Pumpkin Carving Collage

Pumpking carving can be almost as exciting as sugar cookies.  =) 
Theme of the year:  Angry Bird (and Pigs)

Nathan as Harry Potter

Nathan as Harry Potter.

Nathan's 2nd Grade Class with Mrs. Dowdell.

Joshua as Ronald Weasley

Joshua as Ronald Weasley...in Quiditch attire.
And, his friend Sean (Gun Woo) from South Korea.

Joshua and his teacher, Miss Dooling.

As we got word that the school costume parade was starting...I looked up and was suprised to find Joshua at the head of the parade doing his best "parade wave"!

Playgroup Princess

Our Grandma Franson spoiled us again this year with some really fun costumes for the kids.  (Posts to come.)  Elizabeth is going to be Hedwig from Harry Potter for the rest of Halloween activities...and looks adorable!  But, for a girl who treasures princess moments like she does, I was glad for a playgroup Halloween party at the church to let her have a princess moment before falling in line with the family theme. 

 

Frosting a cookie.

 

Holding still to get her face painted.

 

Line up for the costume parade.

Joshua's Answered Prayer

Joshua thought we'd better get "one more picture" of him and his bike to help him remember "when he's all grown up" about how old he was when he started riding.

Today, Joshua gave a talk in Primary on prayer.  At the end he bore his testimony.  He told about his most faith promoting time with prayer.  Recently he got a tiny triangle shaped Lego piece stuck up his nose.  He tried to reach it and it just got pushed farther up.  I tried to get it with tweezers and I just couldn't reach it!  He decided to say and prayer and right after the prayer, Joshua did a big sneeze and it helped the Lego come far enough down I could tweezer it right out.  

This week when Nathan got a piece of leaf stuck in his eye and we were working to get it out, Joshua came upstairs and reminded us that prayer was really the best solution.  I used to hesitate more (ashamedly) praying in moments like this...because I was afraid that somehow if the prayer didn't work immediately that it would cast doubt in their believing hearts.  But, I am learning that Heavenly Father really does hear their prayers and mine! 

(Nothing like a Lego up the nose to create a faith-promoting experience!)

Homemade Donuts

A favorite fall tradition...making donuts.

What Must the Neighbors Think?!

The latest "touch" in backyard football for the boys...to be totally "authentic" is wearing cleats and helmuts.

An Attempt at a Photo Shoot

This is the season when I keep seeing really cute professional fall family photo shoots, and I just know we're not going to manage that in the next month or two!  So, before heading to the cider mill in the last post, I had the kids get "looking good" in hopes of snapping my own cute fall scene.  Of course, the reality of moments like that can be more wrangling and less cute pictures than imaginable!  But, here are a few "good try"s.

Fall Fun

Greg was gone for a long meeting...and usually we try to save the really fun family moments for when we're all together.  But, I decided we needed a bit of a perk.  So, we loaded up and headed out to one of my favorite cider mills.

Hay bales for climbing and jumping.

A "corn maze" (except for looking at this picture I can't see the corn).  No wonder it was free.  =)

Of course a bag of our favorite donuts.

A little pasture with some great climbing trees...

Some sheep...

And, some chickens!  Can you just tell that she's "bocking" and "cock-a-doodle-doing" at them?!

Then, stopped at a park for a bit before heading home.  (Can you tell that Nathan's "job" was to keep the teeter-totter going , and Joshua's "job" was to do some really cool dance moves without falling off?)

Bonsai: After

Here is the after.  It's been in most rooms of our home during the past few weeks...trying to identify a place with the proper light to help it thrive.  I put my foot down when Greg started moving furniture around.  =)  Honestly, I love Greg's love for learning...and I can totally connect with his desire to "create".  

Bonsai: Before

Greg has taken an interest in BONSAI, and has read many internet articles and several books from the library on the subject.  We found a nursery in town that does bonsai classes, so I decided for an early birthday present to give a class (that included a plant and pot).  Here is Greg's plant before the class.  

Nathan's Soccer Team

Nathan's Soccer Team
Made especially fun this year by Cooper and Lena (both children from our ward)!

Primary Program Brothers

The morning of the Primary Program.
My favorite current picture we have of these boys.
Just love these good earnest hearts and their love for each other.

Sugar Cookie Not-So-Bliss

In my mind growing-up...sugar cookies were the ultimate family-bonding activity.  There's just something so "picture perfect" for me about those times spent with my mom.  I'm realizing now that my mother was a saint and that all these glossed-over memories were because I was not the mother, but the child!  Nothing can make me pull out my hair like doing sugar cookies with my own kids.  (Although almost always I enter each endeavor still filled with hopes of memory-making bliss.)

This time by the time we came to decorating our little pumpkins, Greg stepped in to help make it happen.  Of course, this meant "developing a model" with precisely  5 chocolate chips for each mouth and 2 candy corns for each eye, allocating the proper amount with each cookie, and then quality controlling them once created.  We sure know how to have a good time.  =)  (We were, after all, going to give some of these away.)

I thought it quite fitting that this is the best picture I could find of the experience.  May it remind me next time I get the hankering for a "magical family moment" that doubling a batch of sugar cookie dough might NOT be the answer.  =)

The Novelty of Yard Work

Treasuring the fact that this is our first fall in our own home and that yard work still holds a great "novelty" for all of us!

Nathan has been begging us to buy a rake so that he can rake the leaves.

Joshua loves being the "leaf crusher" when we bag them.

Greg's been taming our bushes.

And all of us have loved having some great excuses to be out in the yard in the beautiful weather.  (In between plenty of rain.)

A pretty typical sight these days.  Greg and I working on projects...and Nathan and Joshua playing football!

Front Door

From the first time we saw our home, we loved the front door!  But, from the beginning the frame around the front door has been one of the things that's bothered me most.  (It looked like someone had tried to paint it one color and then another color...and that neither had worked out.)  We found some paint in the basement that matches the rest of the trim in the house and are excited with how it turned out!

Flying Solo

I've just had a feeling that if we took off Joshua's training wheels he'd be able to do it!  Greg was at a camp out, and I didn't want him to miss the "magical moment".  So, I took off the training wheels and had the bike waiting for when he pulled into the driveway.  After Greg did one run up the road behind Josh, Joshua yelled, "Just let me do it, Dad!"  And HE DID!  I loved that when he told him grandmas and grandpas on the phone about it afterward, he let them know he, "doesn't even need a single training wheel anymore".

Meanwhile...

Ready for Any Occasion

Each day we drop Joshua off for P.M. kindergarten, and then Elizabeth and I come home and take a nap.  Before we walk over to pick Nathan and Joshua up after school, Elizabeth "needs" to get "dressed" again.  Sometimes she manages to change her clothes while still in her crib before I wake up...using whatever she can reach from the top of her dresser or top dresser drawer.  This was an especially fabulous day.  (Fully done herself.)  She loves wearing these kind of "tapping shoes" everywhere.  (She can walk in high heels better than I can!)  You can imagine between her attire and the way she greets Joshua like she hasn't seen him in years (and he to her), she's getting quite the reputation at the school.

And, just for a reality check ... 90%+ of the pictures I try to take of her these days are like this!