Steak & Shake!!

This last October, we were introduced to the chain, STEAK & SHAKE - can we say, Mmm Mmm good! - when we went to St. Louis to visit my sister and her cute family. It was such a hit that we ate there again in Independence, MO on the drive home. Then when we got home, we learned that they were building a Steak & Shake right here in Highlands Ranch! Could life get any better!?! I submit, it could not. Ok., I have to admit the only thing that I've actually ordered is their guacamole burger, so maybe all the other food on the menu is gross, but the guacamole burger is amazing. It truly was the best burger I have ever eaten. I swear there is an entire avocado on top of the burger. Warning: It is pretty sloppy, so maybe not the place to go on a date if you want to impress the guy with your table manners, but it truly was love at first bite.

Well, Steak and Shake opened up right before Thanksgiving, and apparently the wait was 2 1/2 hours to get a seat, there were 24 cars in the drive thru lane, and a policeman was there for crowd control. So we didn't even attempt eating there until after Christmas. We decided to go at 3:00, when nobody eats, to try to miss the crowd. We got there and told them party of 8, to which they said probably 30 minutes - not bad - or until the big booth opened up.

We went outside to wait, and before 5 minutes was up, they called our name and we were sitting down! It was a good day!

Kennedi turning 4, going on 16.

Kennedi is our little peanut! She is now four, but still weighs about 27lbs. (1/2 of that is probably her big, blue eyes). She has spoken like a little adult since she was 18 months old. I think she has definitely benefited from Peyton's speech as she is very careful to enunciate every sound. She also is very expressive. She loves people and is extremely friendly. Every day we take Peyton to school, she goes into the office and visits with Miss Sarah. One day she told a friend, "Oh, you've got to meet Miss Sarah, she's my friend."
She is also pretty funny. One day in the middle of sacrament meeting, she says, "Mom, I'd be pretty scared if that chair started talking to me." Sometimes I'm not sure what's going on in her little head. We were driving in the car and she just started praying out loud. After she finished, she said, "I just felt like talking to Heavenly Father." She also asked me the other day,"How old do you have to be to change your name?" When I asked her what she would change it to, she said, "Crystal Flower Rose." Someday I think she will thank Benson & I that that is NOT her name.
Kennedi also has a flair for style. Here are some of the fashion rules that Kennedi lives by:
1. Nothing goes better with pink than more pink. (pinkish purplish is her favorite color).
2. Pigtail braids are great for every occasion.
3. A skirt is the perfect accessory to every outfit.
4. You can never have too many layers. (One day she put on 6 dresses at once).

Kennedi also has the gift of complimenting. She is always telling people nice things about them. She is a great babysitter-although Tanner may disagree. Whenever Tanner is headed for danger, she holds onto or sits on his legs and yells, "Mom! Tanner is in danger trouble." Of course this makes him scream, and I come running - I'm not sure how much longer she'll be able to weigh him down.
For being tiny, Kennedi is packed with personality! She is very entertaining, and almost every time we're at the park, I will look over and she has a crowd of pre teenage girls doing whatever she asks them to.
Kennedi hates being in trouble. She bursts into tears just at the thought of sitting in time out, so disciplining with her is pretty easy. Kennedi is very sweet and is very happy. We love having her in our home!

She loves Rapunzel, like every other four year old girl in the country, and this is the Rapunzel cake she wanted.

Toothless

Peyton lost his two bottom front teeth already! He is the first one in his pre kindergarten class. He is the only kid I know to be sad that he lost a tooth. He started crying when he realized it was gone, but finally warmed up to the idea when he realized that a tooth fairy would come and leave him money.

The first snow fall this winter

One of the things I love most about Denver is the weather! One of my favorite things is that when it snows, we get dumped on, but usually by the next day, things have warmed up and you can go sledding in almost tropical 40-50 degree weather. Highlands Ranch is also very hilly, so we just throw some sleds over our shoulders and walk down the street to sled down the neighborhood hill. We last for about an hour and then it's time to go home to some hot chocolate!

Tanner even joins in on the fun.
Kennedi thought it was a blast until her last run and Dallin landed on top of her. Then it was DEFINITELY time to go.
Yes, that's Ashy! She is a dare devil. This is how much air she gets on pretty much every run.

Happy Halloween!!!

I have to say that this year was my favorite as far as Halloween costumes go. I love Halloween! It is the first holiday of the big holiday season, and it is very simple. The kids pick out costumes, put them on, and then go door to door and get candy, come home and dump it in piles for the big trade, eat tons, crash on the floor or go to bed, and then Mom and Dad pick out some of our favorites. It doesn't get better than this!

This year, Talie struggled trying to figure out what she was going to be. It's hard to find an outfit that's not, how should we say, trashy? for her age. But she ended up being an 80's girl and looking super cute! My only complaint, is that every time I teased her hair, she would look at me as if I had completely lost it, and then she'd calm it down with her fingers.

Hmm, does that bring back any scary memories?

Dallin wasn't sure at first what he was going to be, either. We went to the pre teen boy section and every costume either had a mask, a weapon, or tons of blood. Well, for school, you could wear anything except a mask, or a costume with blood. And, absolutely NO weapons. Hmm. He and I went back on our own and he found some fake hoop earrings and tattoos, and the idea was born!
He looked good! A little too good. And then when we were at Target, he started sticking one of the earrings on his nose whenever I wasn't looking, because he would get a lot of stares. I started to get a little concerned, that my sweet boy was turning on me. But no worries, the day after Halloween, he handed me all of his bad boy paraphernalia and wore a button up shirt and slacks to school. Dallin was back =).




Ashlynn knew exactly what she wanted to be when we first started talking costumes, and she played the role perfectly!

Yes, that is Ashlynn! The funniest part about it was that all of the 3rd grade teachers dressed up as nerds too. So now guess whose teacher's pet as well as a big nerd.

Peyton's pre kindergarten Class.

This year Peyton was to the rescue as Batman.

Kennedi played the role of Cinderella. Everyone at the Trunk or Treat said that she was even more beautiful than the real Cinderella. Of course she ate that up! As she went to each door, she'd come running down the steps yelling, "Mom, they're so nice! They gave me two pieces of candy!"And without stopping, she'd run to the next door with both of her arms up like an airplane, so that she wouldn't trip over her dress.


I guess she forgot that she was Cin- der- ella, and not Sleeping Beauty.




I found the cutest turtle costume at a consignment store and had to buy it! Tanner fell asleep in Benson's arms during Trick or Treating, but did not miss out on the big candy trade! He may be slow, but he's fast enough not to miss out on the big candy trade!














I even got in on the action a little bit this year, and wore a Hippie outfit. The next week at the Dr.'s office, our doctor was asking Kennedi what she was for Halloween. She told her, "Cinderella. And my Mom, she was a Rock Star!!" I thought that was pretty cool. It's not every day you can be a rock star.

Carving Pumpkis

I have to admit that in the beginning, carving pumpkins was a lot more work than it was fun. The kids thought the pumpkin guts were disgusting & their attention span lasted about 5 minutes. But now that they're older, they can carve them by themselves and they love to help the little ones with their's (Ok., obviously, some still find pumpkin guts disgusting). It was a beautiful fall afternoon, which made it even better, because we could carve in the back yard.

Ashlynn has outgrown the disgust over the pumpkin guts . . . .

but Kennedi has a few years to go, I guess.

Dallin and Peyton were pumpkin carving buddies. One of the great things about having six, is someone always has a buddy.

If this doesn't scare you, I don't know what would=),

The Log Walk

One of the things we love about Highlands Ranch, is the Rec Centers. We don't use them as often as we should, but when we go it's always fun. Our favorite Rec Center is South Ridge and one of it's greatest features is the Log Walk. Usually it's an activity for the older kids, but one day Peyton and Kennedi decided to dawn some life jackets and brave the gauntlet.
First, there is Kennedi. No matter what, she is determined NOT to let go of the rope and fall into the water. Even if the log is a long way from the edge of the pool, she hangs onto the rope, pulling her whopping 27lbs. along until she gets to dry land.
Next is Peyton. He holds onto the rope until he gets to the end of the log and just jumps into the water and swims to the edge of the pool.
And last is Dallin. He doesn't find the log walk challenging anymore, but Dallin is always up for a challenge, so he tries to run across both logs, without stopping and hopefully without falling. (He usually comes home with some bruises).

Fort Collins

Kind of last minute, we decided to head North to Fort Collins to check out the area to see if it was a possible future home site. Well, it also happened to be Homecoming for CSU, so most of the hotels were full. Well, Benson found a hotel with vacancy . . . our first warning sign. The rooms were very inexpensive, so we rented two rooms to fit all of us in for two nights (2nd warning sign). I looked the hotel up online and saw that 36 people had given this hotel a one star rating . . . uh oh! Well, we get there, and as we are walking down the hall, the kids are noticing that some of the number signs next to the doors are missing and in their place is a number scribbled on the wall with sharpie. We open our room and there is a hole in one wall, stickers on the pictures hanging on the walls, and no warm water in one of the showers. We go downstairs to swim and discover that the hot tub is not working at all, and the pool heater is broken, so it is freezing cold. Only Kennedi is tough enough to jump in. After a very short time at the pool, we go back to the rooms to go to bed. The rooms are right next to each other, connected by one door. Luckily, we leave it open and Talie, Ashy, Dallin and Peyton are in one room, while Benson, Kennedi, Tanner and I are in the other. We go to sleep and the next thing I know I hear voices in the next room . . . our kids room! I shoot up in bed and start yelling at these two drunk men who are in the other room. Benson, groggily wakes up and when he realizes what's going on, he goes in the other room and yells at the men and kicks them out of the room. The hotel had actually checked these two drunk men into the same room as our kids at 2:07 in the morning. Needless to say, we didn't stay a second night and we got all of our money back.
The rest of the time we went driving around, checking out the neighborhoods, the town, and the new temple sight. If you were to ask the kids what they thought about Fort Collins, they would say that it has the worst hotel in the world, and that all we did was drive around. We did have two highlights though. We went to a little ice cream shop in old town Fort Collins and the kids ate at Cracker Barrel for the first time. Oh, if you're wondering, no I don't think that Fort Collins will be the location of our next home.

Mhmm Good!

Tanner on his first day of rice cereal. You can tell it's been a successful feeding when there are no tears and more food gets into the mouth than on the face.

A Camping We Will Go!

This Labor Day weekend, one of Benson's clients who lives in Meeker invited us to come and camp on his acreage. He had a beautiful spot with a little lake on it, and a coral of horses. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time! Some of Benson's family decided to make the drive down to join us.

Apparently, the lake was empty, but the four wheeling was good. The first full day we found a fun rec. center with a swimming pool to swim in while the men watched a BYU game. Here, Peyton mastered jumping off the diving board and swimming to the edge of the pool all by himself.
There was a small lake that, although empty, kept the kids busy with it's floating dock and old, oarless boat that made even more of an adventure.

Maggie, Hailey, Ashlynn, Daphne, Kennedi, Zoii, Dallin & Shannon.

Ashy, never afraid of a little (or a lot of) cold water

There was also a corral of horses that kept the kids happy.

(especially Talie)

The entire weekend, Talie kept attempting to get on one of the horses, but never quite got there until the last day, uncle Bart threw her on a horse. Soon a bunch of the cousins were on the horses as well.

Talie, happy to finally be on, but still scared to death=)

Dallin, just sure that the horse is going to take a big bite out of his foot.

Bart threw the kids on the horse & Ben threw Bart on the horse, and now he thinks he's Clint Eastwood.

Peyton, with his sketch book, didn't ride a horse, but was pleased with his diving board accomplishment.

And Tanner . . . he was a happy camper.

Chocolate Food Fight

So today we were doing our marathon grocery shop, and we love Walmart, because they always have some good samples in the bakery section, right? Well today was no exception, they had 1/2 a chocolate doughnut to sample! The kids were super excited (Mom had to try one too) and we were getting along great, so great in fact that I didn't even notice (I know, how can you not when you're less than 1 ft. away) they had finished their doughnuts, until I looked down and this is what I found. Apparently, Kennedi thought it would be pretty funny to rub the chocolate icing that was left on her napkin and fingers all over her face, and when there was still more, on her brother's. Peyton protested, " . . but she didn't even ask me if I wanted chocolate on my face." Hmmm, maybe next time we'll stick with the glazed doughnuts.

Well loved

I can't believe how fast time flies! Tanner is 4 months and had his check up today. He weighed in at 15.2lbs (48%) and 26.5" (90%). He also had rice cereal for the first time today, and didn't think it was too bad. He is a super good baby and only cries when he is hungry or tired. He is such a good sport and puts up with all the smothering and loving he gets. He definitely doesn't lack attention. Even at church, he gets stolen (literally, if they asked, they couldn't pry him away from his five very possessive older siblings=) and passed around. I guess my only complaint is that he still is not sleeping through the night. I think it's too quiet for him, and he just doesn't know how to handle it.

Talie could hardly wait for nine months for Tanner to join us, and as soon as he did, she had a great plan of convincing him that she was his mother, until she discovered that babies recognize their mom's voice and smell. She was a little disappointed, but he still thinks she's great.

Dallin has been talking about and waiting for Tanner ever since Kennedi's ultra sound, when we found out she was going to be a girl. Dallin, the next baby you can plan on will have to be your own- sorry.

One evening, Tanner was crying and Ashlynn went and snuggled with him and they fell asleep together.

Peyton just loves being a big brother! And never gets tired of Tanner.














Kennedi likes to hold him, but now he literally weighs almost as much as she does.
I always say there is nothing else like having a baby in your home. And we sure are grateful for Tanner!