Last Halloween

I pulled these pictures together to put as my screen saver. It is fun remembering last Halloween. Autumn was only 2 weeks old. Jonathan didn't want to put on his costume until he learned that if he wore it people would give him candy! But the moment he got home we wanted it off. As for Bruce's costumes I will quote "Angie, next year I am in charge of dressing us up!" He was a really good sport as I found that giant pumpkin costume for him at Deseret Industries (a 2nd hand store). In fact I found pumpkin costumes for everyone but me...so I got away with an orange shirt...(: The tights that Bruce is showing off came from a co-worker, who after finding out that Bruce had that costume, bought him them. Bruce would want me to let you know that was the first and last time he wore tights. Ha! It was a fun Halloween!

This Halloween Jonathan is going to be a fireman and Autumn is going to be the fire dog. We found her a cute dalmatian costume. Bruce also gets to be a fireman but Jonathan said that I need to be fire...hummm...how am I going to pull that one off? I said "Can't I just be a fireman too?" But Jonathan insists that I am going to be the fire.

The Joy of School

Jonathan has started preschool. He was very excited! And who is his teacher? Me. A friend and I decided to have a little preschool for our kids. We are following the Joy School curriculum, which is a home based preschool program for parents. We tried to get some other moms with 3 year olds to do it with us but in the end it is just the two of us. So we trade off every other week teaching on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to our cute class of two kids. Let me just say that I have loved, loved, loved doing this! I thought at first it might be a lot of work but in the end even though it is work it is so much fun to be the one that gets to watch them be so excited! And they are easily impressed so filling the time isn't tricky at all. While at first I admit I was motivated by not having to pay for preschool this year since he has two years until kindergarten, I have since discovered that it is so rewarding to put the time into being creative and having this scheduled structured time with Jonathan. So many things just make me smile like when Jonathan calls me "Teacher" while we are in class. And it makes me laugh that they raise their hands to talk but usually end up jumping up and down when they know the right answer. They just get so excited. This makes me happy and I am glad I am the one that gets to be there to see it happen. I think I am having as much fun at preschool as they are. Here are some pictures of our school year so far.

First day of school. I had to take this picture because of how excited they were. (Autumn is a part of preschool until nap time.)



Learning about our bodies.


Making bread. They started out on a bench behind the counter but by the end they were on the counter because they just had to be up and close to the entire process.


Jonathan displaying his bread. He was so proud of himself. He said "Mom, do you think Dad will be so proud of me making this all by myself?"

Micheal Phelps at a Young Age

Someone emailed this to me. I thought it was pretty funny.

Harvest Time

We have had such a great time this summer watching our garden grow. We remember when we first planted it in the Spring, we didn't really believe it would grow. The seeds were so tiny. A carrot seed, for example, looks like a speck of dirt. But wow! It has grown and overgrown!! It really brings me so much joy. We planted yellow squash, zucchini, banana squash, green onions, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, raspberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, and three varieties of pumpkins! The harvest has been mighty delicious! It may sound funny, but it is a testimony builder for me to watch the plants grow from a seed. I just find it all fascinating and I can't help but thank Heavenly Father for blessing our little piece of land to produce. Especially with high food costs this has been a blessing. Bruce said it best when he was explaining things to Jonathan as we planted the seeds in the Spring. Bruce told Jonathan that Heavenly Father wants us to grow a garden for lots of reasons but one of the reasons is that it helps us to see that just like this little seed can grow up to be something big and useful, we can grow up to be like Heavenly Father someday. We may feel small and insignificant sometimes, but just like a seed has the potential to grow into what it was intended to be, so can we. We all have divine potential inside us because we are children of our Heavenly Father.










This is our prize winning banana squash. It is so tasty. It is a winter squash and so we can store them down in our basement and eat them all winter. This one is almost 3 feet long! Autumn especially LOVES the squash (zucchini, yellow and banana). Jonathan has to be a little more convinced to eat the vegetables. Bruce and I love it all (except Bruce isn't an onion or green pepper fan).






Here are some of our pumpkins. Autumn is sitting by our biggest pumpkin so far. They still have a month and a half to keep growing. Bruce is showing a pumpkin that is growing right in the middle of our lilac bush. I was so excited to grow pumpkins. I am planning to have a big pumpkin carving party. I think we counted 6 or 7 giant size pumpkins, 5 or 6 regular size pumpkins and lots of the miniature pumpkins.

Jeanne' and Jeanne'

Here is a picture of my Grandma Jeanne' Thorup and my Autumn Jeanne'. Autumn Jeanne' was named after her grandma. So what do you think? Do you think they have some physical similarities? In personality they have similarities. They are both very sweet, loving people. It is fun to see these pictures side by side.

The Rock Star of Food Storage

Here is a fun link to a blog about food storage. She said she has been known as the "rock star of food storage".

http://www.everydayfoodstorage.blogspot.com/

A boating we will go...A boating we will go!

Jonny and Autumn (let's just say those infant life jackets are not very comfortable...but she was a good sport about it)

A happy boy! Jonny's favorite parts were riding in the "speed boat" and throwing rocks.

We had a successful family vacation! My Mom and Dad spoiled us once again and took us boating for the weekend. We have never done this as a family before, so it was really fun to do something different--although we all had fun, I don't think we are an avid boating family so this might have been fun to do once (it was a lot of work and money to rent the boat, and of the adults April, Seth and I were the only ones to love the water). April, Seth and our families went along with Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Thorup. (Erin and Matt were too busy being newly-weds.) We stayed at the Heber Canyon Campground that is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That place is amazing and while it's used mostly for Girl's Camp, it's open to anyone to rent! We wished we had another day just to spend at the cabin to explore. It was an amazingly beautiful place to stay with a huge pavilion, walk-in fridge and freezer, bunks for everyone, a shower, a lake, volleyball courts, trails and even an ice dispenser! Now that is my kind of camping. It is about 20 minutes from Heber and surrounded by gorgeous scenery. Fun! Our days were spent at Jordanelle Reservoir boating. The kids were so cute! They were in heaven. I wish I could have recorded their voices when we were pulling them on the tube. They were soooo happy!! When they are having that much fun it makes it worth all the effort. I will add, though, that one of my favorite parts of the trip was taking a tube ride with my Mom. She thought is would be a slow ride into shore and her plan was to not get wet. We didn't count on the fact that because she was sitting on the front of the tube that it would start to plunge into the water. She was soaked and I was laughing hard. I am sure you had to be there to appreciate the story but let's just say that when she thought she was going in the water that she didn't have to use the bathroom anymore (am I in trouble Mom for sharing that?). Oh and I have to add that I was so proud of myself...I got up on water skis. It only took a few tries to remember how. I even went over the wake and back. That was the extent of my tricks. April and Seth were the show offs. Seth did a 360 on the knee board. We were all impressed. Thanks Mom and Dad for making another adventure possible.

Seth on the knee board.

Little Jon and Big John (he insisted on us calling him "Captain"--just kidding). Dad drove the boat for three days and who knows how many countless hours that was! That was a lot of driving and a lot of patience! (It wouldn't be a real Thorup vacation without a few impatient moments.) Bruce found out that it wasn't as easy to drive the boats as Dad made it look.

We brought our own shade and make a nice little camp on the beach.

Here are some pictures of the cabin. This is the huge kitchen and a picture of what the bunks looked like.

Hey Keith! Look up from your technology...ha!

Angel Autumn...so cute!!

The boat! Fun!

Megan and Noelle

Jonny and Luke

Autumn and Sophia (it is so hard to get a good picture of these two)

Here is Seth wiping out (I had to put this on just to tease him a bit.) Caution: You might get a little motion sick watching this.

Jonny and Grandma (what a lucky boy he is!)

Me waterskiing (I could use some help with my form...but I was able to get up and even dross the wake so I was proud!) and April, Luke and Meg on the tube

Grandma and Grandpa (thank you so much for all the help you did with the kids! Grandma has magic in her (it is continually proven. She was able to get Autumn to sleep when I couldn't.)

Seth and Noelle (Noelle was hysterical! She would have jumped in the water from the first second we got there and stayed in until we left if we let her. She was quite the daredevil!)

Willow Heights Hike

Check out this happy hiker. We were inspired to go hiking as a family on Saturday. It was so much fun! I googled the web and found a new hike I have never heard of called the Willow Heights Hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It almost felt like a secret hike becuase it was hard to find any info on the web about where the trailhead was. It took some searching and exploring but we finally found it. For those that might want to hike it themselves it is exactly 12 miles from the start of Big Cottonwood Canyon on the north side of the road. You will see an engraved boulder like the picture below. When you know what to look for it is easy to spot. The web page I found that told about the hike said it was perfect for beginners and children. I agree, if your children are 8 years or older. It turned out great and Jonny did amazing but it is a pretty steep incline for a three year old. The whole hike is only 3/4 of a mile and the reward is a pretty hike through an aspen forest and a meadow that ends at a lake perfect for throwing rocks (Jonny's favorite part). I had many "melting my heart" moments with Jonny on the trail. He couldn't have been any cuter than he was on the hike. He stopped to look at every ant and animal hole. He talked a mile a minute and was just so excited to be hiking. Autumn did great too (perhaps a bit fussy at times because she was hungry). On the way down it was so cute how she fell asleep. I LOVE family days where we get to be together having fun. This was a great day!

Introducing Mrs. Hart

Erin was absolutely stunning on her wedding day! Matthew and Erin were glowing! It was a fun, fun day! If you want to see more pictures or learn more about the wedding day visit my sister April's blog (April also gives a great explanation of the LDS temple and what it is like to get married there if you are interested in learning more). By the way April took all of these pictures of Erin and Matt (she's amazing).

Here are some pictures of our family at the reception. The sweet angel holding Autumn in one of the pictures is our Tia. She came with us ALL day and helped with the kids! She is amazing and truly our angel.