Halloween

We went around the world with our Halloween costumes this Year. From Samara Jack to Surfer dud there was no theme to our dress up this year. Oh and don't forget the Hulk he can be found all over the world.

Santa Fun Run

The Tree Farm

5 Years have past since our last trip to the tree farm. It has not change but we sure have.
We are getting ready to board the hay ride and go find the prefect Christmas tree for this year.


Here we are all waiting to go.

I took the time to teach my little brother how to count the rings on the tree stump sample to see how old our Christmas tree was. We discovered it is 20 years old.

Does this picture remind you of a movie? How about "Seven Brides for Seven Brother." I can just hear the sound of those young boys singing in the musical as I watched this brotherly interaction. We are actually cutting off samples of our Christmas tree trunk so we can each have one.

Halloween

I decided I wanted to be Wolverine off of X-man evolution. This was of course after my Uncle Johnathan and Aunt Amanda give me this costume for my birthday. You can't make me say, "I go where I want to go", Wolverines famous words, because I don't want to have my costume taken away from me.
I decided to be the Joker for Halloween. I wanted to be scary. After all that is what Halloween is all about. I did not realize I would scare my little cousin as much as it did. It is a good thing I did not dress up in something any scarier.

I decided I wanted to dress up as Indiana Jones. My Dad let me borrow his real wip if I promised to not let it leave my side. I wanted to dress up as someone who is full of adventure.

Here we are clowning around while Mom is trying to take pictures. We did pretty well this year it only took two shots to get a good picture....

....and here it is. We are all in character. Now we can go trick or treating.

Dewali

The boys and I attended a Diwali festival at a former students home. They are here from India and invited us to experience their most celebrated holiday. The house was filled with incense burning and behind the boys you can see the candles, baskets of bounty and flower petals. Diwali is a time when people get together to celebrate the god and godest coming together and over coming the evil demon. We were open-minded to this new way of thinking. We also had a great discussion about tolerance and how some of our beliefs are similar yet different.
We tried coconut water, which is suppose to be the purest form of liquid on the earth. We each received a small spoonful on our hand to drink. This pure water is considered holy water and will rejuvenate our bodies.

We had the chance to try new foods. The women of the house fasts during this time of year for one month. Yes she can eat and drink after dark, but during the day it is her responsibility to cook and cleanse the home of all bad memories, feelings, and unclean things.
They cook a lot with spices that are different from which we are acustom.

Some of the foods included a sweet pumpkin flavored ball, rice, rice tortilla type thing, and several different sauces used for dipping. My older boys kept eating out of politness and the women of the house kept filling their dishes over and over. I finally explained to them to eat slower and leave just a little of each thing on there plate until she starts to serve dessert. This was a great opporitunity to talk about missionary edict and how we put on a happy face and show our appreciation even if we don't really care for the food.

At the end of the celebration the women of the house gave us a silver plate of bounty. This was to represent good well, good health and sharing of what they have. What a unique experience this evening was. We learned a lot about a different culture.

The Great Pumpkin Rides Again

One little.......


Two little........



Three little Vampires

All the grandchildren received special Halloween blankets filled with Oma and Opa love.

We are waiting for the sign to open our presents from the Great Pumpkin.

Thanks Oma and Opa for always making October a month to remember.

Summer Fun

A day inside because of 100+ temperatures. We are all in this together building structures and knocking them down.
Our cousins came up for the 4th of July and we watched the parade together. How many faces can you recognize? I can see 7.

Hospital Time, Family Time

Carter and Chanda are ready for a nice night at the hospital.

Ryan and Chandler are chill'in in Carter's hospital room. Chandler would come up and see Carter after school each day, eat dinner, watch some T.V. and go home to bed.

Carter started feeling better and soon after he and Corban started making balloon people out of the boxes of hospital gloves found in his room.

The hospital was very nice and provided a parent meal. Here Corban, Ryan and Carter are watching a movie while enjoying a hospital provided meal.

By day 11 Carter was ready to go. By this time we had rearranged his balloons as many ways as possible.

One Busy Month

Corban and Carter both received their Arrow of Light Award. This is the Eagle of the Cub Scouting program. We are very proud of the them and their hard work. The Indian in the middle awarded them their arrows. For more info please visit Carter and Corban's personal blog site.
This is the last step from cub scouts to boy scouts. Carter and Corban walked across the bridge symbolizing their bridging into the Boy Scouts of America. This was both a happy and sad time. After three years with the same boys and leaders they were both a little apprehensive about the change, yet at the same time anticipation for what's ahead was apparent.

Carter, Corban and Chandler say," Happy Halloween, and Mom will you every put the camera down and let us go trick or treating?" Carter was a Ninja, Corban a Vampire and Chandler a Fire Fighter.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here is an example of amtgard in action.

Carter and Corban decided this year they wanted to decorate their own cake. They each drew a plan and work together to create their masterpiece.
Here is the master piece they designed. Be assured it was all edible. They wanted a Medieval theme birthday party.
Corban and Carter got MP3 players for their birthday this year. They were very excited because they have been wanting one for at least a year. We have been constantly reminded all of their friends already have one. I guess we gave into peer pressure, but they can forget the laptop next on their lists.
For their party a neighborhood friend made all the foam shields and and swords for them to battle with. This guy across the street is part of a team that meets together and plays a game called amtgard. You can learn more about it on amtgard-ch.com. It is a very physical and involved game. This has become the game of the neighborhood kids. Boys and girls alike. As you can tell Chandler was not about to be told he was too little. Here is one side lined up waiting for the signal to attack. (Chandler thinks he is fighting the Lamanites.)

We all worked together to make Chandler's Birthday party fun. Carter and Corban helped make the fort on the swingset look like it was on fire by taping red, yellow and orange streamers to it.