Harvey's birthday

In November we got to celebrate Harvey's 1st birthday! We were lucky enough to have my parents visiting for the weekend and some of the Preston's came over to celebrate with us. 

Harvey is wired differently from Kate. He loves to suck the faces of all of her princesses but prefers to play with tools, trucks, cars, trains and airplanes. It seemed only fitting to have a construction theme birthday party for him. 

 

Harvey made quick work of the smash cake I prepared for him. I have never seen a child destroy something so quickly and completely. He only even wanted to taste one piece

His party was the night before his actual birthday, so on his actual birthday we kept the party alive and did some of his favorite things. He loves french fries from 5 guys and swimming in the warm kid pool of Lava hot springs.

Harvey is small is stature but big on personality. At his year mark he was just shy of 18 pounds (4%), and 28 inches tall (2%). The doctor said he is hitting all his milestones and not to be worried about his small size. He started taking a few steps near his birthday, and quickly picked up the pace to running and now it is hard for me to keep up with him! We love you Harvey!

Halloween 2016

Halloween was super easy this year because Kate wanted to be the same thing she was the previous year, Rapunzel!. Harvey wore a BYU cougar outfit for a trunk or treating, and was then a cow on the official night. These kids got a lot of bonus candy because people thought they were too cute!

Harvey was a cow which is the same outfit Kate wore when she was 14 months old for Halloween that year. I loved taking a quick flip down memory lane by looking up an old photo of Kate dressed up. 

Harvey Halloween 2016

Kate Halloween 2014

 Kate was so excited to go trick or treating with her Dad who she had dress up as Flynn Ryder again. She was so sad that I didn't get Harvey a Pascal costume and that I didn't dress up as Mother Gothel.

Kate loves going to preschool twice a week. She was so excited for her Halloween Party at school. She wanted to dress up as Sleeping Beauty for this party, which was easy because we already own that dress. The party included games, crafts, and candy. She has the most adorable teacher who is on the right in the picture below. She loved being there all dressed up. 

Kate's Preschool class 2016 at the Halloween party

Great randomness

As I've been trying to get this blog updated I have found some great shots that I need to share. These are from this summer. I am amazed at Kate's beauty. She usually won't smile for the camera unless her mother or father are behind it. These two below of her sitting on the animals are from the Idaho Falls Zoo. We tried to do something fun every day this summer. 

 The Pocatello Fire department helped us beat the heat this summer by spraying the kids with the fire truck water. The first time we went Kate was scared. I don't blame her. The water was freezing! Each time we went she got braver. She even told me to pack her swimsuit for the last time.

 We have a free petting zoo at a local pet store. We love it and frequent it often.

Cross E Ranch

Fall is so much fun with kids. We were able to come down to Utah to go to Cross E Ranch with my sister Suzanne, Phin, and Millie back in October. This place was a huge hit the previous year with Kate. The ranch added more activities to their schedule and we had such a blast. 

Tractor tow. It was so fun to hear the kids continuous giggles while they rode. 

We loved the addition of a slide, even though it ripped a hole in Kate's pants 

Despite Harvey's look on his face he really enjoyed the hay ride.

 The corn box was amazing!  Harvey was constantly sucking on corn which he enjoyed. We loved burying the kids in corn (and finding lots of corn hidden in crevices of their body later) Harvey is 11 months in this picture

my attempt at a group picture

Preschool

Kate started Preschool September 2016. The anticipation leading up to school was very fun. She loved going to the store and getting her school supplies of crayons, markers, glue, scissors, and most importantly her backpack  The class meets twice a week for 2 hours. It is the highlight of her week. She has the most darling and creative teacher Miss Ang. She learns lots of songs, letters, shapes and even the pledge of allegiance that she can say all by herself. Kate loves being in charge of bringing treats. This has been such a good experience for her and me since it was hard to leave her for a few hours. We already enrolled her in the older class for preschool next year!

Random summer photos

We had a great summer. One of the things that kept us busy is we bought a zoo pass to our local zoo. We loved it because it also got us in cheap to the Idaho Falls Zoo and the Hogle Zoo. Our zoo it Pocatello has only animals that are native to Idaho. Our favorite was the grizzly bears.

we loved walking with peacocks at the zoo

 We kept busy with lots of activities. One of our favorites is the free workshops Home Depot puts on for the kids on Saturdays. This one below Kate put together a pink firetruck.

 We loved visiting the Cassia county fair with the Preston's. Uncle John was great at helping the kids get close to all the animals.

 We spent a lot of time at the park down the street, Harvey couldn't get enough of the swings.

We loved our garden. We worked hard and loved reaping the reward. This year we had strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, carrots, beans, snap peas, cucumbers, tomatoes and peaches from our tree.

A wedding

Joe's younger brother John got married at the beginning of August to the wonderful Hanna Picket in the Twin Falls, Idaho temple. These two are wonderful for each other. She is from a small town of Oakley, Idaho which is close to the hometown of Burley. I am so happy she is in the family!

Preston Family

I love this picture of John and Kate so much. Kate was being her usual self when it comes to being in front of a camera. She wanted nothing to do with having her picture taken. John wanted a picture with just her, and uncle Tom had to bribe her to smile. Tom told her he we would give her a dollar if she smiled. The perfect smile was captured, and uncle Tom paid up. She went around waiving her dollar in the air while Joe sang "I got a dollar"

Love my little family

Grandma Nae (aka Gammer) and Grandpa with Kate and Harvey

Grandpa was helping Harvey get a good look at the flowers and bees

My Lover!