Crazy Hair Day

The kids had a crazy hair day as a part of their spirit week at school. Emily found some great ideas online. Gotta love Pinterest.

Chloe our 'Cupcake Head'

Lillie's Beautiful Spring Garden

Noah's done the Mohawk thing before so we had to go for the Double Mohawk!

Even Milo wanted a piece of the action.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a pretty big deal at our house this year.

I think it's because everyone is growing up and can get excited about it.

We had a great time getting ready and a great Halloween.

Milo changed his mind a few times, but ended up going with a Ninja.

Even better, he called himself a Minja, which is so much cuter.

Lillie was the cutest Bumblebee EVER.

We found this darling costume and I convinced her it was perfect.

The antennae were so darling.

Noah made a very handsome Capt. Jack Sparrow.

He had some awesome braids we glued to his chin, but they fell off during recess.

We put his costume together and after looking online for a hat, I opted to make it.

Not the easiest thing I've made. Luckily for me, a squashed, lopsided hat just looked more authentic.

Chloe was a pink pirate.

She had a very specific idea in mind for her costume. She even drew me pictures so I'd know exactly how she wanted it. I'm not great with a sewing machine so I had to change a couple things, but in the end she was very happy. She and her friends did a 'silly face' picture for me. She has made some cute friends at school.

Milo and I helped in Lillie's classroom for their Halloween party. Lincoln Academy does Halloween pretty big. Everyone dresses up. Even the Jr. High kids. Every single teacher, all the office staff, everyone. It's so fun. They have a big parade and class parties at the end of the day.

Our cute cousins came up to trick or treat with us in our neighborhood.

Lexxy was a pink pirate too!

It was such a warm, beautiful day. We hit every house in the neighborhood. Noah decided to go with friends this year (is he already that old?!) and then helped with a 'haunted woods' in our cousins backyard. Everyone had a great time.

Now I need to start sneakily throwing all the candy away! :)

Happy Birthday to You! and you and you and you...

Did you know that my four kids all have birthdays within 3 months of each other?

From mid April to mid July I feel like we are in a constant party.

And not only do they have friend parties, but family parties too.

And often, a family party for each side of the family.

By the time we're done, I'm tired, I've gained weight and I have crepe paper stuck to the bottom of my shoe.

So this year, I'm lumping all the birthdays into one nice little blog post.

Thankfully, Lillie and Chloe's birthdays are only a week apart. So we had a joint party this year. We rented a bouncy house/slide and a cotton candy machine and invited 27 little girls (and one very brave little boy!)

It was awesome.

We have a tradition of waking up our kids on their birthdays.

We come into their room singing Happy Birthday with a cupcake and a candle.

We video it all. It's pretty fun and I think they will be fun to look back on when our kids are big.

Here's Brian making cotton candy as fast as he can.

Here's Lillie at the bottom of the slide. Everyone played hard.

My darling little girls. They are so wonderful and add so much love in my life.

Chloe is 8 and Lillie is 5.

In June, we celebrated Noah's birthday.

He's 11 now and is such a great kid.

He chose to invite a few friends and go to 7 Peaks water park.

They had a great time and stayed until it closed.

But big boys are hard to get pictures of and this is my only one.

Just this week we celebrated Milo's third birthday.

He is growing up way too fast and I instantly tear up when I think about it.

Here he is with his Birthday donut. (the boys want donuts instead of cupcakes)

I made him a CARS cake and we threw him a little water party with 3 of his closest buddies.

So there you go! Cahoon kids birthdays. They are growing so fast and I try to remember to cherish their littleness everyday. They are the greatest blessing in my life.

A Busy Summer

Well, not really.

Some summers I feel like we are way too busy and I regret scheduling so much.

But I've kept it pretty simple this summer.

I love being able to get up in the morning and

say, "What do you guys want to do today?"

Lots of water and sunshine and family.

We've been very busy. ;)

Blue John Canyon

A few weeks back Noah and Brian went on a slot canyon hike in Southern Utah.

Here's the group, lots of cousins and uncles and grandpa Cahoon.

They chose to hike the Blue John slot canyon. And if that doesn't ring any bells,

here's a clue:

It's the same slot where that poor guy, Aron Ralston, got his arm stuck behind that rock and had to cut it off with his pocket knife. That's Brian near the spot where he was stuck for 127 hours.

Not my first choice in hikes, but I'm just the mom and I don't have any say. :)

There were 3 places where they had to rappel down.

One of the drops was 80 feet into the slot.

Down into the darkness, these kids were pretty brave.

It took a while to send everyone down each rappel,

here's Brian rigging up Noah.

Brian and his brothers are very cautious, and I'm very glad.

Noah unearthed a scorpion,

can you see it on the rock?

I'm not sure why, but Noah brought this Lego clone along for the adventure.

Funny kid.

Everyone had a great time. There were no injuries, besides scraped up elbow and knees.

I'm grateful that Brian takes Noah to do these kinds of things.

They make great memories!