What October Looked Like

Conference weekend!

Love it!

Conference party, had fun with Erika, April, and Shelley's girls.

Went to visit Luna, who is growing up so fast!

Last October, we had some horrible rain storms and

THIS happened to our ceiling. Yikes.

We've been working with a roofer, got it all repaired,

and waited several months to make sure there were

no more leaks.

Since we needed to hire professionals, 

we decided to go ahead and have our popcorn ceilings

removed while they were at it.

It was QUITE the project!!

But the workers were fast and we were

so happy with the results.

Smooth, beautiful ceilings. 

It made our house feel so new! 

...and it lasted less than TWENTY FOUR hours until

the roof leaked again!!!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Can you see the line to the left of that photo?

Ugh.

Third grade field trip to A&T farm.

This was such a GREAT field trip.

Interesting and education.

So glad I could come with Caroline!

I learned things I didn't know!

Like the number of toes on hooved animals is

related to the number of stomachs they have. What??

This calf was named Caroline. So cute.

We got to pet a baby chick.

One night when we had the Elders over for dinner, 

the evening ended with an arm wrestling match 

between Brandon and the missionaries.

He beat Elder Hatch, but Elder Gaither beat B.

Another fun geocaching date.

Stephanie and Steve from our ward went through

the temple for the first time.

We were so happy to join them.

And we had SO many ward members there.

What a good looking bunch!

So special to be in the temple with all these people we love.

I have a special bond with both Stephanie

and Sister Ince, who helped teach Stephanie

about the church. She was freshly 

released from her mission and drove down 

FROM CANADA to be with us.

Love these ladies!

Outtakes from family portraits.

Marion, my shopping buddy.

We try to go shopping together once a month.

We have so much fun laughing and looking for good deals.

FINALLY cashed in on one of Caroline's 

CHRISTMAS presents:

A trip to the Conservator's Center

in rural NC, about an hour away from us.

KK came with us.

We got up close and personal with lions,

tigers, wolves, lemurs, bintarongs...

it was awesome.

We'd love to go back sometime.

Singing dog

Leopard??

Wolf

 Binturong

Fennec Fox
So cute!

Whitney dressed up as Elphaba from 

Wicked for Halloween this year.

She did a great job with her costume!

Lauren, one of her besties from school,

was Glinda. They had a GREAT time

trick-or-treating together.

Love playing tennis with Debbie as my partner!

We went 7-3 in our Gate City league

and our team finished 3rd.

Care Bear was a panda for Halloween.

She got to show off her costume

at Skate Night.

We LOVE fall in NC!

Who gets to go swimming in October?

These two lucky girls.

Our veggie tray for the ward Trunk or Treat.

The panda and Elphaba

Two tennis players :)

Love the candy economy that ensues after getting the treats.

This pic is hard to see, but B leading the music in 

a combined meeting at church. He's so good!

Annual Pilot Mountain Hike

We've had better hikes.

It was a beautiful day,

but some members of the family 

were not exactly getting along...

We still tried to make the best of it. :/

Parent observation day for dance

Love watching Whit progress as a dancer.