1st place Halloween costume!!!

You've seen the whole gangs costumes now.
Who would you think deserved first place in the
costume contest? SUMMER! She was dressed
up as her Grammy. Just kidding. She was
a little old lady with Alzheimer's (Christmas
sweater and saying Merry Christmas instead
of Trick-or-Treat). Well, she won over the
judges in the 12-18 circuit. Too cute!

This picture shows off Summer's
'plumpy' side. She had a huge butt
and her little tiny figure. OK, she added
about 4 pairs of socks to her bust, too. :0)

I had to zoom in on that picture to show
you Leah's expression. How cute is she!?!
What on earth could have been so funny
to get such a cute reaction. She was an
awesome little old man to go with my
little old lady. We all had a blast!

We used paint on Ty's face this time since
the cheap make-up they sell for costumes
is impossible to get off. I think he is
the scariest skeleton ever. He was really
upset when some kids laughed at his costume.
He didn't understand and was devastated.
I love my innocent little man!

One last costume to share. My friend Natalie
is expecting and this was her homemade
costume. Too funny if you ask me! :0)

Summer's dance

Summer and Leah went to their first dance
at their new school. They had planned on
being an old lady and an old man,
but they chickened out at the last
second. A little bit of paint later, they
had some masquerade masks and
off they went. They had a great time.
Leah is trying to convince her parents to
let her go to NYC, too. I hope she does!
She is a really sweet girl and they get
along so well. We'll see what they decide.

Tonight we have trunk-or-treat at the
church. We woke up Ty saying Happy
Halloween this morning. It's really
confusing when Halloween falls on a
Sunday. Tomorrow will just be a normal
day around here. I guess the whole
"Keep the Sabbath Day Holy" thing
doesn't quite include Halloween. :0)

Dress Up Day!

Today was the Halloween Parade at
Sydney and Ty's school. Sydney hasn't
been allowed to dress up at school for
Halloween since pre-school. She was
really excited. My cute clown & skeleton.

My mom had made this clown costume over
25 years ago. It is the cutest thing ever! It
has star patches, polka dots, and stripes.
You would have thought she bought all those
fabrics today. My mom was a visionary! :0)

I needed Jen Rose this morning (our friend that
is a professional make-up artist)! My skills
are what you call 'lacking'. Especially when
you don't plan well when you have 10 minutes
to put make-up on both kids. :0(

I was so sad when Ty decided he wanted
to be a Jedi this year. I'm so glad he
changed his mind. I love making their
costumes and we had fun cutting
all of the bones out of felt.
Ty was a huge help!

Pretty cool gloves, Ty!
You two are adorable...
oops, I mean scary,Ty!

We say NO!

It's Red Ribbon Week! My kids know to
say no to drugs! All week they have
had fun themes to dress up for.

Monday---Sports theme
Tuesday---Colorful Outfits
Wednesday---Wear red
Thursday---Crazy Hair Day
Friday---Costume Parade

It's Thursday, thus the wild and wacky hair.
Sydney had 7 pony tails and a french braid
down the back. Ty opted for the infamous
faux-hawk. They used orange and white
colored hair spray to add to the beauty of it.
These kids have been wild all week!
Wonder why?!?

Summer is headed to New York City!

Doing well in school has it's advantages!

Through the ALP program (Advanced

Learning) at Summer's school, she gets the

opportunity to head to New York City over

Spring Break 2011. It will cost her $1669,

so the fundraising will soon begin. She has

always been an awesome student, and I am

so thrilled that she gets to visit one of my

favorite places in the whole world! They call

it a Subway Tour, since they will only travel on

foot and via the subway. She will be immersed

in the NYC culture...which couldn't be farther

from our Arizona lifestyle. I've always thought it

would be fun to live in Manhattan for a couple

years. Maybe Sydney will decide to go to Juilliard

and we can visit her often. :0) As for now, it's

Summer's turn. Here is her basic itinerary:

Day 1 -
Take a walking tour of Midtown:
Fifth Avenue
Rockefeller Center
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Trump Tower
Visit the Empire State Building by night
Day 2 -
Take a guided tour of New York:
Times Square
Central Park
Greenwich Village and SoHo
World Trade Center Site
Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Attend a Broadway Show!!!
Day 3 -
Take the subway to Battery Park
Visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Walk the Brooklyn Bridge and explore Chinatown and Little Italy
Day 4 -
Take the subway to the Upper West Side
Visit the American Museum of Natural History
Depart for home

***Anyone want to make a small contribution?

Summer will be willing to bake you cookies,

babysit, wash your car, anything to make a

few bucks toward her trip. Thanks!!!***

Ty's first field trip

The rain subsided just long enough for Ty's
kindergarten class to have a field trip to a
nearby 'pumpkin patch'. I'm so glad that
Ty was mostly looking forward to the
bus rides, because the pumpkin patch
was a bit disappointing.

What you see her was all there was to it.
Ty and Wesley had fun running around
together. He has made some adorable
friends and they all get along really well.

They each got one small pumpkin that
they got to take home. Ty chose well.

They had a great time and I'm glad I got
to tag along. Even though I help in the class,
it's taking me a while to learn all of their
names. I'm glad they had name tags today.

I'm glad we hit up Pumpkin City in
California. That satisfied my need
for more...notice I said my need,
not his. He was perfectly content
there today. :0)

Foster girls make cute kids!

While in California, the three Foster girls and
our Aunt Tammy took all the kiddos
to a Marine Rescue in Laguna Beach.

I'm sorry for this comment, but it's true.
We make beautiful kids!
You may argue that your kids are cuter,
but I disagree. Sorry. We win! :0)

Oh yeah, the reason we went was to observe the
sea lions, not brag about our beautiful children.
We loved watching the sea lions play in the
water and eat their lunch. These 3 were
returned to the ocean on Sunday....all healthy.
Some of them had fish hook wounds, large
bites out of their sides, or hypothermia.
What a great mission these people are on.
They preside over all of the Orange County
beaches and it's pretty cool to see what they
find. There are some huge whale bones that
have washed up on our beaches there, too.

Amy's youngest, Max, was in heaven.
His little face showed his excitement
when one of the sea lions would 'bark'.
It was so much fun to watch him.

We miss Max. Amy and her family (5 kids)
live in Utah and we don't get to see them
nearly enough! Max is growing so fast and
we have missed so much. He is so easy
going and truly a delight. My kids
sure do love their cousins!

I just had to throw in one
more picture of the cute little
guy. We love the space in his
front teeth. SO CUTE!

Time Out for Women

Every now and then, girls need a little pep talk.

My Aunt Tammy introduced me to something

new, something fantastic, and something life

changing. We attending Time Out For Women

in Phoenix this past weekend. Tammy has attended

three now and I completely understand why!

I want to share a few of my favorite quotes

from the 2 day conference with you.

The theme for this one was

InFiNiTe HoPe!

This woman is Mariama Kallon. She is from Sierra

Leone in Africa. When she was a young girl,

she witnessed her parents being shot and killed,

her brother being taken by the rebels (she later

found out his arms were cut off and he was left to

die since he wouldn't join them as a rebel), and she

had to stand and watch as the rebels cut off her

sisters legs and left to bleed to death (all within 24

hours). 'WHY ME?' She had many questions.

Through many experiences after that, she

met some LDS people and joined the church.

She left her homeland of Africa to serve a mission

at Salt Lake City Temple Square and said,

"I had no shoes on my feet,

but faith in my heart."

She said she never stops carrying

her scriptures, since they are her therapist

that get her through her darkest hours.

Her story is incredible and Deseret Book

now sells a documentary based on her journey.

Mercy River was the musical presenter at the

Saturday session. They were absolutely adorable!

'We All Need Saving' was my favorite song

they performed. Click here and it's song #4.

'I Belong' (#6) was another favorite!

My favorite speaker of all time is Brad Wilcox.

I heard him speak as a youth and I was so

touched that I wrote him a fan letter. To my

amazement, I received a FULL ON LETTER

back from him. That meant so much to me

as a teenager. I was able to take my daughters

to hear him last year and they fell in love with

his adorable personality, too. Notice my eyes

and hair in this picture. Think I cried a little?

He took a very serious route this time. He

told us to think of Christ as saying not just

come unto me, but COME AS YOU ARE!

Make an effort to live life striving for

excellence, but it's OK if we aren't perfect.

Perfection is impossible.

I'm so glad my Aunt invited me. I will

remember it forever. Can't wait until next year!

Pumpkin City

Pumpkin City in Laguna Hills is amazing!
We got to babysit Libby all afternoon and
we wanted her to have her first pumpkin
patch experience. Her mom came home
from her Masters Class just in time to
join us. Uncle Brad made it, too.
Pops Pig found the perfect spot to pose
for a picture with most of the grandkids.
We missed Jason this week. Our 'family'
picture doesn't look quite right without him.
:0(
We arrived 5 minutes before closing and
had to rush to rise 1 1/2 rides and it only
cost us $22. Bummer...but we got cute pictures!
Libby enjoyed her first time there.
She will get to enjoy that same pumpkin patch
for years to come. Lucky California Girl!
The kids favorite ride was when Uncle Brad
carted them around the pumpkin patch in
a wheelbarrow. The beauty of it....
IT WAS FREE!
He didn't charge them $4 each to ride.

We went to THE zoo.

We kidnapped Libby and Aunt Becky

and headed to the San Diego Zoo yesterday.

My monkey's love that place. We honestly

cannot get enough of it. Every year we

have memberships and go multiple times.

It's great that the membership

includes the Wild Animal Park, as well.

Sydney swears that the Australia portion

of the zoo is named after her. Of

course it is! :0)

The weather was perfect. There was

a wonderful breeze, yet you still felt the

sun on your face. PERFECTION!

Ty is pretending to pose with the parrot

on his finger. Not quite, buddy. :0)

The Panda's were well worth it. There
is normally a l-o-n-g line to see these
sleeping beauties. Yesterday, there wasn'y
a line and they were awake, eating,
and playing. Cute, aren't they!?!

Ty's new surf instructor

After Uncle Brad finished showing off his surfing

skills, he was nice enough to become Ty's

surf instructor (with Summer as his assistant).

It was more of a balancing act than anything.

Ty is amazingly resilient. He would be face

down under water and then pop back up and

try again. Have I told you how brave that

kid is? It is so much fun to watch him learn.

Like I say in my bio on this blog....

Jason and I are raising 3 beach bums and

that makes me really happy! :0)

After quite a few attempts, he went back

to his first love. He is my boogie boarding

fool. They will forever be friends!

Fall? Feels like summer!

We met up with Brady and Tate at the

beach yesterday. The weather is amazing!
Ty had fun...as always! He was either
boogie boarding, body surfing, or having
surf lessons from Summer and Brad the
whole time. He has some talent
in those waves!
Sydney was thrilled that Tate brought her
volleyball. We always tease Summer that
she should try out for the volleyball
team at the high school next year. She really
could do it. She has the idea of it, and a good
coach could really make her a great player.
My nephew Brady is such a great guy.
He met up with us and then was headed
off to baptize his little 8 year old brother,
Teddy. I am so proud of those kids and
what great examples they are to my kids!
We missed Fletcher, though. Hopefully
we will get to see him at Tate's volleyball
game on Tuesday. So far, we are
really enjoying our fall break!