party games

I'm so grateful for Pinterest! I found both these ideas for Carson's class party on there. Angry Monsters and Witch a Pitch!

With this game the kids will be tossing candy corn into the cauldrons. I tossed a few and it was kinda hard. I hope they have fun with both games. 

more Halloween

We're doing all things Halloween around here.  Only a couple more days...

still driving

Karlee has her license yet I'm still driving the kids to church. This is wrong! One of the best reasons for her having a license, is me NOT driving on Wednesday nights.

Bailee needed to go visiting teaching so it's a good excuse, but no more. Please...

I needed to pick up a book at the library so we hung out for a bit. Carson had fun checking out the toys. He had fun playing even though they were for toddlers. If only I could turn back the clock. It would be fun to have Carson as a four year old again! I've always loved the age of my kids. But anyone of them at four would be fun! 

I miss having little ones around sometimes. I wish we lived closer to McKinzie. 

Look how cute these two are!! Seriously! Too cute! I wonder if Geoff will be Sully. :0)

chess club

Mason has been going to chess club twice a week for the past 6 weeks. I think he likes it, it's hard to tell sometimes.

Yesterday he had a field trip after school to another school. It was like a tournament but not. He played against two different boys, two matches each. He won three of the four matches, they didn't have time to finish the last match. 

He was happy when I picked him up. I'm glad he's enjoying it. He's a thinker so it's a good club for him. 

more pumpkins

Tonight for FHE we carved pumpkins. It's a whole 6 days before Halloween! We could never carve this early in Texas. The boys helped out with the cleaning out of the pumpkins but then they became distracted. 

Bailee lost control of her scraper and ended up in the eye. She didn't really care and Carson loved it. 

Karlee's turned out amazing! Whatever she touches often turns out almost perfect. 

The boys ended up playing in the leaves. We love our leaves!! These next few days I'm sure they'll be outside in the leaves. 

A close up of our "burning bush". It's behind Karlee and Mason in the second picture. 

I just can't get enough of the colors all around us. 

birthday boy

I can't believe this boy is 5 today!! He has grown up way too fast! We miss him so much. We get to see him at Christmas though. We can't wait!

 

 

We tried to facetime but it only lasted for a few minutes.  We did get to see him open our present for him.  We gave him a Wolverine guy and sour patch kids candy.  

I love this picture of these two. He's such a nice big brother.  I hope he's always this sweet with Retta. 

I think I'll start counting down the days till I get to see them. Can't wait!! 

a full day

Another beautiful fall day! 

Bailee helped me remove a few shrubs to expand our garden space next year. What I mean by help is that she drove the lawn mower to pull the wagon. :0) We about doubled our garden space. I'm not sure it will be enough room. We have big plans for next year. 

Brian helped Carson with his earth model today. They used a bouncy ball for the inner core, tin foil for the outer core, yarn for the mantle, and Play-doh for the crust. 

This afternoon the boys and I went to Boo Bash! It was fun. Carson walked around finding friends and spending tickets. Mason helped run the cake walk, which he loved! I helped out with the pizza and soda booth. 

Both boys did the cake walk and both brought a cake home. Lucky us!!

she's free

Karlee received her drivers license yesterday. She's so very excited!! She had to go visit a friend to show off her new found freedom. 

Tonight she's off to a friends house for a bon fire. Bailee ended up taking Brian's truck to get together with her friends. I'm glad my Yukon is off limits. :D

leaves and trees

I took this picture this morning when the sun was rising. I'm still in awe at the colors of the leaves. This tree quickly became my favorite when we moved in, especially since we moved in in the Fall. :0) 

A few hours later I took the picture above. Still impressive. 

Yesterday I stopped by the Fox River. I'm loving these trees!!

And this is the road to our house. This is my favorite road. I'm sure you can understand why. 

YW in Excellence

Last night was the annual YW in Excellence night. As always, the leaders did an amazing job decorationing and setting the mood. All the YW shared a project or experience they worked on. These YW are amazing!! I was impressed again and again at the projects they chose. I am so impressed with these girls. 

Karlee took a couple of goodwill purchases and altered them to be modest. She made a very short dress and made it into a skirt. As you can tell, from the picture below, she removed the color and made sleeves with the collar. Clever girl! 

I'm soo impressed with Karlee's choices! She is becoming a strong, compassionate, loving young woman. Keep working hard Karlee. Only one more project and you'll have earned your YW Recognition Award.  

pumpkin daze

We spent the day at this farm playing and laughing together. The fall colors were amazing!!

They had pony races. Karlee won and Bailee cheated. 

It's hard to get these five to sit together for pictures. 

Off they went into the corn. 

In some places the corn was 8 feet tall. There were 7 stamps throughout the maze. Brian and I found 2. The girls found 4. The boys kept getting lost and muddy. 

There were inflatable slides, this bounce pillow, combine slide, pumpkin chucker, rope maze, more slides and a tee-pee town. 

It was a cold day. The boys are sitting on the girls to help each other get warm. 

The boys played a game of checkers then off to the petting zoo. They loved the animals! 

Everywhere I drive around here is beautiful!! In four months when it's below zero I need to remember how much I'm loving it now. Everyday it takes my breath away.