Good ol' Halloween

Two Sheriffs, Dorothy, and a Red Dinosaur...

Our little pumpkin carvers.



Last night, I took the kids out trick-or-treating while Jon manned the door. We never go any further than around the block, patroning both sides of the street naturally, and we ALWAYS get SO MUCH candy! Of course, it is the only time I see a few of those neighbors. By the time we got within 5 houses of our own...Joseph and Mary Jane would sit down for a while on the neighbors steps and required some prodding to get up. They like to walk but aren't used to carrying (ie dragging) heavy bags along the way! I offered to carry them or their bags but they (especially Mary Jane) WOULD NOT have it! They only let me hold their little hands and Toto (Emily) in his basket. This morning, Joseph informed Jon that he wanted to go out trick-or-treating again today! (No, thanks!)

Aaaah Weddings!

Jon's getting pretty good at the art of self portrait!







All dressed up!


Weddings are soooo much fun!


Dreaming of trains! Who wouldn't?

















My sister's wedding was absolutely beautiful! Fantastic job wedding planners, Jill (bride), Lib (sis), and Mom (mom)! Here's some sad news...I just loaded all of my pictures onto my computer and am now realizing that I don't have any pictures of the bride and groom! Crazy! And, well, it WAS crazy trying to wrastle four children into being sweet and cute for that amount of time! Can't wait to check out your pics Veronica--queen of great pictures! Love you Jill and Mike! Congratulations!

All I Want For Christmas...

Bye, bye baby...
Danny lost his two front teeth! I get a kick out of his ssss sounds! Cute boy.

Midnight Church Clothes Laundry!

I ask myself why....pretty much every week. Why do I do it to myself? I don't know! I don't mean to do it...I just got so busy. So, here I am in the middle of the night, blogging while I wait for the clothes to...well, dry. I guess I could go to bed now. Although it will save me a lot of stress in the morning if all the clothes are hung up and not wadded up in the dryer, right!
But really, I could've done this a little earlier. Next week....NO MIDNIGHT CHURCH CLOTHES LAUNDRY!!!
By the way, little Danny boy is now a front-toothless wonder! He lost one top front tooth last Saturday and the other one while we were grocery shopping today (technically, yesterday). Pictures to follow.

Yubboo!

I have been here in Utah for 2 weeks minus a day now. It seems like our little Mary has had a language explosion and her shyness is waning. She actually said a full sentence, "He ate it." She'll repeat anything we say and it is so sweet! "Yubboo" (love you) is a delightfully common occurence now! In the airplane on the way here, it was just Mary and me, I was trying to keep her toned down as we neared SLC so I pointed out the mountains and said BIG MOUNTAINS. She caught on to BIG and kept pointing to them and saying BIG in her high volume vocals. She has now since gotten the MOUNTAIN part down. Last night, on the way over to Andrew and Jaime's (Jon's brother and family), she repeated MOUNTAIN the entire way on maximum volume which, for Mary, is VERY LOUD.
My baby....

Grandma

When I think of Grandma, I can't help but think of her home. My sweet childhood memories of that place are the kind I would wish for ever child to have. I remember driving up the big hill and looking at the trees in that little wild place between her backyard and the road and knowing that adventures were awaiting me there. I remember pulling into the driveway and running up the green-carpeted steps, swinging wide the door to a house full of delicious smells, welcoming arms, love, and acceptance.
Grandma and Grandpa's home was the kind that, for a child, contained all sorts of teasures. There were nooks, closets, and cupboards that had to be explored. There was the backyard, the enormous garden, the toolshed, that WONDERFUL rotating clothesline, Grandpa's shop with all of its little drawers, and tools, and this and that. The dark and rather mysterious basement with a kitchen where bottles of peaches, pears, pickles, and tomatoes lined the shelves. I can't bring up all these things without mentioning that FANTASTIC laundry chute. I don't know how many times I made that short trip from the bathroom to the laundry room, but I do know that I never got in trouble for it. Maybe they didn't know I did it, but more than that -- I think they made allowances for their curious little grandchildren. I think Grandma and Grandpa loved us so much, that they just wanted us to be happy.
Grandma's greatest joys were her children, her grandchildren, and then her great grandchilldren. She didn't scold, but gave her love in the form of kisses, cookies, and yanks on my braids.
I have been taught by many people all my life that I should serve others -- as Jesus did. I think that I truly learned this principle from her, my dear little grandma. She served me. She served all of us...with an unconditional love. She never thought less of us for our mistakes.
So when I think of her home and all of the precious memories created there...the happy, cozy, warm feelings fill up my heart and I know it is because she was there...making it that way.
I love you Grandma. I miss you.

It's Been Awhile...

Hi there. Time gets away sometimes doesn't it! We've been having a great summer and there are so many things to write about but there's nothing like the present so I'll write about today!
We have recently made some new homeschooling friends, the Websters. We got to go and visit them today. They live on a big piece of land and the kids had a ball exploring and roaming! A big reason why I would love to have a few acres to call my own. One of the reasons anyway! It would be fun to have some chickens too!
We decided to have a "special day" with each of the older kids once a summer. That means they get to go and do something extra special with mom or dad...whomever they choose. Danny chose Dad (though he first had to ascertain if my feelings would be hurt if he chose Dad, isn't he sweet) and REALLY wanted to go on a roller coaster! So Jon took him to World's of Fun tonight and he rode on his first roller coaster. After the first one (which went 200 ft up), he chose very mild things to do. He was chattering up a storm tonight and telling me all about it. He won a bunch of ski ball tickets and picked out prizes for everyone in the family!
Sweet boy!