October Fun

Whew! October was a fun, full month! I'm quite sad that it's over--there's always so much to do in October.

Our annual canyon drive and picnic to collect fall leaves.

Rachel sported this cool spider headband all day long (made at preschool).

I took the kids to see the witches at Gardner Village. So fun, but so PACKED! I couldn't believe how many people were there.


I also took them to Pumpkinland. I love their selection of pumpkins. We got some cool ones!


My papa turned 80! My grandma had a little open house to celebrate. Love you papa!

Ben's Aunt Carol came for a visit from Washington and upon seeing my four children, commented "you must have a lot of energy!" Four kids is a lot, isn't it?!

Ben was kind enough to let me take a five-day trip to San Antonio to visit my family. I only took Max, who was so easy, and we just had a blast! We ate, shopped, ate, watched Alexandra perform with the band, ate some more, played games, took walks, and got to hear my dad speak in Stake Conference. It was a super fun, super relaxing break for me and I'm so glad I got the chance to go.
My dad and Max

Our "Modern Family" photo.

I got to see my bro Paul and his cute family too!

One of the highlights of my trip was going to a good ol' Texas high school football game! Friday night lights, anyone? It was fun and the best part was seeing my sister play in the band. Check out our cool Reagan Rattlers tattoos!

Ben took the kids to Cornbelly's while I was in Texas.


Carving pumpkins!


Rachel and Luke were invited to a little Joy School Halloween party and they thought it was awesome.

Made homemade rootbeer for the first time. LOVED IT! New tradition, for sure.

My cute kiddos on Halloween. We had a Mulan, a bride, a firefighter, and a pumpkin.






Luke's best buddy, Nathan, was also a firefighter and they were too cute running around together trick-or-treating. Love our little boys!!!

The whole Bergin-Familia clan. Seven total! Can't believe it.

Whew! And now we're onto Thanksgiving. I love this time of year!

Crepe Extravaganza

Brooke is visiting her family in San Antonio for five days. I know the kids are going to miss her a lot, so I decided to treat them to their favorite breakfast food: crepes! I went all out and made blueberry and cream pie filling from scratch. For the crepe filling, they could have banana-Nutella, cinnamon-sugar-banana (inspired by the fried bananas at Tucano's and Rodizio), blueberry-lemon curd, cream pie filling with chocolate syrup and whipped cream, or plain old maple syrup. As usual, the blueberry-lemon filling was their favorite.

Too Cute for Words

I had a little photo shoot yesterday with a pint-size puppy dog.

Luke is three!

Our little Luke celebrated his third birthday yesterday. I can't believe he is three already. It seems like Rachel was three not that long ago! He was a little sad because he was expecting his little buddies to come over for a party (like Rachel had the week before). But I told him we would do a friend party next year. I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said, "the dinosaur museum!" So we played hooky on Friday afternoon. Ben took the afternoon off of work, we checked Emma out of school early, and Luke ditched his nap--all for some serious celebrating! We went to Pizza Pie Cafe first (love their pasta sauces!), followed by the dinosaur museum. Then came home, ate birthday cake and ice cream for dinner and opened presents. We watched a slideshow of pictures of his first three years and then called it a night! It was a good birthday and he is loving all of his new gifts. Thank you to family and friends!

Dinosaur museum


Aunt Sue and Grandpa stopped by.


Luke's cake. I made a racetrack car cake this year and it was a cinch to make! Luke loved it.




About our Lukey:
He LOVES puzzles these days. Here he is with his favorite one--Cars, of course! He can work them almost all by himself and it keeps him busy forever! It's the best. :)
He is a pretty good eater, although he would probably be content just to eat cheese at every meal for the rest of his life. He likes to play in the sandbox and ride his bike. He loves playing with his sisters, but also likes to play on his own. Cars and trucks are still his favorite toys. He can be a bit mischievous at times and can get into stuff he's not supposed to on occasion. And he's very active. Getting him to be somewhat quiet AND still in church is next to impossible. He's adorable, but he's definitely a bit of a handful these days. I think age three may be harder than age two for us--we'll see. But we love him nonetheless! Happy birthday buddy!

September happenings

My dad came into town for the sad BYU vs. Utah game. But I was proud of my dad--I think he wore a different BYU shirt every day he was here. THAT is loyalty!!!


We had a big family dinner at our house one Sunday evening while my dad was here. It was so much fun!




Cameron (my bro) got engaged! This is the best picture I have of his cute fiancee (in the light pink shirt). They are getting married in May and we can't wait!

We've been enjoying Max so much! It's great to have a little baby around the house again.

Rachel and Luke have fun playing together when Emma is at school. And they get along pretty well, for the most part--until it's time to share something....

My grandma reading to Luke. My g-ma is so awesome at bringing the kids little things, especially around holidays. This past week, she brought over big fresh peaches, string cheese, and a few fun Halloween toys/books. The kids love it so much!

I love this one of Rachel and Max snuggling together. The kids love to share their blankies with Max.

Enjoying peaches! Fresh peaches are one of my most favorite fruits! Delish.

Happy birthday Rachel!

We had a little friend party for Rachel's birthday last Saturday. She was so excited to have a "princess" party.

The party-goers (minus one, who came late)

My princess doll cake. It really was pretty easy, even for me (I am very much impaired in the cake department).

And Rachel loved it.

Present time! Thanks everyone--she got some fun new toys that she's been enjoying all week.

The first game we played was a silly dress-up game. Two "princesses" were chosen, and everyone else was blindfolded with the task of getting dress-up clothes from the basket and putting them on the princesses. This was quite a hilarious process!

We did another game that involved two teams drawing and decorating their princess step by step. It was really fun and we ended up with some cute princesses!


We also played pin-the-crown-on-the-princess and did a pretty craft. It was a fun party!

On Rachel's actual birthday, we opened presents from family.

My amazing mom crochets these adorable bead socks for little girls. My girls have grown up wearing these; I love them so much. And my mom did a whole new batch of socks for Rachel in every color! This is especially neat because my mom's eyesight is not the best. Thank you so much, mom! These are a treasure.


Daddy was so cute and invited her to lunch at Wendy's on her birthday. She couldn't be more excited for her daddy-daughter date!

We love our miss Rachel so much! She is still called Ray-Ray quite a bit (those baby nicknames stick!!!), but she doesn't mind. She loves to draw pictures, put on her play make-up, play with stickers, play with Emma, read, go to school, make up stories, ride her trike, and snuggle. She LOVES to chew gum and asks for a piece almost every day. She also loves masking tape these days--she's either taping up her pictures all over the house or she uses the tape to decorate her pictures. She's starting to write words. Her favorite movie is "Cinderella." She's such a good girl and is so obedient. Her huge, dimply smile lights up my day! We can't imagine life without her! Happy "five," Rachel!