Halloween Festivities

Not all of us were super excited about attending a neighborhood pumpkin carving party and YSA bonfire in the rain, but thankfully the rain stopped just before and we saw this beautiful double rainbow in the sky.

Fortunately, the YSA bonfire was taking place at another neighbor's house, so Shawn and I split our time between the two.  While kids were busy carving pumpkins and gorging themselves on food at the neighborhood party, the YSA's were gathered around a bonfire roasting things.

THis was one of the favorite yard "decorations."  (Yes, it's a pig and the fire comes out of his rear end.)

The kids got their pumpkins all carved and entered into the contest.  Samantha's baby gourd in a carriage - with actual rolling wheels.

Shawn's  scream.

Megan's chosen design.

Jonas' scar eye.

Amelia's.  Originally, they were stacked and had dry ice smoke coming out of them, but they wouldn't stay up for her.

And for a second year in a row, Samantha took home a prize.  (And for a second year in a row, there were tears from Amelia for not winning.  Not as bad as last year though because another nice neighbor donated their "trophy" to her.  And we made sure that she had moved to the bonfire when prizes were given out - as a precaution.)

A daytime view of the pumpkins.

Jonas

Megan

Shawn

Amelia

Samantha

(Pre) Pumpkin Carving

We normally do all of our pumpkin carving at our neighborhood Halloween party, but since we're double booked this year with a YSA event the same night, we had to do some preliminary gutting to make it possible to get them all carved Monday night.

Love that it was nice enough to do this all outsider while listening to the U game on the radio.

 Our Toy Story obsessed boy went with the Woody pumpkin again this year.

Samantha did a little carpentry prep work.

We don't often let her wield a hammer like this.  You can see how she gets...

Fall Fun

A few things we have been doing to enjoy the beautiful fall weather.

Playing in the leaves.

Love those big blue eyes.

Even the dog is enjoying his bed of leaves.  (Love all of our trees in the summer, but it's sometimes a little overwhelming this time of year.)

Samantha and her friend Ashley took the Madsen - aka the bucket bike out for a spin a couple of times.

OK this has nothing to do with the beautiful fall weather, but Samantha has been cracking herself up ever since she downloaded "fatbooth" on her phone and has taken turns with each of us as her vicitims, making us look like this:

And of course, no fall season is complete without pumpkins to carve.

Peter loves to look a this picture of himself as a farmer.

My big kids.  Love these two and most days I find that I enjoy having them around despite my earlier fears about having teenagers in the house.  They are really fun.  (I know Samantha isn't technically a teenager, but she acts enough like one that it counts.)

The whole gang.

Notice how warm it still is.  I love a warm October!

Already?!

It's only the middle of October, so why do I have to be thinking about ski season already?

A New Room

I guess we were inspired after creating the study hall, so we decided to reconfigure another room.  We have been finding, as our kids get older, and there are more friends around, that sometimes there is no place for us, as adults to hang out.  When there are a bunch of kids down in the family room, and some in the kitchen and so on, the only place to go to escape the chaos was my bedroom.  Hanging out on my bed just wasn't all that great.  So we decided to create an adult den - a zen den, if you will. (Meaning no kids allowed.)  This used to be Shawn's office.  I forgot to take a before picture.  We moved the desk and file drawers out and moved the couch in.  It has proven to be a very comfortable space.  Perfect for curling up with a good book.

I'm growing to like this recycled space stuff.

The Tradition Continues

The kids have been counting down the days to general conference.  Not so much for the day off of church, but because of our tradition of making beignets.  It ranks pretty high for them as far as important, not to be missed, traditions go.

I promise Samantha likes bacon more than this photo would leave you to believe.

You can tell Jonas is thrilled to be here.  He just wants to bypass the "making" part of the tradition and move right into the eating part.

It is always a messy affair, but I guarantee there would be a mutiny if we gave it up.

We got our church cookie cutters several years ago from my Aunt Barb.  Who knew how important they would become?

We did also take the 4 older kids to the Saturday afternoon session of conference.  (Peter got to hang out with Grandma Judy.) I am always amazed by the conference center when I am in it.  We were surprised when our YSA stake president was called to be an area authority.  We are so sad to see him go, but at the same time, have expected this call to come for quite sometime.

 This is such an unflattering picture of everyone of us.  We were staring into the sun after all, but still photographic proof that we were there - and a nice picture of the temple.

Bowling!

We had been promising the kids a trip to the bowling alley for a long time.  Nothing like a soon to expire groupon to make you finally follow through on your promises. (We won't talk about the tears and tantrums that happened the night beofre when we tried to go and it was closed.  Whew! That was fun.)

As you can see, there were some happy bowlers here.

Of course, it doesn't hurt if you also give them bread sticks and drinks to keep them happy.  (Peter kind of looks scary in this photo.)

The little kids opted for the ball ramp to help them.

Peter was so excited when he knocked down his pins.  It was a serious celebration.  (And, though its hard to admit it, he beat us all  - significantly.)

I have to wonder why we always wait so long to do some of these activities.  The kids all loved it, it's something we can all do together, and isn't even a huge investment of time.  Maybe we'll try to go back soon.