Mommy Bouquet

Conner brought me flowers from the backyard. He found an old bottle of bubbles for a vase and even put water in it. So cute.

Cross Country

R.J. tried his legs at cross country this year and it was really fun! R.J. loves running, but long distance has never been his thing, he likes sprinting. I thought he did really well. It's amazing to me how fast these kids are. R.J.'s fastest time was 10:36 for 1.5 miles. That's really fast! But he was right in the middle with that time. The fastest boy ran it in 8:40, which is so unbelievable to me. R.J. is a lot like me when it comes to running in the heat, we can't do it! Ryan calls us "wilting flowers." In this first picture, it was so HOT! We, the spectators, were so miserable, it was probably close to 100 degrees. Those poor runners were probably close to death! R.J. posing like a runner. :o) Go R.J.! This course was a tough one, so many hills. R.J. is the one in the middle. Approaching the finish line... Time for a water break....

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

October 10 was Thanksgiving for Canada. Braden is obsessed with Canada and has been for years. He really, really wanted to celebrate this holiday! It turns out Canada's Thanksgiving is pretty much the same as ours, food wise. It's hard to do a turkey last minute, but we did the best we could! We pulled out the fine china and had chicken, homemade mac & cheese, green beans, sparkling apple juice, and for dessert we had pumpkin pie and homemade vanilla ice cream. It was delicious and Braden was happy. In our defense, we do have ancestors from Quebec. :o)

Girls Night

A couple of weeks ago I took Sienna along with me when I was getting my hair done. She was so excited about it. I was only taking her to get her bangs trimmed, but my hair stylist is so great, and gave her the full treatment. Sienna was in heaven. Afterwards, we had dinner together and then I drug her on a few errands. As I was driving home, I saw that beautiful light on the newly re-opened Krispy Kreme establishment that says in all its glory, "Hot Donuts." It was almost 9pm, so I called Ryan and asked him to keep the kids up a few more minutes, for I had a surprise. I brought those hot donuts home, and Sienna pretty much got tackled as she walked in the kitchen with these glorious melt-in-your-mouth donuts. The moment lasted less than 2 minutes, as every last donut was instantly devoured. I almost had my hand bit off trying to get my two allotted donuts out of the box. Conner seriously shoveled his in his mouth faster than I've ever seen him shovel. So I guess hot Krispy Kreme donuts is a hit, and I remain a favorite for the time being.

General Conference

This is our first General Conference since I canceled television last month. It didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. We connected my laptop to the tv, but the audio and the picture kept getting out of sync, so the mouths weren't matching the words being spoken most of the time. :o) It was annoying. But somehow we managed to still get some good spiritual upliftment. Hopefully by next conference, we will get it together on the technical side. And anyway, my first attempt at making completely homemade donuts was a huge success! You probably didn't know this, but you don't have to be awake during conference. As long as you are in the same room as the prophet, it's okay. His message will make its way to your dreams. Now you know...

Potty Trained!

It's been a long road, but I think we finally made it. One week with no diapers, not even at bedtime. Thank you ring pops and dollar store cars for your bribery potential.

Loss

A few weeks ago, Braden found a fluffy baby bunny on his way to school. It was outside the fence at school with a crowd of kids around it. Something was wrong but it was still alive. Braden wanted to save it but didn't know what to do and when the bell rang, he felt like he had to go to class. He thought about the little bunny all day and when school was over, immediately ran to where he had left it. He said it was still alive, but barely. He rushed home with it, but unfortunately, by the time he got home, the bunny had died. It was devastating to see him so upset. Braden has always loved creatures of all kinds, and this, a baby, that he thought he could save, just took him over the edge. So I agreed to a funeral, hoping that would give him some relief. We found a little box and R.J. sealed it nice and tight. Then R.J. dug a hole in our backyard, and we buried the bunny. Braden wasn't satisfied, so he made a little headstone for it. We had a long hard day, couple of days actually, but Braden seems to have gotten over the worst of it. This is our first burial, unless you count Buster Brown Pinney, our scorpion, who has been preserved in our freezer. :o) I don't think we should have pets at this house, it's just too hard.

Homework

This was so funny to me. Conner got a hold of Braden's math homework, and tried to answer the questions. :o)

Conner & Sienna

All of my kids LOVE blankets, the house is usually covered in them. But Sienna & Conner win the prize. I always find pictures on my camera of these two and their shenanigans. I have a shocking number of blanket fort photos taken from every angle. I liked this one a lot, so sweet when they're having fun together.

Band Protegee