Josh

I thought I would update you on what each of the kids have been up to. I thought I would start with Josh. He has been enjoying speech and is really doing well. We also go to story time and go to the park for a play group(if it is to hot we go to Chic-fil-a. Josh loves it. He has also informed me that he doesn't want to go to school. I guess well have a little while to get him motivated. Silly guy.

Josh riding his dragon. We went to the zoo on the one Saturday Zach and Bella didn't have a soccer game. We had perfect weather (83 degrees) love it. Josh loved the fact about the Kimono dragon about if it spits on you it can kill you.

Josh loves finding interesting things to do at soccer games. On this particular day he was putting leaves on a stick. He also had to get the cute skeleton jacket.

Day at the park it was Read for the Record day. Curious George read The Snowy Day. They had several games for the kids to play. Here is Josh throwing "snowballs" through the hole. He had a lot of fun. We didn't stay long enough this year to see Hugo and the Hornet cheerleaders, but we did check out the Insectitarium exhibit. Josh was so into it. He loved watching the scorpions. It was pretty active.

Halloween

For Halloween this year we did Trunk-or-Treat at our ward on Friday and we just handed out candy on Sunday. I made a fun dinner of monster mashed potatoes along with a pumpkin bread pudding. For the monster mashed potatoes I made the potatoes into a circle and then put broccoli around the top for the hair and cut carrots for the eyes and corn for the mouth. This is one of Bella's favorites. Even though we didn't go trick-or-treating this year the kids had fun handing out candy and seeing all the fun costumes. We only had two trick-or-treaters come once the Saints game started.

Zach as a Storm Trooper.

Josh as a knight

Bella as a Gypsy. I took her a while to get use to wearing the eyelashes.

Matt dressed as a desert prince and Amy went as a witch to the ward party. Matt won a prize for the scariest costume. I should have taken a picture. I totally spaced it. Next year!

What We Have Been Doing

Sorry it has been over a month since I last posted. I have been busy getting back into the school schedule. The kids are now in school, and Josh is still doing speech. Josh is doing really well in speech he recently took another speech test and he scored in the average range for both articulation and sounds. He is also finally doing much better with the potty training. He can be so stubborn about it. Zach and Isabella are both doing soccer this year. I am ready for it to be over. The two games on Saturday is tough to handle along with the practices during the week. I think it would be fine if it wasn't so hot. Oh well, only 1 month left. Bella is doing the violin at school and Zach is learning to play the trumpet for band. He is doing great. We are also geat ready to start Zach's science fair project.
Matt and I have also gotten some more callings in the ward. Matt is now an employment specialist for the ward and I am now Isabella's primary teacher. We both still work at the store house also. As many have also heard Matt traded in his Mini Cooper for a Ford Mustang. Sorry I don't have a picture yet. The new car is pretty nice. Both Zach and Bella have gotten to ride in it. I still need to.
Here are some fun pictures of the kids playing some ping-pong. They like to play with everyone having a ball and a paddle at the same time. It gets pretty crazy.

Zach showing his awesome facial expressions.

Zach, Matt, and Josh, Matt took Zach to a preseaon game in August when the Saints played the Chargers. They got some great seats. Josh was a little sad he didn't get to go, but he can't quiet handle staying for a whole football game. Zach didn't even mind missing soccer practice.

First Day of School

It is school time again here in the south. It seems like summer goes by so fast. Here are some first day of school pictures.

Josh wanted to have his picture taken too. After we took the kids to school Josh went to speech. He is doing so good. He is currently taking and test to see how much he has improved. He loves his therapist. He is alsways wanting to go to speech.

Zach is in the 5th grade this year. He is also going to do band this year. He is going to play the trumpet. He is very excited about it. I love that he is going to play an instrument. I started in 5th grade with the flute and played through high school I really enjoyed it. I love that Zach is willing to play an instrument. Matt just hopes he gets his practicing done before 6:00. ( That is when he gets home).

Isabella is in the 3rd grade this year. She gets to do the morning announcments and moring meeting on Monday's and help with other things during the meeting. She loves this. She is also going to try the violin this year. She is also going to take soccer this year. I hope this works out. She still pracitices her ballet moves from last year, but she decided she wanted a break.

It is hard to believe that my baby is now 4. He is such a wonderful easy going boy. We are so luck to have him in our family. Josh wanted to have a dragon theme for his birthday. I bet everyone is surprised to here that:) He loved going to the store to pick out a cake.

Josh opened presents first. He got some Lego's ( he loves the little guys that come with them), Dino race track for cars and some dragons of course.

Here is a shot of the cake. It was a How to Train your Dragon cake. We had special sparkling candles. They were kind of fun.

Josh with his viking hat on. He wanted to have cake first. We tried to have him eat some dinner first but that really didn't happen. No wonder he has a hard time gaining any weight. He had a great birthday and loved the cards from everyone. He is looking forward to using his gift card from Grammy and Grandpa, Thank you.

Bella Turns Eight!

My little girl turned 8. Isabella was very excited. She loved having her Grandpa and Grandma Gardner and Anut Trish and Uncle Trevor and their kids here to help her celebrate. Isabella was baptized on Sunday. She had Zach give a talk on Baptism and Anut Trish give a talk on the Holy Ghost. She had mom and Grandpa give prayers and Grandma led the music. She also enjoyed having the girls from her primary class there. The girls have been so good to support each other and go to everyones baptism's.

Dad and Isabella.

Isabella in her new dress for her special day she also wore a special neckace that Aunt Rachel gave her for her special day.

This is a picture from the swamp tour we did with Grandma and Grandpa. These are wild russian pigs. They could swim surpisingly well. They also enjoy eating hotdogs and marshmallows. On the tour were some of our friend from the ward and his parents too. The parents were from Utah so it was nice to hear about home.

Bella opening presents. She got a cute skirt from Grandma and Grandpa. From Mom and Dad she got some more pet shops and scriptures with her name on them.

Isabella and her brothers with the presents.

The birthday girl and her cake. She ate the top part. She is such and cute girl and a great help to her mom. We would also like to thank everyone for coming to visit we have had so much fun with everyone.

Easter and Victoria's Visit

While Victoria was visiting we were able to go to the French Quarter Festival and also go see a plantation. We also got to eat at a lot of great places. It was wonderful to see her. We also went to a lot of soccer games. It was the craw fish tournament for Zach all week.

Josh standing in front of the plantation house.Bella lost her two front teeth along with the bottom teeth Her smile it so cute.

Bella and Josh coloring eggs.

Josh finding a confetti filled egg.

Zach finding some eggs. We are so glad that Victoria and Scott came to visit. It was nice to see family.