October Happenings

Thanks to the kind reminder from my sister, I am finally posting pictures from Halloween and the rest of October!

These first few are from our Halloween Party/Trunk-or-Treat that our ward did. It was the friday before Halloween and was a lot of fun. They have it at a place a few miles south of Lubbock called Coyote Run Ranch. Joshua loves it because they have horses and goats!

Here are the adorable munchkins all dressed up!

Dr. Joshua

What a sweet little pumpkin!

She's wondering why on earth we stuffed her into this costume :)

Bryan went as a cowboy, and quite a handsome one at that!

This is Joshua with his friends Steven, Abby, and Sabrina. They are in our ward and the girls are in our preschool group, so Joshua was become pretty good friend with them.

These next few pictures are from our trip to the cotton farms. Our friends from church, the Mills (Abby and Sabrina's family) took us out to see the farms. Cory (the dad) is doing his doctorate here at Tech in Agriculture something or other and works on the farms. We had a blast!! It was so great to get out and just walk around for a while.

Joshua was in awe of the huge tractors that are used to pick up the cotton. And these are even smaller than normal!

Of course, the kids can't resist a dirt pile!

This picture has two features very unique to the West Texas landscape - flatness and a watertower!!

Bryan and Grace - she's quite the daddy's girl!

And what would a trip to the farm be without a ride on a tractor?!?

And here are some more fun pictures from October!

Daddy and his kiddos

AAWW!! CUTE!

Love, Love, LOVE her smiles :)

Exploring the kitchen

And cute Joshua, cheesing it for the camera. This doesn't happen very often these days, so I've got to get it when I can :)

Well, since it is almost November,

I thought that I would post some pictures from September :)

September was a busy month for us. Bryan traveled to Dallas and to Denver for Interviews, plus had several here on campus. We were able to go with him to Denver, which we all really enjoyed. We were able to stay with Bryan's cousin Ashli and her family, which was nice. The weekend was made even more fabulous when Karen flew out and joined us!! We all really enjoyed seeing her, even if just for a couple of days. Joshua will take all of the "grandma time" he can get!

A few friends and I started a preschool co-op for our kids. It is just two days a week for 2 1/2 hours and we each take a week of the month to teach. It has been fun for Joshua and has been a good way to meet some new friends. It is also some nice girl time for me and Grace :)

Grace started army crawling around in September and was crawling for real by the end of the month! I'm not ready for her to be mobile yet!!!! She is a quick mover and keeps us on our toes!!

And now for what everyone really wants to see . . . the pictures!

This is Grace at the park in Denver. We just can't get enough of her chubby

cheeks and her adorable face!

Here's Joshua enjoying the playground. He loves playing outside!

Grace's favorite pasttime - playing on the floor!

This is Joshua flying the airplane at the Science Spectrum, another one of our favorite places to visit here in Lubbock.

This is a picture of Joshua's first day of Preschool!! He was so excited to have a backpack of his very own :)

While in Denver, we visited the Zoo, which Joshua just loved!! Here he is riding the Carosel.

Bryan and Grace at the Zoo.

Joshua taking in the action at the seal exhibit.

This it the brand new baby giraffe we saw at the Zoo.

And here is Grace, just kicking back and relxing at the Zoo!

Utah Vacation Pictures!

Here are a few of the many pictures we took while on vacation to Utah. We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing and spending time with family!

This is Joshua's first time riding the horses!! He sure had a blast! He kept yelling "Neigh-Haw!" instead of Yee-Haw! as they were riding around!!

Joshua and his Grandpa Guymon down at the barn.

Grace's first time on a horse - she didn't actually ride the horse, but she sure looked cute sitting there with her daddy!

One of Joshua's favorite past times - chasing chickens!

Here, Grace and Huckleberry, Grandma and Grandpa Henke's cat, are enjoying the shade. We enjoyed just hanging out in the yard and sitting on the grass. We don't get to do a lot of that at our apartment!

Joshua and his aunt "Menen." (A.K.A. Maren!)

I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but we were up Blacksmithfork Canyon. It was fabulous to see mountains, trees, flowers and green grass. These things tend to be on short supply in Lubbock! :)

Grace and aunt "Peege" (A.K.A. Paige!)

This was taken in Idaho Falls by the temple. We went up for a quick visit to see Jake, Katie, and Anthony and their new house. We had a picnic on the grass and then Joshua and Anthony fed the ducks some popcorn.

Joshua and aunt Paige playing in the sandbox that Grandpa Henke built! Joshua loves sand!

Grace relaxing with her great-grandma Larsen.

August Pictures

Hello again!! I have been a slacker lately at updating these pictures, so I thought that I would just post some of my favorites from the last month and a half.

Joshua has been really into golf lately, and baseball, and football, and soccer, and . . . :) He's got a killer swing, just needs to work a little on how to hold the club!! But don't worry, he know how to hold his tongue just right!!

Grace just lights up our lives with her smiles!! She is such a happy little girl and we love her excitement for life!!

This is Joshua in his Brazilian Soccer Jersey from his "kuncle" Todd. He has been waiting a whole year to grow into it and loves to wear it!

And this is why I have a camera! I love capturing pictures like this. We really enjoy seeing the kids interact and don't understand how anyone could ever want to have just one child!

I had to include this picture because Joshua was just being so funny! I put him down for a nap one afternoon and all was quiet so I figured he had gone to sleep. I snuck in to check on him and this was what I found!! "Look, Mommy," he says, "I'm playing night-night!" Needless to say, I busted up laughing and he didn't take a nap that day! "Playing night-night" was not quite what I had in mind for nap time! :)

Pictures from our trip to Plano, Texas!!

The kids and I went to Plano with my parents, Maren, and Paige for a short vacation to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed spending time with family!! Poor Bryan had to stay home and go to school and work. Sounds like he survived though, the golfing and watching Harry Potter seemed to get him through!!

This is Joshua swimming in the pool at the Henke's house. He had a great time

swimming with all of his aunts and cousins.

Meanwhile, Grace got cozy on Grandma's lap!

We went to a waterpark called Hawaiian Falls on Tuesday. Everyone had a blast!! Joshua and Grace both had a great time at the little kid play area - they were entertained for hours just splashing in the water!

Check out the body on this kid!! She was so fun to watch in the water - shrieking and laughing like she'd never been in water before!

Joshua loved these little waterfalls! He ran through them, crawled under them, and tried to drink from them - very sanitary, I'm sure :)

Recent Pictures

Howdy from Texas. Here are some pictures from our June adventures. The one is of Joshua in his personal swimming pool. He sure enjoys being outside in the water. The other is Grace in her ladybug dress.

This one here is on the website because Janelle thinks Joshua looks like his Uncle Todd here -- what a cute kid.

We love our cute bald baby Grace. We enjoyed a nice time at the park last night and thought we would send pictures from our time together.

Look -- there is green grass in Lubbock (even in June although the green season might be coming to a close as summer heat waves begin).