For Chris

I fell off the blog wagon.  I had a crazy two weeks without a day off, combined with school starting, hunting season starting, me picking up a second job, and a few sick kids and I've felt like I've been trying to catch up on life ever since.  Not in a bad way, this fall has been amazing and I've enjoyed every minute but when ever I had a few spare minutes and Chris asked if I was going to blog, I would laugh and pass out with in seconds.  So here's a recap of the last half of the year, just for you Chris.

 This is out of order but was probably the highlight of our fall.  We took a mini vacation and went to the Star Valley Temple open house.  The drive there was beautiful, the temple was beautiful, everything about the whole two days was beautiful.  One of those moments I wish I could relive over and over.

 Now fast forward, or backward, to were we left off.  Huntley started 2nd grade!

 She also had a birthday and turned 8!!!  We celebrated by going to the hot springs.

 She got a new bike and had her favorite ever Costco Chocolate Cake.  She's a smart girl who knows not to let mom bake your cake :)

The weekend in between her birthday was super special.  We had lots of family come visit and I dragged them all over Jack Creek Preserve not really knowing where I was going.  To top things off I made them all take a picture together.  It was some good times, let me tell you.

Pais had a birthday and turned 5!!! She hasn't quite figured out mom making your birthday cake equals a disaster. 

She also started preschool this year and loves spending time with Miss Connie.  Even if she still cries every. single. time. I drop her off.  I've already made plans with the bus driver to hang out at his house a lot this summer so we don't deal with her crying every single day on the bus next year.

Although there is hope for little miss Paisley.  In the past every time we used to go shooting she would spend the entire time crying in the truck.  This year a switch flipped and she turned into our best hunting partner.

She can't get enough of being out in the woods and whenever she come to visit me at work spends her time trying to convince me which gun she needs.

Back to our mini fall vacation.  The leaves on the way to Afton were amazing.  Again it was so beautiful!

The day after the open house we went to Bear World.  It was one of the coolest things ever. 

The next day instead of just driving straight home we decided to add a couple hours to the trip and go over the mountain to Jackson and come back home through the park.

We haven't been to Jackson since Hunt was a baby and I love that place.  I wish we were rich and could live there.

After we got home it was time to get serious about hunting.  I got my antelope.

We also got lucky enough to babysit baby Link.  Chris avoided the house that day but I'm convinced I could handle four kids no problem. 

And Mav totally would look cute with a baby brother. 

Chris took the girls on a daddy daughter hunting date.  They came home with treats from the gas station.

For Halloween we had a scary witch, cute mermaid, and a fireman.

And we went hunting a lot more.

Pais was the only one to ever get anything.

I checked Hunt out of school one day and the two of us went to lunch.  She is definitely my kid since she ordered dessert instead of food.

This is the other reason I feel like a crazy person.  Every spare minute is spent cleaning up whatever disaster this kids makes.

We killed a tree.  Mav wasn't very happy about that.

I got to be the gun girl at the Bozeman gun show and Chris and the kids got to tag along too.  They loved playing at the hotel pool.  Chris on the other hand really loved being the sole parent entertaining kids in a hotel room. 

The girls also got to come help out at ladies night at the store.  They were paid in cookies.

December flew by with Christmas concerts,

ballet recitals,

and making nine dozen cookies for the food bank.

Santa came to the ice rink.

Mav hates him.

I got to experience what our babysitter goes through for a couple hours.  She's amazing.

Christmas eve we went and got breakfast at the pharmacy.

Then went for a walk to see the river. 

We went to VC and went sledding.  Mav is our first kid who actually likes to sled at that age and he loves to go fast.

Christmas eve jammies were a hit!

The kids slept under the tree to try and catch Santa.

He was too sneaky for them but did leave them a lot of good stuff.

Mav prefers power tools over toys.

I don't think we will ever get a nice looking family Christmas picture.

We went back to VC this week to meet friends. 

Taking 8 kids ice skating may have been a little much for two moms.  But we still had fun. 

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This kid.

 

 

 

 I don't know how to make a heart eyes emoji on the computer but that pretty much sums up those pictures.

 This little lady has a birthday coming up soon and it's a special one.  She tried on my baptism dress and then stated she looked like she came from the olden days.  She's right.

 Pais was obsessed with playing "cat" this week and was constantly seen perched in various places throughout the house.

 Huntley had a friend come over and we trashed the house trying to figure out how to make slime.  Apparently nine year old girls on youtube are smarter than I am.

 I finally gave up and we made chocolate playdough which turned out wonderfully.  I guess it needs to be edible for me to figure things out. 

 Saturday the girls and I went on a back to school date.  We stopped off at the art festival on the way out of town.  Hunt then got to spend the rest of the day with that awesome unicorn on the side of her face.

 The best part of our date was lunch and watching them try to figure out chopsticks.

 

 Today was our primary program and thanks to nini the girls had new dresses and looked adorable.  The also did really well on their talks and now we can actually have fun the rest of the year in primary.

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Since last weeks backyard camping was a fiasco we set a tent up inside the girls room and they slept in it all week.  They loved it and I loved sleeping in my bed, win-win for all involved.

 Mav's little blond head must resemble some tasty looking hay.

 We live on the bumpiest road in the history of roads and they paved the worst part this week. 

 Apparently Mav was really hot.

 Either that or when you let your kid run around in only a diaper he figures swimming is an option at all times.

 Chris is getting pretty excited to sling some arrows at speed goats, one more week to go.

 Friday morning Mav and I (and Chris who was the poor guy who had to drive us) woke up at 3:30 and headed to Bozeman.

 And off for an adventure to Nini's house!!!

 He wasn't a fan of the first flight but slept the second one and received lots of compliments from all the other passengers.

 Back at home the girls got to spend the day with Ma.  She took them to the library Olympics where they excelled in ribbon gymnastics.

 She even took them to lunch after.

 Saturday Mav had his first experience with sea life and didn't quite now what to think.

 But the BBQ at Nini's later that night was right up his alley.

 He let McKenzie chase him around all night and she seemed happy to oblige.

 The three youngest Bekker babies.

 And we can't forget Auntie Vivian and Tullie.

 And everybody else too.

 I really do love living where we do but moments like these make me wish we lived closer to family.

 The next morning we took it easy and let Mav spend quality time with Nini playing in the sink.

 Later we went for a walk down on the warf. 

Mav didn't really care for anything that had to do with experiencing the ocean but just wanted to point out all the dogs he could find.

I had to include the next two pictures.  Every time I had Auntie Vivian take pictures they ended up like this.

Blurry and extra body parts :)

The best part of the whole weekend was watching Mav and Scott.   Mav loves his grandpa and wasn't shy on giving him the best hugs.

Meanwhile back in MT the girls were off on an adventure at the park.

They caught a few fish.

And had a blast racing around the path on their bikes.

It wore Pais right out.

Monday Mav and I started our trek back home.  We had a long layover in SLC so Ma came and met us at the airport where she had the fun filled job of riding up and down the escalator for over an hour.

And lucky for us the last flight of our journey was pretty empty and Mav got to sit in his own seat. 

And the best part of the whole weekend was coming home to this.

I love those crazy girls.