Pumpkin Carving

It's Halloween again, and the kids love doing Fall crafts and decorating pumpkins. Usually we just color on the pumpkins because I hate the mess of carving, but we decided just to do two little pumpkins this year for family night and the kids loved it. Here are some pictures of our fun!

Ella always wants to do a boys against girls (she is our competitive child), so here is us working on the girls pumpkin....

And here is Ragnar working with Cavin on the boys.....Cavin was trying to hide ;)

I had to add a picture of Channing being her little silly self!

 And here is our little creations....just a simple remembrance of our fun evening.

A visit from Hellmut and Ursula

This past week we got a special visit from Ragnar's parents. They have been sweet enough to come from Germany for almost all of Ragnar's birthdays since we have been married. The kids were so excited to have them here and we had a wonderful visit. We truly wish they lived MUCH closer!

Here is Ella with her Oma Hartzheim. She loves to have her around and was so excited to give up her room for a week to have her stay.

 Cavin is going to be bigger than his Grandma before we know it!

 Cavin shares his love of planes and trains with his Opa Hartzheim.

His parents wanted to get us a house warming gift and were kind enough to buy us a trampoline. Although I was nervous about it, the kids are in love with it!

The kids helped for a while, then took at seat at the window. We surprised Ella when she got home from school it was finished!

Ragnar's 35th birthday was on Tuesday......and since he had to work, we went to IHOP and had a nice breakfast before he left.

Then....

Our awesome friend Jared who is a pilot got us a special opportunity to fly in the simulator on Ragnars birthday and that pretty much made Ragnar's birthday. Only Ragnar, Hellmut, and I went as it wasn't until 9 p.m. 

    I even attempted....Here is your pilot Ragnar and co-pilot Lisa. We didn't do too bad...Jared thankfully didn't let us crash :)

At continental airlines......before it's big change....

Here was the view as we were taking off....don't worry this picture is when Ragnar and his dad were flying! It was a neat experience in which we will remember!

 Also Ursula's sister surprised her and came from Dallas for a visit so that was nice.

  We went to Chuck-E- Cheese....which the kids love.

 Here is Ella going on a "rollercoaster" with Oma.

 Then we got to go to a temple session which was nice. Thankfully my mom and dad watched the kids as we went.

We had a nice time and it was a nice day!

Then we went to dinner with both of our parents at Cheeburger Cheeburger. YUM!

We did many more things, but as you can tell...there are already plenty of pictures to at least document the fun trip. We thank them so much for coming. We can't wait to see them again!

 Ella was so excited to get a matching dress with Channing

We love and miss you already!

Preschool

This year we are doing a little preschool with Cavin. There was supposed to be 4 kids in it, but one of the little girls moved to London with her family, so it's just three little kiddos who meet once a week and learn. It has gotten off to a slow start due to illness, but Cavin is excited nonetheless. We also do a school district preschool that I go to with him. He is a happy go lucky guy and just enjoys life. 

This day we just had Ty and Cavin as Emily couldn't come, but we enjoyed learning. Today they learned about dinosaurs and were digging for bones a.k.a noodles. We had a fun time!

Trying New Things

So my friend Mitzi can do everything! She always encourages me to learn new things and insists that "even I" can do most things. She is crafty, creative, and a great cook. So....this weekend I decided to try something for myself and see how it turned out. Ella had an old nightstand that was chipping and needed to be repainted. I decided to try and sand it down and spray paint it. So here was my first attempt at a little handy work!

Before...in the beginning stages of sanding.

And After!

Galveston

This past week we spent half of Labor Day with some friends at Galveston beach. Ragnar has lived here 4 years and has never been. Our friends had a very convenient set up with lots of shade and we got to just come and play. Ella and Cavin were obsessed with collecting seashells and making sand castles. Channing just wanted to sit in her lawn chair and eat...silly girl. We had a nice time, but once a year, or in Ragnars case, every four is good for us.

They dug a huge "pool" and the younger kids played in it.

This picture makes me laugh for several reasons, but Channing's hair looks like it's on fire in the back due to the sun :) haha

Cavin and Ragnar on the way out to the waves

Ella's First Day of First Grade!

Here is Ella before the first day of First grade!

Her silly brother and sister are going to miss her!

Here is where she will spend her next year!

This is her new teacher, Mrs. Petzold. This will basically be her "mom" for the next year! I hope she loves her! I am already missing her. The home is not the same without her, but she loves to learn and so I am glad she is excited to be there! Happy First Grade!

Dallas Cowboys

This weekend we had the opportunity to go up to Dallas and and fulfill Ragnar's dream ;) He has been a Cowboys fan since he was little. In Germany they don't have football, so his Aunt who lives in Dallas always sent him Cowboys stuff and since all he could watch in Germany was the Superbowl, he grew attached to the Dallas Cowboys. Since they built the stadium a couple years ago he has always wanted to go. His boss Rob and his wife Robyn invited us to come down and go with them. So, we dropped the kids by my parents who have always been so gracious to watch them and we headed for Dallas. We stopped by his Aunt Brigette and Uncle Kents house and then went to the stadium. It was great in a suite. The stadium is huge and the big screen almost makes it difficult to remember you are actually at the game and you can watch the field! Ragnar's life really can't get better than a Dallas Cowboys game and endless free food ;) We were so grateful to get a chance to go and we were also grateful we got to spend the night with his Aunt and Uncle and enjoy some time visiting as well!