Lowell Halloween

I thought I better get our Halloween stuff on so we are not the last to do it (haha Nettie!) Our Halloween turned out a little differnt than we planned it. For the past 2 or 3 years we have been invited to a friends party at their house Halloween night. They have cookies to decorate and pot luck dinner (I love not having to worry about dinner on Halloween night)and coolest of all they set up a Halloween movie in the back yard with a big sheet and a projector. Somewhere in the middle of it we go Trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. Well, Gary decided to be sick this year so the party was out. Gary felt horrible but gave out candy while I took everyone but CAroline trick--or-treating just on our street. My kids never cease to amaze me. We finished our street and they all ran into our house to eat the their candy and were done for the night. I was fully prepared to go back out with the older kids but they were done. Gary went upstairs to rest and I took over giving out candy. THe kids were watching "Coraline" and Parley decided it was too scary and started to hand out candy. He did a good job. Eventually everyone had helped giving out candy off and on. The coolest part about it all thought was getting to see the reaction of people trick-or-treating next door. Our neighbor Larry has a fun time with Halloween. He wears a costume that could look like a big Halloween decoration ghoul and stands absolutly still when people come up to the door he finally moves and says "Boo!" THere were some screamers.

Earlier in the week our ward had a Halloween Carnival with a cake walk and differnt booths where the kids can earn tickets and get prizes. Hannah wore the traditional Girraffe costume at that but just sat there because it was too hard to move in. (She is so tiny everyone else fit in the costume when they were her age but it was huge on her. So it wasn't any suprise when she wouldn't wear it on Halloween night. She still wanted to come along though. She was so cute chasing after everyone else yelling "Tru twee" We had a fun family night.

Grampa Roger

My dad was able to stop by for a few hours on his way out to his house. It was nice to see him, and it was good for the kids to be able to see him. The sad part was that he could only stay for two hours. Oh well. At least we were able to see him. He drove straight from Toronto Canada down through North and South Carolina then down here to Alabama to see my sisters and a few other relatives. That is one long drive, and he still has a 13 hour drive home from my place. Go Grampa!

I walked into the living room a few minutes ago to find this. Evidently everyone took care of their apple and pear cores by giving them to Simeon instead of the trashcan. He was one happy boy!

The kids and me and the 15 extra pounds I gained in my face since getting pregnant

This is my Dad. I sure wish he could have been here longer, but I'm grateful for the time we did have.

Happy Halloween (long)

Here are the kids before and after the trunk or treat on Friday. We had lots of fun and we invited two of our neighbors and their kids to come, so it was extra fun this year. Our ward is really big into inviting people to church and events, so the cultural hall was packed by the time we got there. There were so many chili's to try and we made our pumpkin dessert. That stuff is so good. It was gone before we even finished going through the line for chili. Halloween night the temperature dropped by 30 degrees from the night before, so the girls got to wear extra stuff under their costumes. It was lots of fun for all of us. Rebekah walked and walked and walked with Jacob. He dropped everyone off with me and took off with Bekah again since she wanted to keep going.





These are the milk jugs that we saved for weeks and painted to make luminaries for Halloween. They turned out pretty cute. Thankfully they are all going to the recycle bin tonight for pickup tomorrow. Storing them for over a month in the pantry turned into a real hassle, but was still fun.

We had lots of extra time for church since the time changed last night. We spent 45 minutes taking up time with "giving lessons" by Bekah and Riah before we left. Bekah is our teacher. She loves to teach the other kids.

How cool is a blue seer sucker suit?! Super cool, that what! He loves the quad we got him for his birthday.

This girl reminds me so much of Ezra whenever we take pictures. Here's my favorite Ezra face she made last night.

Chowing down on candy after making the rounds here on post. The kids were on such a sugar high last night. Sariah was literally bouncing off the couches and around the room. About ten minutes later she completely crashed and all the kids were asleep within a few minutes after laying down. Some of them (sariah) barely made it through bed time prayers. All in all tons of fun!

Church Halloween Party (Tues)

Here is a picture of the group that went to the Church party from our house hold. Henry-Dead Dr., Me-Dead Dr. assistant. I'm not sure what Otavio was because he ended up adding a cape to that costume. Sam-super man and Gramma-witch.

I was so glad Henry really got into it this year. He even painted his arms white to make him look extra ghostly!

Samuel eating his first piece of candy for the evening. He was so excited to get this succor he had me open it on the spot. Than he realized he could get more candy! He would not stop running around all evening! I was so tired afterward. Our ward does this cake walk thing. Tons of people bring cakes or desserts. Whoevers incharge sets up numbers in a circle on the floor. They call up different age groups to stand on the numbers, than you walk in a circle while they play music. When the music stops the people stop. than they call out a number and whoever is on that number wins a cake of their choosing. Henry, Guacy, and Helen all won once. It was Great. I think Guacy was really happy when she won.

This is a picture of Sam and me before we left to the party. He is so cute!

Bed Buddies

We were given a set of bunk beds from a friend. Yeah! Now Joseph has a "big boy bed." Actually he gets the whole bunk bed to himself. They use the top for a fort. There are only two beds in the girls' room. We took their bunk beds apart since they kept taking the ladder off and were using it to climb everything. Elizabeth always sleeps with either Rebekah or Sariah. Lately we've been finding all the girls together in one bed. Super cute!

Lowell kids Primary Program

Our Primary program was today. Gramma Jody and Grampa Mark called yesterday and told us they were going to come and watch the program. Each of our kids had a small line but they really weren't encouraged to memorize them. I think even if we had, had them memorize it their teacher would have whispered it in their ear. Oh, well, it was still really cute. Eliza , we found out, is the tallest and has the clearest speaking voice in her class, however she would not sing even the songs I knew she knew. It makes sense though because she's in the Parley strand and that is what Parley did when he was a sunbeam. This time Parley was singing his heart out standing way back in the back row. Emma was in the back on the other side but moved forward when she was part of a small group of some of the older kids singing the second verse of "I am a Builder" Lucy stood right in front and sang all the words with a big smile on her face. Vilate could see her so well and during one of the songs she walked over to the end of our row and said something to Gary. He couldn't understand her until she sneaked past him. He realized she was saying, "I want to sing." So she marched up to stand next to Lucy and sing. She didn't really sing but she got to be part of it. After the song finished she came and sat back down. It was cute. Sacrament meeting went so fast! I wish every Sunday was the Primary Program! :)

Brotherly Kindness

So amoung other things, we've finally returned home from our super long trip. The first week we were back, the boys would ask me if we were spending the night at "so & so's" house when we'd go visit someone.

Also when we first arrived home the boys went straight to their room. Tustin looked all around and kept saying, this is my room, these are my things! Travis & I looked at him and he had tears in his eyes. He was so overjoyed to be home again!!

Anywho, I've been able to keep the house fairly clean and in good condition on a regular basis... until today that is.

So I got ambitious, or annoyed, rather. And made ties for our rocking chair cushion in the space of about 3 hours. That's really good for me. I am so proud of myself. I just got tired of having to constantly replace the cushion or set it just right. I challenged Tustin (the cushion displacer culprit) to "pomp it off now" So he got up there and did his little trick and nothing happened!! He was suprised.
Here's the special service the boys did for Tracker. He was ready to go outside so Trayton ran over and got his coat off the hook and proceeded in putting Tracker's coat on him. Right there he's pulling his hands out of his sleeve. I was so proud to be a mother @ that moment.

Then Tustin offered to zip the coat.

Doing the other sleeve.

This is a caribou, something we don't ever see in town. I was driving, just a couple blocks from home and saw this caribou running down the road!! I had to stop and get a picture. This is only the second time I've seen a caribou.

We also had our primary program today. It went really well, except that Trayton sat next to the only person we asked him not to. His friend Zander is just as rambunxious as Trayton. But they seem to have matured from last year's experience. ;) I was afraid we had missed our primary program while traveling, but Trayton was able to memorized his part in a day and practiced a lot of the songs. It was so fun to see him perform well. Tustin is anxious to be a part of it next year, he's still in nursery.

Love you All!!!