Carving Pumpkins

One of our favorite family traditions is carving pumpkins the Family Night before Halloween. The kids have a blast designing their pumpkin faces and having Mom and Dad carve out the faces.

Aubree

Who's scarier, Tyson or the pumpkin?

I don't know why Kaden is kissing his!

Cute pumpkin for a cute baby!

Brennen

All the kids with their Jack o Lantern's all lit up!

Cambree's 1 year portraits

So here are just a few of the highlight of Cambree's one year old pictures. Lindsey from key daisy photography did the pictures for us and she is awesome! Seriously, if you ever need pictures done, she does a great job and her prices are very reasonable! Next year I think we will have her do our family pictures. Any way, is this baby cute or what?

UEA Weekend / Hogle Zoo

For UEA weekend, we took the kids out to the city to the zoo. (I apologize for the pictures, there was a smudge on my camera lens) We had such a fun time and the weather was perfect!

The main reason that we went is because I wanted to see Zuri the baby elephant. She was born 2 weeks before I had Cambree. It was not disappointing; she was adorable!

The kids had a ball riding the train! It is always a highlight of the trip!

We also love riding the carousel. Do you love Kaden's "Rock On" sign?

Aubree on the carousel!

Tyson and Brennen loved this elephant statue. Through the whole zoo Brennen kept saying he wanted to see the "sneeze elephant". Here is Tyson getting sprayed full on.

Here is Brennen seeing how he measures up to the gorilla's.

Cambree was not so sure about the carousel, but she seemed to have a fun time through the rest of the zoo.
We are grateful to our dad for taking a few days off work for our little mini vacation. We also hit Temple square, but of course I forgot my camera. We took our kids to see the Joseph Smith movie, which had a huge impact on them. I love seeing my kids testimonies grow through special experiences we have.
The weekend ended with our annual trip to Chuck E Cheese. Fun for the kids, endurable for mom and dad. A great weekend overall!

Fall Soccer

The boys just finished up their fall soccer season. It has been a fun year, and we were really blessed to have such great weather this season.

Kaden has really improved as a player over the past 2 years. He really shines as goalie. He only let 4 or 5 goals past him the whole season. Too bad he didn't play goalie on the day I brought my camera.

Tyson had a fun year on a team full of girls this year. There was only one other boy on his team. Bruce ended up coaching him again this year and so that was a lot of fun. He really gets in there and gets after the ball. He even scored a few goals this year!

Truffle Cupcakes

So these are totally my new favorite dessert! They are so yummy! I found this recipe in Taste of Home magazine.

To make the truffles:
In a small saucepan melt 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk, and 1 tablespoon butter over low heat; stir until blended. Remove from heat and add 2 teaspoons vanilla. Put into a small container and refrigerate covered at least 1 hour.

For the cupcakes:
1 package devil's food cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cups oil
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine all ingredients and beat until well blended (about 2 minutes)

Fill paper lined muffin cups about 1/3 full. Roll truffles into 1 inch balls. Drop a truffle into the center of each cupcake. Top with remaining batter, making sure truffles are covered. Bake at 350 degrees for 17-22 minutes. Cool and then top with whipped cream.
These are pretty simple to make, but oh so yummy! My husband told me they were the best cupcakes he has ever eaten!

Pepsi

Cambree has decided that she loves Pepsi! I don't drink it very often and I only drink caffeine free, but if I walk in the door with a cup in my hand she is all over it!

Family Night Bowling

For family night we decided to go bowling. What a fun night we had!
First we had to get the rockin shoes! The uglier the better!


Aubree is such a ballerina! She is so graceful even when she bowls!

Kaden got a strike on his first frame. We all thought we were in trouble! Alas, it was beginners luck.

Tyson was so fast it was hard to snap a picture of him! The best part of the night for him was the fact he beat his big brother by 2 points!

Brennen was a riot to watch! He just had so much fun! He didn't care how many pins he knocked over, he just liked to roll the ball!

The biggest challenge was keeping Cambree out of the way! She wanted to be right in the thick of things!

The proclamation on the family states "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." I think sometimes we work so hard in teaching our children these other principles, that we forget to include these wholesome recreational activities! Our children had such a great time, and I think things like this open up the lines of communication because we can let loose and just have fun with our families!