Halloween 16

We enjoy Halloween at our house- 

This is Ash- from Pokemon.

And Eeyore

And Link from Zelda

And Jojo-- from the circus!

Other moments of note:

A little Monkey discovered Mom's big shoes

She's our Girly-girl. Always dressing up!

This boy got to learn about picture re-takes this year.

"I DID smile!!" He said. 

We found the Doctor's banana from days gone by (days of yore?)

We also played with our awesome neighbors.

Family Photos done right

Autumnal Recollections... of our own insanity

The Doctor is remarkable. (And so I remark...)

He decided to run another marathon this year. This time in St. George, Utah.

The timing was tricky, though, because it happened to be the weekend BEFORE our kids had a "Fall Break" from school. It also happened to be at the same time as the LDS temple open-house in Star Valley, Wyoming. 

SO- I hatched a daring plan (facilitated by $35 one-way flights from Southwest Airlines.)

It looked like this:

Green represents Me

Red represents my kids

Blue represents my husby

And somehow (with tons of help from BOTH sides of the family) we pulled it off!

September

I like to think of myself as wordy. An author in embryo.

And yet....

 when I sit down to write of our adventures and escapades, 

I come up with a pile of pictures and not much to say. 

These kids are growing!

My job is evolving and I'm actually manage to keep up a little.

Or so I like to tell myself.

Fourth grade and this one-- Socks has officially graduated to surly pre-teendom.

he's NOT what I call wordy, and sometimes

 getting him to talk to me is my biggest challenge of the day.

Pow-Pow (AKA Pencil) is suddenly comfortable in the 'big-kid' category.

 He's reading up a storm and developing quite a sense of humor. 

Cue the punny jokes!

Grapes is still wont to be photographed - a shame because she's turning out to be a pretty girl-

But she is continuing to develop her artsy and musical talents.  (note my sweet hair-do here!)

But here she is enjoying her straight hair.

And Feta the Little Girl (DON'T call her a baby!)

is keeping me busy. She turned 2 in September. 

She has since OWNED the title of terrible two, if in attitude only.

She loves babies (this is our friend's baby, S. She can't get enough of him. Holding and kissing and patting rather roughly with a sweet "good boy" in his ear)

She loves being outside. Especially with Pow Pow.

She has a mighty independent streak. 

"I hewp my-SEWF" is our new theme.

She speaks so well that usually I know exactly what she is thinking-

but on occasion, her idea of communication  isn't the same as mine. 

THAT is when the fireworks happen.

September was also our family trip to Phoenix to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa for a fun weekend and a BYU-U of A football game!

We visited the Lego Adventure and Sea World Aquarium areas.

We stayed at a hotel very near the football stadium and enjoyed time with Grandma and Grandpa.

As my kids age, I am convinced that we will never get enough time with extended family.

I was spoiled as a child to have SO many dear ones so close.

My monkeys especially loved the time we spent with the grandparents at our house before heading to the valley. We upheld a new tradition to make homemade root-beer with them.

Homemade root-beer is always fun, but especially so because it is done with Grandpa.