Fun on the farm...

We always spend the day after Thanksgiving out in Buckeye at Cody's Uncle's house. His dad and brothers grew up on a farm out there. Two of his uncles still live and farm out there. The kids have so much fun running around. This year Cody's cousin was playing with them out there and snapped some great pictures. He's only 15. But I love these dirty faced kids!

Silly Liam showing off his mucsles.

Sweet cousin Wyatt

Love the old truck

My girl is looking too old..and too much like me with all those freckles!

My brown eyed girl

Love his eyes in this one

Thanks Brandt Carmichael for the great pictures...

Emrie

Its amazing to me that its been two whole years since this little girl came into our family. Some days I feel like I've been dealing with her FOREVER! And others, it seems like yesterday. She is definitely our most difficult child. She proves that practically everyday. She was born difficult. Good thing for her she is also super cute, smart, funny and sweet. Those big brown eyes get me every time! 

We had a super low key birthday, complete with old school birthday cake candy. Don't think I've seen it since I was a kid. I am lame with birthday cakes. I figure I can get away with junk like this now because she is clueless and doesn't care a bit.

She was seriously a pro at blowing the candles. She didn't need any help at all. I think we did it two or three times because she loved it so much!

Brother always loves a good party!

She is obsessed with Dora. Lucky me...we watch it all day long. She'll be fluent in spanish before I know it! She loves her Dora jammies.

Avery with another of the favorite gifts...sock monkey!

This just shows you some typical Emrie attitude. We had the bed out upstairs for Avery and Liam to watch a movie on one night. After they were in bed, she made Cody put on her favorite movie. (Robin Hood of all things) everyday she wants to watch "show Robin" as she puts it. She had her bottle (which she's still stuck on at bedtime) and assumed the movie watching position. You can't tell that she's in charge around here, can you?



Halloween festivities...

Halloween was a whirlwind of activities this year. Our ward Trunk-or-Treat was the weekend before, so we dressed up then. The Friday before was the school Fall Reading Festival, the kids dressed up then too. Then we went Trick-or-Treating on Saturday, and skipped it on Sunday.

pumpkin carving for FHE...

concentration.... 

 Emrie hanging out with dad while the kids carved. I tried to get a good picture of the finished product, but didn't succeed. It was a cute cyclopse jack o lantern...you'll have to take my word for it...

 Avery has wanted to be Annie for Halloween for months! I searched Goodwill forever looking for a good red dress, but never found one. Gammy Jane to the rescue. She made this perfect dress. We curled her hair all tight, and the rest she already has (like the freckles). She was cute and had a great time.

 Emrie was a cute little ladybug, and Liam was the Toy Story alien.

 On Friday, Avery had a "walking field trip" to the firestation. Cody was home to be with Emrie, so I went with her. It was too hot for the end of October, but it was fun. She was excited to have me with her.

my little Halloween fairy at the school festival...

I also went into Liam's classroom for his Halloween Party. It was so cute to see him in his classroom. His teacher is amazing with them. I could NEVER be a kindergarten teacher. Way too much going on all the time. She is perfect for him though.

They made a fruit dip out of pumpkin, maple syrup and alot of other junk. She was trying to convince him to take a tiny taste....he wasn't sure. It only took one sniff for him to know he wouldn't like it!

It was a crazy, busy weekend. We also had final soccer soccer games and little award ceremony on Saturday. Hope everyone had a good Halloween too!

bowling party...

A month or so ago, we went bowling for my nephews birthday. We had a blast! Kids got to bowl for real for the first time. Adults got their own lane, so we had fun too. Emrie in bowling shoes is one of the funniest things ever!

cupcakes were her favorite part...of course!

Soccer!

Avery and Liam both played soccer this year. This is Avery's third year, she knows all the rules and is getting quite good. She's aggressive when she needs to be, but always a good sport. It was Liam's first time. I think he had fun...but you can tell it's his first time. He's alot smaller than 90% of the kids out there. He isn't aggressive when he needs to be. When his dad had a talk with him about being aggressive and not letting the other team get close to the ball, we caught him elbowing this other kid as they were running down the field. Kinda funny...but so not appropriate! So, we had to have another talk...

Avery broker her collarbone after three games. So, she had to take the rest of the season off. She did get to play in the last game though.

Here are a few snaps of the season...

 THE most important part of the soccer experience...Snow Cones!!!

 Green Dragons

 Shooting Stars

 getting instructions from the coach

It was fun, and a good experience for them both. However...I am glad its over. It was very time consuming and made for some crazy Saturdays!

Arizona Rain...

Here is a little look at what happens when there is a late afternoon rainstorm, and mom isn't home...

Liams getup CRACKS me up!



Time Flies.....

when you are way too busy for your own good! I cannot believe it is almost Halloween. This school year has absolutely flown by. It's already time for Parent/Teacher conferences. No new pics right now, but thought it was time for a little update.

Avery: Doing great in school. I seriously don't have to worry about her. She never complains about homework, or getting up in the morning. She's very independent, and helpful. She was playing soccer, that is until she fell off my moms trampoline and broke her collarbone earlier this month. So, no more soccer for her. Now she's the official cheerleader of her team. Sling on for a few more weeks and she should be back to normal. We are really excited that we found her a piano teacher, so she can start as soon as sling is off!!

Liam: Going strong in Kindergarten. I swear the kid gets smarter and funnier everyday! He is a riot. He is also playing soccer. It is his first year, and I'm not quite sure he gets it.. it's more of a social game for him right now. The joke is that he doesn't touch the ball during the game unless its an accident. But this past Saturday he surprised me. He stopped the ball and turned it around during a game. Pretty good for him! He loves school, and is actually not as hard to wake up as I thought he would be!

Emrie: I think she's finally used to the kids going to school. She really missed them for a while. She's still super excited when they get home. She is talking like crazy these days. She's to the stage where she tells you exactly what she wants, and will repeat just about anything. She loves Dora, and singing nursery songs. She is sweet, and naughty all at the same time! Her birthday is coming up in just a few weeks and that is CRAZY!!

Small little update on the Carmichael's. No fun without pictures, but I don't want to forget what things are like. And if I don't write it down...I know I will!

more summer catch up...

In looking through pictures, I realized I missed some stuff...

In June we had a chance to go to the family reunion for my dads side of the family. They have one every year in Moab Utah. We were blessed this year with nice, cool weather. Sometimes its super hot, but it was beautiful this year. It was at this fun park with nice soft grass and tons of huge cottonwood trees. The kids have so much fun seeing cousins that we dont live near. Its always fun to catch up with everyone. There are some interesting characters in that part of the family. Here are a few fun pictures of the kids...

liam with his standard pose

this is pretty much where you will find cody all day...with different conversation partners throughout the day of course..

Avery and Abby..these best buddies dont get to play often enough.



This last one is just a cute picture of avery and her daddy before they went on a date. Lucky girl!

Liam's Birthday

What can I say about my little Liam. He has always been kind of a mommy's boy. Which I admit, I kind of like. He can be quite moody, but never to me. He always has a sweet smile for me. He still lets me snuggle him..the older he gets the more I wonder how long that will last. It's so hard to watch them grow up. There are so many things I love about this little man...



He has a great smile...his eyes crinkle and sparkle when you get a genuine smile.

He is so smart! He reads himself to sleep almost every night. He has a book he makes me read him all the time. It's so sweet, it's called Mom Says I Can. In the book the boys dad calls him "little buddy" and his mom calls him "snuggle bug"...so he makes me use those nicknames.

He is FUNNY. He always has a joke.

He loves school and his sweet Kindergarten teacher.
He loves soccer, even though he has yet to touch the ball during a game (not even sure he realizes that!)

He is nice to his sisters...both of them.

He loves puzzles, legos and putting things together.

He's very independent.

Really, he just makes my heart melt....

We were in Alaska for his birthday. This is actually the 2nd birthday he's had there (we were there when he turned two). We had been there about a month and were actually getting ready to come home. We were trying to think of things we could do for his big day. At first he wasn't excited to have it there. There are no chuck e cheese's, no friends, not really a way to have a big party.

But his smart daddy came up with the perfect thing. He told Liam he'd start a fire in the day time and that Liam could throw sticks in it all day, and that we could roast marshmallows at night. He was so excited. That darn camp fire was his favorite thing!! 

He also told us he wanted a surprise party. How do you do a surprise party for a kid who knows it's coming? Well, we did our best. We had his favorite dinner...salmon. I had made a cake earlier in the day and hid it.

We were all hanging around the fire and I talked him into going on a walk with me. While we were gone everyone else set up the party...

They had lots of help as you can see. By the way...it's probably ten and night by this point. These babies were dirty and tired! But ready to party!!

When they could hear us coming back, they did their best to hide..

Aunt Janelle is a good sport..not many hiding places to choose from.

this is a horrible picture, but as you can see...he is delighted and surprised!

He opened his stack of presents...

Blew out the candles...

Overall I would say our Alaskan surprise party was a success.

Now my big five year old is in Kindergarten, and soccer, and growing up too fast!!

One funny story...

Liam and I were chatting while we were on our walk. I was telling him that 5 years ago he was born. He asked what time and I told him he was born late at night..it was like 10:35 I think.

He said "wow mom...thats late. Were you still awake?"

Yes Liam, I'm pretty sure I was awake!

Love you buddy!