Primary Program

Once a year, the primary kids at church present all that they've learned this year to the congregation through word and song.  It is such a treat to feel of their purity and sweet little spirits.  This year, it was an especially sweet experience for me.  All three of the kids are in primary!  So exciting!  AND I had Andrew sitting next to me, holding hands and watching our cuties, without the burdens of the ward sitting on his shoulders.  Delightful.

The program went great.  We loved every minute of it.  The kids did awesome.  In the past, Caroline has had some moments of stage fright, and I worried about her, but she rocked it.  I loved watching her expressive mouth as she sang the songs.  She over-emphasized all the words with her lips.  It cracked me up.  Brandon is the only boy in his class and I was so happy to see him up there, singing away, even doing the actions to "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man" with furor.  Whitney was in her white dress and looked like a little angel up on the stand. 

While we don't take pictures in sacrament meeting, I talked the kids into letting me take some after church to help me remember this joyful day.

Fall fun: Pilot Mountain

We continued our annual tradition of hiking Pilot Mountain on the kids' teacher workday at the end of the first quarter.  It was a chilly one this time.  But once we were out hiking it felt great.

The kids are at such fun ages.

I thought with Brandon starting middle school this year,

we might be entering the trial of pre-teen parenting.

But, so far it has been great.

And Caroline made it almost the whole way on the hike.

I think Andrew carried her for about five minutes.

Me and my hottie

A few cute shots of the kiddios

I love this one.

Penguin sliding with his winter coat.

Everybody JUMP!

  Yee haw!

Smoochy lips

Caroline pretended she was a baby tiger half the time.

Hanging out.

Exploring.

I love having time together as a family, 

enjoying each other and soaking up part of this beautiful world.

What October Looks Like

Halloween

The sweetest holiday of the year has come and gone.  We had two chances to celebrate this year.  First up, the trunk or treat at church.

Three witches

Casting our spells

Rockin the tights

Ridin the broom

 And one good-lookin

vampire.

Yikes!

Andrew made some yummy chili for the cook-off.

Toni and I were in charge of tallying the votes.

The kids had fun playing games.

And then got a ton of candy from the trunks of our friends.

On the real Halloween,

we kept it quiet and stayed here at home.

 Oh, wait.  Did I say QUIET?
Not in our neighborhood. 

 I think half the city drives over here and parks on our
main thoroughfare to snag our candy.

 Whit decided to change her costume and
went with a karate girl motif.
(Check out the cool sky--
remnants of Hurricane Sandy.)

We stopped by to see C's teacher from last year,
Ms. Crayola.

 Drew donned his old Hagrid beard
and doled out the treats.