Fall and first snow

 These are just some good pictures of fall and some pretty sunsets.  This first picture was just a beautiful sunset with the crescent moon.  It would have been a better picture had the bright parking lot light not been in the way but by the time we left this parking lot it was dark.

 Ben Lomond Peak with the leaves starting to change.  The view from the front yard and windows of home!

Sunset from the deck.

 On Oct. 23 it snowed for the first time.  It didn't stick at the house but it sure did on the mountains.  Gotta love that first coating of white on the mountains.

 Kip took this picture from the deck early Oct. 24.  He came home from work and there was about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground.  It melted off the roads and cement but stayed on the grass until the next day.

 The clouds were just beautiful hanging on the mountains.  What a wonderful morning.  I tended Sally's kids this day and as I was getting everyone in the car to take Zack to school (he had an early out day so school started a little earlier than usual) and pick Bentley up from preschool, Zack, Cace and Will ran into the backyard through the snow.  They just couldn't resist and even though they were not in snow clothes they still did it.  Crazy kids!  Then I had to chase after them so we could get going or else Zack was going to be late to school.

Later in the day as the sun was setting there was a yellow hue in the sky, it made everything sort of glow.  We hope Elder and Sister Spencer enjoy these pictures of home!

the kids are getting so big!

 I just wanted to post some fun pictures of the kids.  Addi is crawling all over the place and pulling herself up at everything.  She is so cute and makes the sweetest noises and sounds.  She thinks its fun to be chased and just giggles and squeals the whole time, especially if it's toward something she knows she shouldn't be going to, like the top of the stairs, but she always stops when she needs to.  We're keeping the floor very clean these days, not that it was ever too gross, since Addi eats everything off the floor. She's had her 2 bottom teeth for awhile and one of her top just poked through today, the other is close behind.

 Zack just loves making funny faces and being silly.  He loves school and is doing really well.  He is enjoying primary and knows hit small part for the primary program already, which is on November 11. He plays really well with Addi most of the time and loves to tease Will.

 Will is just a sweetheart most of the time. He is great at pretending and loves to be 'hulk smash' since he picked out his gloves for his birthday.  He plays great with others but also plays well by himself.  He misses Zack when he's at school but he also has someone to play with 2 days a week during that time.  We've had a few Halloween parties to go to and strangely enough Will has only wanted to dress up for one of them.  He has thrown fits when we've tried to get him in a costume the other times.  We will post pictures of Halloween and costumes when we have a few more.

Addi is wanting to be very independent and refuses to let us feed her a lot of the time.  Here she is feeding herself carrots and peas and just made a giant mess as you can see.  She went straight in the bath after this meal because the food was everywhere.  It was in her hair, up her nose, and just in every crease that it could be.  She loves her brothers except when they're a little too much in her face.

Cullison Family Dinner

 On Wednesday, Oct 10 we took Will to the store to pick out a birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa Spencer.  He chose these awesome Hulk gloves that happened to be on sale so it worked out great!  He loves to wear them and be 'Hulk Smash'.  He also got a fire engine pair of feetie pajamas from Christy and Ryan and a look and find book from Justin and Lana.

 Then on Sunday, Oct 14 we had family dinner and celebrated Will's birthday with them.  He got a Hulk t-shirt and 2 pair of pajamas from Grandma Valerie and Grandpa Jeff and is very proud of his shirt.  He also got a book, a monster truck, and some pants from his aunts, uncles and cousins.  Our dinner was delicious and was Halloween themed.  We had chicken and pumpkin stew, honey roasted carrots (that Jaki tried to make look like fingers but it didn't work very well, either way they tasted good), spider cover deviled eggs, salad and rolls.

 All the kids played outside for awhile and Emma, who is 10, decided to get in the baby swing and then could not get out.  Her dad could not get her out either so they unhooked the swing and then she shimmied the baby swing of her legs.  She was quite embarrassed by the whole situation and did not want pictures but of course we took some.

 The kids decorated cupcakes and painted pumpkins.  Will has a nice frosting and sprinkle goatee.  Zack had so many sprinkles on his cupcake that they got everywhere with every bite he took. Addi was just cute and played on the floor with the toys and kids all evening.

 

Awwww..... FALL!

 On Oct. 2 we picked most of the vegetables out of the garden.  We had a very bountiful harvest as you can see from the pictures.  We had 3 large pumpkins, each weighed over 26 pounds but the largest was just shy of 30 pounds. We also picked 7 zucchini,  1 cucumber, 3 acorn squash, 3 crookneck squash, 2 butternut squash, and 3 spaghetti squash. Jaki picked several green peppers and tomatoes as well.
On Oct. 4, Jaki picked 2-5 gallon buckets of grapes at her parents house and shared them with Christy and Sally.  Christy came over and helped make grape juice, while Sally was at work and her kids were being tended by Jaki, and then took more home with her and Sally took some with her.  Jaki canned some more juice on Friday but there is still half a bucket of grapes, she plans on making some fruit leather and maybe some more juice.
Not to mention on Oct. 6 Jaki picked 2 butternut squash, 4 spaghetti squash and 1 acorn squash.
We had an over abundance of zucchini this year and shared a lot with Heather,Valerie, and Cassi, along with a few other people.  The green bean and salsa shelves are both completely full.  We picked everything because it was supposed to get pretty cold the next night.  And it did!  It got down to the low 30's a couple nights this week.  Last night was supposed to get to 32 degrees.  So i guess fall is officially here, and hopefully its a long fall and not a couple weeks, and then winter.

October 4th was our 7th anniversary and we celebrated in the evening by dropping the kids off with Cassi and went out to eat at Prairie Schooner.  Then we went and did birthday shopping for Will since we hadn't had a chance before and his birthday was the next day.  It was a nice few hours away from the kids and just the 2 of us.

Will was excited for his 3rd birthday.  We had some friends over that evening for a barbecue and cupcakes and will celebrate with family at each family dinner.   He was excited to get a present from Grandma and Grandpa Spencer (pictured at right opening it).  He loved the cute monkey pajamas and didn't care much for the money but we will take him to pick out a present soon.

Here he is with his stash of presents.  He got 2 pair of footed pajamas, a Captain America shirt, Spiderman shirt, glow in the dark Batman shirt, a toy chainsaw, and little jeep with a big foot person and 2 dogs.  He was excited for all of it.

  His favorite present was by far the little chainsaw that Mommy and Daddy gave him.  It's a little black and decker that actually has a chain that moves and makes noise.  He won't stop playing with it!

 He had a cupcake tower instead of a cake.  Jaki decorated the cupcakes with Halloween fun.  The top two say 'Will' and '3'.  There were some ghosts and spiders on webs and then some just covered in sprinkles.

 While we were singing happy birthday he kept trying to blow out the candle so Jaki had to put her hand in front of his mouth.  Here he is blowing out the candle at the end of the song.

It was a busy fun week!  Then to end the week we watched conference and went to Salt Lake.  Brysen invited Kip to go to Priesthood Conference at the Conference Center so we all headed down.  Jaki and the kids went and visited Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Valerie at the hospital in Murray.  Grandpa Jeff is back in the hospital because they had to do another drain on his brain.  He was at Pine View rehab for a week and started getting a headache again so they did another CT and found more fluid on his brain.  After laying flat for a few days they will do another CT to try and really find where the fluid is leaking from, so they can do something to stop it and get Jeff out of the hospital for good hopefully!

More of September

 September has been a fun, busy month.  We've been kept busy by various different activities and just plain keeping up with wild and crazy kids.  Earlier in the month we went to Park City with Sally and kids.  Zack had a school walk-a-thon on  Sept. 28.  Justin, Lana and kids joined us there and so did Cassi and her two boys.  The kids got a different prize for every lap walked.  Zack walked 6 laps or 1 1/2 miles without complaint.  I guess he was super excited about the prize at the end of every lap.  This was a fund raiser for the PTA.
Zack loves to wear his Lomond View Lions t-shirt to school and also his new Samoa shirt.

 Will continues to fall asleep in random positions and places.  Yes, he is asleep while standing with his head resting on Mommy's lap.  He was throwing a fit and Jaki was trying to feed Addi her dinner and he just passed out.  He has been falling asleep sitting up on the couch a lot lately.  He is so tired but won't allow himself to sleep until he just crashes.

 On Monday after we received the Samoa t-shirts from Grandma and Grandpa Spencer we put all our kids in them.  Since Cambree was there she wanted to wear hers as well.  It was hard to get them all to sit still for pictures so this is the best one of all of them together.  As you can see in the picture below Addi was not a happy girl.  She didn't want to hold still or be held.

 Addi is just moving everywhere and putting everything in her mouth.  She can pull herself up to everything and walk along it and then sit herself back down.  She still carries items in her mouth like a cute little puppy.  She has one of the boys toy tools in her mouth here.

Addi is eating a banana here.  The banana is inside of a container that has a mesh bottom so the baby can mush it in their mouth.  She gets nice and messy and loves to eat anything she can pick up.  She eats rice crispies, broken up fruit loops, cheerios, fruity pebbles, broken up bread, and various other things.  She still will eat jarred baby food but only if it's very thick.

With keeping up with all the kids and cleaning Jaki has been very busy.  Kip has been working as much as possible and is very busy as well.