Visitors and Evan's Orchard

 We love that the Laura and Jay Baker family live within three hours of us so we can see them more.  We knew they liked pumpkin patches so we finally went as a family to Evan's Orchard.

 Everyone on the big slide.

 Uncle Jay won Rachel's heart with a pony ride.

 The "hay" ride.

 The whole group.

 We were cheap and went out to the cars to eat lunch.  This nice guy asked us if we wanted to use his truck bed to eat.  The kids thought that was pretty awesome and wanted to take a picture.  

We also squeezed in conference.  I printed off one big conference packet and the kids did a great job filling it in.  I was especially impressed with Lincoln's determination to write down what every apostle talked about.  I bribed them with a dollar store toy.  Most of those have already made their way to the trash:).

31!

  My real birthday started off with a great breakfast in bed but when down hill after that.  It included cleaning up Hannah's diarrhea at Joe's work party so all these pictures are of my make-up birthday the Sunday after.

 Yummy lasagna

 Cute picture of Hannah

 Holy Cow Cake.  Mmmmm

Joe customized his presents to me.  I told him I wanted money towards the house budget instead of flowers.  His real present was watching the kids while I went shopping when my sisters were visiting.  My kids were very good to try and make the day special for me with many creations.

Student of the Month

Lincoln was pretty excited to earn student of the month from his class.  His teacher came up to me and told me he had been campaigning for it:).  

Hannah's First Day

Today was Hannah's first day of pre-school.  (I guess that's why I have time to blog about it:).  She's very excited.  She went right in to her classroom and started her school work.  What a big girl.

Camp High Five

This is what Lincoln told me was his favorite part of school-"Camp High Five."  It's a cleverly done PTA fundraiser.  I wish I could have captured Lincoln's face as the race started.  He was beaming with happiness.  

Hannah is 3!

I was kind of burned out from Rachel's birthday the week before, but with Rachel's help we managed to make it pretty fun for her.

 Breakfast in bed initial response-I want to kill you.

 Her face once she realized it was her birthday.

 Her present-rollar skates.

 Hannah's first gift was skates so she could join Rachel and Lincoln in kitchen skating.

 Rachel and Hannah chose a princess theme for her birthday so Rachel drew a castle and they played princesses being rescued by a ninja for a long time.

 I made the princess cake.  Joe helped me figure out how to do it.  

 We had a new family in the ward over to help celebrate.

 G-ma Danielson's traditional 3 year old birthday blanket.  She slept on the floor with this quill-ow for 2 weeks after she got it.

Happy Birthday Hannah!  You're a fun girl that adds so much joy to our family!

Rachel is 7!

 Rachel turned 7 in August.  She is getting so big!  She anticipates birthdays all...summer...long.  We planned her party and made everything from scratch to keep her from being bored in the summer.

 The "Real Birthday" cake.

 Birthday breakfast.

The party theme was "stars."  It was a little far fetched but it worked.  The craft was this star jewelry box.

 Don't Eat Sunny

I was going to buy Rachel a pinata just like this, but got ambitious and made it.  I think I'm improving at my ghetto paper bag pinatas.

Rachel is a wonderful daughter and older sister to all her siblings.  She helps me so much.  I appreciate her sincerity and desire to make other people happy.