Our ward does a fun carnival type Halloween Party. Cake walk, face painting, haunted house – from the youth and then other families bring candy and games. Last year we did shoot a goal on the vampire – This year Ben came up with the Michael Jackson follow the right cup to win your candy. I follow the kids around and make sure Millie doesn’t get stepped on. Good Times.
Brady still lives with us! He had a birthday this week! 27 years.
He isn’t home much but when he is the kids know it and they hang all over him 🙂
Time is so sparse these days but we did finally carve our pumpkins! and make caramel apples!
We convinced the boys to do EASY FUN pumpkins this year. They did their own pumpkins for the first time and it was great.
 
 
The girls had to do ANNA AND ELSA! but they loved cleaning out the guts.
 
Ben’s Dad invited the Packer age cousins to help him put on a haunted garage this year! He had them dress up and come over the Saturday before to practice. Then on Monday night we got to come over and go through the Spookiness. It was a great family home evening activity. Packer LOVED being involved. He talked about this for the whole month. He hates SCARY so this was good for him to see behind the scenes. It was good for him to get the extra attention.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE SOCCER but WE HAVE OUR SATURDAYS BACK!
Benji’s team was undefeated. They have been together for a long time now and they are a lot of fun.
Benji is a good shielder and passer. He likes Defense.
Cali is pretty aggressive. They had a young team this year so it was a rough, lose every game season. But She and Mia have fun out there. Cali always volunteers for everything – take a break? play defender? Stay in? – doesn’t matter what coach asks – she’ll says she’ll do it. Go Lightning Crashers!
 
Look at how close Packer is to the goal! and I was proud of him for going to the middle to wait for the pass. They are learning. I got to go to Packer’s game without any kids on the last game so I got lots of good pictures of him:
 
 
 
 
 
 
This years party was a SUCCESS! We had it on Saturday the 25th and We had perfect weather – dry and warmish. We had a yard again so it was better than last year. The hot chocolate was great and the party game was the best yet. We set up my Haunted house Lego’s and hid all of the “monsters”. Then the kids got to play I Spy and find all of the characters. It was fun. I think we will add it to the yearly festivities. We filled the back yard with lots of family and old and new friends. The new blow up screen is definitely the way to go. Until Next Year Charlie Brown…
Conference weekend!
 
Shannon and Brady and Ben and Pete and I all played on a co-ed soccer team the last 8 weeks! So much fun! undefeated. It was fun having Shannon close enough to make the drive on the weekends and play with us.
Crazy Hair Day at school:
Ben started running every day and then he injured his quad…
The October weather has been amazing.
The last spoils from our garden.
Joel and Megan bought a house. I got to help with some painting before they moved in.
 
A little Baskin Robins in honor of the goal scorers – Cali and Benji this season.
Millie is awesome. She will laugh and giggle at everyone she sees. Her laugh is contagious. I love laughing with her. She gives awesome high fives. She is in the clap for yourself mode – “Yay Millie” always results in clapping and smiles. She is a great napper and sleeps 10-12 hours a night without fail. When she is awake she is an explorer – she explores everything and follows her siblings all over the house.
some old pictures, just for fun:
 
And Some now pictures cause she has gotten so big:
Benji is 9 years old. He is an easy going kid. He is usually in a good mood and has learned that it is best to just be helpful and responsible and this will produce good results. He is pretty easy to wake up in the morning. He gets up at 7am for school. He gets dressed and then eats. He combs his hair, brushes teeth and makes sure his back pack is ready to go. At 7:45 he runs to the stop sign to meet up with the neighbors and walk to school. After school he often has a plan in his mind… sometimes it is to play with a friend or look up a new tablet app or Read. If things don’t go as he hoped or planned then he does get moody on us! He is pretty good about jumping in and getting his homework done – 30 minutes of reading, 10 minutes of math and 10 minutes of spelling. He gets 100% on his spelling. He never studies but does well in most subjects. He loves to hang out with his dad at night. He and Packer MUST go to bed at the same time – between 8 and 9pm. They still choose to share a bed. And he would rather go to bed early than stay up reading.
Benji always gets the BUG award at school and the teachers usually write similar comments: He is a great student, attentive, not distracting, helpful… and they have all said that he “says funny things”! I wonder what he says? He has become a funny kid. I enjoy his humor. I enjoy that he finally learned that it is fun to play with his younger siblings.
 
Benji is not a huge sports fan but he is sticking with soccer and learning how to shield and be a little more aggressive. Sometimes he will watch a football or basketball game with Ben and I. We are pushing him to try wrestling this year and I’m anxious to start piano lessons. Benji is big into music. He really enjoys a good beat and loves dancing.
Packer is a good kid. He is my least needy child. He is artistic and project minded and can usually entertain himself. He hates getting up in the mornings – He is so tired when I come in at 7 am and he tells me every morning that he doesn’t want to go to school. But he only says it right when he wakes up and then he gets dressed and eats, combs hair and brushes teeth, loads his backpack and is off to  the corner to meet Luca and the kids for school. He is not a big cereal eater like his brother but he does eat. He loved when I made him a Pepperoni sandwich this week. We bought him the Junie B Jones series at the last book fair and it has really helped his reading – he is excited to read and is putting in 30-45 minutes after school now! Packer lost his 3rd tooth this past month. He wrote a very sweet note to the tooth fairy asking her what she does with the teeth. Unfortunately he didn’t get a note back…
  
A shirt that Packer designed.
This is a book that Packer wrote.
He Got to go to Bug Lunch!