Happy Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving this year because we finally have a house big enough to have our family over. Uncle Brent, Aunt Emily, and all their kids came. We ate lots of yummy food and decorated Gingerbread houses. Mommy made real gingerbread houses with red and green windows and the kids had a lot of fun sticking as much candy to their houses as they could hold.

James is 1 year old!

Our baby is 1 year old. He is such a happy, playful troublemaker. He loves his brothers and hates feeling left out when mommy gates him into the living room. He can hear the big boys playing down stairs and it doesn't seem fair.














We made him an apple cake with cinnamon buttercream. He knew exactly what to do and was chowing down before we finished singing "happy birthday"

James needed a little help opening his presents but his big brothers were happy to help.

Happy Halloween

After all the Halloween parties and trick or treating we did this year, there was enough candy at our house to rot the teeth of a small army. The boys enjoyed it all and had as much fun handing out candy as they did stuffing their mouth with the candy they had collected. Evan was a Lego minifigure again, Bennet was a Train, and James had his turn with the baby shark costume.

Family Picture

We added a new family member, so we needed a new family picture. This time we headed out to Manassas Battlefield, where a few major Civil War battles were fought. We wanted something that said "Virginia" and nothing says Virginia like a Civil War battlefield.

We think we have some really cute boys!

Go Cougars!

This year we were lucky enough to have BYU come play a game at FedExfield in Maryland. That is only a quick metro trip from our house. We couldn't pass up the chance to go cheer our cougars on. Grandma and Grandpa Saunders as well as Uncle Alec and Aunt Tania flew out to go to the game with us. Unlike last time we went to a BYU game in Virginia, the weather was perfect. It was a very exciting game, but sadly we lost to West Virginia 32-35.

Philadelphia Temple Open House

We don't live that far from Philadelphia, so we were so excited when our friends said they had extra tickets to the open house and invited us to go with them. It is such a beautiful building and I was impressed with the how well they incorporated the colonial architecture that Philadelphia is famous for into the exterior and interior of the temple. Though we have a pack of rowdy boys, they were very reverent throughout the whole tour. Even Bennet, as little as he is, seemed to understand how important it was.

Summer 2016

Summer 2016 was long and hot, but we survived by taking almost daily trips to the pool and monthly trips to Busch Gardens.



We had a great time at the pool this summer. Our boys are a bit bigger now so we spent most of our time in the big pool. Bennet showed no fear and with his puddle jumper safely strapped on he would jump in and swim all over even into the deep end. Ever our timid swimmer, Evan liked to stick to the shallow end where he could safely touch. It took a lot of convincing, but by the end of the summer Mommy had taught Evan how to swim across the pool and dive head first to the bottom to pick up toys.

We bought summer passes to Busch Gardens for the family and once a month we made the trip down to Williamsburg to ride the rides. Bennet, it turns out, LOVES roller coasters. He would ride them non stop if they'd let him. Evan likes the spinny rides better and liked to help Mom spin the teacups as fast as they would go. Evan's favorite ride though was the sky coaster that took us from one end of the park to the other. He loved looking down on all the activity below. Bennet liked to get around on the Train that runs all around the park.

Near the end of the summer, a friend of ours invited us to come stay with them at Great Wolf Lodge which is a hotel chain that has a huge indoor waterslide park. Everyone had a great time, especially Bennet. He couldn't get enough of the waterslides and insisted on going on the biggest ones again and again and again. Mommy climbed a lot of stairs over those two days.