weekend halloween activities

Friday night the High School had a halloween dance and grant attended as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. He looked awesome. His friends in this shot were a nerd and Chad took his cape off but he had a little super hero cape on, pretty funny.

Friday Morgan and Ana went in their costumes to a neighborhood halloween party and had a wonderful time playing games and getting candy. We have a crayon and a snow princess here.

trunk or treat

Victor was a zombie football player and Troy and I dressed up since we were in charge of the event, and went as Frankenstiens. It had been a beautiful day all day, even though the news said we would get snow during the day. But no it was beautiful. So we went ahead and set everything up out side for the trunk or treat and as soon as we were finished this huge cloud rolled toward us and right at 6:30 as people were arriving a crazy wind kicked up and it began to snow. It was a mini blizzard around us and we held onto our hot chocolate cups and all snuggled around the heat lamps Troy had picked up "just in case". Good thing because it got cold fast. We still had around 300 people attend from the neighborhood! It is a big activity every year. Now we know even in a blizzard kids will come for candy (and to wear their costumes). A couple parents complained, but we never heard anything from the kids, so I think everyone had a great time.

Morgan was a turquoise crayon, Tanya was a cat, Ana a snowflake princess, Ethan was Darth Vader and Grant was along for the ride. We had a black light in the car so all th white glowed and handed out glow sticks (100) which we quickly ran out of! Fun times. Need to remember to get more next year.

This was the undoing of Frankenstien!

The removal of the bolts! Ouch!

pumpkin carving

We had a wonderful time carving pumpkins at our friends home. Morgan had a birthday party and wasnt' in able to come, but her request was granted and a M was carved into her pumpkin. Jen made some very yummy clam chowder - I need the recipe - and we roasted pumpkin seeds in a little olive oil (I've never done it that way) and they were delicious too! Thanks guys for having us over.

snow

Little bit of snow this past week... good thing I pulled up the garden last week or it would be all slimy and yucky to pull up this week.

St. George weekend

Tanya and Ana had the best weekend of their lives sleeping over at a friends home during the UEA weekend. Troy was out of the country, so I decided to pack up the rest of the kids and go to St. George. Grant wanted to go on some bike rides with a friend and stayed behind, so we ended up bringing along a friend for each of the kids. It was nice relaxing weekend. I had no plans other than what to cook for dinner and the kids entertained themselves for the most part. A little more DS playing than usual, but I was able to get a little movie watching, napping, temple going in! Couldn't have done it at home...

So here are the kids after they caught a few lizards. Every time we go down they love trying to catch lizards and chase the jack rabbits at night. My parents have a place in Washington, out side of St. George, so there is lots of room to explore and chase things. Very exciting. Victor does make me laugh. He's the most serious about catching creatures, but once he has them he wants nothing to do with them (except cook and eat them, which I haven't given into!). So the lizards were all over all of us and Victor kept his distance.

They were beautiful lizards. Brown with blue and white spots. Friday we took a tour of Brigham Young's home and went to a little festival in the park by the tabernacle. The kids were fascinated with this horn this man had carved out of some kind of gourd or tree in Australia.

Brigham Young's Winter Home

The kitchen and laundry and bathing room. Victor wanted to know if the Gingerbread men were real and if he could eat them. Stumped the poor tour guide for a moment.

The garden with cotton, grapes and a fig tree.

Pomegranate trees! They were almost ripe too, so anyone going down in a few weeks go see if you can get a pomegranate from the tree, yummy.

Week in Review

So this afternoon we had our Charter School State finals for Cross Country. Grant took 6th overall in the boys meet and Tanya took 4th over all in the girls meet. We didn't have enough girls on the team to qualify for state but the boys team came in 3rd place!
We loved having Grandma and Grandpa, some cousins and friends at the race to cheer the kids on! Thanks for the support!

Over the weekend Troy's brother Brady, was in town with his cute girls. This was a quick picture Sunday morning before they left. All the girls had a great time playing together.

Thursday night Morgan and Victor had their orchastra and band concerts. They were awesome. As per Morgan's life... she left her viola on the bus that morning and of course a different bus driver drove the kids home in a different bus. We called all around and couldn't find her instrument. With tears in her eyes she gave up, but smiled and said she'd just take the bad grade this semester and do better next time. I had to take Grant to the orthodontist and left her not sure if I should worry or not. I ran into a friend at the office and shared our drama, she of course had a daughter who was no longer playing viola and we were able to borrow her insturment. We stopped and picked it up and got the kids to the school with just enough time for her teacher to tune the borrowed viola. And of course hers was still on the bus where she left it. Its good she takes lifes bumps so well, because she seems to run over more than the rest of the family.

Cute Victor getting ready to play his trombone. He's picked it up really well and quickly and he's good about practicing during the week. We've been very proud of how well he has done.

Below is a clip of Ethan practicing before his first basket ball game. I was supposed to take pictures and instead met and visited with the other parents on the bleachers. He played well and scored 4 baskets (8 points, as he tells everyone). Good Job Buddy!

Last weeks meets

Pictures from last Tuesdays and Thursdays meets.