October Celebrations

In October we did some celebrating of sorts for a few milestones and memories in our lives. I decided at the beginning of the year that I wanted the kids to "know" their grandpas since both mine and Randy's dads have passed away. I got the idea to celebrate their birthdays every year. We have a little party for grandpa where we talk about them, read a story, or give some of our memories. So far for both birthdays we have also let the kids eat something that reminds us of our dads. For Grandpa Zan, the kids got to try sauerkraut (and even complained about the smell just like Randy did as a kid!) and drink some Dr. Pepper. For Grandpa Keith's birthday, we had Burger King in honor of him and after dinner, we went to the park and played a little baseball. Granted, we couldn't have a full on game with only five people but we did have fun smacking the ball around and running around the field. All of my kids have a knack for baseball and are really quite good at it. They must have learned some things from grandpa! I just wish he could be here to play with them.
B also had a big thing happen for her. She has had a loose tooth for quite some time that she just wouldn't get out of her mouth. It had been sitting there so long that the permanent tooth was coming in behind it. When we went to the dentist, I was hoping he would just pull it and get it over with, but unfortunately he just told her to get it out soon. We tried for days to get her to wiggle it. Finally, a few Mondays ago, she came home with a teeny tiny tooth in a plastic baggie and she was so excited! The story went like this according to her: She was on the bus, showing her friend across the row from her that her tooth was loose. She pushed on it a little with her tongue and it popped out flying to the girls seat across from her! The girl looked down, saw blood on the tooth, and said "Ew! There is blood on it!" Which of course made all the other girls grossed out by it! However it happened, we were just glad it was out. Since then, she has lost her other bottom tooth. Randy did the honors of getting that one all the way out for her! That permanent tooth is not coming in yet so she actually has a space like most kids do after losing a tooth! She is growing up too fast :(

Halloween Festivities

The month of October was full of fun things for us to get ready for Halloween. There is a city in our valley that always does what is called the Pumpkin Walk. Different groups of people sign up and decorate pumpkins in different scenes from movies and other popular things. The first time I ever went to the Pumpkin Walk was way back in college for Family Home Evening. It was late, cold, and there were a ton of people. Since then, I have started taking the kids during the day when the crowds are not so bad and it is (usually warmer-last year, we were in our snow clothes to walk around!). This year, it started over UEA weekend so it was a little more packed with people than usual.....but we did get to go during the day since there was no school! I made the mistake of getting the kids flu shots right before we went so A was not in the best mood-hence her face (or non-face) in the picture!

To celebrate the holiday we also decorated sugar cookies. K has been asking me to do it for a while so I decided that we would do them with leftover cookies from a mutual activity. The kids had a great time making their pumpkins, cats, moons, and ghosts into all sorts of creative things with tons of candy on them!

Finally we did the annual pumpkin carving. Just like every other year, the kids wanted nothing to do with getting the guts out so that job landed on Randy and I. Our pumpkins were soft this year so it made it easy for the kids to carve them alone-or with only a little help-and no struggling to get the pieces out. The few weeks before Halloween were pretty full for us!

A little Late

So, I have been slacking on the blog posts once again. I was really good there for about a week while I caught up on all those long ago summer months. Then, I decided I was done for a while. So, to start back up , we will go to the most recent thing that has happened:Halloween! The kids had a great day and night. K and B got to wear their costumes to school which is always an exciting thing and to have their little class parties for the day. A also wore her costume all day long and had to watch the movie she starred in (see picture below) to celebrate the day. Once everyone was home from school, work, and dance it was time to shovel in some dinner and head to the ward trunk or treat.

Once we were filled up there, Randy took the kids around the town (I can't say neighborhood since we don't have one of those!) and got their bags filled

up. One nice thing around here is the kids get to pick two candies out of the bucket since no on trick or treats anymore. So, even if you only go to half the houses of a close neighborhood, you get just as much candy! I stayed home this year to await people coming to our house. I soon realized that no one was coming so I called up Randy and headed out with them for the last half hour of getting goodies. Looks like next year we

won't even waste the time with someone sittin

g home! Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!