Halloween 2012

 Thayne and I were Garden Gnomes...and a big thanks to his brother who let us borrow these costumes!  There were great and the ward loved them at our ward party.  Some little kids thought Thayne was a scary Santa.

 Quinn the Ninja, Simon the death eater??, Hannah 70's girl and Collin the Gangster

 We had fun carving pumpkins on Monday night.

Simon had to tally his candy for a homework assignment.  Hannah actually took the two boys trick-or-treating while Collin attended a party (broke his toe there!) and Thayne and I sat on the front porch handing out candy.  It was an enjoyable evening, except for Collin had to ice his toe.

Happy 12th to Hannah

 Hannah has started collecting Hearts4Hearts dolls.  They are 12" dolls from different countries.  This is her 3rd one...from Belarus.

I can't believe my daughter is 12!  She has been to Young Women's twice now and is really enjoying it.  In fact, last Sunday there was no one to play the piano so she told me that she is going to play next week.

Piano

Here is Hannah at her first piano recital.  She did well but was quite nervous!

Simon turns 9

We enjoyed growing giant sunflowers this summer.  The kids were picking the seeds out of the sunflower heads here and then we soaked them and toasted them in the oven.  It is always so amazing how many seeds there are!

Simon had a "late night" birthday party.  They had fun playing Apples to Apples, Who Knew, and playing outside in the dark with flashlights.

Mostly Quinn

Quinn helping me make applesauce.  I had a little fun experimenting this year with applesauce.  I added red plums from our tree and made "plumplesauce".  It is really good and I prefer it over plain applesauce.  Later this coming week I am going to make peachlesauce!  Hope it tastes good.

We had quite a big rainstorm last week and I heard someone outside singing "...the rain came down and the floods came up..."  Quinn was outside on the deck singing.  I tried to videotape it but he wouldn't do it for me.

A few Sundays ago between meetings, Thayne let the boys each pick a game to play with him.  Quinn was last and picked Hedbanz guessing game.  Thayne was a good sport and they ended up having lots of fun.

Our neighbor loaned us their little guitar and Quinn has taken quite a liking to playing it.  He just looked so cute holding it.

We spent last Saturday evening up Blacksmith Fork Canyon at our "lot".  We enjoyed hiking, roasting hot dogs and smores, playing Mormon Bridge and a fun campfire game.  Next year we have got to go there more often!!  This is my brother Aaron on the left, my mom standing and me and then Thayne.

School Begins

This summer Hannah and I painted her room and she chose lavender as the color.  She wanted her closet doors painted in stripes of different sizes.  I like how they turned out! 

While Thayne's car was being fixed, our car insurance got us a rental...a convertible!  He had a great time driving it and Collin loved to be dropped off at school in it.

First day of 9th grade for Collin.

This is Quinn with his Kindergarten teacher.  It was taken after his assessment.  She is a great teacher and plays her piano for the kids while they do a little march around the room.   It is really cute.  She informed me that she is 69 yrs old!  Hannah had her for Kindergarten and really liked her.

First day of Kindergarten!

First day of 3rd grade and 6th grade!

Camping in Logan Canyon

Well here are the eight kids enjoying the Logan River.  It was pretty cold!

We go on a camping trip every year with some friends from Brigham City.  This year we stayed three nights and three days.  I've never been so dirty!

This was half way through our hike.  The kids did pretty well.  We had to carry the two little ones for part of the way.

We brought a pedal boat and Collin gave us rides up and down a section of the river.  It was pretty shallow and fun to see the fish swimming around.