October

Here are some random moments from October:

Halloween

What a fabulous Halloween.  The weather was great. The kids had fun.  The older boys brought home way too much candy.  I would  call it a success.

Pumpkin carving is beginning to feel like such a big event when we are carving 6 pumpkins!  Luckily our oldest boys did their pumpkins completely on their own.  Awesome!  Dylan even completely made up his own design from scratch that turned out amazing.

Austin wanted his to turn out like the picture we found on my phone.

 The Gibson family had a Halloween party the Monday before Halloween.  It was so fun playing Burn the House down, and snacking on some yummy Halloween treats.

These two were having fun posing for pictures.  They are so silly and the best of friends. I love them!

Austin's preschool class with Mrs. Skousen

Dylan's 6th grade class with Mrs. Swenson

Here is Austin and Ashlyn waiting for the elementary school parade.

And then here are the kids ready to trick or treat at Grandma and Grandpa Gibson's house.







And now they are ready for the rest of the night to get started!  The big boys were so excited to get to go out on their own (Dylan, Jayden, and Ethan).

Lauren enjoyed being several different characters for Halloween.  For a little while she was Cinderella, and then a fairy,

Fall Sports

We have the rounds of sports going on at our house.  Dylan is playing football.  Jayden, Ethan, Austin, and Lauren are all playing soccer.  Jayden is playing another year of NUCS AA soccer.  We joined half of our team with another team, and things are going great.  Ethan is playing challenger.  Austin and Lauren are playing on the same challenger team, with Dad as coach. 

Fall Break - American Fork Canyon and Alpine Loop

I love the mountains.  I love, love, love the mountains.  Everytime I go I wonder why I don't go more often.  I took the kids up the canyon to hang out for most of the day. We had so much fun!  I was hoping to catch more leaf colors than we did, but we still found pockets of beauty.  When we first got up there it was a lot chillier than we expected.  Luckily some of the kids brought jackets, and luckily I had a few of my own the older boys could wear.  We picnicked in the sun on the blacktop to stay warm. 

The kids had fun throwing rocks and having stick and leaf races down the stream.

I had fun trying to get some cute pictures of the kids.  I love these kiddos and these pictures make me smile.

I had visions of a beautiful picture here.  Unfortunately they didn't all cooperate at the same time.  Looking at some of these pictures you might think I was telling the kids to pull crazy faces.  I was not.  I was begging, and pleading from the depths of my heart for cooperation.  Oh, well.  My efforts are documented.

I told the kids if we drove the Alpine Loop we would find the beautiful leaves I'd promised them up the canyon.  Of course I was almost made a liar.  I was so excited when we finally found this grove of aspens that were beautiful that we got out of the car to take a picture.  I guess I should say those that felt in the cooperative mood took a picture with me.  I love it, though!

This day was so fun!  I love nature.  I love my kiddos.  Now, if only we could have skipped the carsickness that commenced during the last portion of the drive...