{9.20.2021-9.26.2021}

This week was a really big weak for these beautiful girls! 

The girls have chosen to be baptized! They looked so happy on their baptism day and I hope that they were able to feel the Spirit that I could feel around them on their baptism day. I hope that they will continue to know for themselves, and try to understand why we make these kinds of covenants with our Heavenly Father. I hope that they will continue to strengthen their testimonies of the gospel. I hope they will continue to strengthen their relationship with their Heavenly Father. I hope they always know how loved they are, and not just on their baptism day, but everyday! 

{9.13.2021-9.19.2021}

I love this smiley little boy! He loves to swing, and I think he's going to be so sad when he's too big for the "baby swing." 

Alya started her second year of ballet this week and Lyla started her first year of tumbling! They are both so excited and I am excited to see all their improvements this year! 

And my little girls are officially eight years old!! They are beautiful little girls and I hope they had a great birthday! 

The boys love that they get to play at the park while the girls are in ballet/tumbling! They are getting so brave and climbing to the top of the caterpillar! // The girls got to go have a birthday sleepover with Jeni this weekend, so Matthew took me and the boys to Strawberry to go see the salmon run! 

 

Of course we had to stop and look for bucks while we were out and about! But at least Dad found a spot that had plenty of piles for the boys to climb on. 

Rainy days sure make beautiful days! It was fun to see the salmon and spend some time with my boys!

{1.11.21 - 1.17.21}

A couple of dinosaurs! Bullet is such a pain, but he really is such a good dog! He loves my kids, so I guess we will keep him! // I think I will never get bored of snuggling my sleeping kids. 

The girls went to work with Matthew and got to color on his, what I assume, are some kind of drafting paper for his landscaping plans? Anyway, I love this one that Lyla drew for her "Dadey" 

Peek-A-Boo, Eli! Man, he is just too cute. 

If you watch this video, please watch to the end when I tell him to never do this again! It's amazing what these kids learn simply by watching!! I walked past the fireplace and he had put paper and wood in the stove, pulled a stool over to get the matches off the top of the fridge, and come in and was trying to light a match. So naturally, I start to take a video rather than take the matches away. Well, it's safe to say that the matches are officially hidden from my pyro 2 year old!  

{11.23.20 - 11.29.20}

We have the best mail lady! My kids like to write her little notes and leave them in the mailbox, so she left my kids these cute little Christmas advent calendars. They are so excited about them! 

Oh man he's handsome! // It's always fun to find where Axel ends up after we tuck him into bed. 

Our annual Thanksgiving bowling event was a hit this year. I love these pictures of Eli and Grandma!

Axel loved carrying his own ball! He was so fun to watch! // I love his little tongue sticking out trying to get his ball on the ramp! 

I love how happy he is in this picture! // Jeni is always managing to get his hair to do all sorts of crazy things! 

We decorated gingerbread houses (cookies) this year. It was perfect! The kids obviously thoroughly enjoyed decorating with as many pieces of candy possible. Lyla was very excited about her bear on top of her house! 

Axel's turned out pretty awesome! We love hunting for Christmas trees. 

This year we just decided to get a tree for Grandma and Grandpa in Idaho and we will go get our when we get home. 

The kids decided to hang out with Crystal for a bit while the rest of us climbed the hill to find a good tree. They thought it'd be really funny to surprise us with a few snowballs when we came back down the hill. 

Lyla found some Oregon Grape! We have learned that the roots can be used as an antibacterial. // Eli did more hiking than the rest of us for sure...not! Somehow he always manages to end up on someone's shoulders. 

Jess and Axel...Axel loves to smile when prompted! // You can always tell when he's up to something because that seems to be when he's willing to smile for the camera...like when he is getting ready to throw a snowball at you. 

Eli and his stick. My boys are always finding sticks! He got to keep it until he kept accidentally hitting someone with it! 

I told you he hiked the most! Haha! // I love these toothless smiles! (Alya)

Lyla was so excited to help Dad pull the tree off the hill! I love how determined she looks in this picture! 

Jeni is full of shenanigans! 

I found this old picture of Lyla. She had to have only been 2 or 3 in this picture. Everytime she wore this hat she insisted that we call her "Sosty the Snowman." So cute! I just love this picture of her!! I wish I knew what she was thinking! 

Lyla bowling!! 

 

Alya bowling! I love her little "oops!" 

Every chance he gets, he tells us about the fishing pole he thinks Santa is going to bring him. 

Lyla wrote a book...

"The Chameleons and a Hunter"

by: Lyla Marie Sorenson

There was two chameleons in a tree and a hunter [came?] and the chameleons were scared. 

The hunter was looking for chameleons but he couldn't find any.

The hunger gets a chameleon. Boom. It is dead. He carries it to camp.

The chameleons hid. 

The hunter walked past the chameleons. 

The end. 

 

{9.14.20 - 9.20.20}

The girls were so excited to bring their spotlights to school for their birthday week! It was a lot of fun to go through old pictures with them and help them pick out what they wanted to put on their posters. 

My girls are seven. I can't even believe it! They were pretty happy with their gifts, I think! They both got a new set of books. Alya got one about unicorns, and Lyla got on about dinosaurs. She also got a t-shirt with her favorite dinsosaur - a Troodon - on it. It's getting fun to buy them gifts as they are both figuring out the things that they like, we have been able to start to personalize their gifts a little big more! 

Lyla asked for a wolf cake for her birthday...

...and Alya asked for a fox cake. 

I love these pictures of her blowing out her candles! That prep!!!

Alya was given a cute little leotard as one of her gifts! And she got to start her first day of ballet on the same day as her birthday! She was pretty excited, and I was a little surprised at how emotional I got watching her walk into that studio to do something she has been so excited about!

My little bike gang! We decided to hit up the park one day this week to let the boys race around the bike track.

Spiderman...obviously he would be crawling on top of the piano, right? // My little hillbilly trying to hold on to his toothpick! 

This is about as much as we got from our garden this year...with the exception that we got about 10 more of those delicious little tomatoes and of course way too much squash and zucchini, and I was able to can a few pints of beans, but it was a pretty sad little garden. Hopefully next year we can get a little more luck! 

We had a wildfire pretty close to home!

Matthew has his dream job, which allows him to be on the mountain every week taking  care of some amazing property. The owners of the property let Matthew have one of their bull tags. I was pretty excited for him and I think he's pretty happy with this big boy! 

It didn't score quite what he wanted it to, but he is a good looking bull if you ask me! 

We went up to see my grandpa in his nursing home. He has been sick for a long time and he actually ended up getting Covid so we really thought we would be saying goodbye soon, so the boys and I headed up north after we dropped the girls off at school to go be with my dad and sisters. They ended up running to a gas station and they brought the boys back a super nasty sucker!! Axel thought it was pretty cool! // The boys and I met up with my cousin and her boys to go on a hike this week. The leaves are starting to change colors and it was absolutely beautiful! 

Axel and Jax! // Eli and Mama!

We didn't make it to the end of the trail...one day I plan to! But the boys had a lot of fun just climbing on everything and probably went twice as far as Kass and I by the time they ran ahead of us and then came back to us and climbed on every climbable rock! // I didn't know this cute little boardwalk was up this canyon, but I'm glad we found it! It was so cute! 

This is the cutest little bike gang I've ever seen!