Halloween!

The Caramel Apple Girls! Kelli, Maralea, and I. First we peeled off the wrappers of a whole bunch of caramels (highly therapeutic- I recommend it to anyone), then we heated it up with some other ingredients, then dipped in the apples. Sticky but very tastey!
Jason, Kelli, and the prize winning caramel apple. I didn't get a pic of Mike, Jordan, or his friend...Mike was watching some scary movie, and Jordan, Steven, and Nicky along with some friends from Capellie's, went looking for a haunted house, but never found it. They had fun anyway!
When Calvin came up with the idea of being a missionary for Halloween his honest statement was, "I think I'll get more candy if I'm dressed up as a missionary." I think he was right! Colin, the kids and I trick-or-treated around our neighborhood for an hour, then we headed home. The triplets were tuckered out and quite satisfied with their candy. They thought it was just the greatest holiday to be able to go to people's homes and be given candy! In fact the next day when we were out on a walk they said, "trick or treating? Get candy?" Amazingly enough, they had a few pieces, we said "all done" and they didn't throw fits like they did last year! They have since forgotten about their candy bags which we have hidden. Whew! They really enjoyed handing out candy to kids who came to our door. Colin took the older kids to an area where the houses are close together so they could get more candy faster. He was an avid trick-or-treater as a youth in case you couldn't figure that out. Apparently they ran from house to house, and they came home around 10pm.
Now the question is, what do we do with all this candy? In years past, they've sold it to us, and I've trashed it (except for the ones Colin wanted to keep). This year, sugar is speaking louder than money. Actually, a few minutes ago, Emily told me she wants to keep a few pieces and get rid of the rest. I'm not sure what to do about the boys. Colin's theory is, "let them eat it whenever they want, and how ever much they want, and when they throw up, they'll stop eating it." I'm not sure if I totally agree with that philosophy. I can see some wisdom in it, but by the time they get sick of their candy, they are already highly toxic with sugar! Why can't people give out fruit?! One person did give out fish crackers, and I really liked that. Anyone have any ideas on how to avoid toxicity and cavities in my kids from all this candy in-take? I'm open for suggestions.

Colin was a scout leader (he had just gotten home from a scout meeting, so he was already dressed and ready to go), the twins were cats, Ty was a baseball player (he is getting really good at hitting a ball with that bat! Thanks again, Kirk! He's going to be a little pro baseball player!), Emily was a Hawaiin girl (she's wearing my moo-moo I got in Hawaii years ago), and I dressed up as......
...myself! Notice I am sporting the traditional Halloween colors.

It would appear that I blogged backwards again, so this is the kids getting ready for Halloween.
Nicky dressed up as a gangster, and Meeka wanted to borrow her bandanna. She also put a very attractive necklace in her hair.
Tiffy, getting ready for the big night by doing push-ups on the side walk.
Baseball boy!

At least we can all rest assured that Devon has a uvula.
Nicky did Batman, Colin and Em did the cat, Calvin did the wolf howling at the moon, and Dev did the Harry Potter scar mark. They used print-outs of their designs, punched a ton of tiny holes in the pumpkin, then carved away. They did an awesome job!

Snow!

This was the first real snow of the season! The triplets couldn't stop eating handfuls of snow. We went on a fun adventure walk out front. The wind was blowing pretty cold, so we made it a quick walk, then came back inside for a hot chocolate tea party. The reason it was a tea party was because I could give them very small quantities of hot chocolate in their miniature tea cups. However, the amount of times they requested refills was almost equivalent to a regular mug size! Oh well, it's always more fun to drink out of little tea cups and call it a "party!"

Extremely European

There are some days when I am pleased with my lunch making efforts. This was one of those days. This entre consisted of cheese, french bread, chicken, carrots with Ranch (Olive Oil would have been more European but they wouldn't have eaten that), and bell pepper. They actually ended up playing with their food more than eating it, but I gave myself a gold star for a healthy lunch effort!

Golightly's cabin

Devon was really enjoying his chicken. This is one of Jason's brothers, Josh. Nicky is avoiding the camera I think!
It really was super dang good chicken. Colin and Jason manned the BBQ's and it was restaurant quality! What amazing chefs! Colin had marinaded the chicken the day before in a "secret scouting marinade sauce." All I know is that there was Sprite in it. Jason's mom made some to-die-for cream puffs for dessert. Delish!
Chelsea (Kelli's cousin), Kelli, Jason giving the thumbs-up on the super dang good chicken, Michelle, Kyle (Jason's parents), Colin, and Tiffany. The cabin is up in the woods, a little under an hour drive from our home. It's beautiful and it was a fun relaxing evening! Thanks guys!

not sure...

I'm not sure what Ty, Tiff, and Meeka were doing, but they looked funny, so we took a picture!

Handsome Boys!

Look at these handsome future missionaries!

Hair problems

I love how Calvin is trying to help Tameeka feel better by crying with her.
Thanks for the Halloween shirts, Ma and Pa!
We had to put this on Ty because...
I was using the wrong buzzer to shave Ty's head, and Colin made me stop because it was hurting. He always cries during hair cuts, so I didn't think anything of it. We let him have this crazy hair-do until the next day when we got Nicky's super professional pain-free buzzer from Capellie's. It was nice to get the rest of that hair off!

Date

Nicky went on a date and had a great time! What a beautiful girl!

Fingernail painting with watercolors

Tiffany and Tameeka will spend all kinds of time painting their fingernails with water color paints. They are becoming quite accurate with their manicuring skills. The only problem is when it's time to wash hands for a meal. "Don't wash my paint!"

Getting ready for Halloween

Maybe I'll be a fairy.
An army basket ball-playing- ballerina sounds good to me!

Mt. Timp!

We hiked the Mt. Timpanogos cave trail with our good friends, the Abillas! We started the hike around 6am.
Kameron, Emily, and Savanah.
Snack break.
We made it! We love this hike! It's closed now until next spring. We'll be back!

Emily's 8th B-day family swim party!

Tiffy was sad about something (can't remember now). Thanks to swim lessons, Ty, Tiff, and Tameeka had no fear in the water! They would plunge their bodies and faces right into the water and stay there for quite some time holding their breath! They also loved going down the slide....again and again!

Emily loves to swim!

Happy 8th Birthday, Em! We love you!

Emily's 8th B-day family swim party!

Flag Football

This was the last game of our flag football season. It's been fun...we all miss it! Here's Calvin with a few of his buddies from Pleasant Grove, Westley Osguthorpe, and McKay Pierce.

Piano practice continues...

Calvin and Nicky working on a a duet of "A Child's Prayer."

Family Dinner

Brad and Whitney were the only ones able to attend our family dinner last month. We had some fun times making walnut paint!

Emily's Baptism Day!

Emily's baptism day was a wonderful and special day! She wanted to keep it small, so just grandparents came. We've been talking about this day for quite awhile! When Em was really little, she would say, "I'm NOT getting baptized. I don't want to go under the water!" I would say, "Okay, well, we'll see how you feel about it when you're older." She would insist that she wouldn't want to when she got older, so I'd just leave it at "ok, you don't have to." However, she grew out of her fear of water (as you can see from our family swim party!), and she no longer feared baptism! She did a great job!

It looks like the twins want to jump in and go swimming!
Emily's baptism was at the American Fork Tabernacle. Grandma said that some of our relatives way back were possibly baptized here, and attended church in this very building! That made it even more special!

We just had to check out the balcony!




After Em's baptism, Grandma and Grandpa suggested we go to the nearby cemetery to find an ancestor. I didn't know how Em would feel about that since she's never been in a cemetery (in fact the kids all hold their breaths whenever we drive by a cemetery), but to my surprise she answered with an enthusiastic, "yes!" After locating our relative, my mom found quite the humorous tomb stone. There was a picture of an older man and woman, with the name of the man, birth and death dates was carved in. Underneath that was a quote that said, "I told you I was sick!" We all got a big laugh out of that one!
We like to go to the Olive Garden after special occasions. Here it looks like Tiff is checking out the dessert menu. Actually, I think her big smile is due to the fact that we let her play with some of those creamer packets.
Nice faces, boys! We arrived right when the restaurant opened at 11am, so we got seated and our food was served pretty quickly. Needless to say, it was a yummy lunch and a fun day!