ABC FHE....

We have had a little dilemma in our household. Our oldest, Chandler, has no desire to like school. She has been having the hardest time with it, and has been struggling with her reading. She is such a smart little girl, but can't find the focus she needs to improve and do well. We have been trying everything to teach her that learning and reading are fun, but she hasn't been convinced.

For FHE, we decided to use an idea from "Family Fun". (To read my thoughts on this wonderful mag, Go HERE!) We hopped on our bikes, & took them on an alphabet scavenger hunt around the neighborhood. We encouraged them to find as many letters of the alphabet as they could, out of objects in nature. It turned out to be so much fun. The kids were totally into it, and both found so many letters. It is definitely a game that we will continue to play.

Here are some of our favorite Letter Finds! Can you tell what they are?

(X, A, t, M)

(O, A, N, r)

If any one has any other ideas, advice, or helpful hints, please let me know!

Camping at Heise...

We have been trying to camp as much a s possible before the weather no longer permits us to, so a few weekends ago, we went up to Heise with Chris's Parents. We all got up there Friday night. We set up camp, (or campers) Ate dinner, and made smores! It was such a relaxing night, that is, until it was time to go to sleep. Finley had been teething, so she was screaming all night long. I was so happy to when the sun came up. Finally, it was morning!

Dad & Sandy

Me & my Hot husband



I love this picture of Gabe & Finley, too cute!

After breakfast we all went to the Cress Creek trail head, for a little hike! If you haven't been, it is the perfect hike for kids. It is paved and even wheelchair accessible if you have grandparents that would like to go. The weather was perfect, and the leaves changing colors were beautiful.




We decided to follow a little trail that went on after the paved path, and headed up to some huge rocks that we saw! I am so glad that we did, the view was breathtakingly beautiful. I couldn't take enough pictures!


Dad & Sandy on top of the world!

My kids are such little hams, they kept telling us to take their picture on just about every rock. It was funny, and slightly annoying!

After the hike, we all decided to go soak in the hot pools! It felt so nice to relax, and get clean again.

Finley,loved the hot pools.She was smiling,and laughed the whole time. She has really taken a liking to grandpa, so Chris & actually got to enjoy soaking. Thanks Papa Terrill!

This devil child got the whistle blown about every two seconds, for running, or hanging on the rope. How could you get mad at that face?

Chandler is our little water baby, and was in heaven!

After swimming, we went back to camp, ate lunch, and said goodbye to Chris's parents. They had to get back for early meetings the next day.

That afternoon Chris decided to make the kids bow and arrows, which turned into playing Indians, which turned into playing Indians & princesses. The boys painted their faces with the charcoal from the fire, and the girls made crowns out of grass, leaves, weeds, and flowers. I think this was one of the highlights from the trip for the kids. They were having so much fun, and loved that Chris and I played along. (I'll admit that the inner child in me came out!)

Chandler came up with all of the princesses names. She was Princess Wheat Grass!

This dirty little girl was Princess Flower!

I got the creative name of Princess Red Leaf!

Daddy & Gabe were a little less creative, and were just called Indian warriors!

They would capture us and put us in a fenced in Dungeon, until one of us would free the others. My favorite part about playing this,is when Gabe said, "I will trade you your freedom for the chubby baby!". I laughed so hard. He is such a comedian.

He means business!

After our fun little make believe games we were all famished. If you haven't eaten at Heise Pizza, you are missing out. It has been in the family for three generations, and is simply DIVINE! We ordered the Hawaiian 5-0, and it was sooooo good! After Pizza we went back to the hot pools and swam again. The water felt even better now that it was chilly out. After the Hot Pools, we went back for more smores, and some much needed sleep. Luckily,

Finley slept like a log!

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast and headed down for some fishing!

Which,ultimately turned into swimming. Forgive the naked babies, we didn't pack our bathing suits to go fishing. They didn't seem to mind.

It was such a fun and relaxing weekend. We don't get away near enough!

* thanks Dad & Mom Terrill for coming, and for helping with the kids, we had so much fun with you guys.

Happy Camping!

Eastern Idaho State Fair..

WHO DOESN'T LOVE THE FAIR?

The FOOD, Entertainment, Animals, RIDES, watching drunk people, FOOD, Music, ART, THE PEOPLE, HYPNOTISTS, creepy Carni's, but most importantly the FOOD.

Honestly, what is there not to love? We go every year, and every year we have so much fun. Here are some of the highlights!

Finley & Food go hand in hand, so I'm guessing that was her favorite part! She also loved all of the noise and colors.

Gabe kept asking, "why do they call it a Tiger Ear, and not a Saber Tooth Tiger?" He's such a crack up! He kept telling us that he wished we could live at the fair, so that we could have this much fun everyday. So Sweet!





Chandler's Favorite part was eating, and watching a girl sing Hannah Montana songs. She was in Heaven!









My Favorite was the FOOD, of coarse! Life is a Smorgasbord, you gotta try everything!











Food, was also Chris's favorite part, and watching the kids have so much fun. Ahhh, what a sweet dad!










We chose the pig to win, and he came in dead last!








A funny story about the picture Of Annie, is that we asked if she was going to perform, or already had, and she said, "no! I just came dressed up, but I can perform for you if you'd like!" I wish I got it on camera. She broke out into "The Sun Will Come Out...Tomorrow". She had the cutest little lisp. "HOW STRANGE", but it wouldn't be the fair if it were any other way. Chandler was in love with her, so I had to take a picture.









Finley wasn't sure about the animals, but the others two had so much fun feeding them, and getting rammed for more food.





Excuse my cotton Candy teeth, but Check out my HOT DATE! Going to the fair reminds me of when we dated, I love it!





Until next year.... I will be dreaming of you, and all of your sweet goodness!

Renfroe Rugrats

We got to watch these little Rugrats for an entire weekend at the beginning of the month. My kids were in heaven! We planned a whole lot of fun things, including the Renfroe children favorites, and had such a good time together.

The first night we went to the Drive In movies.It was only $10.00 a car load and they were playing, "Aliens in the Attic", & "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs". PERFECT! The kids unanimously agreed that "Aliens in the Attic" was their favorite! They really did laugh through the entire movie, and for the rest of the weekend they retold their favorite parts. The disturbing picture above is their attempt at posing like an alien.

The next day, we spent the morning up at their great grandparents house. They all had so much fun exploring, chasing chickens, playing in the dirt, and they even helped build a tire swing. (which occupied them for a few hours alone!)

They did this for so long that Truman's eyes were rolling to the back of his head. See Hilarious video below!

After we were done at Grandma's, we went home, got cleaned up, ate lunch, and headed to Blast Off! I'm pretty sure, that this is quite possibly the Renfroe kids favorite place in all of Idaho!

They were all so tuckered out from playing so hard. After dinner I didn't hear a peep, so I went to check on them, and they were all sound asleep.

Luckily, our church didn't start until 1:00 the next day. It was Fast Sunday, and Truman decided before he came, that he was going to fast now that he was eight. He did so well, and set such a good example for the other children. I know how hard it was for him, but I was so proud that he made such an important decision.

The kids all got along great, and had such a good time with each other,(Bribing with Nintendo time helped!) and Mollie and Finley were inseparable. They played tea set for hours and had to be right by each other every second. Mollie loved bossing Finley like a little mother hen. She would say, "no baby" to just about everything Finley did, it was too cute.

Bec, you and Allen are such good parents, & have such great kids. We had so much fun with them, & love them so much. Thank you for letting us spoil them for the weekend!