Monday, October 29

Tuesday, October 30

Wednesday, October 31 Happy Halloween!

Amy used this joke list for FHE from something else she worked on. It’s always nice to kill two birds with one stone! I read these for her (at her request) while everyone carved pumpkins.

I took all the kids to Zions Bank where everyone deposited money into their Savings Account and the 4 oldest participated in the Zions Bank Pays for A’s program and each added a few more dollars to their accounts. (You have to be at least age 12 for that.) I don’t know why it feels so good to take care of these bank errands!

Amy was a really convincing old lady! She unintentionally matched the “old man” pumpkin she carved the night before!

Amy goes all out in Mark’s practice sessions/lessons! It made me tired just watching her today! Every few minutes she would leave the room and change either into this witch or back into herself. Mark had to do all sorts of exercises to avoid the witch’s spells, etc. What a hoot!

We hosted another Upper-UBQ Monday night. Although we don’t have any awesome pictures to show for it I had the best time I’ve ever had. This is the 3rd year we have done this. We searched our relationships with a few people and found out that Rob Christensen and I are 4th cousins through Lorenzo Hill Hatch, though he came from a different wife. So Natalie and Sarah Jane are 5th cousins! Jill Crandall and I are 9th cousins and Flori Christensen and I are 6th cousins. I had a fantastic time chatting it up with several people there. Jon manned the grill so got to talk with everyone who grilled meat. It was super fun!

For Family Home Evening we carved pumpkins. Adam had left the UBQ early and carved one at Meg’s pumpkin carving party, but he carved the back side of it too with us!

Natalie was justifiably proud of her carving of a scene from How to Train Your Dragon.

I’m trying to help Adam create better study habits so asked him to do his homework at the table. Natalie noticed that he wasn’t too excited about that, so she moved her homework from the library to the table next to him. What a cool sister!

Adam sanpped a picture of Amy working in the kitchen (which she wasn’t thrilled about). Amy is always pitching in without being asked.

Amy, Tyler and Mark dressed up for school. Natalie got out early and came with me to the costume parade at Rock Canyon. We had such a great time talking while we waited! She gave me several valuable tips for Adam’s awareness as he enters high school this coming year. I love our friendship!

Tyler fit our Thor costume perfectly! He had a great time... especially with his action shot back flips!

Mark was a very cute Hedwig!

Andrew was a sniper again.

Adam was an agent.

Natalie was a creepy doll. She did her own makeup and hair... so amazing! For a creepy doll she is too pretty!

I was a nurse and Jon was my psychiatric patient... but I didn’t get an individual pic of him.

Because of the UBQ I moved our Halloween dinner from Family Night to Halloween night, which worked out better than in the past. We had Yummy Mummies, Orange (sweet potato) mashed potatoes, Jello ghosts and spooky punch.

Happy

In Character

Our neighbors love our kids, which makes trick-or-treating extra special.

Jon and I walked around the block and down the street with Tyler and Mark trick-or-treating. It’s fun to chat with all of our friends as we stop by. Sister Wright felt special when Tyler asked, “Are you a missionary?” because she and David just began their mission. We came back and picked up the van to stop by our other favorite houses that are a little farther away or spread out.

Andrew went trick-or-treating with these friends: Bea Christensen, a cousin, Sam Hepworth and Lexi Avery. When he returned with his jack-o-lantern bucket stuffed with candy he shattered the contentment our younger kids have always had about trick-or-treating to just a few houses! It wasn’t too terrible, but Tyler was a bit upset by it!

all six jack-o-lanterns on Halloween

We always end at “the root beer house” where Sister Kemp serves ice cold homemade root beer from her cauldron. I love this tradition!

Adam also went out trick-or-treating with friends: Ella Jensen, ??, ??, Elliott, (Adam), - Strong, Meg Barker and ??. He had such a fantastic time and came back super happy. I’m grateful for awesome friends!

Amy went to a friend’s house and had a blast. Natalie manned handing out candy and when we got back we all watched Hotel Transylvania, which was pretty funny! The kids never have a problem paying “taxes” to us - for me always peanut butter chocolate candy of some sort. It was such a nice Halloween!

Happy Halloween!