The Joys of the Fall

Even though there is snow on the ground here in Rigby, it is still fall until December 22! 

My son informed me of that yesterday.  So crazy because it totally feels like winter here. 

I realized I haven't posted in quite a while so I decided to 

take some time and tell the wild Bradshaw fall adventures.

Yep, we are going to have some fun here today.

First of all, lately when I ask Mason to smile for the camera he gives me his 

super crazy smile.  He thinks its funny but I have WAY too many pictures with crazy smile.

Hopefully we can move past this phase quickly. I was able to get some decent pictures, so I will share those this post.  I would hate to scare away any kids that might want to see our blog!

Now that we have tons of space and trees - fall leaves was even bigger and better than ever before!

 Oh yeah! Let the good times roll...

 Ellie took turns riding her bike and coming and jumping in the leaves.

Same with Oscar - except he would have all the kids build up the pile of leaves

and then ride his bike as fast as he could through it all.

Turned out to be super fun for everyone!

  

 

Oscar - age 9

Back to school pictures always happen in the fall.

Is it just me or have the prices become outrageous for school pictures?!

I decided it definitely wasn't worth the money. 

I use to get the pictures because I liked how the kids got the whole class picture - 

(with their classmates and friends)

they don't even have those anymore! At least not in Rigby!

So, we took some pictures at home.

I think I got a few keepers.

 

 Elaina - age 7

Mason - age 5

Thanksgiving is a huge part of fall. And so we continue with our list of fall adventures....

Our plans for Thanksgiving weren't quite as we had orginally planned,

but we were determined to have the best Thanksgiving ever!

It was after all our first Thanksgiving in Rigby, in our new home.

One of  the first things we did was decorate for Christmas the day before Thanksgiving.

Super fun and a bit challenging. We had to figure out how to keep our tree from literally 

falling over (a little bit of string attached to the curtain rod)

No disasters yet!

I suppose we could have paid some money and tried to get a new tree 

but where was the adventure in that? Or better yet, we could have cut one down
ourselves somewhere on a big mountain, but since Mike wasn't available to help
with that, we will be saving that adventure for another year!

Once we figured out the tree, we built a small army of cookie turkeys!

I guess it just seemed like the right thing to do when I suggested it to the kids.

 Mason had so much fun that one of his turkeys went missing the very first day!

The kids watched the whole process of cooking the turkey. Oscar was in awe.

Who knew it could be so exciting?

He also helped with the pies and the potatoes. 

I was so happy when we got some good snow fall and the kids had the BEST time

playing and building the biggest snowman ever!

Oh yeah! It was a feeling of victory when it was finally finished!

It took some muscle to get that snowman built & a little bit of teamwork and we made it happen!

The kids are excitedly awaiting the next big snow fall.

It has been so fun to have a huge play field of snow.

They have been talking about what they will create next!

These have just been some of the fall memories we have made this year. 

Definitely to add to the list would be biking and scooting all over the neighborhood, making best friends at school and at scouts and church, having cousins Savannah and Chase come and play, and 

seeing Grandma Bradshaw at Thanksgiving time, having grandma and grandpa Anderson over for FHE,

becoming even better friends then they were before, and the list goes on ....

Finally, to get ready for actual winter, we had some fun with our Santa hats ...

We love Halloween at our house ...

 

Someone asked me recently "So, do you like Halloween?" 

I had to think about it for a second because I haven't been asked 

that one for a long time! 

My instant reply was "How can I not like Halloween when my 

kids are absolutely crazy about it?"

The truth is I do like Halloween.  I'm not super fond of all the crazy scary costumes, materialization, and how much candy my kids collect, but I like that it is something we can 

do together as a family! I LOVE that it means creating fun memories for me and my kids!

We ALWAYS decorate with bats and spiders, cobwebs, and other decorations.  

Not so much because I love it (although I do)

but because my kids LOVE it and I love spending time with them! 

I'm realizing that as a mother most of the things we do are

because we love our families, even when it creates lots of work for us! 

And isn't it our responsibility to create happy fun memories for our families?

I find myself really looking foward to holidays because of the way

it brings out the kid in me, and I don't ever want to lose that

fun part of my personality that wants to celebrate and have fun!

Here's the kids and their costumes --

We were lucky enough this year to see my brother 

Dave's kids - Chase (spiderman), Savannah (Ariel)

 and Megan (not pictured)

Also my brother Matt's kids - (all little Draculas) Talon, Rigdon, Abigail & Saylor

Pumpkin Carving

With every Halloween comes the joys of pumpkins.
My kids have ALWAYS loved pumkins, and this year is no exception! 

They have actually been known to sleep with their favorite little mini pumpkins.

I've always had a problem going to the store around this time of year,

because when they see the little cute pumpkins, they beg me to buy some.

 

This year, we were lucky enough to get pumpkins from my parent's farm.

Thanks mom and dad! Not only did they load us up and I saved some money,

but the kids had the BEST time picking out their favorite ones.

 Before carving the pumpkins, we had to have a little fun with them!

 We carved them on Monday for Family Home Evening and so of course had to have 

a classic FHE treat - chocolate chip cookies!

 Oscar carved the one on the right at a birthday party he was invited to. 

He used the knife and did it all by himself.

 He was very proud of his creation!

 My kids have never really enjoyed the cleaning out of the pumpkin, but 

I told them ahead of time that if we were going to carve pumpkins, 

they had to clean them out themselves.

Mason decided the gooey mess wasn't all that bad!

 

Here's a little video I took cleaning out the pumpkins -

I'm happy to say despite the "gross" job of getting out the seeds, 

all the kids cleaned out their pumpkins pretty much all by themselves

 The finished Jack'O'Laterns

Mike and I enjoyed the experience too!

 

 This year, everyone wanted to do something scary and I think we accomplished our goal!

One of the best things you get after carving pumpkins is delicious roasted pumpkin seeds.

Yumm... Yumm

Highlights of Oscar over the last 2 1/2 years ....

When we last updated on Oscar - He was only 7

Now he is 9 years old! 

Let's see what happened in the last 2 years .... 

 

 

April 2014

 

 Oscar was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

 He lost both his front teeth too! They took FOREVER to come out!

We lost our grandpa Bradshaw in September 2013. 

Its still hard to believe he is really gone. 

Oscar and grandpa had a really special relationship. I'm so glad I took lots of pictures of their time together.

Oscar loves to look back on them, and remember grandpa on the farm. 

Don always made time for Oscar and took him out to work with him.

Oscar LOVED every minute!

 He gave Oscar his train that he has been obsessed with ever since! 

 Grandpa and Oscar both had their red hair in common, which was lots of fun for grandpa!

They had lots of other things in common too - like their love of tractors and outdoors.

We miss grandpa, but we know that he is our guardian angel, and that makes us smile :)

 He raised his first butterflies, and watched them start as little caterpillars 

to beautiful creatures released into the wild of his back yard!

Learned how to make french toast all by himself (mostly)

We signed him up for his first play at Woodruff Elementary.

He went to practices everyday after school

 He's one of the towns people in the story of "RATS"

He sang, he danced, and he had a speaking part.

He got his first set of rollerblades

With lots of practice he got quite good 

(May 2014)

We would often drive by the Logan temple when we lived in Logan.

All of the kids LOVE how beautiful it is!

(September 2014)

 Oscar is a great big brother and as you can see

Oscar, Ellie and Mason have lots of fun together!

(October 2014)

 

Oscar has developed a LOVE for reading! He loves books and started spending lots of time

reading early on in school. Here he is in 3rd grade. 

(October 2014) 

Pumpkin carving has always been something Oscar LOVES! 

Even if the seeds inside are gooey and kinda gross!

(October 2014)

 Here Oscar is at grandma and grandpa Andersons in Rexburg.

Thanks to them we were able to have some big healthy pumpkins for carving!

(October 2014)

We spend almost a week at grandma and grandpa Andersons in Idaho.

The kids LOVED it! Especially Oscar!

He was in heaven having so much room to explore.

(October 2014)

He was finally big enough to not only ride in the go-cart, but DRIVE it!

(October 2014)

The apple press was tons of fun, and watching how it worked.

(October 2014)

Of course, having 4 wheeler rides from grandpa was one of the highlights.

(October 2014)

This was taken on the Sunday we were with grandma and grandpa,

such a beautiful day!

 Oscar joined Scouts! And participated in his first Pine Wood Derby!

His car was the only car painted like a police car, 

and the only one with a switch to turn on police lights and head lights!

There are some perks when your dad is an electrician!

He has been known to sleep with the things he loves the most, and his derby car was 

definitely on that list! He loves everything about this car!

 Oscar started somewhat of an obsession with Geodes,

minerals, rocks, and gems.

(Christmas 2014)

Oscar added a hovercraft to his hobby of flying toys (helicopter)

He picked it up super fast and took video with it

(Christmas 2014)

 

Video taken right before Oscar's 9th birthday

(March 2015)

 I remember he was pretty excited to see his birthday cake. 

Afterall, it had three toys on it! 

One of the last times we would be in our Logan house before

taking down everything and getting ready to move.

(March 2015)

Our last little walk down a nature trail close to our home in Logan.

(March 2015)

 The walk way trail close to our Logan home. The kids loved it and could take

their scooters and see lots of horses.

(March 2015)

The last day we were in Logan before moving to Rexburg, ID.

We have a lot of great memories at this house!

(April 2015)

Oscar was a HUGE helper during the whole packing/moving process.

His muscles were bigger than I realized!

He moved probably at least half the stuff (besides big furniture) into our 26 foot truck!

 Participated in his 2nd Pine Wood Derby in Rexburg, ID

with grandpa Anderson

(April 2015)

Father and son campout in Rexburg. Oscar was so excited 

that he caught a fish! Uncle Dave, Chase, Mason and dad went.

(May 2015)

 We had Brigg come and stay with us for a cousin exchange. 

Ellie went and stayed in Henderson, NV with his family,

and he came and stayed with us.

 We celebrated by going to the kids' very first drive in movie

We saw the cartoon Inside Out

(June 2015)

Oscar being his silly self and posing funny for the camera!

(June 2015)

Grandpa Anderson let them take rides in the go-cart.

Fun times!

Grandpa Anderson took them to the back of his yard where he has a huge pond.

They had the best time riding in the raft.

(June 2015)

We lived with my parents for the end of Oscar's 3rd grade and all summer.  We loved it, but Oscar especially LOVED it! He helped grandpa and grandma plant corn, harvest the garden, and got to know them much better!   He enjoyed their big yard and hunting for frogs, grass hoppers, and mice.  He really enjoyed watching all the produce in the garden grow and get bigger and bigger. He especially loved spending time with grandma and grandpa!

(July 2015)

 Oscar's first big hike to White Clouds!

He and Mike were so excited to go and enjoy this hiking trip together!

Grandpa Anderson, Uncles Dave, Jon, Kenton, Joe & Henry (his cousin)

all went and had fun!

Hopefully the beginning a great tradition!

Pretty exciting catch of the day!

Hiking and fishing in such beautiful mountains!

Pretty proud moment

Look at that tree behind him - pretty cool. Almost looks like the branches are arms!

 Well I certainly didn't include every milestone over the last two years,

but those were some of the fun ones that I actually had pictures of! 

Oscar is so much fun! I love being his mom and watching his excitement for life grow

and he helps me remember the wonder and miracles that happen 

on a daily basis all around us! 

I look forward to all the fun times ahead!