surfer dad dave

dave went to abe's class to help out and decided before leaving to spy on sadie. unfortunately, the aide opened the door right at that moment and told him to come in, so he did. sadie turned bright red...embarrassed to have her dad just drop in. when she got home from school, i asked how she liked her visitor-- she said all her friends kept asking who it was. when she said it was her dad, one girl said, "no way! that was your dad? he looked way to cool to be a dad. he looked like a surfer." we all laughed and dave said it was the best compliment he's had in about a year.

halloween night

happy halloween! we had a week full of celebrating...and a month of planning costumes...planning is half the fun.
max wanted to be a blue dog. he was so easy to please, except when i gave him whiskers...he looked at himself, and with scrunched eyebrows said, "no, cat."
kai wanted to be a ghost with two circle eyes and a surprised mouth. very specific. he was thrilled with his costume, even though i had to make minor adjustments because i orginally made it too pointy on top--at the ward trunk-r-treat he looked slightly kkk-ish instead of innocent, surprised ghost-ish.

we were driving in the car a few days before halloween...kai was talking about his costume and said, "i decided i want to use a sleeping bag." i told him that might not look too much like a ghost. he started laughing and said, "not for my costume! for my candy!" i love the image of kai dragging a sleeping bag to each house. he meant pillow case, which he used--and it was as big as him. abe was a vampire. after we painted his face he said, "perfect. much creepier than i expected."
sadie and her friends have been planning for weeks to be eighties chicks. they looked great! we went to a friend's house for dinner and then we split into age groups for trick or treating. sadie and her friends went out twice and came back with loads!

abe had a fun time with his friends, but shockingly was the first to turn in. max and kai were with me and a few little friends. they were troopers.

kai was on a serious mission, definitely the leader of the pack-- running. max kept up....until he fell asleep on my shoulder.

today, max carries his pumpkin like it is sooo heavy and says, "too much candy." --but reassures me by saying, "me do this." and carries it with both hands. fun times.

P.S. one of our favorite things about flagstaff is the diversity our kids experience. abe has a few good friends who are jehovah witness and we have had some casual conversations about how they don't celebrate halloween. kai must have picked up on this and as i was driving i heard kai and max having a discussion in the back seat...it went something like this: kai--(pointing to a house with no halloween decorations) "oh yeah, they are definitely jehovas witness" next house, "pretty sure that house, they are probably jehovas witness...and my swimming teacher, she is DEFINITELY a jehovas witness, she hasn't said ANYTHING about halloween."

listening to this DEFINITELY made me smile.

bats

here is the final product. the kids worked hard on their paper mache bats....can you tell who made each one?

family fest

we spent the weekend at a cabin in pine valley with dave's family. the kids had a blast with their cousins, and it was refreshing to spend time with family.we did a lot in a short amount of time. some of the highlights were the treasure hunt in the saw dust. dave used to do this as a kid. they really got into it. abe held his first flag ceremony, we carved pumpkins, had a talent show, and made movies--i love that dave's family can laugh so easily together. it is a great quality.max -loving his finds.we made t-shirts with masking tape and spray paint. an easy project that the kids loved.

we spent the last day in st. george by ourselves. we stayed in a hotel, swam, ate out, visited friends from medical school and of course, imagined if we could live there for the rest of our lives.

a small thing

everyday sadie brings me home something beautiful. it is a small thing but i look forward to her biking up the driveway, with a little gift in her hand. it is a beautiful time of year and i love that she thinks about me enough to bring me something to put in a jar.

conference breakfast

one of our favorite family traditions is conference breakfast at my mom's house. since we were at our house this year and my parents are in italy, we had our own. it was not the same without cousins and grandma's touch, but it was our attempt. sadie loves traditions.
the menu was scrambled and they had fun trying to figure it out.

we ate while we watched, but watching on my laptop isn't quite the same as watching on the big screen at grandma and grandpa's. conference was wonderful either way. i think this tradition helped me gain a love for conference as i was growing up. i love listening to the prophet speak and i hope my kids gain this same love.

a perfect start

my kids had been begging to decorate for halloween...i was not anxious to unburry the halloween box hiding in our small storage closet in the garage. saturday was the day. everyone did their jobs in anticipation of digging out the box and getting in the halloween mood. the boys helped me take out the winter gear, memory box, car seat, boots, christmas box--and finally we pulled out the halloween box. i immediately noticed a stench. i thought it was me since we were working and i hadn't showered, then i noticed it was coming from the box....i opened it....a dead mouse laying inside a plastic orange jack-o-lantern! scary, gross, a perfect start for halloween! it must have climbed in last year while our box was hanging out in the garage, waiting to get put away. of course, dave was working all weekend so he missed all the excitement. i decided our halloween decorations were not that impressive and this was the year to start fresh. after drying some eyes and listening to max say, "mouse. died. stink." a few times, we spent the rest of the afternoon "making" decorations. plastic ghosts, paper ghosts, black cats and the big make of the day was our paper mache bats. it was messy and fun. at the end of the night, we headed to the store and everyone picked out a few new items. i wish i had a video of max (at target) lining the musical skeleton heads in a row on the ground, then dancing his little heart out. his purchase was a "nice pumpkin...no stink". i thought about getting the bag of plastic mice for the kids lunches, but refrained.