To Arkansas and Back

Last weekend I left Ragnar and the kids behind and headed with my parents and sister Natalie to witness my little niece Aubrey Elizabeth's baby blessing. It was a nice long ten hour drive, and according to my mom it was "beautiful" but to the rest of us....it was just a long drive! We left Saturday morning, stayed Sunday, and then left Monday morning. It was super quick, but I was grateful that I was able to see her new place and be there.

The fall trees were beautiful for the first couple hours!

Then when we got there, we got to meet my sister Marisa's cute little girl Aubrey!

Grandpa and Aubrey meeting! She isn't sure about that ;)

And we were glad to see Liam again. He is a good big brother!

Marisa and Aubrey. Marisa's mother in law Jenny made Aubrey a beautiful dress!

The Scharman family. Marisa, Ethan, Liam, and Aubrey

Our side of the family who was able to make it. My parents, and my sisters and me. Ethan's parents were also able to be there and we enjoyed visiting and playing games with them!

The sisters..Natalie, Marisa and I.

The blessing went well and it was a nice day. We were so glad were were able to be there to support Aubrey and even more glad she is now here in Texas for a few weeks to hang out!

Peter Pan

This year I wanted to try and do a "family" theme for Halloween since I knew we would be going to trick or treat at the Toyota Center with Ragnars co-workers. Since Ella wanted to be an Indian, we decided to try going as Peter Pan characters. So Ragnar was Mr. Smee, I was Wendy, Ella was Tiger Lily, Cavin was Peter Pan, and Channing was Tinkerbell. We had a fun time.

As you can tell it is next to impossible trying to get Channing in one place for a picture!

We got to dress up twice, once for our ward trunk or treat, and then on Halloween when we went to the Toyota Center. We got to trick or treat through the suites and play carnival games, and get their arms painted, and then we watched the season opener of the basketball game on the new big screen from the suite as they were playing in Detriot. It was a nice evening....once Clutch was gone....Cavin may have a slight or not so slight fear of our beloved mascot!

In my dreams I would get a lovely nice camera.....ours needs some help....but here is an idea of our evening!

The kids loved trick or treating, and even Channing would not let go of her bag, no matter how heavy it got because she wanted to cling tight to her candy!

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