Much to be thankful for...

Right now I am in Arizona, enjoying Thanksgiving with Drew's family. The weather is beautiful, the kids are having a blast playing with cousins, and soon we will enjoy some fabulous food. My sisters-in-law can COOK!

Anyway, I'm escaping the craziness for a moment (did I mention there are 14 grandkids here, all but two 6 or under?) to think a little bit about my many blessings and share a few of the photos of things we are grateful for.

Scott was asked to write a thank you note in Primary. He wrote this note to his friend, Carson, on his soccer team. Carson "passed" it to Scott when he scored his goal:



Charlotte also has a lot she is thankful for. Here is her list from preschool:


If you can't read her Thankful Turkey leaves, they say:
* Playing with Trevor on the trampoline
* My mom makes me chicken and a bacon sandwich with yogurt
* Riding my princess bike
* Going to the library
* Playing at Chuck E Cheese with Scott
* My dad takes me to the green park

And our annual family tradition is to do our Thankful Tree and each of us write what we are thankful for on our tree. If you click on the image, you should be able to read all of the leaves.




Happy Thanksgiving to all!

A Sad Day

Some of you may remember a couple years ago when Scott asked for a VERY expensive swimming pool, and he got it! Check out this post to see just how awesome and expensive the pool was.

Sadly, we enjoyed the pool for 2.5 summers, but it is not going to make it another year. So thanks to our $8 pool for so many fun memories!

October Rundown

It was a busy October... Here is the rundown of all the fun activities!

The Annual Halloween House, along with new Halloween jammies:




The most amazing Halloween party at Steph's house! Fantastic food, amazing decorations, and awesome costumes. Yes, my costume was a real homecoming dress from 1990. My favorite costumes were Axl and Slash... They also set up an incredible spook alley on their property! Even Charlotte wanted to do it over and over. I have to say the masked evil man with the Fisher-Price chainsaw gave me nightmares.







Then of course we had our ward Trunk or Treat, and then followed up with the 7th ward's Trunk or Treat the next day. We clearly did NOT get enough candy after the first outing. Charlotte and Heidi had to be together as the Belle twins, so we couldn't miss their party! And by the way, the CHiPs guys are our missionaries, who of course have no idea who Ponch and John really are since they are 20...







And finally, pumpkin carving! Charlotte and Scott did a great job helping with our masterpiece:



And for those of you keeping score, Charlotte chose 4 different "official" costumes, including Tinkerbell for the party at Steph's, a ballerina for preschool, a flapper for Trunk or Treat #1, and Belle for Trunk or Treat #2. And there were several other costume changes in between... Here is a little fashion show for you:

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm Pilgrimage 2010

Time for the annual pilgramage to Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm! This year was ESPECIALLY fun. We took off Friday, right after school and had 3 hours to play with great weather and hardly any people there. We started with some homemade corn dogs (my favorite), then played on the slides, next off to the train:



Then the petting zoo was next. All three kids LOVED it! Scott and Charlotte first started just feeding the animals from outside the fence, which was hilarious to them. Then they got really brave and went inside the goat pen and wanted to hold them. It was pretty darn adorable:





Trevor also thought the animals were hilarious. He also thinks that all animals say MOO.




Then the kids had dinner. Ice cream. How awesome it that?


Then it was time to head out to see the giant pumpkins. I went with ZERO expectations of taking cute pictures of the kids sitting on pumpkins, hence the completely not-coordinated outfits. But with the help of Grandma and Grandpa we actually did get a couple of really cute ones and lots of very silly ones. The smiley ones are at the top of the post, but here are the real-life ones. You can see Charlotte was really working the camera:






And of course we left with a load of apple cider (or apply I spy, as Charlotte calls it for some reason...), apple-pumpkin muffins, apple pie, cookies, and a new metal decorator pumpkin (Cindy will be jealous). Sure, we didn't get out of there without spending a load, but it was worth it!

Scott's Goal

It was amazing. Scott scored his first soccer goal EVER last Saturday! You have no idea how long he has talked about this and how much he wanted to do it... And here is the proof:

Yes, I realize you can't actually see the goal in the video, but trust me, it was awesome! Scott has been asking for Just Dance, a Wii game, for about 6 months. So as an incentive (bribe) I told him that we would get the game if he made a goal. And after the game, Daddy took the kids to In-n-Out and ToysRUs to celebrate and get the game. And here are Scott and Daddy dancing to Can't Touch This:



This was so great for Scott. He was really ready to quit soccer because he thought it was too hard. So with this little accomplishment, I hope he is learning that with practice, he can do hard things.

C & H

The other day Charlotte and her BFF Heidi were playing, and this was the scene, which is very typical:

So as I'm sitting tonight, thinking about what to blog, I thought it would be fun to post pictures of my favorite twirling 4-year-old girls. From the time they were born, Charlotte and Heidi have shared the same love for princesses, Dora, baby suits (aka bathing suits) and other extremely fashionable outfits, dancing, Candy Land, and catchup. And fortunately I am a big fan of Heidi's mommy, which makes it even easier to let these cute girls hang out as much as possible. If you were to ask Charlotte if she would prefer to go to Disneyland or Heidi's house, it would be a REALLY tough decision... Aren't these girls adorable?