October Thankful Thoughts..

1.. SEMINARY -- Taylor and I have been teaching early morning seminary for 2 months now and we absolutely love it. Our students are the greatest and it's true you always learn more when you are teaching others. Getting up early hasn't been too bad -- Jake and Luke know 5 scripture masteries already just because they usually get up too and sit in the hall and listening. The whole family is learning, and our house has had a great spirit in it since we began this calling.
2.. DVR - it's a small but simple pleasure that deserves a little shout out
3.. HUMOR - my talent is to appreciate humor. I especially enjoy clever intelligent humor (30 rock, the office, scrubs). I really appreciate my husband's countless attempts at Humor. I'd say about 40 percent of what he tells me, really is funny! :)
4.. GOOD FOOD -- I gained 15 pounds at my latest 4 week doctor appointment. Yes, that is about 6 pounds a week -- can any of you top that?!! I would hope not. It's a miserable feeling when your doctor looks at you like the impossible has just happened. (I did take the glucose test and no diabetes -- just fat).
5.. CHILDREN'S BOOKS -- Jake and I have been reading James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda this month (thanks Amber for the idea). He absolutely loves it. It's so weird to have a child big enough to sit and listen to stories that aren't completely filled with pictures. It's been fun for me too. I think I may start Harry Potter with him -- that might be a little scary though. Does anyone have any good suggestions for what to read next?? let me know.

Our Halloween Pictures

It seems that Halloween is not just a one day thing, we have school parties, church parties, friends parties and then the actual day of Halloween Trick or Treating. My boys sure didn't complain once about having to wear their "Super Hero" costumes -- as you can see, they really got into character.

Jake started talking about climbing up buildings and Luke wanted to jump/fly off of them (when I caught them both on top of our Honda Pilot, I thought it best to remind them they were only wearing COSTUMES, and should leave the acrobatics to the real superheros.)

A few pictures of our ward "trunk or treat." the doughnut eating contest was a hit.

Noah Crockett, Luke, Peyton Cotton, Jacob

Halloween night was fun because our friends the Laurences invited us over for dinner and so that we could trick or treat with them on the "cool" street. Dinner was yummy and we saw about 200 kids come by trick or treating (actually I have no idea how many there were, it was a lot of kids though). It really is the cool place to trick or treat in Upper Arlington. Very fun!

Morgan, Luke, Jacob, Carly

More posing ................................ And, they're OFF!! thanks to the dads (Taylor, Noah, and Mike) for letting us pregnant women sit back and enjoy the night watching everyone!

Jake's first Primary Program

I was a proud Mama today. The primary had their annual sacrament program and since they know Jake is not shy, they asked him to share his testimony about being a child of God (in addition to the little one liners they gave everyone).

Here is a copy of his talk. They wanted it to be in their own words, but also wanted to have it printed in case the kids choked and needed some help. My friend Carolee thought of this idea to help Jake remember his talk. We put little pictures/stickers and when he saw them, he remembered what went along with it. (It worked great -- if you have non-readers giving talks soon try it out.)

I taped him saying the talk just so I could remember his sweet voice. I have such a crush on this little boy! BTW -- he told us his talk and I just helped him write it -- very cute. He is quite the intuitive boy.

He of course was so excited and wanted to invite everyone he knew to come see. We were so glad when our favorite next door neighbor Norma Gongwer was able to make it. They wouldn't cooperate for a good picture though -- surprise, surprise.

Another shot of my two handsome church boys.

Nothing better than a Sunday afternoon nap. :)

The witches brew... getting ready for halloween.

My friend Kirsten is quite the party planner. She invited us all to a fun girls night out. The only requirement was to bring a fun witches hat that was decorated by us individually.

L2R - Ali, Sarah, Kirsten, Jeannette, Me (26 weeks), Beth, Jeny

These girls are all in my ward and are such neat people. I'd make time whenever possible to hang out with them. Halloween is such a holiday for the kids -- it was fun to participate a little as adults. However, we probably act like kids a little too much when we are together! Thanks for a fun night Kirsten.

The FOOD table...

It was fabulous and so yummy. Little cupcakes with witches hats, witch broom cookies, other tasty items and to top it off the brewing homeade rootbeer. My favorite.

The Pumpkin Patch..

Our Favorite Fall Activity is to go to a nearby Pumpkin Patch at Circle S Farms. Here is a string of pictures of our fun outing. It turned into a ward activity and was fun to have friends there with us. I love the free doughnut and Apple Cider -- YUM!

The farm has a ton of fun activities. They have tractors and hay bails and many picture op places.

The kids LOVED the hay barn.

Oh the fun of being free to jump and wrestle!

My Boys... Pretty cute eh?

And off to find our pumkins ...

Success!

Now Off to CARVE the great pumpkins...

I have never liked carving pumpkins, and now that it's over -- I still don't really like it. But I think the kids had fun. That must be one of the things in life you do, just because it's the festive thing to do. Does anyone really ENJOY it? I'm curious to know. :)


We are glad the Dehners were with us, it makes so Taylor and I can't argue as much over the dumb things like -- who's pumpkin is cooler than the other's? Why is it taking you so long? and why do I have to help scoop out the gross stuff from the kids pumpkins?

All in all -- I thought they turned out quite nice. Each child was definitely proud of their creation!

Enjoying Fall

I had to steal this picture from our friend's (the Crockett's) blog.

This is a picture of the river and trees just down a couple blocks from our house. We are lucky to look out our windows to this......

As you can see from this picture, Fall is absolutely beautiful here in Columbus. And the greatest part is that it surrounds you wherever you are. The streets with homes on them and the running paths all look like this! You desert foke are jealous I know. But, you won't be when we are FREEZING here in a couple months. I have to enjoy this scenery and weather while I can!