Painting Pumpkins

This we were a little slow on the pumpkin thing--so many things to do to be ready for the holiday seasons!  BUT we finally got around to it last Saturday night.  The kids were very excited and voted for the painting idea rather than carving.

 Luke had one he brought home from school that they already cleaned out so Sam carved that one--so nice, but everybody else spent awhile on their masterpieces.

 Kathryn painted a dog. 

 Seth painted a shark in the ocean.

 Sarah painted a scary vampire.

 And Luke painted a pig that is on rocks and mud, with a waterfall on the top, and a sun in the sky.

After we were all done.  Such cute kids!

Leaves

A couple weekends ago I headed down to Cedar City, UT with my mom for a super quick weekend.  My sister Jessica was moving there and she needed her stuff.  Sam encouraged me to go and help which meant that he stayed with the kids all weekend and with lots to accomplish.

We have a massive tree out front that we love.  Most of the time.  In the fall when it dumps all it's leaves, it is quite the pain to pick up.  

Saturday he watched some kids for a friend and they had the grandest time playing in the leaves.  He said they played for hours.  

 Kathryn and Hunter making a nest.

 Can you see Luke in the back ground trying to even get all the leaves out of the road to add to the pile. Silly boy.  Chase (the one dumping the leaves) is one of his best buddies from school.  They have so much fun together.

Buried alive--before and after.

They ended up with the entire trash can stomped down and completely full plus 8 garbage bags full of leaves.  And there is still more that fall off.  But the kids sure had a lot of fun!

Fish....

 We have some wonderful neighbors. One of them is an older couple and they love to spoil the kids.  They are always coming over with little treats for them and they treat them like their grandkids.

The kids love it.  

The other day John had been fishing.  He doesn't like trout so he brought some to us.  Kathryn thought it was pretty awesome.  We cooked them up for dinner that night and Kathryn begged and begged us to keep the bones.

Really, child!!

She was almost crying she wanted them so bad.  She said she was going to keep them in a bag in her room.  So gross!  We wouldn't  let her but we did consent to her holding the bones and taking a picture.  She was much happier.

Such a silly girl.

Tom

Tom, the cat, thinks he rules our house.  He is quite spoiled.  It can't be all the love and attention Sam and the kids shower on him!!

They fight for him everyday, especially after school.  They race to the garage to be the first home to pick him up.  He knows he is king of the roost (at least when the kids are around).  This mama puts him outside when the kids are gone and resists his coming in at every possible moment.

Animals are just not my thing.  But I do have to admit it is so cute to see the way the kids take care of him and love him.  Especially Seth.  He is one big softie when it comes to that cat!

Kathryn's Soccer Party

Since Sam was Kathryn's coach for her soccer team we decided to end the season with a party.

(Ashley, Afton, Ellie, Eliza, Megan, Haylee, Sophie, Kathryn, Kenadee--missing: Bethy, Mia)

 The parents played all the kids in a soccer game (like 8 adults to 30 kids) and the kids thought it was absolutely awesome.  The energy was amazing!

Afterwards we had brownies, awards, and gave out their medals.  What a fun time we had!

Our Utah Trip

Oh my!!  Seems like I haven't had two minutes to write anything down.  We have been busy with many normal things.  School and music takes up most of our days but we have tried to slip in a few fun things to do as a family.

The first weekend in October we headed down to Salt Lake to spend some time with the Beuses.  We left Friday morning since Sam was able to get the day off and stopped off at Hill Air Force Base.  We wandered around for several hours and had a grand time.

 The kids were fascinated  with all the different airplanes and there is so much to look at it, it's almost overwhelming.

 Seth is way into airplanes and wants to be an aerospace engineer when he grows up so he was in complete heaven here.

 Can you tell?  He was so excited to show us this :).

 We thought these mannequins were pretty funny and had a good laugh over them.

 Luke couldn't get over the engines.  That boy had to stop and look at every single one--which is why it probably took us so long to get out of there.

 I love Luke's face in that one!!

After we were done we headed to Sam's parent's house.  We went out to dinner with all the adults (so fun) and then it was back to the house for the BYU game that night. Most of the cousins came over too and the kids were in heaven.

 They pretty much played the whole time and had a fabulous time.  They love their cousins and all get along so well.

 We were able to get tickets for the Saturday afternoon session.  So Sam and I took Seth, Sarah, and Kathryn with us.  Luke isn't old enough so we left him with the grandparents (which he thought was pretty awesome!).  Our tickets were in the balcony so we were pretty far away but wow! what a great experience.  It was neat to have the kids there and to partake of that Spirit.  

Afterwards we headed home so Sam and Seth could go to the Priesthood session (Seth's first one).  They went out to donuts all together and had some guy time.  Seth said he really enjoyed it but was a little tired by the end.

Sunday we spent m ore time with family and cousins and watching General Conference.  It was a lot of fun to be with family and hear our leaders speak.

Sarah's 10th Birthday

(for posterity sakes--she is wearing all orange because it was color day at school.  4th grades color was orange--hence the orange)

 Sarah couldn't wait for this day to come.  She said that when she was little she had always dreamed of being 10 because that meant she would be "old".  (oh my I guess I'm ancient!)

Anyway...she could hardly sleep the night before and got up at least 4 times that night.  But morning finally came and it was finally here.  She requested breakfast sandwiches for breakfast.  And of course spaghetti with french bread and green beans for dinner. 

 After skating we headed home for crepes and to open presents.

 She got several books--which she was very happy with--and a new pair of shoes.

 Grandma made her a new scripture case too.  She also got cute drawings from Luke and Kathryn and a fun card from Aunt Emily.  She said she had a great day and was so happy!

Here are 10 things we love about Sarah:

1. Her laugh.  She has such an infectious laugh.

2.  She loves to read.

3.  Her soft heart for any creature that has 4 legs.

4. Her big blue eyes.

5.  That she is willing to help whenever we need her.

6.  Her imagination--man can she come up with some amazing things.

7.  Her ability to write stories.  She is quite good at it.

8.  That she loves to play with Luke (Luke said to put that in :).

9. She has a beautiful voice.

10. Her love of school and learning.

Sarah we love you!

Skating

Since this girl turned the big 10 yesterday we went skating for Family Night--which is one of her favorite activities ever!  She was so excited when we told her and couldn't wait.  

 Everybody did really well skating.  Luke can now go around by himself and each time we got the kids get better and better.  Last night was great because for the first 1/2 hour we had the whole place ourselves.  It was wonderful.

 Sarah got to invite her best friend and their family along.  The kids are all great friends and they love having someone to skate with.  Kathryn and Maddie insisted on holding hands the ENTIRE time (which meant falling down lots but...oh well).

 These boys are 12 now and almost too cool for picture.

 Sarah and her bestest buddy Makayla.  She got her a webkinz and Sarah couldn't of been any happier. She LOVES those stuffed animals.

 We had a great time and it was so fun to see Sarah so happy and excited for her big day.

Seth's Soccer Season

This was Seth's last year to play soccer.  He also has improved quite a bit, mostly because he runs most of the time.  That seems to be such a hard thing for the kids to grasp.  They walk most of the time and run just a little bit.  He finally got to the point now that he will run most of the time and walk a little bit. Yeah!

 His team didn't do so hot this year but he enjoyed the season and it was very good for the exercise.

 He played forward or midfielder each game and has a couple shots on goal.

 He's also very good at judging where the ball is going to end up, which helped his team a lot.  

 Getting a good kick off.  Good job Seth!