The Good, the bad and the Scary!!!

Happy Halloween! Is it really time to dig through the costume bin? Do I have to? I despise coming up with costumes. I realize this is letting you all know that I am ZERO fun, but you already knew that. The kids pretty much came up with their own costumes this year. Thank heavens for older children.  They were invited to a Halloween party and took care of their own costumes. This has been a particularly ugly political season. Trump and Hillary were able to mind their manners with the cow girl keeping an eye on them.

A couple of nights before Halloween, we went to the ward Halloween party. This was my favorite part of the night!

We love to go trick or treating in my sisters neighborhood. Its the best place to go. I don't want to tell you where it is though.... Im being mean and greedy, I know. I couldn't get Hayden to hold still... he is a soldier if you are wondering.

The best part of trick or treating there is COUSINS and FRIENDS!

Corrine helped the younger kids get their costumes put together.

I love the trick or treating and I love seeing the kids so excited and having so much fun.... I just don't like the work of coming up with a costume! Thanks Corrine for pulling it all together for me!

Family Pictures

Family pictures are painful... for Keith and I. The kids love them. The kids are cute. Anyway, here are some pictures from the latest adventure. I am happy with how they turned out.

And, then.... Missionary pictures!!!  WHAT? Yes. Its finally time for those. It kind of weirded me out though.

 Man I love these kiddos. Its strange times knowing Jakob will be leaving soon.

This evening I went outside to check on the kids and found Jakob and Kate like this. After all the pictures today, this one is the one that made me want to cry.

Fall Camping

This summer has been crazy. It was very difficult to find a single weekend we could go camping. We finally found one... in October. We went out to 5 Mile with some friends of ours. It was perfect... minus a couple thousand flies. We enjoyed the weather as well as 4-wheeler rides.

The last time we took the 4-Wheelers out, Kate and Keith tipped theirs because it was hard for Keith to drive and hold on to Kate. Living with a crafty daughter and a smart engineer has its perks. Keith and Corrine designed a seatbelt for Kate. It worked really well!

Jakob and Hayden were partners. Hayden says Jakob is a crazy driver and it scares Hayden to death.... I think Hayden actually loved every second of it.

Corrine and Sariah spent a lot of time together on the 4-Wheelers. Corrine did a great job driving! She did tip the 4-wheeler once and scared both girls half to death. They both got right up and got back on.

I loved the rides we went on. At one point, we rode out to these abandoned mines. They were pretty cool. Sariah and I were riding together and we started wondering about the people that lived out there and what their lives might be like.

I understand these large tires aren't from pioneer days, but I do wonder why they are still out there.

I enjoyed the weekend hanging out with family with no chores or phones or guilt of "what we should be doing". 

We need more weekends like this.

Art Club

My children benefit from a homeschool group that is called "Book Club".  Book Club has gone on for years and my friend Betsy does an amazing job with it. Last year my kids started attending "Science Club" which has also been amazing. I started to feel a little guilty. I was taking and taking from my homeschool friends and I wasn't really giving anything back. My sister and I decided that we would be in charge of "Art Club".   Go ahead, laugh. I do every time I think about it. Im not creative in anyway. Thankfully, my sister is. So... Art Club was born. We had our first meeting and I think it went ok considering we had 20 kids and black paint.

These kids are all great kids and their mommies are equally great. We made little book marks and these awesome candy jars. All of the creativity goes to my sister.

I look forward to art club again next month... but I am grateful its only once a month. My creative juices were maxed out.