It seems like I blinked and October was over! Here are a few things we've been up to. Sam, Mattie and Lauren all decided to run cross country for Obsidian Middle School. This was a new experience for the girls and I was proud of them for pushing themselves every day at practice and working to improve their times at meets. This was Sam's third year running and he and his friends had fun together. We'll see if he decides to continue cross country in high school.



Sam earned his Life rank in the Scouting program.


Jonas helped me make Halloween cookies -


Tasty looking aren't they?


I'm not a huge fan of several traditional Halloween activities, carving pumpkins being one of them. I had this great idea this year. While the kids were at school and Jonas was distracted by some highly educational activity (okay, it was the TV, I admit it. I'm not proud of it but it worked), I cleaned out the inside of the pumpkins. The pumpkins sat in the sink and the guts went directly into the garbage. It was fast and not too messy. Then that evening I presented empty pumpkins to the kids to carve. It was brilliant! Some of them are old enough to carve them by themselves - we didn't even have to help!


The finished products - a BOO carved out and


...Sasquatch.


I got to go to Jonas' preschool party this year, so I dressed up with him. (Thank you, Charlie, for loaning Jonas your Luigi costume - he loves it!)

The ward Trunk-or-Treat was our next event. I graciously let Chris use the Mario costume for this party. I don't think Jonas took the Luigi costume off the whole day. Quinn came home from school and turned into a vampire princess.




Mattie and Lauren had two parties over the weekend. We snapped a quick picture before they headed off. Mattie is an artist and Lauren is dressed up in the sophisticated fashion of 1984!


Bring on November - let the birthdays and holidays begin!

First Day of School!

Or more accurately, sometime during the first week of school because mom kept forgetting to take pictures. There's just so much to do in the morning!


Sam started 8th grade - his last year of middle school


Mattie and Lauren started 6th grade - their first year of middle school


Quinn started 2nd grade - her first year in school without her siblings, but with a bonus of going to a brand new school that is just down the street from our house!

Jonas started preschool!

Family Vacation

We had a great family vacation last month - here's a quick overview.



We stayed in Park City and took a few day trips. We took a tour of the Conference Center across the street from temple square in Salt Lake. These views are from the roof.



This kid was asked several times by our guide to get off the wall:


A day spent at Raging Waters - water parks have become a yearly tradition for us.





We also got to visit some family in Utah that we don't often see.



We saw Grandma Simmons and Aaron and Rachel Earnest. The kids met a bunch of cousins they didn't know they had and had a great time with them!


An afternoon spent at BYU - where it all began....

The Bean museum...


Lunch at J.Dawg's...


While in Nevada and Utah, we got to see some old friends from college. It was so fun to see these good friends again - it's been years but it felt like no time had passed at all.