Family Pictures

I have had a lot of family pictures done and like always I left a little frustrated with my kids and the photographer, but these pictures turned out pretty great! Thanks Gideon Photography!

My hair

I haven't set up the appointment, but I have been talking about donating my hair to Locks of Love for over a year.  I am sure that I have been touched many times by those with Cancer, but have never been close enough to observe the difficult process until recently.  Within the last 18 months I have lost 2 people that are very dear to me because of cancer.  I was also touched by a little girl in a ward that we were in named Brighton (you can follow her journey here) that I made the choice and gave myself a deadline.  I have never had the thought to donate my hair until this sweet girl shaved her head.  I was so touched that she was so young, but so strong.  So, tonight I asked my Thing 2 to take a picture of my hair before it goes to the chopping block in 2 weeks.  It doesn't show how long it is, but I don't think it has ever been this long before.  I am grateful for the opportunity to share with someone like Brighton who fought the fight and is winning! Stay tuned for the after shot.  I have the donation form in hand!!!!

Halloween 2014

We had some behavioral issues Halloween morning, so trick or treating was a little tricky and short lived.  I wanted to keep walking around, but James had already rode his bike home and the 2 little boys were bagging to go back home to hand out candy to trick or treaters (we had none). But we did get to get  candy from 6-7 houses before the littles gave up for the evening. 

 Logan was Laval, the Price of the Lion Tribe from Lego Chima.

 Carson is a T-Rex and loving it and James was a stick figure, however he was not much into taking pictures!

 We did not have a lot of success getting candy which works out good for me, but it also means I don't have as many choices for the glorious candy taxes.

 We were blessed with this amazing sunset.  I had hoped to get some sunset with my camera, but they don't last long enough.

 Happy Halloween,


          {the Kincaid Family}

Dixie State University Homecoming Parade 2014

 Last year we got to go to the DSU Homecoming parade and it was actually the first parade that I thought was fun that I have ever been too (my standards might be low). This year the parade lasted for almost an hour and a half! That's a long parade for a little town. 

 We are close enough that we walked to the parade and got a perfect shady spot.  Even better is that it was toward the end and people had started running out of candy...DARN!

 The boys had fun watching and catching candy. I didn't want them to candy overload, so I didn't let them bring a bag.  They are obviously smarter than I am.  There is no stopping boys from getting their share of candy!

 

 I think James needs to go to the bathroom! He walked the last half of the way home looking like this.  It was so fun as people were driving past and walking next to us! No shame.

Pine Valley Chapel

 This morning we went to Pine Valley and took a walk around this beauty.  These old buildings are incredible and we were hoping we could have been able to go inside, but the tours are only on Sunday's from 1-4. Oh well.  There is always the chance to do it another day.

 Mama and Logan checking out the view!

Look at that, learn something new everyday!

Mama is here to play!

We always love it when Mama comes to play, so we always take advantage of the time we have with her! I had wanted to roast a chicken for dinner, but one of my three little helpers turned the refrigerator temp all the way down so the chicken was back to being solid! But if there is one thing this women has taught me, it is to cook on the fly! We had her Baking Powder Biscuits with fresh jelly, scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner instead! I wish I could make biscuits, but every time I try they end up flat...that's with following all the directions too!

 I am so glad Thing 2 was willing to roll-up his sleeves to help her out under close supervision of Thing 3!

 It is also great that she has her cute little Rosie to take on walks! My boys love having their turn holding the leash and we have walked around the Temple and walked to the park! We love it!!!

Let's just say she is welcome to come back whenever she wants!

The first day of School

 It comes early around these parts, but actually we are over a week behind other schools in the area for the first day of school!  This year both my big boys are attending Valor Hall and we are really excited about that!

 Thing 1 in 3rd grade with Miss Joan

 

Thing 2 in 1st grade with Miss Debbie

Thing 3 and I stayed for the devotional and to take pictures of the boys on their first day! It was interesting to hear how their day starts everyday with a song, prayer, the pledge of allegiance, a scripture and an affirmation.  This week it is Thing 2's classes turn to be in charge of the Devotional, so he had the prayer.  Those sweet little children get to do that everyday! What a blessing.

 

 My 3 goofballs!

 Thing 1 at his desk

 Thing 2 at his desk 

 Miss Debbie reading Tacky the Peguin to the group at the end of devotional. 

While the boys were in school Thing 3 and I did lots of errands! We took in a suit to the dry cleaners, ate a watermelon cookie from the Sweet Tooth Fairy, checked on my residency status at DSU, drank smoothies, ran over to the mortgage company to print out bank statements, attempted to cash a check until we realized it was at home, to Target for adult hangers for Thing 1...how did he get to be so big and then finally we went to the store for tomatoes for dinner! It was good to get a little bit of everything done with my little companion! I don't usually have him with me, but it was a good change.

At the end of the day the boys were happy with how their day went, but they ready to come home and eat dinner at 4:15. It is going to be tough to get back into the routine of school after a fun summer, but we have all done it! Off to make Tacos for Taco Tuesday! Luv ya!

I love it when...

I find my boys being sweet. 

I walked into my son's room to found his brothers sharing his bed while he was at a sleep over.  All day long I feel like I am reminding them to use soft hands or helping hands, telling them not to kick or bite and to share and not throw your brothers stuff.  I love this gentle reminder.

Finding water

Last weekend we left St. George in search of water.  Living in the Southwestern corner of Utah I am amazed that there is any water at all, but there are so many options for water play! When we go camping I tend to prefer not to get reservations in case when we get there we don't feel safe (like there isn't anyone else there) or if I can get a spot closer to the bathrooms or the lake by just driving up.  This method of camping has gotten me into trouble the last few weeks.  

On Thursday I had the boys pack up their backpacks and we prepped the back of the car for Friday night camping! Luckily I didn't have work Friday, but I did have commitments with Thing 1 until 1:00 so we had the car packed (including our freezer chest with plenty of ice) and ready to go.  After he was done we ran over the grocery store and grabbed a few last minute things that I should have picked up on Thursday, but didn't have time and then picked up the 2 littles and headed out of town.

I knew going into our adventure that there was no camping in Pine Valley, but I knew that there was other campgrounds in the area so we could still be close to the reservoir.

 One of the things I am still so grateful that I did this year was to get an annual National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass.  It's $80 for the year long pass and I can get into all the parks for free!!! It has been great to have and it means I can go to Zion for a picnic just for kicks or to Pine Valley to go fishing in the cool water. Well worth it and if your over the age of 62 it's $10 for a lifetime pass...so make your mom/dad/grandma/grandpa get one and do some bonding!

 Here is thing 1 bent over attempting to put together a make-shift fishing pole out of old fishing line, a stick and a sharp rock.  Love these kids!

 From the Pine Valley Reservoir there was this great little  stream that goes throughout the park. The boys had fun walking down the side of the stream and wanted to follow it longer, but I didn't want to get my shoes wet, so I made them turn around...mean mom. I learned a hard truth when we got up to Pine Valley...all those campgrounds that I saw...they are all part of the National Park system and were all reserved...nuts! So we headed off down the road and we will put that one on our list to try again later!

 From what I have been told Veyo Pies is world famous and we just happen to drive past it! We looked at the case together and decided on a Valcano Pie since we couldn't have a wood fire to toast our s'mores on.  The boys were so excited to be standing there in front of all those pies...we almost left with 2 pies, but I won when I reminded them we didn't have a lot of room in the cooler!

The closest body of water to Pine Valley was Gunlock State Park so we headed southwest.  It took me a while to find it because it is such a small little park that just had one little sign, but we found it and the greenery was welcomed.

Thing 2, "I'm the King of the Rock."

 I couldn't get him to open his eyes!

We used this as a diving board.

 It was about this point that we were going to leave for Enterprise Reservoir because it was 4:00 and the people that were at the campground weren't planning on actually camping and there were only 5 sites.  As we were about to leave we noticed that there was one car with 2 girls in it that we hadn't asked yet, so we got super creepy and asked if they were going to stay and to our surprise they were having the same argument! Apparently all our moms taught us the same lesson not to camp if there aren't any other campers, so we camped next to each other and kept each other safe.

 Such a nice sunset at Gunlock State Park.

 Guess who learn how to dive this summer? It was fun to go out for a swim after we had cleaned up the campsite before the 30 minute drive home.  All of us got in the water this time, Thing 3 had been worried about jumping off the dock the night before, but got a little more brave when I jumped in to cool off and clean off some of the sweat from the long night before.

 The water was nice and warm, but so was the ground.  It was tough to fall asleep when your sweaty hot without much of a cross breeze.  All of us had already stripped down as far as we could go and it was still too hot.