Beginning of November happenings

Here's a sneak peek of our family pictures that were taken on the 2nd of November. Whew! We pulled it off (getting kids out of school early, coordinating clothes, and yes, we took Nana to family photos this year)...

as you can see, it completely wore her out! It's hard to sit still for that long :)

Michael had a group of friends over to our house following a Bingham football game. I got a picture of some of them. What a great group of kids!

Little Bella was recently baptized. These cute girls love their cousins.

The family get-together following the baptism. So great to see family from out of town.

Enjoying beautiful autumn weather at the park.

Michael's state championship mountain biking race was in Cedar City this year. Check out his pre-race game face.

Crossing the finish line.

Congratulations Michael on a season well-done!

We have had a mild autumn. However, when it came time to turn on the heat, we realized we needed a new thermostat. Todd and the boys installed a new one. I am grateful that Todd is a handy man and that he's teaching our boys.

Luke's cub scout Bear den with the tool boxes they made.

Mary's first Young Women in Excellence. A night to gather together to celebrate these lovely young women and their accomplishments through the Personal Progress program.

Mary and Luke are both reading the 4th Harry Potter book right now. Imagine our excitement when we heard that Harry Potter world was coming to South Town Mall! We went early on a Friday when the kids were out of school. We waited in line for more than an hour to get a glimpse inside.

The kids loved playing quidditch. 

And dressing up with their house scarf and wand.

Then we went to help aunt Loretta rake her leaves. I love that these kids LOVE to help.

Later that evening we cleaned the church building for a very important meeting that was to be held the next day with Elder David A. Bednar. Todd participated in that meeting and he said it was a wonderful experience. We felt great for being able to clean the building!

Todd and these 3 kids were able to attend a U of U football game. Sad the Utes lost but they all said the half-time tribute to Veterans was incredible.

Luke and Sara participated in the Primary Sacrament meeting program on Sunday. Mary just missed being able to participate this year because she graduated from Primary last month. Both Luke and Sara did great! Here are the parts they memorized;

Luke: President Monson said, "It is easier to choose the right 100% of the time instead of choosing the right some times but not other times."

Sara: We can choose the right by living gospel principles and keeping the commandments.

Monday night we went to the Jazz game together. This was our first time to the arena since the renovations were done. It was fun even though the Jazz lost.

Besides, the kids got pretzels and Sprite- their favorite game time treat.

A beautiful sunrise as I was driving Michael and his carpool to school this week.

Love this kid! I still can't believe he's in high school. It will probably sink in when he graduates!

Halloween 2017

Our Halloween started at 6:30am with a trip to Chick-fil-A for breakfast.

Then we did make-up on our little Elsa.

Here's what Sara wrote about her costume...

Here's our Harry Potter...

And our darling milkshake with a cherry on top.

Our three youngest in their elementary school Halloween parade.

 I can't believe it was Mary's last Halloween parade.

 After our traditional beef stew dinner and just before we went Trick-or-Treating, the Chick-fil-A cow came to visit us. Nana really liked the cow costume!

 We were a Cheeseburger, fries (for a VERY short time), a milkshake, a Candy Corn, Harry Potter and Elsa.

 Ben's group of Trick-or-Treating friends.

 Michael had a party that started late, so he stayed home to hand out candy while Todd and I took the girls and Nana Trick-or-Treating.

 We passed Luke and his buddies who were out collecting candy too.

 Nana made all sorts of friends that evening.

 At the end of the night the kids weighed themselves...

 and then weighed themselves again with their candy bag. They each collected 2-4 pounds of candy- most of which will be donated to the candy jar in the Bishop's office.

 Enjoying some late night candy favorites.

 This might have been Ben's last year to Trick-or-Treat. He had a blast!

End of October happenings

Nana loves to be outside during yard clean up because she loves to play in piles of leaves.

 And she loves to eat the broom.

 Luke's Halloween pack meeting. (He's the U of U football player).

 I am so grateful for our fabulous scout leaders that make pack meeting such a fun event for our whole family every month.

 Luke was recently recognized at a school assembly as leader of the month.

 Luke's brothers were out of school that day so they came to the elementary school assembly to support their brother. We are so blessed to have such great kids!

 Also on their day off, Michael and Ben helped me take Nana to her first vet appointment. I'm so glad I scheduled it on a day when they could come with me!

 Sara lost her second tooth at school. She said she was just writing at her desk and she felt something in her mouth. Hooray for teeth that come out easily cause I hate pulling them!

 Todd finished the railing on our back balcony. It looks amazing! He did such a great job.

 We had a baby shower for my nephew and his wife. It's hard to believe my oldest sister is going to be a grandma!

 Mary auditioned for the Nutcracker and made it. She has been working hard at rehearsals and we are looking forward to the performances. She recently had a photo shoot for the program. It was fun to see her in her costumes.

 Our cute kids with Nana on a beautiful Autumn afternoon.

 Nana couldn't resist an open bag full of leaves.

 Our pumpkins were so large this year that we all worked together to carve just one.

And just like that, Halloween was here! Life goes faster and faster all the time!