Trick-or-treat

We decided since this was our first year out by Ernie's family we would drive to their towns and trick-or-treat to their houses. We had a fun time seeing aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandpa and Grandma Kinnie and Great Grandma Mollendor. Aspyn was a butterfly, Courtlyn was a caterpillar and Kaison was obviously Darth Vader.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

October snow

Kaison and Ernie decided to take a break for shoveling the huge snow drifts from the driveway and build a huge snowman instead. We all ended up burring Kaison in his fort and having a snowball fight.

Happy Birthday Grandma Kinnie

WE LOVE YOU GRANDMA, Happy Birthday!!! We had Grandma's favorite German chocolate cake.

Pumpkin Carving

The kids all found Great pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. Kaison and Aspyn's are called wolf pumpkins, they have really big, fat stems. Courtlyn's was big and fat too with a regular stem.

He is all boy.

Aspyn did better this year with cleaning all the "guts" out.

Courtlyn had fun getting hers all out.

Kaison made his into a witch, he thought the big stem looked like a witches hat.

We decided to make Aspyn's into an elephant.

Courtlyn's was a queen with BOO carved in the back.

We all had a really fun night.

They all turned out sooo cute.

The kids loved making their own jack-o-lantern pancakes for dinner.

The pumpkin patch

I found this play group in town and one day we all went out during the week to this pumpkin patch and we really had a great time. We ended that day with Courtlyn stepping off in the pond as I am walking to her and saying "don't you dare go in the water" she smiled and stepped right in. So that weekend we took Kaison and Ernie to show them, Ernie would not let Courtlyn walk around much.

This place was great, there were 3 ponds on the property with pumpkins all around them that you could pick from. Play set for the kids,
a hayride that took you to a corn maze.

In the corn maze you had to go around and find 5 different "campsites " throughout the maze, this was their favorite site.

Before we left, the kids wanted to play in the corn, I think they could have stayed in it all day.

We all left with great pumpkins and had a fun day in Nebraska... only about 30 minutes from our house.

Crazy kids

Courtlyn kept telling me night, night but it was still too early and I told her to go play. I found her like this.

She thinks she is soooo funny

I was trying to get Kaison to write his spelling words and so we did it in pudding.

Courtlyn had to put her hand up just like the big kids.

Our little Chefs...

Kaison loves to cook so any chance he can he cooks.

Aspyn wants to help whenever she can.

All of the kids have loved this hunting hat. Courtlyn wears it all the time, sometimes she puts it over her eyes and tries walking around the house... she laughs the whole time, even when she hits the wall.

They love to play dress up

The first snow of the year, it didn't last long put it was fun.

Homecoming Parade

During Homecoming week the preschool had a float in the parade. It was during the week in the middle of the day so the elementary kids all walk over to the park to watch. Everyone else stood along the main street. Aspyn was so excited to do this, they waved football, basketball signs and chanted "Go Dragons Go". She sat by her best friend Grace who lives across from our house. She had a great time being in her first parade.

Lipstick

Courtlyn thinks everything is lipstick. While she was dot painting with the Kaison and Aspyn she decided to use it as lipstick. I have also caught her putting the purple glue stick all over her mouth.

A day in Sedgwick, Colorado

We went to the Sedgwick parade in the morning it's a town about 40 min from ours. One of the craziest things that happened at the parade was that the very last group of people of the parade was handing out beers to all of the adults... only in a small town. Then that night was the "crashing cars" as the kids call it. It's where a bunch of cars all get in an arena and crash into each other until the last car is running, they do several rounds and different groups according to the size of the car. The kids loving going to those, this one was a really good one because two cars were flipped over, one ended upside down and the other on its side. Just another fun day in Eastern Colorado.

Fun time around the house

Courtlyn is such a funny little girl.

Aspyn and Courtlyn are becoming really good friends. It's fun to watch them, it reminds me of me and my little sister.
Kaison reads to his sisters all the time.
A cool double rainbow after a big storm.
Courtlyn loves to jump!! If she is missing you can usually find her on the tramp.

Kaison and Aspyn's first day of school

Kaison is in 1st grade at Holyoke Elementary he was very excited to finally meet some new kids in town, there are not very many who live by us.

Ms. Dorn is his teacher this year. She is such a great teacher.
I love Holyoke Elementary. They have so many programs to give kids extra help with reading. They are always looking for positive things the kids do every day and giving out dragon dollars that can be used at the school "store". Kaison really likes going to school this year. It is a complete change from last year. I think the big difference is the positive attention he is getting all day from his teacher and staff. A big improvement with this school is the size... a huge plus living in a small town. He started out the year with 17 kids in his class, he has had a few new kids, but it is still under 20. He has made a lot of new friends and loving it.

Aspyn's first day at Preschool. She was so excited and ready to go.


Her school is attached to the elementary until they get the new building done. She loves doing art and being with all her new friends.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Kinnie

WE LOVE YOU!!

Three generations of Kinnies
The kids really love having Grandpa and Grandma Kinnie around. With both of my parents gone they are all they have... we are all very lucky to have them both.

Summer Time

In June we went to Utah and while I was at our family cabin going through my Dad's things and dividing things up the kids and Ernie stayed at my brothers house with his wife and kids. My nephews made a slip and slide by their house through the trees. They made a big hole at the bottom with a bunch of tarps in it to make a soft landing. They all had a great time!!!

LAKE POWELL

Kaison and cousin Emily
Aspyn getting ready to get into the water

Courtyn chill'n on the beach

Kaison loves the water

Ernie's favorite thing to do in Lake Powell is the wave runners!

Aspyn with me pulling some cousins on the tube

Cousins Ashton, Brooklin, Lexi with Kaison

Cousins Kennedy, Shyanne, Emily with Kaison and Aspyn

Aspyn and Brooklin had such a fun time being pulled behind the wave runners

Ernie getting ready to to try wake boarding... didn't get up, we'll try again next time.

Kaison loves to fish, he caught several catfish

Kaison finally decided to try the tube like Aspyn. He was so scarred and didn't want to go, but I always make my kids try things just once or twice and if they still don't like it they don't have to do it anymore... until next time of course. Well he tried it with Ashton and he LOVED it.

The day we were leaving Kaison finally got the nerve up to jump off the railings of the houseboat. He gets so nervous trying new things and when he finally does it he usually really enjoys it, I'm glad that he at least tries new things.

Courtlyn fell asleep on the way back into the marina. She loved playing in the water and all the mud.

It was our families first trip to lake Powell without my Dad and we all missed him very much.

We discovered a great pool in the next town south of us called Wray... it's where Ernie went to school. Unfortunately we discovered it at the end of the summer. It had a great place for everyone to play and the slide was a perfect size for the kids. Courtlyn loved it, she wouldn't stop going down it.

We moved

We moved to the town of Holyoke, Colorado. It's on the Nebraska, Colorado border. There is only one stoplight, a handfull of stop signs so as you go through the intersections you have to slow down and look both ways. The are some great things and some not so great things about living in a small town. The best part of Holyoke is how nice everyone is. People wave at you all the time ,it doesn't matter if you are walking, driving, riding your bike or just in you yard. Everything is close, I ride my bike with the girls in the bike buggy behind me and Kaison on his bike to everything, even to the grocery store. I hardly ever have to carry my groceries to my car, the people who work at the store wheel my groceries to my car or bike and load it for me, it's great. The biggest suprise when we moved here was the big siren that blasts through the town every week day at 7 am, 12 noon and 6 pm. It's a good thing we are not too close to one of the sirens. Aspyn came in the other morning after the siren went off and said is it dinner time? She usually sleeps through the 7 am one. It also goes off if there is an accident or a fire anywhere in town. The siren sounds different if there is a tornato... haven't heard that one. The church bells play a hymn at 10 am and noon too. The bad things about this small town is that it is far from everything. Our church, a small Walmart, small HomeDepot and a small JC Penny are an hour away in a town call Sterling. The nearest Target and Costco is about 3 hours away, that's how far it is to drive back to Parker. With everything so far aways I am learning to plan my meals better so I only have go to Walmart once a month. I'm learning to shop more on the internet, so that save me money not being able to run to Target and Costco whenever I want... Ernie loves that part, not that I was a HUGE spender before.

Ernie's basketball tournament in Pagosa Springs, Colorado

Ernie and some of his friends he plays ball with at church go down to Pagosa Springs and participates in a basketball tournament. It's a scholarship fundraiser in the names of two brothers who died in plane crash, their youngest brother is one of Ernie's friend on the team. All the families go down and we have a great weekend. This year they took 2nd place in the 35+ years old category.