It's Christmas time

Here are photos from various activities from the last little while.
We had a good snow storm and of course Michelle and Ben headed out to play.  I don't recall them being out there too long, and judging from the capris that Michelle is wearing, they probably weren't out long.
 

Here are the kids checking out the tree at the Gateway. 

Here was date night checking out the lights without kids (well, one got to come).  A couple of spouses are missing, taking pictures.
 

And then here is the family trip to see the lights downtown.
 

The City Creek Center has fire with their water show!
 

Here are some of the kids riding the jingle bus around town.  They loved it because they were allowed to sit on the back bench kind of thing.
 

And one day Michelle and Ben and I went and checked out the Grand America window displays.  We found this Santa for the kids to get a picture with.
 

And my craft project with the kids, decorating some ornaments.  Sam and Hannah each gave an ornament to their teachers with a card telling them the favorite thing of the school year.  We used glitter paint and q-tips to swirl paint inside the clear ornaments and then later I let them use glitter glue to make designs on the outside.

And now we are just having fun and enjoying family time.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! 

Halloween finale

Here are the final pictures from Halloween.  It was a beautiful night for trick-or-treating.  We had a good time and are still eating the candy from the kids haul. 

This is the picture of just Ben, with his attachment.  He was feeling much better but Mom didn't let him go far.
 

A quick look at pumpkins.  I am pretty sure we have another picture somewhere that shows them all but here is a fun picture. 

And now, happy Thanksgiving!   

Science Fair Part 1

Today we skip the rest of the Halloween pictures for a science fair update.  We have one down and one to finish (provided he can find the data we already collected).  This experiment, which Hannah titled Disappearing Candy, came from the book "Science Experiments you can Eat" by Vicki Cobb (and it is an older version I just discovered).
Here is what you need:

Take three hard candys (we used dum dum suckers): one stays whole, one gets broken in pieces, and one gets smashed.
 

Put 1/4 cup water in three glasses and add the sucker or remnants of sucker to the glasses.

Every ten minutes check and see how dissolved the candy is getting.  45 minutes total, from start to finish!  We did have a short discussion about surface area and how much of the sucker was touching the water.  After the results are recorded, drink your yummy juice.
Sorry no picture of the board, it went to school this morning and was finished just after bedtime last night. 

Weekend Fun--Halloween party

We went to a three halloween parties this weekend.  One at Justin's work (no pictures), one at my mom's, and the ward trunk-or-treat (also no pictures).

Here we have Hannah the witch, Michelle the princess (Sleeping Beauty for those who are not up to speed on their princesses, her name is Aurora), and their indian cousin.
 

Here are some pictures of Hannah.  She has been practicing her cackle for about two weeks now.  She loves to wrap her cape around to hide herself and then you hear this little cackle.
 

Here's a look at the whole ensemble.
 

Princess Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty.  Why she choose Sleeping Beauty we may never know.  She does not like to go to sleep (as evidence that she is still up with me right now).  She loves this dress and wears it fairly often (hence it is not satin fabric, I need it to last longer for this little princess).
 

Here's a picture of the goodies for the party.  My sister knows how to throw a party.  She makes some super great food.  This one was sponsored by Rice Krispies but she of course had extra stuff. Food is her thing and she does amazing things.
 

Here is Bowser.  This was a very fun costume to make (yes, I made all the costumes, I like to do it).  This was my challenge costume but it was so much fun.  There are still some things that may get done but Sam is happy with it.  His only other thing he wants is to be able to put candy in the shell.
 

Fun games were played.  Bowling, Last Man (Kid?) Standing, and Bingo.  Did I mention that my sister knows how to throw parties?


Sorry, no pictures of Ben.  He isn't feeling good.  Hopefully he gets to wear his costume (a monkey) for a photo later. 

Weekend Fun--Idaho road trip

Did you know that in a five hour trip from my sisters house to Rexburg you can see 12 temples!  That's amazing!  I course did not see all of those as I didn't have to go quite as far, I could have seen 6-9 of them (depending on if I looked behind us across the valley).

This was a fun weekend.  My mom and sister and I drove to Rexburg for my cousins wedding.  It was a great trip.  Good company and good times.  As we came into Idaho Falls and my mom had to show us the falls with a view of the temple.  Amazing!  I took a couple of pictures to be able to show the fam.
 

 

This is the Rexburg temple.  We were there early and needed to kill some time.  Did you know there is no fabric store in Rexburg?  But we did find a DI.  I can kill some time at the DI.  :)
 

My cousin and her new husband.
 

Weekend Fun--Conference

So, yes I have some updating to do.  Here is a look at some of our recent activities.  I don't have anything to say about most of the pictures since I didn't join the boys in mountain biking (someone had to stay and watch the kids).
 

A look at some of the color up the canyon.
 

Jared after his first crash.
 

Our car after his second crash (no injuries that I know of).  And Justin now drives a newer car than I do.

We also of course watched conference.  We played with lots of cousins.  The kids played conference bingo.  And if anyone reading this gives a conference talk, it would be awesome if you threw in some of the random words on the conference bingo (we got ours from lds.org). 

Hannah

So this post is all about the Hannah girl.  JCPenney offered free haircuts for back to school, so we took Hannah in.  She has super thick hair but she is getting to where she wants to comb it herself.  They cut it and then they did some layers and thinned it a little bit.  This was to make it easy for her to comb which makes it easier for us all.
 

 

Then of course she wanted her picture taken.  Isn't she so cute!  She told us we had to take her picture because the one on the wall is too old.  It's true, it's about two years old.

She is in first grade and was very excited about it.  And then just a couple of days before school started she fell and broke her arm.  So yes, she could comb her hair, not so much now.  She had just learned to tie her shoes so she could wear her new ones to school, not so much now (yeah for sandals!).  And of course, what is the first thing they work on in first grade?  Penmanship of the alphabet.  And yes, that would be her right arm that is in the cast.  Her biggest bummer was when they put the cast on they didn't give her a choice in the color, she wanted green.

I had wanted to include one other picture in this post, but couldn't find it on the computer.  This is not her first cast, she had one when she was one also! 

Lagoon Fun

Sam and Hannah got to experience Lagoon.  From what I have heard they loved it.  Hannah is our thrill lover and Sam won't be outdone by his sister so he is game to try things.  I didn't go, I only have vague memories of going to Lagoon on senior day so I don't have any comments to add. 

 

 

Goshen Days

Here are some belated pictures of our trip to Goshen this summer.  They hold Goshen days to coincide with my sisters birthday.  Convenient for her, she gets fireworks and a parade!  We camped in her front yard.  The kids had a good time.  It was fun to get out and see her and of course there was AMAZING food!  My personal favorite, a grilled corn guacamole.  That was so good, thanks for the leftovers, I loved them!

Ben and Martin had fun playing in the dirt together.  Martin didn't even mind that Ben was pouring sand on him.  They were both covered in dirt. 

Here is Ben chilling out, waiting for the parade to come.  You can see Sam at the edge of the picture, somewhat patiently waiting for the parade to start.  The first thing in the parade, after the flag and possibly fire marshal (I can't remember for sure) was the only real float: the Santaquin royalty (apparantly Goshen doesn't have it's own royalty, or float).  When they came by, happily waving, Sam asked why they weren't throwing candy.  Then you can hear these girls comment to each other, they don't like us because we don't have any candy to give out.  My thought was, you would have had better luck if the primary hadn't been marching later in the parade.  That's where all the little girls of our group were at, the ones who would have appreciated the pretty dresses.

And here would be the primary contingent.  Michelle decided that once she reached us, she was done marching in the parade and watched the rest with his.  Here you can see Katryn in blue and Hannah behind her.  We went back to my sisters house after this and divided up all the candy among the kids.  In cleaning the kitchen today we found we still have quite a bit of it.  Stale taffy anyone?

Other fun things from this trip, there were sheep wondering the street.  It was awesome.  The kids loved that aspect. Thanks for letting us come and play!  Maybe we will come next year as well. 

Sam the Fork

We convinced Sam to participate in a theater program this summer, and by convinced I mean bribed with a new video game.  He wasn't too sure about it but he has several friends doing it also.  When he went to audition he was convinced that he would not be able to do this and that the video game was not worth being in the production.  Well, three and a half weeks later and he is loving it.  He even said he might consider doing it again, depending on what play they do next year.

This year it is Beauty and the Beast Jr.  Sam is a fork and a villager.  We have pictures of the fork costume because he likes this costume the best.  I went and saw the play, it was awesome.  Nicely done, especially when you consider it is 67 kids age 8-18 doing the whole thing.  The funniest thing to me is that the fight scene with Gaston and the Beast is incredibly short, ending with the Beast telling Gaston to leave and never come back, and that is just what Gaston does.  Oh and Gaston wears a muscle suit.  Sam loves playing tag during the production (how else do you get a dozen or so boys to run around on the stage in a somewhat organized way) and there is a ladder in the back that he gets to climb up and down.
 

Isn't that a great costume?  If anyone is interested in going, they are preforming every Mon, Fri, and Sat at 7:30 pm until Sept 15th.  You can contact me for more info.