gabbi

Gabbi, Bre and Caleb. Aren't they cute?!?

As a ploy to get Brielle out of the Laura dress, we let her try on my wedding dress. Honestly, it was a little too real for me. I hope that day stays far, far away. I loved this picture of Bre and Grandma though!

The bride and her future groom...if they get it their way. Someday we will need to explain that it doesn't work that way, but for now I am okay with their plans for a brother/sister wedding.

Our last evening there we went to Tuacahn to see their Christmas lights and Nativity play. The wind was absolutely frigid and we hadn't come prepared with warm enough clothes so only a few of us went to the play. It was wonderful though. The kids also got to see Santa! Brrrr!

Nathan's turn

Not quite sure what to think of this jolly guy with hair on his face.

Thank you to Grandma Kay and Grandpa Ken for hosting this wonderful event and to Brian and Michelle for organizing all of the delightful, festive activities. We. loved. it.