Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a blast this year. The kids were so excited. The girls especially loved gettting to put on Halloween make-up and getting their hair sprayed with green dye. This year Marian lamented that we only went trick-or-treating two times. Once to our ward trunk or treat and on Halloween we went around our neighborhood.

We ended up running into Marian's little friend Reid and went to some houses with her. Reid was also a witch. Most houses would go something like this :

Door greeter: Oh look at how cute you are.

Marian smiles

Reid: We're witches, she's a scary witch and I'm a fancy witch. And here comes a little pumkin. Well, thank you we have to fly away on our broomsticks now.

Marian and Reid run away from the door passing Audra who's just toddling up to the door at that point.

Door greeter: My lands! How cute you are! Are you a pumpkin?

Audra smiles

Door greeter: Well, here's one for your bag and why don't you go ahead and pick one. OH and take one for your mom, too.

Audra: very quietly replies "Thank you"

Then she would turn around and smile her biggest smile and insist on walking to the next house where Reid and Marian would just then be flying away on their broomsticks.

Marian as a witch

Hahahahaha-come here my pretty!

Audra Pumpkin

Josh at Halloween

So we failed to really get a picture of Josh in his costume, but this is about as close as we got. He went as a wild man with wild hair, hairy feet and that devilish grin he provided free of charge!

CANDY!!!

We didn't think we went to that many houses, about a dozen, maybe that is a lot, it didn't seem like a lot, but we got a ton of candy because not that many trick or treaters were out. Chocolate anyone?

Nauvoo-Beautiful

This past Labor day we were able to go to Nauvoo. We had a really nice time. Here are some of the highlights.

Pioneer pasttimes

We spent most of our time at an exhibit called Pioneer Past times
the kids could dress up in aprons and bonnets and play with Pioneer
era toys in mini log cabins. We all had a blast.

teddy bear

The first day we were there. We spent a considerable amount of time playing with the teddy bears. You pull on their ropes and make them go up and then loosen your hold and down they come. Audra conned one of the missionaries to do this for her for about 15 minutes straight. They were both laughing and giggling quite a lot.

Fear? Hahahaha

While we were there we tried to sleeping options as we weren’t sure which one we would prefer. The first night we camped in a state park that’s just across the street from all the happenings in Nauvoo. This worked pretty well, actually except for a little middle of the night episode with Audra. She apparently wanted to go home –which is usually code for I’m really, really scared. After 5 minutes of trying to reason with her that we couldn’t possibly go home. She stopped almost mid-sentence and fell asleep at the foot of my sleeping bag with her sleeping bag pulled up over her entire body. Apparently she decided the best way to deal with this was to hide. She slept there very peacefully until later that morning when she scrambled up and stole Dan’s pillow. And in the morning she woke up her usual happy self so I guess no permanent damage was done.

The next two nights we stayed in a log cabin. We were all in one room and since Josh goes to bed early and takes 2 naps during the day this meant that the more rambuxious lot spent a lot of time out on the porch. Most of the time they ran around holding on to this rope we made in the family living center. When they weren’t doing that they were visiting our new adopted bunny. Apparently it belongs to the hotel’s owner and at one point they even got to pet it.

Cute pictures

Carthage

Wow! The last thing we did before going back home was to visit the jail at Carthage where Joseph Smith and Hyrum were martyred. What an amazing and powerful experience it was to be in that spot. Even though the kids almost exploded! They were good kids, it’s hard to sit still and listen sometimes especially when you’re 2 and 1! But we feel really blessed to have been able to have this experience together.

Nauvoo Temple

These are some pictures we took at the Nauvoo Temple. After hearing stories about the Temple all week it was really nice to go and see it. We couldn't go right up to it because they lock up the grounds on Sundays, but we walked around the parts that weren't locked up and enjoyed the beautiful landscaping and especially the wonderful spirit that was there. Marian really "got" that there was a neat feeling there and said that she wanted to remember that she had seen the Nauvoo temple for the first time when she was a little girl.

Josh has such helpful sisters...

One day while I was making dinner, the girls decided Josh needed a little help getting to me. So, they put him in a box and scooted him to me in the kitchen. Talk about special deliveries:)

Kindergarten

Welcome to Kindergarten! Marian is now an official kindergartener. She's been going a couple of weeks and really seems to like it. She especially likes the playground and asks if we can play on it every day after school. She has a really good teacher who makes learning fun. She seems to especially enjoy the songs they sing and the stories they read. Audra has really gotten into the whole school thing and insists that whenever anyone asks Marian how her day at school is to ask her as well. One day she heard Marian say that she had learned about animals at school and now that is her standard answer to what she learned at school.

This is Marian waiting on her first day.

What Becca and Dan are up to...

Dan and I have recently gotten more into hobbies. Dan's been working on making a beautiful dresser. You can kind of see it in the background there behind him. We'll post more pictures when he's finished. There he's working on one of the drawers. He downloaded a pattern from the internet and has been working off that. It's amazing to watch him work. He'd be very proud to tell you that he hasn't used a single nail yet. Go Dan!

Usually while he's working on that I'll join him in the garage and read, but once in awhile I'll sew something. Here's my first project. It was kind of a long project, my second project was pajama pants, which were way easier. I like having something to keep my mind busy and the girls love that I made something for them. So, it works out pretty well.

Happy Independence Day

So, I know it's way over, but here's what we did anyway.

For the fourth we went to our town festival. It was really fun, but really hot. I think over 100 degrees. We signed up for the kids parade so, we had to stay for that. Luckily, Marian got to cool off.

The kids decorated the bikes for the children's parade. Poor Audra, she's so hot.

Summer Fun

About a month ago we got to go to the waterpark. It was just the perfect size for us. Marian was even brave and went down the BIG slide all by herself. Audra loved swimming, as always, and even Josh enjoyed splashing in the water. We will definitely do this again.

These were on the way down. They were all very excited. Most of the way down they chanted "water park, water park, water park!"

Here we go down the lazy river.

Audra did this for about an hour. I don't think I quite captured it, but she was adorable. As I remember it, I think she was being a turtle.