More Fall 2010

Joshua, our little monkey, enjoyed Halloween as long as he could take off the hood of his costume. He did great out trick-or-treating in the cold and rain. The only rain we had all weekend was a huge downpour right in the middle of trick-or-treating! We braved the rain for a few houses, came home and watched classic Halloween cartoons while we dried off, then tried again once the rain had let up. Poor Rachel spilled hot chocolate down her neck that was really hot! She was okay after a few bites of a donut. By then, it was getting pretty cold, so the girls returned home after about 15 houses. Matthew stuck it out for another 15 houses, then gave about two thirds of his candy to the girls when he got home.

Elizabeth in her Pippi Longstocking costume. Her teacher (who also dressed up as Pippi) is reading aloud the book at school, and Elizabeth was so excited when she saw the wig on the cover of Family Fun. It was a little tricky to make, but the hardest part was getting it to fit--and stay--on her head!

Matthew as a knight

Emma as Tinkerbell

Rachel was thrilled to be a princess.

The three school-aged kids before going to the school Halloween parade on Friday.

Matthew spent at least 4 hours on this Utah environment diorama. It was due two days after the pinewood derby and one day before his costume needed to be ready for the Halloween parade at school. Whew! What a week of projects!

Who can resist such adorableness?

Throw the Scout Pinewood Derby into the middle of Halloween preparations and a million other things, and I am relieved to say that the last week is over (successfully). Matthew named his car "The Cyclops" and had fun with it.

I think that Matthew looks so much like his dad as a kid in this picture.

Matthew has amazing creativity when it comes to Legos. Last Sunday, he built a Lego temple, and later a flower garden and fountain to go with it!

Elizabeth and Emma on Spirit Day at school

Utah has incredible sunsets sometimes!

Elizabeth and Emma in their new coats for fall

Cat on a post (Prince Phillip-- probably keeping an eye on the neighbor's cats)

Joshua at Hee Haw's

Emma, Elizabeth, Joshua, Matthew, Rachel

This video is of Joshua rocking to Thriller while the girls dance. It is so cute to watch him get into music and "dance."

Fall 2010

During Fall Break, we took the kids to Hee Haw farms for a day of fall fun. They had so many great activities for them to do: an inflatable haunted maze, cow train ride (below), hay ride, hay jump, big corn maze, petting zoo, pumpkin patch, etc. The weather was beautiful, too.



Joshua's first ride ever (if you don't count car and stroller rides)!

Rachel, Elizabeth, Emma, and Matthew

Elizabeth has always been our thrill-seeker. Here she's waiting to ride on a potato sack down a big vinyl slide.

Rachel on a John Deere

A lot of memories on those wheels

The final photos of our 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan, 4 days before it sold in August. We bought this our first minivan when Elizabeth was 5 months old, in 2003. Until this past year, it was a great car with no major problems. It has taken us on at least a dozen major road trips, plus countless commutes from Spanish Fork up to Provo/Orem. But with 145,000 miles, it was starting to become pretty expensive just to maintain. We replaced the AC compressor right before taking it on its final road trip (to California) in August, then decided to put it up for sale after we got back.



This is probably the cleanest it was since the day we bought it. Brent and I spent a couple of hours detailing every nook and cranny and trying to remove all the evidence of wear and tear from 5 kids!


Our Dodge sold pretty quickly, and the moment it did, we went crazy checking online ads for a newer Toyota Sienna. It took us a couple of weeks to find just what we wanted. What amazed us was how many dealers and private sellers tried to sell cars that had been wrecked and repaired (usually not well repaired at that). We were determined to avoid buying another car that had been in an accident after the dealer who sold us our Dodge minivan in 2003 passed it off as having a "clean Carfax report." That minivan had several problems with the exterior cracking, lights falling off, etc. We didn't realize it was accident damage until we had one of the side windows replaced (due to an ice chunk falling off a truck and hitting it on the highway). The glass company said that that window was after-market, as was that whole left rear section of the van!

Fortunately, we ended up finding the perfect van for our family. It is fairly new (2009), but has about 43,000 miles since it was a rental car in California. It has seating for eight, plus a deep cargo area in the back. An added bonus is that it doesn't creak with every turn of the steering wheel!