Luebke Family Reunion

My Mom's side of the family had been doing annual family reunions as long as I can remember, and I have always LOVED them! They usually rent out cabins, but this time we headed to a huge home in Cave Creek, AZ. The kids and I drove down Friday afternoon and were the first ones there... took 5.5 hours and the kids did great! We loved getting to see our family, and my cousins, Aunts, and Uncles that I rarely get a chance to see!

There we tons of Quail and Jack Rabbits on the property. Casen and Landon had fun watching them through the window.


My Aunt and Uncle who planned the event were so generous and gave the master suite to our little family. It was so nice and worked perfect. Brinley slept on a mattress in the closet you can see in this picture, and Casen in the one to the right of the shower. It worked great since it was like having their own little rooms!


The pool was nice and warm and the kids loved getting to swim!


These 2 love their Grandpa!


The first night my Dad told my kids stories of Spot... a little bear that he always used to tell me stories of... and ones that his Dad told to him. My kids loved it and so did I :)


Uncle Brian is famous for playing with the kids, Casen could have done this for hours!


Landon, Brinley, Marlee, Casen, and Haley. Haley and Marlee are just 11 days apart.


Brinley loved hanging out with her older cousin Anne, and my little cousins MaKenna and Jenna.


Casen loving the tramp!


This is my cousin Kailee. I was in highschool when she was adopted at age 3. I instantly fell in love with her and loved being her "friend". It was so fun to see her with Brinley now. She was so sweet to her and Brinley keep talking about her "friend" Kailee :)


Marlee is my sweet little Momma's girl. She was definitely happiest when on the floor playing and not when people tried to hold her :)


This is a classic Marlee face... ok a classic Nelson child face...


She must have got it from her big sister Brinley!



The kids loved this shopping cart. Brinley and Casen both had fun getting pushed around in it. Here is Grant pushing Casen.


Casen had fun with the real legos (we just have the big ones at home). He built this airplane all by himself!


We played a little basketball one night... oh and Ryan flew in on Saturday night and then drove home with us. So here is Ryan.


And my brother Mark.


And my oldest brother Brian


Yeah, pretty sure I rock at basketball :)


As part of trying to keep the Sabbath Day holy, we don't go swimming on Sundays. A lot of our family does though. I let me kids know that some people would be swimming on Sunday, but that we choose not too. I know they really wanted to, but they did so good not complaining and made the choice to not swim. So before we left on Monday I was excited to let them have one last chance to swim with Dad. And Marlee was loving the heated pool!


Kalle and Brinley

Oakley, Brennen, and Casen


One of my best friends, Amber Ferrell Palmer (we have been friends since junior high), and her family came to see us Sunday night. Everyone else from the reunion headed home Sunday evening and so we had the whole place to ourselves. Amber and Brandt came out and put there kids to bed and then we all got to stay up and play games. It was a ton of fun! Then Amber and I satyed up til 3:00 am talking. It was so fun to get to catch up... she is one of my dearest friends.




The whole gang!

September summed up!

Here is what we squeezed in between all the soccer in September!


Brinley is such a good big sister to Marlee. She is always playing with her and helping he take care of her. Brinley loves Marlee, and Marlee LOVES her big sister! She gets excited every time she sees her :) It makes me so happy... just hope it lasts forever!


The kids usually make organized messes when they are playing together. They made this color organized staircase while I was trying to shower one day :) I love it when they work together... but didn't love when they pushed it all to the bottom and we had one giant mess to clean up!



After being gone to NYC and University of Pennsylvania for a week, Ryan brought home gifts for the kids. Casen LOVES the white truck and green john deer trailer that he got, and sleep with it every night :)


Marlee was pretty excited about her gift too. This little things mouth moves and makes sounds, pretty funny! Brinley got a microphone and a fun new coloring book, but I never grabbed a picture.


I felt like making breakfast one morning and so decided to have a couple friends over. The kids enjoyed eating outside in the nice weather!


Brinley grabbed a shot of us Mommies, good job Brin :)


Marlee is now 7 months old! Crazy! Brinley is making her smile in all of these :)






WAY back in June, Jess, Michelle and I tried to plan a girls night and have bee trying ever since! We finally made it happen in September and it was so fun! They are both amazing gals and I loved chatting with them all night! Hopefully it doesn't take 3 months to plan our next night out!


Casen organized hi toys.. quads, motocycles, tractors, cars, big cars, monster trucks... I love it when he does this stuff. Cracks me up! I just thought boys pushed their cars around and made engine noises?


Casen loves tomatoes, I think it's so cute when he eats them like apples!


Green smoothies are a family favorite, I love how colorful they look before I blend them up. The beats gave this one a nice purple color!


We ordered a 20 lb box of peaches fresh from Utah and it was amazing! Our little family went through 15 lbs of peaches in a week! We just couldn't stop eating them :) Then I boiled the rest, Brinley peeled ALL of them for me (go Brin!), and then we sliced them up to save for smoothies! Worth every penny!





Beautiful grasshopper we found in the backyard. My kids love this kind of stuff.



Casen mowing the lawn with Ryan


This is Brinley posing on picture day! She was so excited, but apparently something happened before the picture and now we have $40 worth of pictures where Brinley has a sad, pathetic look on her face! Lesson learned - don't waste a lot of money on school pics! It was my first kid's first pics, I couldn't resist... but now, I know!


Casen has started having playdates, and I am loving that he is old enough to do this now! Tre and him have a lot of fun together!


We had a full week of rain in September and it was wonderful!


Brinley insisted on my doing pig tails in Marlee's hair one day, and I thought it actually turned out pretty cute :)

Casen goes to Preschool!

Casen started a co-op preschool last month and was SO excited! The preschool is called Play- Learn-Grow and the moms all take turns teaching. Karrissa, Dayna, Collette, and I all did it two years ago with our older children, and this year Keli and Michelle joined us with their 3 year olds. Its is a great group of kids and great group of kids!


Casen on his first day of school!


Casen was so excited to come home and show me all his "homework"! Casen thinks homework is any work he does at school and brings home to show us :)


Lily, Camree, Tre, Kylie, Casen, Graham


The kids "pouncing" over pillows :)