Great-Grandpa's House

A few weekend ago we went to Great-Grandpa Overton's house to spend the day with him. He was a wonderful host, and had a bunch of projects ready for the kids to do. I remember him doing this for us, when we were kids going out to spend summer vacation with him. He would always have a bunch of things for us to do, to keep us busy and out of trouble. What a great Grandpa he is!! We sure do love him!

What are they doing, that has them all so captivated...

We are making Grandpa's famous sticky buns!!!

The Jeppson Great grand kids all around the table for lunch.

Grandpa even remembered to buy juice boxes and individual goldfish cracker boxes for all the kids. They were thrilled!

Grandpa love to be outdoors, so another project the kids did was rake up the leaves in his front yard. This was very exciting for my kids, since they haven't raked, or jumped into a pile of leaves, since we lived in Texas 2 years ago. We don't have many trees or leaves out at Fort Irwin.

Anya and Dad were golfing, so it was just the four little ones raking.

Hunter loved his first fall leaves experience

So did Jack!

They are growing up so fast...I have to take picture opportunities any time I can.

Burying Hannah

Cora rolling around in the leaves. I think I was combing leaf particles out of Cora and Hannah's hair for days afterwards. But you can't beat the joy on their faces!

It was a great Saturday filled with wonder fall time activities. Thanks Grandpa for letting us visit! And sorry the boys completely redecorated your house!!!

Another Adventure in Knotts Berry Farms

One of the very first entries I ever posted on this blog was our first trip to Knotts Berry Farm. It has become sort of a tradition for us here while we reside in California. Like Sea World, Knotts Berry Farm offers an amazing deal to military families during the month of November. So, for the past while we have taken advantage of that offer! Here are some pictures from our 2010 Knotts Berry Farm Adventure.

Mom and Hunter on Hunter's first carousel ride
Dad and Jack. Jack loved this ride, he hung on to the pole and just looked around like he was the coolest ostrich rider in the west!


One of Cora's favorite rides is this "bouncy" ride she calls it. She swindled Anya into going on it with her.

The Girls

The boys, not sure what Hunter is feeding Jack, but he kept turning around for more!

What's a visit to Knott's without seeing Snoopy!

All Tuckered out

Hunter's still partying, although he looks a little drowsy!

We also got Anya to go on a couple of roller coaster rides this trip. She is starting to like more of the tamer roller coasters, she's not quite ready for the spin you upside down and throw you side ways coasters...that's ok, because I am not ready for those either! She loved the Jaguar and the Pony Express this time. We knew that she would. We had tried to get her to go on them last time, but she refused. Now she says she wishes she had tried them, because they were so much fun! It was a good day in LA with that beautiful California weather this area claims to have in winter!

Hunter's new fashion statement...

At least now we can tell them apart easier...at least for a little while.

(it looks a lot better then it did a few days ago!!!)

Jail Break

I have put up a gate between the kitchen and the dining/great room area. The boys don't like it!

This is what it looks like when they are in "jail".

This is what happens when someone forgets to close the Jail door and they break out...

and this....

First Ties

Matt and his boys, all ready for church.

So Handsome!

Universal Studios

We recently went to Universal Studios Hollywood, again. We have a season pass, so we thought we might as well make it a day trip and go again. This time the boys were big enough for their brand new "big boy" car seats. Sigh, they are growing up so fast. They sure don't look like my little baby boys sitting in these!

Hunter

Jack

All the kids in posing for the required entrance sign shot


Cora really liked the water fountain at the front entrance



This time we convinced Anya to go on the Jurassic Park ride. It is similar to Disney's splash mountain, which has not been her favorite ride in the past! But, after much persuasion, she mustered up the courage to go on the ride with Dad. She ended up liking it so much that she went AGAIN with mom! We thought she deserved something special, so she picked out a "I survived Jurassic Park" hat.

The REAL Halloween Dinner

This year, with Halloween being on Sunday, we kind of had a Halloween Weekend. Friday night, the kids went trick-or-treating, so I made them a spooky dinner that night. Saturday night, was our Branch trunk-or-treat party and we had a potluck dinner that night. Sunday night was the REAL Halloween night, and it deserved a special meal!

We had...

Dead Man Meatloaf

and floating skulls!

It was so much fun, and the meatloaf turned out so tasty. The boys even loved it, and they have been turning their nose up to about half of what I serve them! Impressive. Some of our dear friends sent us a Halloween package that arrived on Saturday. Inside was a skull ice cube tray...perfect timing. We filled if up and stuck it in the freezer and ended up with perfect skulls to float in our drinks during our Hauntingly good Halloween dinner!