Carving Pumpkins

 This year the kids voted on carving our pumpkins. We got some awesome pumpkins from an awesome friend and the kids were very excited.

 They cleaned them mostly out by themselves and carved with very little help from Sam and I. Love that they can do some of that on their own!!

 Kathryn made a silly face with pigtails.

 Sarahs is a moon with stars.

 Luke made silly ones all around his. 

 And Seth made a guy shooting something. Still haven't figured it out except he did all himself and was quite proud!!

Afterwards, since it was family night, we ate apple nachos (delicious apples covered in caramel, white chocolate and butterfingers--so healthy I know--hahaha...) and enjoyed a fun night!

October...

 One of our favorite things to do is go to the local corn maze with a whole bunch of our friends.

 The kids think it is pretty awesome. This boy was so excited. Can you tell?

 Seth hanging out with his friends. He's a teenager now so it's cool to go off and "hang out".

We also got to attend a super fun Halloween party at the Bate's house. There was delicious food, amazing games to play, and super great people to hang out with. Kathryn with her friend Ashley.

 We also had our ward party super early in the year. I wasn't super thrilled about it at first but hey it made me have everyone's costumes ready very early.

 Luke was a cowboy.

 Kathryn was a peacock princess (she was so happy with this mask--I love it!).

 Sarah was a hippie.

 And Seth was a mustache guy. He is way into these lately!

 We had a trunk or treat at the church. Kathryn with her good friends Maddi and Becca.

 Sarah with Lauren and Makayla.

 Luke with his friend Braden.

 They also had some fun games for the kids to do. Luke loved the doughnuts but couldn't get one in his mouth to save his life. So funny!! He made me laugh so hard.

Workin' Outside

 We have had some amazing weather days. Still in the 60s and sun shining. So nice...but that means cleaning up the yard...and the garden.

 This dude has been saving $ so buy a pellet gun from the store. He had all his money saved and then so graciously wanted to share with Sarah for her birthday and join in for another present so back to earning more.

 He asked if he could rake leaves for earn some moo-lah and I said "heck yes". After some raking and jumping (because you can't have large piles of leaves and not jump!!) we bagged them up.

 To date we have 29 bags of leaves and I hope no more. At first it's quite fun but man it sure gets old!!

Another day it was garden time. One of my least favorite things to do. I love planting it but I sure hate ripping it out!!

 Many hands make light work though and we got it done and still had fun.

 Love those piles. We had 30 tomato plants and 15 peppers so it was quite a bit to throw out but now it's ready for winter and it feels so good to have it taken care of!

Pyrate's Funeral

We had quite the traumatic experience on Monday. Since we had been gone for a long week and other people were taking of our cat and rabbit, as soon as Sarah got home from school she went outside to see Pyrate, the rabbit her and Kathryn saved up for and bought just over 4 1/2 years ago. 

She came running back in crying hysterically. Saying, "Mom Pyrates not moving. He's just laying there with his eyes open and not moving!" We both knew he was dead and she couldn't stop crying. Her animals are her best friends and she was devastated.

 After many hugs and lots more tears, her and Kathryn decorated a coffin for him and decided where to bury him. Sam had the honors of putting him and after digging a hole we had a funeral service for him.

We talked about life and death and heaven. It was a lot of comfort to her then we each put some dirt on his "coffin" and Sam filled the hole up. 

It might seem silly but Sarah has felt so much better about it and even though she gets a little teary eyed still she says he will be waiting for her in heaven and she is very excited about that!

Weekend Vacation--Cedar City

After we left Cannonville we drove through a scenic route to Cedar City to spend conference weekend with this gal!!! Boy did we have lots of fun.

 We watched the Saturday morning session with her--well at least some of us did! By the way Sarah is eating popcorn from that bowl, silly girl! 

We then ate some delicious homemade pizza, loaded up in our van and headed down to St. George to find some warm weather and enjoy the rest of the day.

 We couldn't not go south and not stop at one of our favorite places ever--SWIG. Boy did we have some delicious drinks!!

 Seth is being quite the character isn't he!!

 Isn't he so cute!!??

We then took the kids to the St. George temple. They had never seen it before so we walked around the grounds and through the visitor center.

 And took some fun pictures!

Afterwards Jessica took us to Snow Canyon State Park. Beautiful!!

We stopped at the sand dunes and walked around,

 took off our shoes--boy was that heaven!!!,

 had races,

 buried kids,

 took pictures of cute guys,

 and then took lots and lots of jumping pictures.

 Boy did we have a great time

 laughing hysterically

 and trying to get them just right.

 We then drove the St. George marathon route (it was that morning) and Sam had glorious visions of running it again with one of the kids and I was completely overwhelmed just driving it(so crazy, crazy long!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Then the boys went to Priesthood and we got take out from Chilis (mmmm so good) and made homemade cinnamon rolls. Jessica did most of them herself and she did a great job. In the middle of it we watched Ella Enchanted and had a super fun night.

The next morning we watched conference with her then we packed everyone up, took lunch on the road and headed out. So nice to pick up conference on the radio in Utah (wish we could get that other places). We stopped and ate dinner with Sam's family in Sandy before heading down the road again. 

Boy what a great time we had.Yeah for long weekend vacations!!