October

In October the kids had a day off of school so we decided to go back to the Tonto Natural Bridge and actually hike down to the bottom. My brother and sister-in-law met us there. It was a nice day for a hike. The kids really enjoyed it, and they are quite the little hikers. We had to climb over a lot of rocks. Carson got really dirty!!












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This month was exciting for Keslie because she lost her 2 top teeth. She lost one on a Friday night and then lost the other tooth the next day.



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Then, of course, at the end of the month was Halloween. The kids had a good time going trick-or-treating. The next day they took most of their candy to an orthodontic office and they gave them money for their candy. The kids were excited about that, and so was I. :) We also had fun carving our pumpkins.

September

September was a slow month. Well, not really slow, but it seemed like not much happened. I had to look back at my pictures that I had taken to see what went on. I think the only pictures I took this month were of Garrett so this month's blog will probably be all about Garrett.
We found out that he needed glasses this month. A lot of people ask how we knew he needed glasses. We saw him going cross-eyed especially when he would be putting food into his mouth. We learned that he is far-sighted (can't see things close up). I didn't know what that meant before, but now I do. He inherited this from his dad. :) Stefan has had glasses since he was 3 or 4 years old. The dr. said that there is a chance that Garrett may not need glasses his whole life. That is what Stefan was told when he was younger, but he still needs to wear his. I guess we will have to see what happens.

He didn't like wearing them much at first, but now he is getting used to them and will keep them on unless we try to fix them for some reason and then he will take them off.




Garrett also discovered toilet paper this month. He had so much fun going into the bathroom and pulling it off the roll.

August

At the beginning of August Keslie and Riley started back to school. They both got good teachers. It was nice to have them back in school and doing something. The hard thing was that Carson didn't have anyone to entertain him (except for Garrett), and Carson isn't one to play on his own.




At the end of the month we went to our ward campout past Pine, AZ. It was the first time that we went camping with all the kids. We first had to find a tent that would fit all of use. Luckily my brother had one that we could borrow. We had such a fun time and it was kind of relaxing. The kids went off and played with all the other kids. There were little pools of water in a field and the kids were catching tad poles. Keslie was probably the dirtiest one out of all our kids. We camped for just one night, but it was worth it. On our way home we stopped at the Tonto Natural Bridge. I had never been there before. I thought that it was really neat. We didn't have time to hike down to the bottom though.

Catching up

Okay, I'm not doing as good as what I thought I would with blogging. It is now December and I haven't posted anything for a couple of months. I am going to start back in August and go month by month up till December. I will have to look at pictures to see what happened during those months. :)

Now for the rest of the summer...

I guess I had better hurry and finish with the summer before I get too far behind.

On July 21st, Keslie was baptized. It is a neat experience when your first child is baptized. It was a special day for Keslie. She looked so cute in her baptism dress. Lots of friends and family were there.

Two days after the baptism we left to go up to Green's Peak for a week with Stefan's Family. For those of you who don't know about this place it is in the middle of nowhere in the White Mountains. There is no electricity, except by the use of a generator, and there is no running water. We have to collect the rain water and filter it to use for showers. We have to bring our own drinking water. We also have to use an outhouse. It is very primitive, but despite all of that it is still a fun and relaxing place to go. We enjoy playing games with his family, and the kids love the open space to run around. We also love the nice weather to be able to be outside all day. While we were there we also went into Eager one day to see my brother and sister-in-law. When we left their house it started pouring. It poured so hard that you could hardly see the road. I was so terrified. The other thing about the cabin is that if it rains too much you can get stuck trying to get in. It kept pouring all the way until just about a mile before the cabin and when we were that close it was just a light rain, and they had not had the heavy rain that we experienced so we were able to make it in okay.

This is a picture taken in front of the cabin with my kids and my nieces and nephews.



This is taken at Carnero Lake, which is a couple of miles away from the cabin. Isn't it so pretty and green?



Sitting by the fire on a cool evening in July. Doesn't that sound nice?



An outing in the forest.


This picture is taken in Eager from my brother's house looking towards the east where Stefan's family cabin is.

When we came home the craziness began with only a few days left to buy school clothes and supplies. The trip was a nice end to summer vacation.

Summertime

We had a fun summer. It seemed to go by pretty fast. We had a lot of things going on. On June 10th Garrett turned 1. We had a little party for him. He enjoyed his cake. He is growing up too fast!!

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Stefan was called to be the Scout Master in May, and it just so happened that this year they were going to scout camp in June which was almost week long. I did not want to be home all week long with the kids cooped up in the house, so I decided that I would take the kids and go to Greer where my parents and grandparents were for the summer. We left on a Monday and stayed till Friday. It was very nice up there, and very relaxing. It was nice not to have to do laundry or clean, and all the other things I would do if I were at home. I made sure that the kids played outside as much as they could since they wouldn't be able to be outside much when we got home. My brother, Steven, and his wife live in Eager. One of the days we went and saw them. They just built a new home so I got to see it for the first time. There is also a park in Eager (which is better than any park in Gilbert) that we went to and the kids played there for several hours. I didn't want to go home, but I did because I missed Stefan. :( This was the longest that I had been away from him. This was also my first trip driving by myself (without Stefan) for a long distance. I don't know if I will do it again for a while. Garrett didn't like being in his car seat so he was pretty fussy both on the way up and back.








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Keslie had her 8th birthday on the 4th of July. We did the usual thing - BBQ with family and have cake and ice cream. Since Keslie likes reading so much I made her a book cake this year.



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This year Gilbert changed the location of their 4th of July celebration to a location about 2 miles from our home. We decided to try it. We went with Stefan's sister and her family. We had a pretty good time, and the fireworks were pretty decent. We did have one exciting (well I should say scarry) moment while we were there. Carson had been asking me all night if he could go play on the inflatables. I kept telling him no. Well, while Stefan went back out to the car to get stuff I noticed that Carson was not around. I started to freak out because there were a lot of people there. Stefan's sister (Carrie) went one way and I went over by the inflatables to look for him. I found a police officer and gave them a description of him. Carrie didn't find him so she came over to help me find him. She ran into Stefan and told him that Carson was lost. He then turned to look for him, and found him. He had already been on one or two inflatables, and he wasn't scared at all. I guess he just wasn't going to take no for an answer.

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A few weeks later, Keslie had her 8th birthday party. It was a karaoke party. She had about 12 girls there. At first the girls were pretty shy to sing, but after a while most of them really warmed up and were going crazy. It was pretty fun!

I will go ahead and post this so if there is anyone that decides to look at this blog will have something to read and some pictures to look at. I will finish with the rest of the summer and add more pictures tomorrow, hopefully.

Summary of our Family

I guess to start off with I will give you a brief summary about everyone. Stefan is still working for his dad. He enjoys what he is doing. Sometimes it's hard because he has ups and downs in work. Sometimes he has lots of work, and sometimes he doesn't have much work. I guess that is how it goes in the construction business.

I (Kristi) am still at home with the kids trying to keep up on everything. I don't seem to ever be caught up, but that is how it goes. I don't get much time to do my hobbies, but someday when all the kids are in school maybe I will get a few moments.

Keslie is 8 and is now in 3rd grade. She is enjoying it so far. She is also taking a musical theatre class and is having fun with that. She is also about to loose her 2 top teeth in front. She is a little behind the other kids in loosing teeth, but there is nothing you can do about that.

Riley is 6 and is in 1st grade. He has the same teacher that Keslie had for 1st grade. She is such a great teacher. Riley is also about to loose his first tooth. He is very excited about that!

Carson is 3 and will turn 4 in December. He has 2 more years to go until kindergarten. He really can't wait till he is 5. The other day he asked me if it was his birthday soon. I told him in about 3 months. He then said, "Will I be 5?". I said "no". He then asked if he would be 6. I told him no, and told him that he would be 4. He then said, "Oh, can I please be 5?" He likes to bribe us with things by saying "I'll give you some of my bubble gum" (which he doesn't have any of his own). Probably a lot of things that I will put in this blog will be about him. He is my busy one. He is very curious, stubborn and independent. I asked Stefan what word would describe him, and he said "Dennis the Menace". His two favorite words are "but", and "why". A lot of times they are used together. He is fun, but he sure tries my patience.

Garrett is almost 15 months. He says a few words (bye, hi, no, side - for outside, boo, nana- banana, -ni ni - night night). He loves to go outside, but unfortunately it has been so hot that he hasn't been outside much. When he is outside and I bring him in he starts to cry. He also loves to pull my pots and pans out. We found out a few weeks ago that he will need glasses soon. We saw him going cross-eyed, and sometimes only one eye will go cross-eyed. The eye dr. said that he is extremely far-sighted. It is going to be a fun thing to get him to keep his glasses on. I have a hard time even putting a hat on him sometimes. Well, I think this pretty much sums up our family.