Pictures off my phone

This is my friend and "coach" that taught me to fence in college and helped me get into the Jr.Olympics.  Later I served in the fencing club presidency with her and did her engagement photos.  She's in California now, but we bumped into each other in Provo.

The only leaf playing that we did this year.  It was fun though.

Adam showing Ggpa his new trumpet.

This is the blanket I made for baby Lucy.  I was going to give a star one that I was working on, but it just was failing miserably.  I really like this pattern though, so I'm going to have to do it again.

Ada was watching the baby while I helped Dad tear out the fence in the back yard.  I walked in and she had him sitting in a box with his bottle... yep, she's got it covered.

This kid likes things with wheels.  He was thrilled to discover that he can reach the windowsill...

Getting our hair cut.

Sam receiving an award at school... he's the one in red.

Our tub's cold water is broken, but Seth hasn't minded.  Sinks are fun too.

Catching up with Ggma.

Ggma has wheels too.  I can't keep this kid away from her walker.

Evelyn was taking her on a ride up and down with the chair remote.

Hanging out with Uncle Sethie.

Writing in their journals.

Yay!  Star Wars.

My cousin's sons were having a birthday party.  They're Vietnamese and boy do they know how to cook.

Evelyn with her second cousins, Emerson and Ronin.

Reading Evelyn to sleep.

Mom!  I discovered that I want to be outside all the time just when the fence gets taken down and the ground starts getting cold.

We met and made friends with our backyard neighbors when the fence came down.  It's been fun.

We got to have lunch with Jer at work.

Helping at Costco.

Getting ready to watch a movie.

He got himself all comfy cosy.

Helping Sam play Monopoly.

R2D2

Helping John and Diane move out of their house.

Cute Joey.

Only way to keep babies out of the way for a minute?

Cousin Sleepover.

Ada horseback riding lessons.  She got two months of lessons as her birthday present this year.  She's loved them!  The instructor says that Ada has strong legs for how they have them ride (could be all the fencing is paying off?).  The first horse she rode was really easy to ride, the second is the one that she's been on ever since and is a stubborn little one.  She doesn't want to walk no matter what signals Ada or the instructor gives.  Once she's walking Ada can turn her, walk her in a zig-zag pattern, rise and fall in the saddle, slow her down, stop her and just learned how to trot on this last one.  Her instructor calls her a good little rider.

Harry Potter plays racquetball with walnuts?

These guys were eating walnuts in Grandma Robertsons back yard.

Reading time at Barnes and Noble.

Halloween Weekend

Halloween happened the same weekend that we got our new exchange student, Naoki Shitanda from Japan.  I picked him up Thursday night and dragged a very tired 15 year old student to our church Halloween party.  We had chili, watched the YM direct piñatas and I took him home early to sleep.  Friday, I took him to BYU for him to bus up to a class on Native Americans in Salt Lake, then I drove our carpool to school and stayed for the Halloween parade (don't you love Sam on his broomstick?!) and for Sam's Halloween party. 

Sam as Harry Potter.

Ada as Professor McGonagall.

Sam's class.

Baby did not want to sit in the stroller... and he kept getting into the crayons, so I finally just gave him some recycle paper and let him have at it.

Evelyn stuck as close by Sam as she possibly could.  She played the games with him, made the crafts with him, and he gave her the spider hat that he made.

Saturday morning, Ada had a horseback riding lesson.  Naoki said he wanted to come, so the three of us headed out.  I showed him through the stables and showed him how to pet the horses.  He jumped about a mile when one of them whinnied.  Ada's horse, Cupcake, was STUBBORN!  She did not want to follow any of the commands that Ada was giving, and definitely did not want to walk.

They made peace in the end.

Then we went shopping for Naoki to find things for his parents and movie club.  We finally got around to carving pumpkins about 3 pm... on Halloween day.  Yeah, we were late.  Naoki thought it was a hoot.

Heading out to trick-or-treat. Ada and Sam were from Harry Potter.  Evelyn and Seth were from Rainbow Brite.  Naoki wasn't sure what we were doing, but by the time we got around the cul-de-sac Jer had convinced him to dress up in our fencing gear and go trick or treating for the first time in his life.  He told me after that it was very funny.

He's a cute sprite.

Seth didn't want to keep walking, he wanted to open all this candy that people kept giving him.  He'd stop any time he noticed his bucket and dig around in it for a while.  We finally ended up putting him in the stroller and pushing him.

Keith, Ada and Laurel

Down the street, the Pirates of the Caribbean return.... they even had a firecracker cannon that they used.

Naoki

Ada saying, "Nice to meet you." (Though that's usually what Evelyn says....)

This pirate kept telling pirate jokes.  The kids thought it was awesome! 

Evelyn, being her spunky self was telling the pirate off for "threatening" to make her swab the deck or something like that.

These two got in a duel... so Sam decided to duel the pirate with his wand... and instead of just pointing it, his boy and fencing self, hit the pirate sword with it and snapped it in half.

Baby was tired of riding and wanted to push the stroller... so Jer, as a joke, got in and the baby just kept on pushing.  The kids thought that was really funny and gathered around pretty quickly.

The loot was a lot smaller this year, thank goodness.  We only went about 1/3 of the way around the ward, didn't get candy at the ward party or at the Wilcox party, didn't go to Jer's work party, and the Robertsons were gone so there was no party there.  There were a couple from school and a couple from our Ward.... and I'm still all candied out.

Halloween Fun

My Mom and Dad hosted a family Halloween Party yesterday.  It was fun.  I was tired, but I loved seeing all the fun things that they planned.  The grandkids made a spook alley for the parents in my parents crawl space.  My sister brought lots of dress ups and the kids changed outfits and did a photo booth.  We watched Walter Mitty while the kids watched some cartoons upstairs.  Fun stuff.

Sleep over

After helping pack up John and Diane's house on Wed, we brought Adam, Rachel and Anya home with us.  It was fun to have some one on one cousin time.  Then the whole family came and slept over on Thursday night.  Good way to say goodbye.

Scripture time before bed.