LOOK AT THAT SMILE =)

After almost 2 ½ years and a lot of money later, Sammy now has straight beautiful teeth. In October Sammy got her braces off. She started her whole experience with an expander that widened her mouth. She started 5th grade with a big gap between her front teeth. To make more room, she had to have a tooth pulled. In June before 6th grade she got her braces on. Now she is wearing her lovely retainers. Hopefully we can keep track of them and avoid throwing them away. (Bring back any memories Maria. I think Dad will never forget digging through the big dumpster at school.) She has a beautiful smile and it was all worth it. In January we get to start the whole process over with Steven.

PLAYING THE BASS

In October, Steven played in his annual school Halloween orchestra concert. He started playing the bass last year in 6th grade. He has enjoyed it a lot. Steven has grown so much last year that he is as tall as the bass now. The kids did pretty good in the concert. It was short and sweet. Just like I like it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This has been a fun Halloween season. I spent time helping with the Pumpkin Walk which is a fun way to celebrate Fall. Brian is in a Bishopric in a student ward at USU. As a family, we got to attend a Halloween party with his ward. The kids had a blast dressing up. The students are so kind to them.

A couple days before Halloween, we carved pumpkins. The kids love it. I like it more now because the older three kids are getting big enough to do most of it themselves.

On Halloween we started our trick or treating by going to a local grocery store, Lee’s. Each of their departments passes out candy. This year they even had a mini spook ally in one of their storage rooms. They were very generous and the kids got a lot of candy because we hit both stores.
Our ward has done a trunk-or-treat in the church parking lot for the last three years. I love this because I don’t have to take the kids out. Also I get to see all the cute costumes. Almost no one comes to our house so we used to miss out on seeing all the cute costumes. Soup is provided and we get to mix and mingle with ward members. It lasts for about an hour to an hour and a half and then we go home, watch movies, and eat candy. Yumm!!!

This year I bought me some pumpkin ice cream to try. It was good!! By the end of the night we were all feeling sick.

Isn’t Halloween Great!

PUMPKIN WALK FUN!!

Every year in October my city has what’s called a Pumpkin Walk. At one of our parks, groups set up different scenes using pumpkins as heads, bodies, or props. Some people are so creative and it is so fun to go. Jack-o-lanterns sitting on bales of hay line the walk way as well as corn stalks. Someone dresses up as a witch and Pepperidge Farms donates cookies to be handed out. I love it at night because all the scenes are lit up and it makes a fun atmosphere.

This year a friend of mine, Gina Worthen, asked me to help her group with their scene. I joined in and I am so glad I did because it was so fun. The theme for the Pumpkin Walk was “AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS”. The groups chose a commercial to recreate. Our group chose the Keebler Elves. Someone donated an amazing tree, cookies, and a big glass of milk that they had used for a drill team dance routine and were not using anymore. It made our scene come to life. It was all so amazing. Gina and her husband sculpted the faces of the elves on to pumpkins. We planned out the scene and prepared a lot of stuff before set up, but some ideas came together as we were putting it all together.

We were there off and on for three days just to set up. I spent about 11 hours helping to set up and Gina was there a lot more. I learned so much about putting it all together. Duct tape, wire, safety pins, rebar, and T posts are very important resources in getting everything to look great. The weather cooperated o.k. for set up. It did rain during the night one day, but during the pumpkin walk it did snow and covered everything. We even had strong winds that blew the top off our big tree. When it came time to take it all down, everything was covered in snow . It was all so fun, I think we would do it in almost any kind of weather.

(This is my friend, Raquel's, scene. She does a great job every year.)

The pumpkin walk is such a fun way to bring the community together. We have people come from all over. It started at someone’s farm with a few simple scenes and now has grown into a huge event. It is such a fun way to celebrate the fall season and enjoy the creativity of so many.

At the end, they have a bunch of character boards with out faces set up for people to put their face in. Here is Kylee as Yoda and Cinderella. Isn't she beautiful?

I have several more posts written. Stay in tune this week and catch up on our October...

VOLLEYBALL AND THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

One of Sammy’s interests is Volleyball. She has been able to take some volleyball camps and clinics to get better. For the last couple of years she has played rec volleyball. But, thanks to my amazing little brother, Glen, she played in her first novice volleyball tournament. It was Aug. 14th and started at 6:00 pm and finished at 12:30 am. Glen was a huge help in teaching her to play better and she had so much fun. When it was all over, she and Glen placed 5th out of 21 teams. Not so bad when you think everyone else was 18 or older and this was her first tournament. The whole family came to watch. My sister, Maria, and her two boys came and watched most of it too. We had fun cheering them on and doing lots of visiting. Way to go Sammy and thanks so much Glen.

August 20th Brian and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. But I was celebrating for another reason too. The kids started their first day of school. We did lots of fun things this summer but the last weeks of summer we didn’t do much so the kids were a little bored. We all needed to get back into a routine and have something to focus on again. The kids were a little nervous, but some of them were really excited too. I think it will be a great year.

40 DAYS OF PEACE (sort of)

Disneyland here we come.

At the beginning of the summer we challenged the kids to get along this summer. They had been fighting so much at the end of the school year I knew I wouldn't survive the summer if they kept it up. We told them that if they could get along for 40 days this summer we would take them to Disneyland. Well yesterday was their 40th day. Wahoo!! We are all excited to go to Disneyland over Thanksgiving break, but the best part is they have learned to get along. They have played pretty good this summer and life for mom has been more pleasant. Hopefully, they can keep it up.

WASHINGTON DC

O.K. I have been really lazy about blogging this summer. It seems like with the kids home I don't get a lot of time on the computer. But now that I don't have a calling and the kids will be going back to school soon, hopefully I will be a better blogger. This is just a warning. This entry about DC is really long. It may be a bit boring too, but I wanted to just get the basic facts down so I could remember this trip in the future. Happy reading.

July 10-16, Brian and I had the opportunity to take Sammy, Steven, and Braden to Washington DC and to Gettysburg. Logan and Kylee stayed with my wonderful sister-in-law and sisters, Rachel, Maria, and Frances. Thanks guys. You’re the best. Brian had a work trip so we added a couple of days on to it to visit DC. We love history and we were so excited to share this with our children. It was a good trip, but learned that our kids aren’t into history as much as we were.

One of my favorite things we did was Friday night, the night we arrived. We spent the evening walking around the monuments. I loved the cooler weather, the glittering lights on the bay, and lighted monuments in the dark night. It all caused a reflective atmosphere and reminded me that our history lives on, even in dark times.

Saturday we spent touring the museums. We spent a lot of time in the Air and Space Museum. We thought the kids would love this, but they enjoyed the Natural History Museum a lot more. The White house was a must see. We tried to get a tour but that was a no go. We did a lot of walking and our feet ached a lot. We went back to the hotel that night and rested our poor tired feet while relaxing in front of the t.v.

Sunday, we found a ward to attend not too far away. It felt so good to be to a place that felt familiar even though we had never been there before and didn’t know the people. We met our congressman, Rob Bishop at church. What a comfort to know that he is active and attends church even far from home. We spent Sunday visiting Arlington National Cemetery and the National Zoo. But the best part was relaxing back the hotel.

Monday was another busy tour day as we visited the Bureau of Engraving (another highlight), the National archives, toured the U.S. Capital thanks to Rob Bishop’s office (one of my favorite things we did) and the Library of Congress. There is so much to see and do we could have spent another week there. Visiting D.C. in the off season would be the best however, because there was so many people and even though the temps were a lot more mild than usual, it was still hot.

(This is a statue of Brigham Young in the capital. Each state got to pick two people from their state that was influencial. Utah has the inventor of the tv and B. Young)

Monday night we headed to Gettysburg. Tuesday, Brian went to work and the kids and I slept in. It was a very relaxing day of t.v. and 3/12 hours of swimming. I read while they swam. Loved it. I don’t get a lot of time to read so I soaked it all in. After all the walking and standing we did in D.C. we needed this relaxing day. Unfortunately, Brian’s day wasn’t very relaxing. He came home from this trip wiped out and got sick.

Wednesday was a really fun day. The kids and I slept in again and then we toured Gettysburg. They have a wonderful visitor center that does a great job explaining the war and the battle of Gettysburg. Last time Brian was there he had bought a car tour on cd. We brought it on this trip and the kids and I drove around listening to it and stopping at the different sites. We only finished the first half because the kids wanted to go swimming again before dinner. When Brian got back from work we finished the tour. This was another favorite of mine. The battle came to life when we could see the spots where it all had taken place. It was a nice tour too because it was in our air conditioned car.

Thursday was our final day. We drove to Hershey, Pennsylvania to visit the world of chocolate. I didn’t realize what a tourist attraction they have made this. They have an amusement park and tours. We went on a free tour of how they make the chocolate. It wasn’t at a factory like I was hoping, but it was more like a Disneyland ride with singing cows and fake equipment. The smell was heavenly though and we got a free small chocolate bar at the end. We did this tour twice. You can’t beat chocolate. It was fascinating to learn about the story of Mr. Hershey. I love history and when you combine it with chocolate that’s what you call my kind of educational trip.

We arrived in Salt Lake about 8:30 that night. My sister Frances met us with the kids and we headed out from there to head home. I was so glad to be home with the entire family. Logan and Kylee would have been very bored with this trip, but they were missed a lot. Overall it was a good trip, but very exhausting. I am glad we had the opportunity to add a new category in the kids brains about history, although they loved riding around on the subway, swimming, and watching t.v. more than anything