Continued...

From the top: Cora


October is always one of Cora's favorite months because of Halloween, and her daddy's sweet tooth that she inherited. She had to do a report on Eskimos at school, and because of that decided to be an Indian for Halloween. I usually make her buy her own Halloween costume with fundraiser money from some sort of project we do. One year we made jam and sold it to people at Mark's work, and this year we tried to do pot holders, but my fingers began to get blisters and I canned that idea real fast. We ended up buying her costume for her, but got it all for around $10. I wasn't going to buy her anything since she hadn't done anything to raise the money-including chores. So she decided to be a baby and wear her footie pajamas, and was excited about that until some girl at school said that was weird. I asked her what that girl was going to be and she said Hannah Montana. I'm thinking, "Sure. Her and every other little girl in America." Yes, I did refrain from saying what I wanted to about that, and decided we could do Indian for cheap. She looked good, and loved her costume. Her favorite part was the dream catchers and headband with feathers. Her favorite Halloween candy this year was the little M&M packages. Cora had her first swim meet yesterday, and did great. She did 50m freestyle and backstroke and took 2ND in both (one of the first place girls got disqualified so Cora really got 1st place in backstroke). She looked like she had been swimming competitively for years with flip turns and everything. I was helping with the timing so I couldn't get any video, but after the 50 free she looked like she was going to die! She burped like she was going to throw up and everything, and said, "My chest felt like I was going to die!" I was proud because she gave it her all, AND on top of that, did great. She also dreams of being a basketball star some day. School is going well for her, but I know she misses Utah and her friends there. We are all really looking forward to Christmas in Utah this year! Just about every day I get 2 new videos on my camera from Cora playing around. She knows I'm not a big fan of her doing this.

She is such a drama queen! Sometimes she does get some fun video...like on Halloween.



That's what happens when Indians attack Mummies. Garret As you can see he wanted to be a mummy for Halloween because I could "wrap him up in toilet paper and it wouldn't cost any money." He didn't want to do any fundraisers either or spend the money he has on a costume. I was fine with the toilet paper thing until my sister sent me a picture of a little kid wrapped in toilet paper that just looked ridiculous. So I cut strips of white sheet, sewed the ends together, and died them in coffee to turn them antique brownish. After running them through the dryer they frayed and his costume was done. He looked pretty cool. We had a church trunk or treat before Halloween, and Garret spent the whole night picking up his wrappings because I didn't have them pinned on him. It was so funny to watch him waddle around all night with his long underwear showing as his costume was falling off, and I didn't get any pictures because I was by myself with all the kids just trying to survive. He's such a passive kid and it didn't even bother him. I did win an award at the chili cook off that night. That was amazing to ME, but Cora knew I was going to win. There was not a doubt in her mind my chili was going to win an award, and that made me feel special. We had left over chili the next night and I was surprised the kids still wanted to eat it. Cora said, "Of course we want to eat it! It's award winning chili!" I'm such a cool mom. Back to Garret the mummy. So on Halloween I had about 100 tiny safety pins holding Garret's costume on his body, and it worked. Garret's favorite part of his costume was that "it was hot so he didn't get cold, and the face painting." His favorite part of Halloween was "getting to see Jorie in her costume because she looked so cute!" Favorite Halloween candy: Lollipops.


Garret is doing well. He has pre-school 3 times a week with Mrs. Scott, and he just loves it. I am homeschooling him for his K-year because kindergarten here is a full day, and I just wasn't ready for him to be gone all day. We'll just put him into 1st grade next year probably. He really enjoys math, and is doing well with his reading. He is also doing gymnastics, but after watching Cora swim yesterday, he said he "wants to do a real sport." I tried to explain to him that gymnastics was a real sport by telling him they have gymnastics in the Olympics. Of course, he had no idea what I was talking about. How do you convince a 5-year-old gymnastics is a sport when all they do is donkey kicks and walk on the balance beam?? Garret would like the world to know he's "very funny, likes babes, and Pokemon." Cora helped him with that.
Ammon We watched a Book of Mormon stories DVD and now he likes to be called Ammon...Well Ammon and AJ, but sometimes he'll make me call him Ammon. He loves hearing his name in the BOM stories. When I asked AJ what he wanted to be for Halloween, he said Spiderman. Great! Already have the costume. So for the trunk-or-treat he wore the same costume he wears almost every day. I could tell he wasn't too thrilled after seeing his sisters and brother dressing up. So for Halloween I decided he was going to be Clark Kent, and he loved the idea.

He was a stud, and played the part great! He would cover up the S and then pull it apart. It was awesome. Later in the night he decided to be superman so he took off the white shirt. I think he felt better that we did something different like sprayed his hair black, and got him dressed in something he doesn't wear every day. He liked it because it was, "Crazy." His favorite Halloween candy was, "Sugars, and tastebugs, and lollipops" because "the tastebugs eat the sugerbugs." I guess he thinks it's tastebugs instead of taste buds and that they eat the sugerbugs (plaque) off his teeth. wow. His favorite part of Halloween was "everyone getting our candy to us." His favorite thing to say recently is, "Why should I?" He'll say it after we ask him to do things. "Come here please." "Why should I?" "Clean up please." "Why should I?" I'm not sure where he got that from, but it's fun. We just give him explanations and he usually says, "OK." Like he really wants to know why we want him to do things.

As tough as he is, he is actually quite a sensitive kid at times, and doesn't like being confused. While Grandma and Grandpa were here AJ was not so receptive to Grandpa's efforts to get close to him, but when they left AJ wanted to call them every other day and talk to Grandpa. He just didn't understand why mom and dad were gone and got angry with grandpa. We've been working on controlling anger in our house. When the kids get frustrated we have them count to ten and breath. It always makes Garret laugh, but it just ticks AJ off. "I don't want to breath!" I can't blame him. I think he's really missing a good friend like Winnie, Eli, or Simeon (the three he prays for and talks about). I think on a whole, we all miss Utah, and family and friends, but we know this is where we need to be, and we find peace in that. We love serving in the ward here and are making good friends. I'm planning a couples night out next week because I need some fun adult time out. Jorie She is finally fitting into her 12m clothes. She is tiny, but acts like one of the big kids. Very independent, and often times very stubborn, she is beginning to use her words when she wants things. I can't call for AJ without her echoing "AJ" right after me. Right now she is really into singing her ABC's and animal sounds with actions; her horse is the best. I have to get a video soon. Jorie has to be in the middle of everything so we call her Godzilla and try to turn her destruction into a game for the other kids. She loves the dog, and watching our fish swim. There is a certain blankie and pink dog she has to have in bed with her at night, and always gets so happy when both those things are given to her. All-in-all a very happy, fun loving baby. We are so blessed and grateful for such awesome kids, and hope so bad we don't mess them up! We're doing a good job most of the time. Anyways. Jorie was a ladybug for Halloween.

I was really surprised she kept that hood on her head all night because she hates hats. She sat in the wagon for trick-or-treating and I kept feeding her lollipops to keep her there. We walked around the neighborhood with some neighbors, and had a great time.

Here are a few more pictures of the kids from this month.