Halloween 2015

I'm thinking that I ought to play a little catch up today while I am home with two sick (but napping) little boys and everyone else is at church!

My little orphan children were left to their own devices for Halloween this year, and maybe I'm not as needed as I sometimes imagine, because they looked darling with minimal help from me! Maddie had already decided that she was going to be a "biker chick" for school and put her hair into a "mohawk", so when Belle was trying to figure out a costume, Maddie suggested the same thing for her.  Then, Kami needed an idea for she and her Halloween Dance date, and decided to do the same thing.  So there were lots of biker chicks running around the house with big chunky chain necklaces ( that you can't see in the pictures), black leather, and mohawks.  

Caden's date wanted him to dress up as a "classic vampire" so I did try to help him with that look.  We really paled his skin - which you can't tell from the pictures - and tried to make his eyes have hollows and stuff.  His date really took this seriously - she had her dentist add extentions to her teeth so she would really look like a vampire!  Then she had to wear those teeth clear through Sunday and get them knocked off on Monday! IDK if you can see them in the picture.  Her dentist offered to put them on Caden too - he actually did it for free- but Caden declined.  So hopefully it wasn't too disappointing to her that he wasn't wearing any special teeth.  Because we DID buy some of those teeth at Walmart, but they just wouldn't stay in...

cousins

I looked out the window last time we were in Oregon and watched for a moment as all of the cousins played some game or other...and I was amazed by all the kids I saw! This picture somehow doesn't even do justice to how many kids I was seeing...and it doesn't even have all of the kids in it!

let's see if I can do this:  L-r kids in back: Isabelle, Caleb, David, Isaiah, Westley, Caden, Ammon, Gracie, Isaac, Madeline, Kamille, Emmie, Ila, Eli, Hyrum
Front l-r: Benjamin, Anne, Spencer?, Tabitha, Joshua, Thomas, Kylie, Abram, Nolan

boy stuff

My brother Adam is a great guy and a SUPER uncle!  The boys were thrilled to get rides while he worked the excavator last time we were in Oregon.  Pace LOVES tractors:)

He also has wrestling matches with the kids every time we are home:

I'm grateful for good siblings that take time to influence and get to know my kids!

Ila's mission call

Ila - second from the left

We have three family members going to college here this year!  Talbie is still here, and Ila, my niece, and Eli started here this year as well.  Ila has been waiting for her mission call to get here.  It arrived a couple of weeks after school started.  One evening she texted me to tell me that it had arrived at her house in Oregon, and I asked her to tell me as soon as she found out where she would be going!

After a couple of hours she called me and told me that she couldn't get Skype to work from her apartment and wondered if she could come to our house and use ours.  Of course!!  When I went to pick her up, three of her roommates and Eli were waiting to come along as well.

Ila is super excited about her mission call, but finding out where she was going ended up being a super frustrating experience!  Apparently everyone at her house could hear us but we couldn't hear them.  One of her little sisters ripped into her call and started reading it out while Ila kept saying, "stop!  STOP!  I want to read it myself!!!"  But of course no one could hear her.  So she heard where she was going second hand:(

She is going to Costa Rica!  And she leaves in February.  She will be such a great missionary!!