Monday, October 26

Kim did a really sweet Sharing Time. She invited several temple workers from our ward to share with our Primary children some of the blessings they have received by working in the temple. My favorite was 95-year old Anna Wakefield, who has served in the Provo temple for 32 years! When she told the kids that she loves to sing Primary songs, and her favorite is “I Love to See the Temple,” a 4- year old on the front row called out, “Mine too!” So sweet. Anna is such an angel!

We ask the primary children who are assigned to share a scripture each Sunday to share any scripture (it doesn’t have to be memorized) and share why they like it. Andrew chose to share our scripture for the week, and perfectly quoted 1 Samuel 17:45-47, and shared why he liked it. So awesome!

I conducted, and also got to speak with a few of the teachers in the hallway about their classes and the upcoming year. After church, our presidency visited two of our new families. I love being in their homes. It gives you such a better idea of what they are like, and you get to see so much more of their goodness. It was great!

Tuesday, October 27

Wednesday, October 28

Thursday, October 29

Friday, October 30

Saturday, October 31 - Happy Halloween!

Sunday, November 1

Mark was really excited to help me work on his spider costume. He helped me stuff the legs (socks) with grocery sacks. I was very happy to finish this costume -- the last one. I also finished the girls’ wands that day.

The boys had soccer, and Adam had a cello group class. I had to hunt down Amy at her friend’s house to get everyone fed and dressed a little nicer for our evening event.

Amy did her own crazy hair for school spirit week Crazy Hair Day.

I loved parent-teacher conferences for Andrew and Tyler. Hearing glowing reports about my boys makes my heart beam!

Each youth class came up with and manned a station for the Halloween party (which makes this a do-able and easy activity for our Primary). We didn’t bring any decorations or have any gathering games this year, but I really don’t think the kids cared. They loved all the activities, and I think everyone had fun. More kids came after this picture was taken.

Thursday was a big day for Gary. We had all been praying extra for him, and there was fasting as well, for his big surgery. He had one of his kidneys taken out, and the doctors also found some other things that need to come out too (gall bladder, part of the colon, etc.), so he will need more surgery later. His heart took it okay, though they had to give him some Atropine at one point. We were so happy to talk with him and M’Jean that night. He was a little loopy from the drugs, which was pretty funny. Oh, how much we love Gary! He needs to stick around for a lot longer, so we’re so grateful that surgery went well!

After getting the kids to bed, Jon and I watched the BYU Women’s soccer game vs. Pepperdine. It’s fun to win, and mostly to see awesome goals and great soccer! 3-0

Natalie sprained her ankle on Wednesday, so we’ve been taking her to school. Thankfully, Jon gave her a ride Friday so I could curl Amy’s “Hermione hair,” and help Tyler finish his homework before school.

Our next stop was a nearby rehabilitation center where Gommy has been since October 7th after having her left knee replaced. Halloween also happened to be her 91st birthday! She entertained Tyler and Mark with her automatic bed buttons, asking them to push down on her bed, and see it “magically” move down. They did this forever, it seemed!

The kids gorged on candy, while watching parts of Wolverine. After a while, Amy, Makenzie and Savannah went to Summer’s house and played for a few more hours. It was a great night! (And yes, it took forever to get Adam’s black makeup off!)

Our scripture this week is a long one, but super inspiring. Along with the “being nice” scriptures, I want our kids to be inspired by the faith of people in the scriptures like David. We know the stories pretty well, but to learn their words is powerful!

When I introduced the scripture, I brought out a sword, a spear (made from a rod & silver paper), and a shield, and had the boys hold the items in the air as we said their names. They loved this!

We went to a free family concert at the Covey Center organized by Kalo and sponsored by the Coveys. All ages were welcome, and I loved the less formal atmosphere with Kalo asking questions before the soloists and groups performed -- questions like, “How long do you practice each day?” “Why have you stuck with your instrument?” “What do you do when you get nervous?” ...and questions unrelated to music, like, “What do you do for fun in your spare time?” It was awesome for my kids to hear all their comments.

My favorite response was from a teenage boy about why he didn’t quit piano. He said, “Well, I tried to quit when I was in 3rd grade, but my mom took me out for a milkshake and had me sign a contract that I wouldn’t quit.” All it took was a milkshake?! So funny.

This violinist (above) was my favorite. The girls and I remember her soloing with the Utah Symphony last year. She was impressive.

The 6-year old bass player stole the show for cuteness.

There were two piano quartets, which were fun. There were also solo pianists, a violin-viola duo, violist, flutist, etc. Overall, great exposure for my kids. Level-wise, my girls could easily perform at this event, but performance-wise, they need some practice.

Barney’s and Lexye’s families came as well, and we sat together. Cousins are so fun!

Lexye and Nick came over afterward for brownies and chatting. It was a late night for the kids, but worth it to be with family.

On Tuesday, Amy made peanut butter bars, and (completely on her own) decided to add a cartoon of David and Goliath. Everyone thought it was the coolest! It says “I will smite thee”

Thursday night, instead of reading our Book of Mormon chapter, we read 1 Samuel 17. Since the boys already had these verses memorized, and since we had been talking about this story during the week, they really soaked it in. Andrew was so excited when we got to verses 45-47! We learned that many of the paintings incorrectly portray Goliath as having his sword drawn, but David withdrew Goliath’s sword from its sheath after he was on the ground, so he most likely only had his spear and probably took his shield from the shield bearer right before David came up to him.

Jon also showed the kids pictures of the largest man on record, who was almost 9 feet tall. Crazy stuff! We measured our ceilings, and our living room ceiling is about 9’ tall. It’s crazy to think about how enormous Goliath was!

Jon and I went to Natalie’s school orchestra concert. It was so fun to watch her socialize on stage before the concert. I waved to her, and when she saw me, she totally did the teenage “I’m going to pretend I didn’t see my parents” look and turned back to her friends. Cracks me up.

Adam had the best report ever from his 5th grade teacher at our parent-teacher conference. She had all good to say about him. Woo hoo! That makes me so happy (not to mention his awesome test scores and that he’s reading on a 10th grade level)!

Besides taking Andrew and Tyler to and from soccer practice, the rest of the afternoon was getting everyone in costumes, curling hair, applying makeup, etc. for our Primary Halloween party.

Amy and the other beehives did a fishing pond.

Mark camped out forever at the Laurel’s cookie frosting station. I had to lure him away by taking him on the hay ride!

The teachers did this donut bobbing booth, which the kids ate up (ha ha)!

The mia maids did a football throwing booth, and the priests did a cupcake walk.

The deacons (Jon) did two things: a photo booth on stage, which showed the pictures being taken on a TV for all to see, and saved them for sending later. Jon also put together a cool hayride for the kids with the Ranger and his trailer behind it. He mounted a strip of lights onto it, which had such a cool effect! Adam, dressed as a dementor, rode behind the trailer on the hover board scooter, and all you could see were the blue lights from it along with his shadowy figure, so he looked pretty awesome, and the kids loved that!

I’m so grateful to the youth leaders and youth for all they did to make it a fun activity. It lasted an hour (6:30-7:30), which was perfect.

Lexye and Nick dropped off their kids in the early afternoon while they did sealings. Since my kids had early out, it worked out perfectly. Uncharacteristic for me, I didn’t take any pictures! I loved chatting with Lexye afterward. Poor Nick, without his laptop, was stuck listening to us until he got a phone call for work, ha ha. Lexye and I could really talk for hours if we had that much time! It’s so much fun to talk with someone who has so many similar interests and pursuits! I love her!

I’m so happy with our new school pictures. I took these at Springdell at the beginning of this month and printed at Costco again. Their coloring has definitely improved. The prints used to always turn out extra blueish. This time, they were awesome.

Mark and I went to the elementary school Halloween costume parade in the morning. I love that it doesn’t matter where you sit in the gym because the kids march up and down every aisle. There are so many creative costumes! I love it!

Andrew and Tyler rocked their piano lessons again. I love Kalo and my amazing boys!

I threw together a Halloween meal for Friday, knowing how busy Saturday would be. I didn’t get to do orange mashed potatoes, like normal, but used the sweet potatoes to make fries. I still can’t get them to turn out crispy. Grrr. We also had yummy mummies and peach smoothies.

Along with season football tickets, Jon and Weston got season basketball tickets with a business deal. We went to our first basketball game on Friday night, which was really fun! I love the Hafens!

Meanwhile, I took Amy to her team’s end of the season parents vs. kids soccer match.

I’m not a soccer player, but I was surprised by how much fun I had playing!

There were treats afterward. This is a really great group of people!

The kids helped pack lunches, and then we picked up Jon and Andrew at Home Depot in Lindon, and headed to Bountiful to visit Gary in the hospital. The kids each brought him a trick and a treat. The trick was a funny cartoon about kidneys (6 different ones). He had some good laughs! The treat was a nice card they made for him. I didn’t supervise the card making, and was surprised at Adam’s wording of “No dying allowed” on his card! At least Gary laughed at that, too.

For my trick or treat, I brought Gary a kidney pillow I made to help him deal with any separation anxiety he might have from losing a kidney. It made me happy that he thought it was so funny and loved it!

Man, oh man, we love our Gary! It was so great to visit with him. Here’s to a speedy recovery, Gary! (I love Mark’s wink.)

The kids also made sweet cards for Gommy. It was so wonderful to visit with this wonderful lady! I think social energy runs in this family! Gary and Gommy both are filled with loving energy for children and people.

The one thing I wanted for myself on Halloween was to get a family picture in the daylight. Jon delivered, and made my day!

Our family decided to go with a Harry Potter theme this year, which was so fun!
Jon was Hagrid (and his willingness to dress up like this shows his love for and devotion to me)! I was Professor Trelawney with my poofy hair, round glasses, and crystal ball.

Natalie made a very beautiful Ginny Weasley, while Amy made a very beautiful Hermione Granger. I made their wands out of chopsticks, hot glue, beads, and paint.

The only character Adam was excited to dress up as was a dementor. I am not into creepy costumes at all, but decided to go with this one for Adam’s sake. He loved it! I made his costume.

Andrew was super excited to be Harry Potter. He finished the books early this year, and each time he finished a book, we watched the movie for it. So while Harry Potter is kind of old news, for our family, it was renewed this year again, thanks to Andrew.

Tyler was thrilled to be Hedwig, Harry’s owl. This costume took the longest to make (see below). He’s the one who kept saying, “I can’t believe we’re all from Harry Potter!”

Mark dressed up as Aragog, the giant spider in Harry Potter. I made his costume from Jon’s old black church socks, grocery bags, black craft fur, black gloves, Jon’s old hat and googly eyes. Mark loved it! During the Primary Halloween party, the clear thread I used to hold up his legs broke, so I used silver-black cord to secure them, and it worked way better, even withstanding an entire night of trick-or-treating.

Here’s another view of Tyler’s owl feathers. I cut rows and rows of white feathers, sewed them onto the white fabric, then added individual grey feathers here and there. I was happy that it turned out so cool to him. I felt especially fulfilled after completely winging it (pun intended) as I put this together, going from a few pictures I saw online.

Jon made trick-or-treating extra fun by pulling a hay-filled trailer behind the Ranger. The light strip around the inside edge made it look so cool! We passed many longing parents and kids that night, and added several kids to our trick-or-treating party by the end of the night! Amy had two friends with her, Adam had one, and Natalie had her friend Natalie with her in the Ranger (neither trick-or-treated, but they had a blast together)! The Ranger is so perfect for our neighborhood since there are many long stretches of no-go, dark houses on our route. The kids loved it, and we did too!

Our favorite stop (besides the bishop’s house and the Brintons’, who give out full-size candy bars) was “the root beer house” as the kids call it. Sister Kemp makes a big cauldron full of bubbling homemade root beer, which is super yummy! It’s a hidden house, so pretty much only ward members go.

The weather was so perfect, and didn’t get really cold until it was time to go home anyway.

This is what it’s all about!

My favorite jack o’ lanterns in the Middletons’ display this year were of these 3 apostles. So amazing!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to capitalize on the Daylight Saving’s extra hour of sleep. When I woke up at “7:20” am according to the clock on my wall, I thought Jon had turned off my alarm and I had only 10 minutes to get to ward council. Jon interrupted me as I was almost all ready, reminding me of Daylight Savings. Ah! Of course, the alarm on my phone hadn’t gone off because it was still only 6:20am. Oh well, since I was too awake by then, I made good use of my extra time.

Jon took Andrew to his last soccer game for the season - another slaughter. It was in Highland.

I got to talk with my parents for half an hour, which was much enjoyed, and then joined Jon, Natalie, Amy, and Andrew for some Nerts.

Happy Sunday and Halloween week!