Happy Halloween

It was a fun Halloween day. Hopefully it lived up to all the kids' excitement and expectations. 

They are downstairs eating junk and watching Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets right now. Corey went to pick up Abi. This morning for school, they eagerly got out of bed to get ready. I drew a frog on Lily's face last night (thanks to this idea!) and tried to touch it up a bit.

The markers kept bleeding into the white paint... and the eyes had rubbed off by the end of the school day. 

We'll have to experiment and maybe get real make up supplies for next year. Or maybe we'll do some fun stuff for Christmas. But it lasted through the night and survived the day at school. But Lily was good with that and wore a black hoodie. Lily is also really excited that she's learned the rhythm and beat for how to play the cup game. She said she taught that in one of her classes today. I'm sure it was mostly a party day. I don't think Abi dressed up for school, but she and her friends dressed up like Alvin and the Chipmunks. She was Simon. 

The elementary kids were thrilled that the fun day of days was finally here - Halloween! Here's a cute picture of all the excited kids at the bus stop this morning - 

Free candy and imaginative costumes. The elementary kids were excited for the school parade. This morning we couldn't find the washable markers, though, so I used black permanent marker for Daniel's Incredibles mask! We'll find out tonight if it comes off!

Owen is going to be an astronaut tonight, but I put that he was going to be a Ninjago Lego guy for school, and he changed his mind a few times (he wanted to be a pirate, then a vampire, etc) but I said he had to stay with the Lego Ninja. 

His 2nd grade teachers plan a musical program around all of their costumes. Here he is on the back row, in front of the pumpkin -

He did a cute job in the program. 2nd graders are cute. 

Just Katharine and I stayed for the program, but Corey and Peter came to the parade too, which was before the program. Parade at 9:15, then program at about 10:00. We saw all the kids in the parade.

Daniel has such a fun personality. Most of the kindergarteners seemed nervous and were not smiling, but not Daniel. He came up and gave Katharine a hug and then continued on his way, waving to all his fans ~

It was outside, again, and it was chilly but not too bad. After D, we saw Owen and Natalie, but Sophi's class skipped in order and she came before Natalie, so I was looking for a Jolly Rancher and not Cleopatra, so I missed getting a photo of her but we did wave and give a hug. Here she is with her friends trick or treating tonight ~

Our neighbors did a pizza dinner for the neighborhood and the kids went over there, but I didn't. Corey was in the shower and I was nursing Katharine, cause it started at 5:30 right when we got back from a bike ride. Probably our last one of the season! It was snowy and cold for most of the trail, but it was nice to be up there one last time. 

I got a personal best on the ride up! I did a few parts that I haven't been able to do before, and I really did them this time! I didn't pause or stop to adjust my wheel, I was proud of myself! I listened to this on the ride up (well, I listened to part 1 on Sat, this time I was on part 2 and I loved the things she talked shared about parenting. It is a must listen! Start at 25:00, so good! So, it was good, cold, but good. I miss fall already. I'm going to try and go to Corner Canyon for one more ride tomorrow, and then there's snow coming Wednesday morning and for 8 of the next 10 days. We're going to need to find a new daily hobby for the winter since biking will be mostly out. Unless we get a fat bike! Maybe I'll take up snow shoeing? Corey's thinking of getting a pass to Momentum for rock climbing. He and Wes might go in the morning. Ok, sorry, back to Halloween. So Corey showered, I nursed K, she fell asleep and so he stayed home with her and I went out with kids - Lily borrowed a dinosaur onesie for Wes so he could be twinners with Peter. 

They called themselves "The Dinosaur Brothers". Checking out some of the loot - Pokemon cards!

We have a pretty great neighborhood for kids to trick or treat in. 

Lily as a Christmas Tree, Natalie as a Jolly Rancher. Lily didn't get candy, she was just being festive and walked around with us.

Getting lots of loot!

One neighbor was dressed as "Your Fairy Godmother" and the kids lined up to talk with her, like they would for a Mall Santa, and she granted them wishes and gave them candy and some kids (like my 3 girls) got jewelry! 

Running from house to house. 

A neighbor Dave has a tradition of making flat bread - 

And some neighbors next to him had hot dogs to roast and smores!

Another neighbor was serving up hot cocoa and apple cider. It's just a pretty amazing neighborhood and place to live. We love it here. 

Tonight as Owen was trick or treating, he nostalgically said "I'm going to miss Halloween tomorrow..." I'm sure he will. Corey's back with Abi - time for scriptures. We're still going to make it to bed by 10! It's our new modus operandi for survival, and it is working wonders. We've only done it for like the past 6-9 months I think, but it's great. It's still a school night, so party is over - Bye Halloween! We'll see you next year!

Hibbert Farewell

We went up to Davis County to my lil' brother's house to wish farewell to their oldest boy Conner. He will serve as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, teaching the Savior's gospel to the people in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I was glad that we got a group Hibbert photo afterwards with my parents and sister Beka with her husband. That was a rare treat. Joseph and Melodie were there too!    

Conner is starting mission training tomorrow and is going to learn Spanish, exciting! We missed his talk in church because we had the Primary Program in our ward, and with 4 kiddos in the primary, we had to be there. 

We left after sacrament meeting and went up to their house to visit with Conner and his family. Melodie and Joseph were there for Conner's talk. 

My little brother is the bishop in their ward. He's the salt of the earth, and so are his wife and kids. We don't get together often enough. It was fun to visit and laugh and sing. Joseph played Piano Man, we were missing his harmonica though.

Joseph loving on Katharine - 

The kids had my phone and took picture of themselves. They like to make videos blowing raspberries and then putting it in slow motion. It makes for funny videos and still shots!

Haha, I posted an unflattering pic of my very conscious to try and look beautiful teen - that will teach them to use my phone! Poor Katharine had people shoving their fingers in her face most of the time there.

Maybe she didn't mind. She tried to voice an objection then got distracted by her sound. We stayed and visited, then decided we should go, so we started to move outside...

then all kept talking, ha!

Corey was sharing a few mission stories and we were giving what advice we could to prepare Conner a little bit for what's coming! Pretty exciting. Hard, wonderful, all the highs and lows of life. A mission is like a mini life experience. He's a great kid, he'll do great. 

On the drive home and on the way back, we listened to an ALL IN podcast with guest Jenedy Paige - I first heard of her years ago from a painting she did of Jesus as a babe in a manger "Little Lamb" - the research she did for it really impressed me. Anyway, the podcast was her sharing a story of how she's developed a personal relationship with God - through her "pjs" - Prayer - Journal - and Scriptures. She also shares of when one of her children died because of drowning, it made me cry. I am so impressed with her faith and trust in God. I was also impressed that she got on American Ninja Warrior! And the reasons why - just from a feeling/prompting! I want to be in tune and hear and know what the Lord would have me do in my life. I was (probably still am) an artist - I wonder if I can use that to serve the Lord somehow. I do have a bucket list goal to submit a piece to the Church's International Art Competition someday. 

Back at home, the kids were playing Klask, and Katharine was sitting at the little table watching him! She can sit!

I scooted around to get a picture of her cute self - 

Ahh!!! She's so little and so cute and getting so big!!! That table was like the perfect height for her to hold onto to keep her balance. Squee! So stinkin' cute

Joseph and Mel came home with us and Ethan got a ride up to SL too, just for a brief visit, and then before they left we took a photo of everyone in their Halloween costumes for tomorrow. Happy Halloween. Peter and Wes are my favorite. They are "Dinosaur Brothers".

Some of them might change their costumes still - most likely Natalie... I'm not sure what she was actually wearing in this pic - but she's got like 4 costumes lined up, we'll see which one she chooses tomorrow! 

Lagoon and Violin

It's late, but I'm staying up waiting for Sophi to get back from Lagoon 

I was thinking it was going to be $30 or $40. Nope. I guess I shouldn't be surprised it was so expensive, since Abi spent $35 on a dinky Haunted house yesterday/Fri night. (She paid for that herself. She didn't want to go or spend that much money, but wasn't feeling brave enough to say no to her friends. Teens!) After I said yes to Sophi going to Lagoon, I learned that tickets were $95 bucks - yikes! Sophi is going to earn it by practicing violin for an hour each day. 1 Hour = $1 to pay it back to us. So something good will come from it. Also, she was one of the only kids to "earn" a pumpkin, so she's going to put her money toward that instead. I had the kids earn them this year, cause I'm tired of them having all the fun but not working or helping around her consistently. So 10 days ago I said they had to do their chores each day through the 29th to earn a pumpkin. Only Sophi and Owen did it (A&L's room is trash plus L doesn't practice consistently, N only missed one day of violin but also doesn't always do her chore, but she and Sophi did do a great job keeping their room clean! D didn't do chores or read. Anyway, they're doing better, but need to do better if they want privileges. 

So it was a busy Saturday. It was nice to sleep in. Love our cute little roommates - 

Sweet toddler and baby.

Sophi and Natalie had an "Autumn Violin Play In" at 10 out in West Valley. Sophi was Cleopatra, Natalie was a Candy Corn. Can you spot them?

I took a few videos, might upload them later. So I took them there for that, brought Katharine along. Then as soon as that was over and we were back home (12:30), Sophi headed to Lagoon. Wes left early to go help Corey's dad with some work, and after I got back, Corey took NODP to Wrides to help. Abi had GMS this morning and was back around 2. After she got back, she really wanted to go to the mall, so I took her there, and Lily and I went to Costco while we waited for her. We love it, when you hold Katharine out but close to your face, how she always reaches up and kinda embraces your cheek! It's so tender!

Yeah, she might just be trying to grab our hair, but we pretend she's showing us love and we adore her little embrace. So that's adorable. We love her so much. 

Back from Boston Friday

Corey and Wes got back from Boston today. 

Corey said that Wesley wasn't a willing subject of photographs, but Corey still was able to get a few shots of him. 

They went to MIT, Boston Architecture College, and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Wesley got a nice little MIT notebook that he's using as a sketch pad for his architecture drawing. He drew a nice sketch of the Boston Temple! And he got two nice pens, and he can flip both of them at the same time, one with each hand. You are very talented Wes!

They took a little ride around town on scooters, and said that was fun. 

The highlight for Wes was going to a hockey game. 

I was glad that Abi and Lily were home from school today, cause I was able to leave the little kids at home with them while I went to the airport to pick up Corey and Wes. Katharine looked so precious snuggling with Abi, she fell asleep on her. 

I told Abi that I was jealous, cause Katharine never just falls asleep like that on me. That would be a real treat. 

So it has been a nice Friday and we're glad that they made it back safely. They went off to work at the Salt Mine after they got home. Wesley is trying to finish one of his BYU classes before he leaves for India next month with YMAD. The elementary kids got home and had a primary program practice. Their primary program is at church this Sunday. Natalie reading again this evening - cute. 

Melodie sent me a cute idea for Halloween for Katharine - having her in a wrap and then turning the person into a tower and turning the baby into Rapunzel, haha!

Sophi and Natalie had a group violin class. I waited in the car for them, Katharine fell asleep on the drive over and kept sleeping after we parked. Well, she tried to wake up once and then I put some skin close to her face and she fell back asleep. 

I listened to an All In podcast with Jenedy Paige as I waited, it is so amazing! You have to listen to it, I'm going to have the kids listen to it on Sunday. Some of my take aways: Get a personal relationship with Christ through Prayer, Journaling, and Scriptures - our "PJS"! I want to start rock climbing. What is possible for me? Could I do Ninja Warrior stuff? Could I make time in my life for art? What does God want me to do with the talents and time and children that he's given me? Those were some things we talked about on our date night at Bandits, which was good except I forgot to order my dressing on the side, and I asked for them to substitute shrimp for the chicken, but they charged us for a shrimp add on, which is stupid, so next time I'll just get both. I probably didn't need to record that detail, but I'll leave it. I'll head to bed now, I'm going on a ride tomorrow, gotta keep trying to get one more in, it will probably be over in a few days, snow is on the forecast next week!