Fall Family Fun

Are you ready for a long post where I cram as much as I can because I'm behind and well in a day I'll have another baby boy and time is about to get a lot more precious?  Here we go!

On the way to have cake and ice cream for William and Ryan's birthday with family in Provo, we get stuck behind an accident and waited, in the heat with chocolate cake and ice cream till we moved.

Jacob and I were bored so he dared me to go out and dance.  I did. Then I took pictures.

Luckily these didn't melt that bad.

Playing with boxes

The day before our anniversary, we took the boys to McDonalds as a family birthday party.  They boys were in heaven with happy meals and getting to play, two things that rarely happen.

Christopher flying

Max walking over to a kid to try and get his sippy cup

A cute smiling Spencer and Max pushing the kid with the sippy cup.
Am I a horrible mom to think this is hilarious? I promise after I took the picture I had him leave him alone.

Tired Parents.
I love this exhausted man of mine!

Our 7th Wedding Anniversary!  We had a babysitter fall through so we took the kids out to eat with us at Denny's.  They were actually pretty good, and as always adorable.

Dad and Ryan

Spencer and me

William and smiling Christopher

Cute Max

Who loved to put his straw in his cup.

And this is why I need to stay more on top of my blog Max hurt his head somehow I think he fell off a chair, maybe.  Luckily it wasn't bad enough to get stiches and with his hair there I couldn't put a bandaid on it.  I got some very concerned girls at the park telling me my son's head was bleeding, I had to just tell them that no I wasn't a neglectful mother I know it's there and no it wasn't bleeding it just looked like it was. 

We picked up Aunt Mel for a fun visit.  I asked the boys if they wanted to make signs to hold up for Mel, I gave them two choices: "We love Aunt Mel", "Welcome Aunt Mel".  Christopher wanted his sign to be "Come here Aunt Mel."

The boys' favorite part was of course the escalators and they felt the need to ride them three times in a row.

And of course they loved the moving sidewalk as well.

Trampoline Fun 

(Moments like these make my heart happy)

Birthday cards we wrote to my Grandma Balls.  Steven wanted to give her some coins, so then all the boys wanted to send something in the small envelopes. (Christopher drew a picture and somehow made it fit in his.)

Steven and Christopher's

William and Ryan's

My mom while visiting made me a container for my plastic bags.  The boys were enthralled.

The only pictures I got from the Sego Lily Elementary Carnival.

Ryan

William

Daddy waiting

Steven's pictures of patriotism.
the Flag, Statue of Liberty, and Twin Towers

Steven reading to William

Our neighbors had some grapes they weren't going to use so we went over to pick some, or so I thought, we came back with this bushel!

Isn't that a pretty picture

It turned out to be great though, we had some to freeze and made a ton of the best grape juice I've ever had!  When our grapes start producing I'm going to have to invest in this juicer, it was easy and nothing but grapes went into this juice.

Look at our load!

In September I went for a sister's weekend in Boise.  So much fun, and this is only just a small amount of pictures since we took pictures with the nicer phones.  

We saw this license plate parked next to us and while we were getting a picture the owner of car came.  Luckily it was the cutest older couple and we had a nice chat.  Love Banff Canada!

We chatted and played games on Friday night.  Saturday we went to the Temple, had pedicures, went out to lunch, went on a walk, shopping, then watched a BYU game while we chatted more.  Such a fun weekend.  We left on Sunday after Mel's church.

Ryan went through a phase where every church we passed he'd call out that it was a Temple, so when we were in the area I just had to stop at a park next to the Temple and let them play.  It's in the background somewhere.  

Getting ready for Fall and getting the fruits of our garden!

Christopher's jam he made for his bread.

We finally took Jacob to Thanksgiving Point Farm Country with us, and since he came Spencer and Max were able to ride the horses too!  Max did pretty well, Spencer rode for just a minute or two but when I started to get my phone out to take a picture he had a melt down and I just carried him the rest of the time. (And apparently I didn't get a picture of William, sorry buddy.)

Max

Steven

Christopher

Ryan

Max

Max

My boys on the hayride.

For General Conference I thought it would be fun to start a new tradition where we bake a cake and decorate it during the last session.  Steven was so excited to finally get to decorate our sports arena cake.  Unfortunately the first cake I made I let Steven make it all and I was so proud of him for doing everything himself I forgot to tell him to put in the eggs and they whole cake fell apart. So we had to do it again, but the boys did have fun frosting and decorating it.  

Love this view from my kitchen window!

Having a picnic at Thanksgiving Point Gardens.  

The older boys were so excited to carry our lunch in their backpacks!

Christopher and Ryan

More Park Adventures

Steven telling me he's bored of being at the park. 

William in front and Ryan in back

I don't remember how it happened, for some reason Jacob said he'd give the boys some treat if they would drink some lemon juice, and these cuties kept going back for more!

William

We got to read some stories Steven wrote in his journal when we went for parent teacher conferences, (he loved going there by the way, or maybe it was the ice cream we went for afterwards...)

Mom's gone: "My mom was gone for 3 days. It was fun and sad.
My mom came back on Sunday, I felt happy when she came back.  I love my mom."

I love my family: "I love my mom and dad because
my mom and dad love me too.  I love my family"

Me and Mom Color: "I like to color. I like to color with my mom.
It is fun. I color very good. My mom colors very good too."

Grandma and Grandpa: "My grandma and grandpa came to my house yesterday night. I made bats with my grandma. It was fun. My grandpa went for runs. They stayed for a night. My grandpa bought cookies and I bought treats."

Wheeler Farm Fun.

We met my good friend Brianna at Wheeler Farm for some fall fun.  It was a bit hectic at times, but super fun!

Ryan

Christopher and William

Eating our picnic

Brianna and me 

We took Amy and Charles to the Gardens for a picnic and to enjoy the fall leaves there.

We love to hold and snuggle Ellie!

Christopher lost his sandal amongst these fish.  Thankfully it floated and Jacob was able to get it.
Never a dull moment.

Our cute family with the sun in our eyes.

He held her most of the time.

One night we were having waffles with whip cream for dinner, Steven asked Jacob for some and he pretended to dump it on his head.  Everyone laughed so he did it again but this time put some on his face, and again everyone roared with laughter and asked for a turn.

Steven

William

Christopher

Ryan

We were able to get together with some of my high school friends in Ogden and had a great time!

8 friends and 20 kids with 3 on the way!

Their property was beautiful!

Our neighbors had a garage sale where we scored some great costumes and a fun marble track!

Annual Balls Family Pumpkin Patch

On the hayride

William, Malachi, Steven, and Ryan

Jacob was the favorite burring everyone!

Our cute crazy family!

William loved Ellie.  Hopefully he'll love Thomas as much...softly though.

I thought I'd be a fun mom and take the kids to the park, but after only being there for a few minutes Ryan tripped and fell on the stairs.  I knew it would hurt but didn't think it would be that bad until he took his hand away and I saw all the blood.  Luckily he had an extra shirt he was playing with so I could sop up the blood while I called Jacob to tell him to pick Ryan up and take him to the ER.  (Usually I can't tell whether something will need stiches or not, but not this time!)

Trying to enjoy the park and not think about Ryan's injury.

He was so brave and hardly cried at all.  He had 7 stitches and you'd never known.  Though I know some family members who are glad they can now look for the scar and know who is who!

We "Got Boo'd" but I Jacob and I weren't up for printing off the instructions and going out to give it to other family, so we were just going to skip it this year.  Jacob really wanted to, so he grabbed some cookies I had made earlier, drew a ghost on a paper, left it on the neighbor's porch and ran away.  He didn't think he knocked loud enough so he went back to see and they saw him.  We had a good laugh with our sweet boy.

I wanted to have some fun fall days as a family, so one Saturday we got our chores done early and headed out.  Unfortunately it was later than we thought and kids and mom were grumpy but we stopped at one last store, which happened to have these Halloween shirts for $1 each.  We got one for everyone, made them put it on and it really cheered everyone up enough for us to go out and have some fun! *Note if we didn't attract enough attention before, having 6 small boys all in bright orange will do the trick! It was fun though.

Lunch at Sam's Club

Tried for a group picture but we have too sensitive eyes!

How could I not get a picture of everyone! Even if half of them are just silly.

looking at the ducks.

William

We take up all the swings.

While at Walmart the boys and I were tired so we rested while Jacob tried to find the best deal on vacuums.

Talking Time Halloween Party

William Buzz and Ryan the Ninja

Miss Michelle, Ryan, William, Miss Alycia

Trying again to sneak in some fun Halloween activities we made banana ghosts.

Steven

Christopher

William

Ryan

My examples

Spencer and Max liked it!

pumpkin pancakes

When looking for a needle to bind Thomas's quilt, I found some needles that belonged to my Grandma Balls and knew I needed to use them!

9 cents from Albertson's Drug Center

Spiderman Christopher at his preschool Halloween Party

William randomly sticking his marker up his nose.

our pumpkin pizza

spooky apple teeth

Sego Lily Elementary Costume parade

Ryan pointed out EVERY ninja turtle!

Christopher chose to watch the whole thing like this.

Our stoic Ninja turtle

making homemade rootbeer

William, Ryan, and Christopher

36 weeks!

Our Ninja Turtle crew with their favorite thing in the world: pizza!

Morrise Family Halloween Party 

Halloween lunch at Dickey's

big boys got their own table

these cuties had to sit by the parents

We found Spiderman at Winco!

Trick or Treating

Steven and William were TMNT, Spencer the dog, Max was Tigger, Buzz Ryan, and the Storm Trooper Christopher

Spencer loved to carry his candy around and try to eat it with the wrapper on.

Max was adorable carrying his pumpkin and loved to grab handfuls of candy at each house!

Amy and Charles were looking cute from UP

This is how I found Max the next morning.
His brother's really love him!

I found these gems on my phone from Stake Conference.

*yes Stake Conference is ridiculous with our kids.  My favorite is from a few times ago when Steven looks at me and says, "why are we even here!"  I have no clue kid, my thoughts exactly!

William.  Ryan must have had the phone

Max and Spencer joined us at the table!

Max

Spencer

Ryan and Steven

Christopher

William and Spencer

I came downstairs to find them all watching a movie like this.  Too cute!

Just your typical fall day

Smiling Spencer at the sink

Max looking at his brothers outside

Christopher, William and Ryan jumping

Steven gathering the leaves together and play with them

Pure joy!

A week or so ago Christopher told us he saw a mouse under our couch.  Now Christopher isn't known for his amazing truth skills, but we thought we'd investigate and sure enough there was a rather cute small mouse behind there.  We tried to force him out the back door but our plan backfired and he went under the stove.  So for a good two days I spent as little time in the kitchen as I could, and we got many mouse traps.  Then Jacob saw it behind the couch again poking his out the edge.  This time while we were trying to create a way for him to run outside, Christopher saw it IN the couch.  One of our sectional pieces has a hole.  So Jacob took the couch outside and tried to take it apart, but couldn't find it anyway!  I was starting to get scared thinking of all the places it could have run in our house when we weren't looking.  But luckily eagle eye Christopher spotted him outside and then Jacob saw it in our window well where he burrowed himself down nicely.  Later that week when Jacob was cleaning out the garage he found some mice droppings on a table, so it looks like he came in our house through the garage.  But really our house is a dream for mice; food on the floor, plenty of toys and blankets on the floor so it's hard to be detected.  Let's just hope he didn't tell his friends how awesome it was here.

Spencer did not like the couch by him!

But then he got used to it and started eating

Jacob fixing the couch back 

Max and Spencer's new favorite place in mom and dad's room!

Dinosaur Museum

What Steven is thankful for: "parents" not Paris

I decided to let Spencer and Max walk for quite a bit of it and they did pretty well!

The best I could get of all the boys together.

cute paleontologists

"Take a picture of us mom!"  Then no one looks at me...

We had a fun visit from our friends Ryan and Liz who have been living in Georgia for the past 3 year and just recently moved back.  This is who Ryan is named after.

Steven's snowman after the first snowfall

Limbo night!  I'm not sure why Jacob started teaching them how to limbo but we were laughing towards the end with their amazing technique.

Ryan, Christopher, William

Steven, Christopher William

Making Pumpkin Puree

We finally cut into one of our pumpkins to make puree! I wasn't going to this year, but I felt pretty good and I realized if we did we could have pumpkin waffles, which we all love!  The pureeing wasn't bad, but after standing to make a double batch of the waffles, I was done for.  And no there wasn't a single waffle left from the double batch I made.

Steven kept the seeds

What the other boys were doing.

 Date night with Steven.  We were going to go to the high school's production of Tarzan, but were running late so we just went for ice cream instead!  It was really nice and I think he enjoyed himself as well.