The kids and their creations

We did pumpkin carving for Family Home Evening this week and used pumpkins we grew in our own backyard this year. Michael still won't reach into the pumpkin and touch "the brains". He has had a clean hand fetish since he was young. Rachel carved her's all by herself, and Megan designed hers by herself now.

 

 

 

 

Halloween Costumes

We had our ward "trunk or treat" last Saturday so the kids got dressed up. Daddy made Michaels costome out of paper mache and duct tape - He is Marcus Fenix from "Gears of War" (his favorite video game). Rachel and he friend are "sleepover Zombies" (which she has been some sort of Zombie for the past 3 years now - she was a Zombie bride last year). Megan is a transformer (she always picks Michaels costume from the year before).

 

 

 

Megans "new thing"

The other day when I was working in the office and watching Megan at the same time I decided to show her something "really cool" called "tracing pictures". When Megan gets into something she really gets into it, and once I showed her how to hold a picture up against the window and put a piece of paper over it so she could trace it, I saw the little lights in her eyes twinkle. What was really a diversionary tactic to keep her busy turned into "Daddy, print me a Spongebob picture, Daddy print me another picture, ETC". The diversion obviously backfired. Our great room window became covered with all sorts of pictures for her to trace.

 

 

 

Megan learns to ride a bike

Michael and Rachel both got new bikes so Megan inherited Michaels old bike. I put the training wheels back on and Megan hesitantly tried it out and in a few minutes was whizzing around. She even wanted to go on a family bike ride, until she hit her first hill and yelled "this is so frustrating!!"

Fall Family pictures

Busy day, and once Candice gets the camera warmed up she's in the zone, which is usually good for about 200 pictures. These are some of the family pictures we took by the lake as well as the massive leaf piles that are forming in our front yard.

Family Halloween pictures

Candice wanted to take a "ghost family picture" this year after something she saw in a scrapbooking magazine. I thought that was awesome. I had visions of zombies and other cool things but Candice wanted us to be "just a nice family of ghosts in the 1950s". Right. So after numerous tries with Megan screaming in the pictures "because that's what ghosts do Daddy" and Michael contorting to look like a zombie, these are the end products. Pretty scary. Megan's comment in the cemetery was "this is where all the zombies live under the ground?"

Michaels Baptism

Hard to believe Michael turned 8 already. His baptism was great today. Daddy got to baptize and confirm him. He actually got baptized on his 8th birthday to the day which is kind of unique. He also got baptized on the same day as one of the cute girls in his class so we had to get a picture of the two of them together. He's making his "forced smile standing next to a girl face".

Michael turns 8!

Michael had his birthday party at Grand Slam sports again this year so it was a party full of Laser Tag, batting cages, video arcade, bumper cars and mini golf. Michael loved his party again. All week I had been telling him he had to wait until his birthday to open his presents or his head would blow up if he saw them early. I think he had a harder time waiting the two weeks for his party than he does for Christmas. Anyhow, his head didn't blow up so I'm posting some pictures of his friends at laser tag, and me and Michael playing laser tag.

Rachel Turns 11!

 

Rachel had her 11th birthday party this week, and she had a "Hannah Montona" and "Total Drama Island Theme". Rachel picked her favorite Hannah Montana episode and they all acted out the show. I'll be posting the final version on You Tube shortly. Total Drama Island is a cartoon version of "Survivor" where Candice made all kinds of gross candy (beetle juice, spiders, etc) and the kids had to race to eat it. After the voted and the one boy got voted off. It was a brave soul to come to an all girl party by himself. I will say that kids are alot different at 11 than at 10, as one girl had a cell phone and was texting her friends live as the party went on. Another had a video camera in her cell phone and kept filming parts of the part to post "online" later. Michael and Rachel both got a Nintendo DS and they can now "text chat" with each other as long as they are close enough. Rachel still loves webkinz and ended up getting 5 webkinz for her birthday bringing her total up to 19!

Love the faces

 

This is the close up of Michaels face during the game. I added this because you have to love the determination on his face as he is running for the ball. One out of hundred pictures actually turns out this good also.

Fall Soccer Pictures

 

 

Well, the end of the fall soccer season is over (our 3rd one in MN already!!). It was a busy one this year. I coached both Rachel and Michaels teams which was really busy. A few of the games overlapped each other also. Today was the busiest though, as the each had a tournament with 3 games each! So six total in all. One of Michael's ended in a shootout which was exciting. Once soccer ends it really signals that winter is coming though.

Fall Colors coming out

 

We love when the leaves start to change. Most of the trees are yellows with a few spots of red around the neighborhood. However, the last two years it has rained really hard right after the leaves change color, which knocks all the leaves off really fast so we don't get to enjoy it for too long. I took this picture 2 days ago and half the leaves have already fallen off the tree.

Fall Apple Picking

Fall always brings one of our favorite family activities - Apple Picking. We went to the orchard in Lakeville this year. We actually went twice - once for Zestar apples and once for Honey Crisp, and spent about $160 in apples that turned into apple sauce and the best apple pies we've ever had. We got to ride on a tractor with hay bales, and Michael even got stung by a bee (which he wasn't too happy about). The was a big hail storm in July this year so all the apples had big dents in them, which made all the apples look funny.

September Around the House

Some shots from August and September this year that happen around the house. I pasted the captions on the bottom of each picture, and you can see the larger ones by clicking on the album. Summer seemed to go by so quickly that we aren't sure we are ready for the fall yet, but in reality I think summer was longer this year.