Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Fall Happenings













 Greg and Caleb on Caleb's blessing day.

















 A bunch of foggy pictures of our summer vacation at Bear Lake and Hogle Zoo

















 Greg, Chad and I went to Snowbird and partied hard while the kids stayed with Grandma.
 Caleb and Uncle Dave. I think that Caleb got his hair from Uncle Dave, we'll see.




 We went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity with Uncle Canute, Grandpa Darger, Gigi and Paca.

 Luke shared some cake with his brother when Mom wasn't looking.


 Luke had a fun 5th birthday at Teddy Bear Park.





 One of his friends gave him some silly string. I gave in and let the mess happen. We played outside for a couple hours together and then ended it with a grand water fight. It's nice to be a fun Mom every once in a while.







 Pictures of Caroline and Luke's first days of pre-k and joy school. Luke got to celebrate his birthday at school on that day and brought treats for his class.







 Caroline's Thursday play group, until recently, contained two boys and our cutie.  They sport monster hats and skull masks in an October full of fun.
 Caroline is so cute when we can get her in her "Anna" pig tails.























 Luke's pictures that I take photographic evidence of before they are recycled. Caroline's apple stamp below.


Luke's picture for his poster of what he wants to be when he grows up. We like to tell him that as soon as he is 10 his dreams will come true and he will be a lawn mower just like Uncle Chad. He had a lot of fun doing his VIP homework. He's very important around here, the king of the kids.



 We recently took a stay-cation in the Woodlands. Greg had won a drawing for a hotel room in the area. He took a day off and we went to North Shore park. We fed the ducks, played in the sand and a morning of perfect weather and enjoyment. We stopped at the library for a few minutes for Dad to check out some new Russian audiobooks and the kids played on the computers. Then we headed to Fantastic Pho for lunch with some of Greg's co-workers. There are some fun and delicious drinks with tapioca ball which Greg thought the kids would enjoy-even super-picky Luke. This was, however, not the case and he only ate french bread. We enjoyed our meal and headed back to the hotel. I took a brief nap and then we went down to the pool. The weather was so nice to be in, but a little cool for swimming but the kids and Dad went in and played. Mom held Caleb on the steps and he splashed around. We then took the kids to Denny's where we were certain the kids would enjoy the food. Who doesn't like Brinner? Luke and Caroline got chocolate chip pancakes and soda. I got pumpkin pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage. Greg ordered french toast, eggs, sausage, bacon and red velvet pancake bites. The kids liked their meal but as always finished about 10-15 minutes ahead of us. Caleb slept almost entirely through the meal, which was fine by us. When he awoke he got some tasty pancake morsels. When we got home the kids fell into bed and slept fairly well for being in a strange place. I awoke several times due to Caroline falling off the bed and Caleb needing to be fed. The next morning we ate a delicious breakfast buffet including biscuits and gravy and a super tasty breakfast sandwich. We packed up and headed home. It was nice to drive 10 minutes and be back at our house and not have to travel hours after we were ready to be home.












 Luke's first reading book from pre-school, "Sam."


































 Gigi came to visit us this past week.  We went to the Houston zoo with all the kids, celebrated her birthday and generally had a great time.
 Caroline tucked right into the cake when we were pre-occupied and this was the result. Gigi had a great attitude about her cake with a little personality. We added toasted coconut to it to make it a little fancier.


I painted my fingernails for Halloween. They turned out pretty well.





 Gigi's fun indian Halloween costume. Myles as the hulk. BJ flying Myles through the air.































 Luke as a teenage mutant ninja turtle.




 Caroline as "Anna" from "Frozen."




 Chubby pumpkin Caleb


 Darlyn and Caroline as Anna. Her daughter in the photo above as Elsa.   We had so much fun this past week.



Look at that guilty face, somebody just got caught stealing Halloween candy from babies
— with Sarah Gessel.

Recently we have gotten our babysitting swap back on. Greg and I went to the Gander Mountain gun range and shot our pistol for an hour. Greg also tried with the lights dark and police lights strobing for added difficulty. I didn't need any extra challenge. Then we went and got some yummy custard. Then last week we went and tried Rita's italian ice. I got chocolate and vanilla swirl custard because Greg got the Mango italian ice flavor with vanilla custard that I wanted to try and he shared and also because the Root beer flavor I wanted to try was running to low for what I wanted. We also made a Sam's club run. Fun times at the Gessels. Sorry this is so long. If you read to the end. You win a prize and must be a superfan. Prizes will be awarded as you visit our house. No exceptions!

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