October Mashup

October was a great month!  I was invited to record in a choir for Michael McLean's new album called "Threads."

We are planning a family reunion for my side of the family in March, so I got matching swim suits on sale!

Enjoying some good ol' BYU football.

We borrowed our neighbor's apple processor and made our own applesauce.  Just like when I was growing up!

I took part in my first ever photo shoot!  A friend is starting up her photography business and she was great. It included professional hair and make up.

Sunshine was initiated into scouts!

The Chic-fil-a cow came to visit the school!

Sunshine and Cloudburst had their piano recital, but Sunshine had to miss it for football.  Cloudburst did great!

We had quite an exciting final season game.  The opposing coach got mad at the ref, and shoved him after throwing a clip board at him.  The game ended in a forfeit right then (but we were ahead anyway) and with the cops coming to decide if assault charges were going to be pressed.  Crazy!

Harrowing Halloween

Thunder loves to freak out the kids in the neighborhood, and even a few adults.  This year he came up with a pretty good setup.  Everyone had to pass through a black-sheet doorway to find the candy.  We had a monster set up on a chair... then Kory was waiting behind them in the corner in a mask! Genius!  We got screams all night long, hahaha!  Now, what to do next year...

Pumpkin carving

The kids would not let us get out of carving pumpkins this year... You can see what Sunrise misses when you look at his pumpkin!

D-dogg's birthday

When I asked Tornado what he wanted for a birthday cake, all he wanted was spiders.  So I did my best!

Sunrise loved his birthday passport so much that Tornado requested one too.  He loved walking into the kitchen and seeing it just for him.

Even though his birthday was on a Thursday, we woke up early and opened presents before school.  He is on the gymnastics level 3 team, so we found a "mushroom" for him to practice on.  I'm glad he was excited about that one :-)

Dad took him to get a haircut to look nice on his special day.

At home, he got to try out his new and beloved motor scooter!  He zipped up and down the street and fell in love!  He got the hang of it quickly and always wants to be outside on it.

We finally had everyone come inside to eat cake.

We love you Tornado!  You are funny, smart, resilient and fearless!  These six years have been a fun ride!

Our Lady

Thunder has become involved with some new business friends, and we were able to hop a quick flight in a jet.  Yes, that's how we roll.  We headed over to South Bend, Indiana for some great history, a lovely school and a good football game!

We visited the College Football Hall of Fame while it was still there... it moves periodically.

We also popped over the border to Michigan (border towns are actually called Michiana) for the most amazing Haunted Scream Park.  It took us a few hours to try everything and we were definitely scared!  The claustrophobic tunnel was the worst!

The day of the game, we toured Notre Dame campus.  It was simply stunning.

The hand painted walls have a few surprises.

We were able to travel with our good friends too.  So fun.

Is that Touchdown Y?  (OK, OK, it's actually called Touchdown Jesus.  You can see it from the stadium.)

The tailgating was amazing!  Rows and rows of cars, with flags, coolers, BBQ's tents and lots of food!

It was a quick, amazingly fun trip!

Sunshine's big birthday!

We like to make a big deal out of turning eight in our family.  They can make the decision to be baptized and we try to get as much family to visit as possible.  We were so excited for Sunshine's big day!  I attempted an 8-layer cake.  It mostly turned out.

He woke up to a Birthday Passport with eight pages.  Each page had a fun activity for the day (eat cinnamon rolls, open presents, go out for dinner, etc.)

Sunshine got some great presents, especially from his siblings.

Then we headed to Trafalga (or "Candy Land according to little Sunrise) for some fun.  It was still nice and warm.

We ate at a place the kids loved- Tepanyaki! It was so fun to watch the onion ring of fire and catch food in our mouths.

After dinner we came back to try out the cake.  I was just happy it didn't fall over when we cut it.

At bedtime, we finished reading the Book of Mormon as a family.  We started last year when Sunshine turned 7.

Sunrise is responsible, smart and thoughtful.  He is sensitive to other's needs and a great student.  We just love him!

Cabin trips

We were able to make it up to the cabin a few times in October.  We went up for General Conference weekend, which is becoming a fun tradition.  On our drive home we saw some amazing kite surfers.  

We also had the Hilds come up over Fall Break.  We tried to squeeze in one last rhino ride for the season, and it was freeeeeezing.  It started raining and freezing and hailing... and we headed back to the cabin for some hot chocolate.  Brrrrrr.