update...

So... I haven't updated my blog in a really long time and figured that I had better try to catch up before Christmas and the new year, so here is what we have been doing this month...

Last year we started a new tradition. We went with Andy and Melissa and their family to cut down our Christmas tree. We had such a great time we thought that we should do it every year. Andy and Clark were so nice and went super early to stand in line and get tree permits for our family. We cut them down near Woodland UT. The kids loved being pulled around in the sled.

They were having such a blast!

I saw our tree down a steep hill so I hiked down there to cut it down and had a rough time getting it up the hill.

But it was totally worth it! It is a beautiful tree!

Trying to stay warm by the heater.

Charles took me to San Fransico for my birthday! What a spoiler! Our good friends the DeGraw's came to help celebrate and we had a GREAT time! Thanks Charles!

We ate at the BEST "Euro-Asian Seafood" restaurant and the roasted crab was unbelievable!

Of course we shopped in China town!

We made gingerbread houses at the Peterson's house and the kids had so much fun making them and eating all the candy.

December 5th is Sinter Claus day in Holland and growing up my family always celebrated. Sinter Claus would leave us oranges and a yummy chocolate letter for our name. The kids loved waking up to find their letter and having it for breakfast.

Santa Clause came to the ward primary party. Josie was SO excited to tell him that she wants a mermaid doll for Christmas.

We went sledding with my brother Spencer's family down in Fairview. Josie and Katy LOVE being together!

We all had such a great time! We love sledding! It is one of our favorite things about winter!

The cemetary where Chalres' day was buried last Feburary has one night before Christmas where they put lanterns throughout the entire place. It is really wonderful. The kids thought it was amazing! This will be a new tradition that we do each year.

What a wonderful time of year! There is so much going on and so many fun things to be doing. We love spending time with our family and friends. We can't wait for Christmas this year... the kids are so excited! It will be so much fun!

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun Halloween! Josie and Charlie were more into trick or treating this year and it made it so fun! Josie was excited to be a tiger, Charlie fit into Josie's dragon costume from last year and Frances wore Charlie's costume from when he was born. They were all bundled up and it was a perfect Halloween night!

Josie was pretty unsure about our neighbor all dressed up and scary.

We ran into Josie's best buddy Izak while out trick or treating.

He was a "biker dude" according to Josie.

Eliza, Charlie and Josie squished into the wagon.

This is Josie looking at the spooky mummy at the neighbors house. The kids love driving by this house all October, but walking up to the door in the dark on Halloween night is a totally different thing.

Charlie and Olivia were a little nervous about the

scarry sounds coming from the spooky graveyard.

We had a great night and can't wait until next year to do it again!

Happy Halloween!

Charlie turns 2!

It is hard to believe that 2 years ago Charlie was born. Where does the time go?

He is such a great little boy! He isn't talking much yet but he is getting better all the time. He is extremely sweet with his little sister and adores his big sister. We all LOVE Charlie BoBo!

Charles bought these lederhosen on his mission in Germany and I have been waiting for them to fit Charlie and finally they fit so he was a little German boy. Josie thought he needed a mustache so I gave him a Hitler mustache... why not Hitler was once a little German boy. :)

All the cute kiddos eating pizza.

Melissa, Olivia the ladybug, Andy, Eliza the cute witch and Drew as a cool Anican Skywalker. Look at his serious, cool face.

Andrew, Emilie as Miss Muffet, Finn the ninja, Tom the greaser and Tommy the spider.

Charles the coach, Josie the "girl" pirate... with a mustache, Charlie the German birthday boy, Me as Officer Patten and sweet Frances as Mr. Bones.

Susie the flapper, Avy as snow white, Whit as the gangsta and MaeElla the indian.

Grandma the cowgirl and all the adorable grandkids (which are only a portion of all her grandkids).

What's a Halloween party without bobbing for apples... right?!

Finn trying to put a bubble gum mole on Frankensteins (usually we use a witches face, but we couldn't find our witch this year) nose. Our Halloween version of pin the tail on the donkey.

Charlie getting a lot of help opening his presents.

Charlie blowing out his candles on his football cake.

Boo with a nice new hairdo.

Frances talking to uncle Ty.

What a fun Halloween Birthday party. Thanks to everyone who made it such a great party. We all love you Charlie!

A fun day in Milburn

We had such a great time playing with Katy, Michael, Derby and Heather at their home in Milburn (next to Fairview). The girls had so much fun playing with all of Katy's princess's and Charlie loved the balloons for Spencer's birthday. There was a great storm that came through and knocked the power out. It didn't slow us down a bit. Heather made a great lunch and we talked non stop.

Josie and Katy play so great together! They had so much fun!

Derby liked holding Francie. It seems like yesterday that he was that little.

He is such a great kid!


Charlie had fun with the boys and the balloons!

Thanks for a great day Pinegar's!!!

Rainy moment in an Indian summer day

Last Tuesday out of no where it started to pour! Josie couldn't believe how hard it was raining. She ran to the mud room and put her boots and jacket on and rushed outside with her umbrella. The storm lasted a whole 20 minutes and then it was sunny again. She had fun putting jars around the yard to "collect the rain for her collection". She told her cousin Lucy the other day that she loves to watch the storms with her Grandma. If any of you know Grandma Elaine you know that storm watching is one of her favorite things to do. It sure made her happy to know that Josie loves that too!

Josie's BIG week!

This has been a big week for Josie with a lot of firsts.

And a big week for me dealing with the fact that my

little girl is growing up way too fast!!!

Josie started preschool! She goes Wednesday and

Friday's for a couple of hours and TOTALLY loves it!!!!

Miss Dana is her teacher and Josie really loves her!

The first day with her school bag that she

painted and is for "all her school stuff".

She also started a tumbling class this week.
She is in it with her cousin Eliza.
Josie was pretty excited to wear her little outfit.
She wanted to wear it under her pajamas the night before her first class.
They were so cute to watch the first day.
They were pretty giggly and bouncy.
They are going to have so much fun together!

Oh, and she struck this pose when I got the camera out, so cute!

Here is Josie on her second day of school. Charlie, Francie and I walk Josie to school in the morning and she wanted me to take a picture of her before we left. Maybe she thinks we will take a picture each day before school. It was so funny. She thinks, well knows that she is a big girl now since she goes to school. She is always saying that she can do new and different things now that she is a "school girl".

It is so unbelieveable how fast time flies by.

Is it really possible that Josie is old enough to be a preschooler?

Crazy!

Our summer

I can't believe that summer is coming to an end. What a summer it has been!

The kids loved playing in the irrigation water

we get every 8 days all summer long.

The kids love climbing on the "big" rock at the lot.


We had some fun days at the lot. Charles took the kids up there a lot for overnighters while I stayed home either extremely pregnant or home with the Frances.
The kids always have a great time with their daddy!

Over Memorial Day we went camping to Joe's Valley.
Fishing was fun even though no one caught anything.

Heather made the best marshmellow roasting stick EVER!

It roasted like 5 at a time.

I love nights around the campfire. We had a great time!

...until our kids TOTALLY melted down when we had to go home.

We had a great Pinegar family reunion at a lodge in Park City.

My brother taught my mom how to chop wood.

You would never know she just turned 73! Way to go mom!

We held the first ever "Polar plunge". It was in June so it wasn't

really that cold, but just wait until next year!

What is summer without at least one day at Lagoon... right!

We had fun at the movies in the park.

We had soooooooooo many swimming days...

pretty much everyday!

Josie took her first swimming lessons this summer and is a GREAT swimmer.

I LOVE the 4th of July and the Millcreek parade.

Charlie getting a high 5 from the motorcycle Police.

Our family just 6 days before Frances was born.

This is how huge and uncomfortable I was the night before Frances was born.

The Patten girls!

Sweet baby Frances!!!

It is so nice not being pregnant anymore!!!!

Watching Charles kitesail at UT lake.

Charlie has shot a lot of basketballs this summer.

He is getting pretty darn good at it!!! He LOVES playing ball... any ball too,

soccer, basketball, football, baseball you name it he loves it!!!!

When the baby came I moved Charlie into Josie's room. The first night was

kind of a nightmare. They played and played in there for hours.

Then they finally crashed. You can see that Charlie does have his own bed...

...but he doesn't sleep in it much.

This is them the next day about 10:00 in the morning.

Their crazy late night had caught up to them.
They are doing great now and love sharing a room.

Josie has spent the summer making "salads" out of leaves and flower petals.
She has pretty much stripped all the flowers in our yard of any petal. There are cups and plastic bags all over the yard filled with her "salads". This is her making one up Millcreek canyon. She has quite the imagnation!


Countless hours have been spent playing on our new playset.

The kids totally love it! And so do I, it is like my nanny.

This is one evening up at Rockport boating on Andy and Melissa's new boat!
Josie found a dragonfly and carried it around all night. She named it Evenroo, like from The Resucers. She fell asleep in the Jeep on the way home and was devestated that it had blown away by the time we had gotten home. Oh well.

Boo got shot by a porcupine up at the lot.

The kids could not believe it!

Luckily it wasn't that bad.

We had a big last hoorah pool party before school started.

Summer sure flew by.

Josie is going to preschool this year and this was the morning of her orientation.

She is so excited to go "for real" this week. She will have so much fun!

I can't believe I have THREE kids!!!

We blessed Frances this Sunday and it was a wonderful day!

I am so happy to be the mother of 3 darling children

and the wife to such an amazing man!

LIFE IS GOOD!!!

.... and now I am caught up!