LiFe

Life around the Stoker household has been pretty hectic lately, though I can't seem to find a reason why it feels that way. Nothing big or eventful has been going on-just every day life. Although my sister and 2 nieces came to visit one weekend and another weekend my brother and sister-in-law were here, so those were definitley eventful things. (I don't want any complaints about me not appreciating your visits!) Some other things we have been up to:

Watching the High School Homecomeing Parade:

One last trip to the zoo before the weather turns too cold: 

We visited my sister in the hospital after she had surgery and the boys scored some awesome 'Doctor Masks' and Kamden called us each into the computer room, had us sit down, then started asking all sorts of questions while he typed away:

Kamden and Owen play at the backdoor. Owen stays inside and Kamden 'kisses' him through the glass door. It's awesome-especially when they decide to play this game right after I've cleaned the glass. Then there are slobber marks and handprints on both sides. 

Owen LOVES spaghetti:

Actually, Owen LOVES eating...he seems to have a 6th sense as to when the fridge is about to be opened and he automatically makes a mad dash toward it, then throws a fit when the door closes before he got a chance to look inside. He likes to play with the light button and see if he can get into anything. Here he found an open yogurt and managed to get a few spoonfuls before his fun came to an end.

Ethan is still loving school and is doing well with his alphabet and letter sounds and we've been practicing sounding out words because he keeps asking when he's going to get to read. He also wants to make sure that first grade is 'longer' than Kindergarten so that he'll get to stay at school more during the day. It's been a bit of an adjustment getting myself and 3 kids out the door every morning to drop him off at school and then turn around less than 3 hours later to go get him, especially when Owen decides  he wants a nap in the morning and I have to wake him up to go pick up Ethan.
Owen and Kamden both love it when the weather is nice and we can walk to the school-there is a house that a cat usually sleeps in the window and Kamden always looks for it. If the cat isn't there, he has all kinds of questions about where the cat might be and what it could be doing.
And I must admit that I'm probably going to miss out on the 'Mother-of-the-Year' award since school has only been in session for just over a month and I already forgot my kid once...Actually, in my defense, I just forgot that Wednesdays are early release and I was planning on picking him up at the normal time but they called as I was walking out the door and he'd been waiting in the office for 15 minutes. But when I walked in to get him he was coloring with 2 other kids who's parents also forgot them and he thought it was pretty funny. He keeps asking me when I drop him off in the morning 'I wonder if you'll remember to come get me today!' So hopefully I haven't scarred him for life.
Kamden will be 4 in November and he is already planning out his party. He has informed me that he wants a "Triceratop cake that has LONG, LONg, LOng, Long, long horns that go all the way to the TV room, and upstairs to Owen's room." I'm not quite sure how I'm going to pull that one off. For Halloween they both want to be the same thing they were last year, which works out great for me. Although Ethan has mentioned wanting to be a Jedi and that would mean busting out my sewing machine, so I'm trying to get out of that...but we'll see. They are both excited to be able to do soccer and tball this spring and it will be nice for Kamden to be old enough so he doesn't feel left out.
Owen is going to be 15 months old in a few weeks and he is growiNG and getting into EVERYTHING. He has 8 teeth and is working on a few more and trying to keep up with his brothers. He loves having socks on his feet but his weird obsession is with shoes-it's weird because he puts them on his HANDS and crawls around with them on there instead of on his feet.

I'm staying busy as the 2nd counselor in the Primary (which I love!) and trying to keep things under control (or at least looking like they are) around the house. I can't imagine that life is only going to get more hectic as the boys get older, I'll need to clone myself a few times.
Jeff being in the Bishopric hasn't been too big of an adjustment and Sundays so far have gone pretty smooth. Our ward has been awesome to offer help with the boys, I haven't even had to ask for help, thankfully-because that isn't something I'm good at. He has been working hard to continue providing for our family while trying to squeeze in a few more rounds of golf before the weather puts an end to that (since I don't seem to have much success:).
So, that's a little of what we've been up to...hopefully I can keep up better with my blogging. To make it up to my devoted readers (the 3 of you know who you are) here is a little video filmed by none other than the world famous Nicodemus and stars his brother Gunther. Filmed on location in the windy but beautiful valley of Declo, the hometown of my true love...enjoy!