Silly Mountain

In January we met up with Jenn and Ryan and their kids and went hiking on Silly Mountain, about 25 minutes or less from our house. It was fun and easy and we all had a great time! It was a very pretty hike once we got around the front of the mountain.

Captain of the gate!

Christmas in Idaho

In Pictures... 

Staying overnight with Jeff and Jaclyn. THANK YOU!!!

3 of the cutest sheep this year. Too bad Halli wouldn't go on stage!

2 beautiful angels!

A good portion of all the great grand kids. (still lots missing!)

Movie night!

Another BUSY December

Why does December have to be the busiest month of the year? We started ours off with my birthday which included Tyli and I spending the morning at Higley's cheer camp while Cauley and the rest of our munchkins attended the Queen Creek Christmas Parade. We all hurried home to end the day with Tyli's cupcakes and cocoa party (see post below). Back to the cheer camp. To say Tyli loved it is SO understated!!! She was by far one of the youngest there, but did SO good. She was put in the 6 and under group, but most everyone else in that group was 6. (Tyli was 4.) Anyways, her favorite part was snack time because they gave her oreos. :) She also really liked "flying."

Cupcakes and Cocoa Party

With Tyli's birthday being the day after Christmas, Tyli has never had a birthday party. Ok, not true, my family makes sure she is very happy and spoiled on her birthday since we are in Idaho, but she always gets so sad and asks when her birthday party is with her friends whenever she goes to a friend or cousin or sibling's birthday party. This year I decided to throw her one on my birthday since it is in the same month. It was small, but fun. I, the party thrower, was NOT feeling well at all come party time, but I tried my best for Tyli's sake. We made the theme "Cupcakes and Cocoa." We played a few games, ate some pink cupcakes, and had a hot cocoa bar where the kids got to choose different things to go into their hot cocoa. Their mugs were part of their take home bags. Of course, Tyli has never had so many presents, and was feeling very spoiled from what her little friends brought. Thank you to all who came!

The "Birthday Girl" sporting the crown I made her for preschool

Dallin helped out and took charge of this game of memory. On the bottom of each Hershey kiss was a big or little letter that had a match. I think this game utterly confused some of these kids! Oops!

Blowing out the candles.

Sorry- that's all I have. I was too busy running around trying to feel well and keep this party going!

Halli's First Haircut



This is the "Before" mug shot. It was just so fine and uneven.

She was nervous, as she always is, but was fine once she found her hand.

 Halli turned 18 months old without ever having a haircut so we decided it was time. I called our awesome family stylist in to do the honors. (My sister-in-law, Stephanie , cuts hair and does a great job!) Both of my girls have had their first haircuts now from Aunt Steph!

And the "After". Steph did such a wonderful job and Halli looks so cute!

Cub Scout Day Camp

The middle of November Dallin had the opportunity to attend a Cub Scout Day Camp for our region ad Cauley got an opportunity to attend and chaperon/drive a van load of boys there. They had a ton of fun and Dallin came home with some pretty cool things. He also passed off a lot earning him his 3rd and 4th silver arrow points. (After earning his Wolf, he earns first a gold arrow point by doing 10 electives and then every time he passes off another 10 electives, he earns an arrow point.)

Eating breakfast in the very EARLY morning. This was held in Phoenix, which is at least an hours drive from our house!

The boys who rode in our van with Cauley and Dallin.

Most of the Cub Scouts from our ward. The lady in the picture is Wendy and she is our Cub Committee Chair and Cauley is the Assistant Cub Master.

I LOVE these ladies!!! (Stephanie and Kathy)

LUNCH!!!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was what I call a bit eventful this year! Ours started early with Cauley's parent's ward Trunk or Treat on Wednesday night. We had a BLAST! Their ward is awesome and even though it was rainy and cold, everyone had fun playing games, riding rides, and either handing out or receiving candy. Thursday was my preschool Halloween party. It was ok in my opinion, but the most important thing was that the kids had fun. I was running around hectic (as any preschool teacher with all preschool kids, my own young ones, and all preschool kids siblings would!) trying to throw the best party possible. We ran out of time and had to cut out 3 games I had spent a lot of time preparing for, but that's the way we roll in preschool. Friday night we took my mother-in-law to our ward Trunk or Treat. The kids had fun running around with friends. Then the real Halloween went downhill. Tyli woke me up early in the morning throwing up. McKade said he didn't feel so great but was ok to go to school. Nope. I got a phone call 20 minutes after school started to come and pick him up because he had thrown up. Tyli was incredibly sick- constantly throwing up. By late afternoon both were doing a little better. That's when Halli decided to show us how much milk she had drank that day. Gross! Well, we decided to make the best of the holiday and dress everyone up anyways. We headed out just before dusk and McKade only got 5 houses down before he and I headed home. I sat outside on the driveway and McKade curled up in the chair next to me and slept for about 10 minutes before he got feeling better. The rest of the family trick or treated for over an hour and came home with BAGS of candy! The sweet part was Dallin and Tyli also carried a bag for McKade and explained that their brother was home sick but they were trick or treating for him. He got plenty! I wish I could say that was the end of the sickness, but almost a week later we are still battling it here at our house!

The costumes this year were very simple yet fun. Tyli was a cheerleader-again. Halli was a fairy princess (handed down from Tyli) for Wednesday and Thursday's activities and a lady bug for the rest. (One someone had given my mother-in-law.) Dallin and McKade were both homemade ninjas. We learned how to make their masks out of a t-shirt for Family Home Evening. Dallin used the red power ranger suit and McKade's shirt was made by Cauley. I was a witch and Cauley was Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives or from Minute to Win It. My mom had sent him the wig.

pretending to be on top of a cheer stunt

Oh yes, I forgot- Cauley also made the boys swords out of paper and ninja stars too!

The awesome ninja shirt Cauley made McKade

Check out those antennas! Those were a last minute effort from me to get them to stick up. Just piggies, red sparkly pipe cleaners, and some black spray hair paint in the tips. She wouldn't hold still for even a second so Dallin was trying to help by holding her hand.



Nice witch?

What you can't see is the big watch, and him holding tongs.

Putting our animals back where they belong!

The Cauley Clark Family waiting outside for others to arrive.

Fall Break! Kathy, my mother-in-law decided to do something fun and take all of the grand kids to the Tuscon zoo our last Saturday of Fall Break. We loaded up pretty early, drove down South a ways, and met up with the rest of the Clark Family. (minus Jeff and Jaclyn who are in Utah- WE MISS YOU GUYS!) After a bit everyone showed up safe and sound.

Peacock Tyli

Oh brother(s)!

The snake my kids touched. There was also a skink we got to touch and learn about.

Dallin loves posing in trees!

 We really had a great time! Some of the favorites of the day were seeing the 3 baby lion cubs that are almost 3 months old running around and playing right in front of us, their protective mamma who came right up to the glass to check out who was looking at her babies, the crazy monkey that swung around over and over again (which I have video of, but for some reason, it isn't loading right), seeing a real elephants tooth, and the little alligator guy.

After we finished at the zoo, we ate lunch outside and then headed over to feed the ducks. We all had a good laugh at the sign we saw as we were leaving from feeding the ducks. (last picture.)

Dallin Earns His Wolf!

Getting ready to "WOLF IT!" (can you tell he's a little excited?)

When Dallin turned 8 years old the end of June, he got to join the Cub Scout of America. He really loves it and having the interaction with a lot of other boys his age. He has worked hard and he earned his bobcat badge within the 1st month (no  pictures because I was sick and missed that pack meeting) and then in October he received his Wolf Badge that he had earned. His favorite things he did to earn this award were making a bird house, and playing a game he made up with the family.

This Pack Meeting was also our Rain Gutter Regatta. Cauley helped Dallin just a little with his boat, but the design and paint ideas were Dallin's. He raced twice, winning both. Here is a video of his first race. (Cauley had to leave to reff the Powder Puff game at Higley so he didn't get to see any of the races.)

We are SO EXCITED!!!

Another adventure we did during fall break this year was go and visit the Gilbert AZ LDS Temple site. (For more information on what a temple is and what we, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints do inside, please visit www.lds.org and www.mormon.org.) Anyways, this temple will be about 20 minutes from our house and about 5 minutes from Cauley's parent's house. It should be completed late 2014. To say we are excited to have a temple so close is falling a little short. I am also excited because my kids get to see the progress made on the new temple. (it's across the street from Costco.)  After our short visit at the temple site (because it was closed) we went over to Discovery Park and let the kids scooter off some energy!