New Friends

I have encouraged Claire to make new friends. This is a young girl from our ward that Claire invited to spend the night. They didn't plan to wear the same clothes, but when her friend got dressed the next morning, Claire realized that they had the exact same clothes. She ran to get her red jacket to complete the outfits.

One of Claire's favorite things to do is to sew at Grandma's house. So she brought her new friend over to her favorite place, Grandma's sewing room. They had a good time playing with all of Grandma's fun and expensive toys. They played with all the fancy stitches her machine could do.

The final product. They made new matching scripture bags, complete with their names embroidered on them. The girls sewed the fabrics together, and made the handles themselves. It was the first time Claire's friend had sat at a sewing machine, and she was a natural. She wants to come back now and make a quilt and use that big quilting machine in the room. They have rolled up placemats in their bags. They were using those as swords.

Are You From Utah?

Stone heard that we were planning to go to Utah for Thanksgiving. So he began growing out his hair into the most lovely mullet he could muster. Not bad for only having one month to grow out his hair!?

Now he will feel like one of the crowd as he cavorts around Kayesville with his cousins. Actually this is a hair piece from Candice's salon. She brought it over for Lindsey to try with her extensions. It doesn't look good on anyone.

Where The Wild Things Are

Lindsey waited for weeks for the movie premier of "Where The wild Things Are". That was one of her favorite books as a child. She planned and scavenged together her "Wild Things" outfit to wear to the opening night.


We had fun taking photos down our street. There was a big oak tree that had just fallen a couple of days prior to this. She thought it would be perfect for the pictures.


This is the dog owned by the man whose tree fell down. Lindsey loves this dog because she says it looks just like the werewolf "Lupin" from Harry Potter.

A Happy Halloween !

For Halloween this year, and every year, we went to Aunt Holly and Uncle Mario's house in Rocklin. Trick or Treating around Meadow Vista is rather lame. We are down to only 3 trick or treaters: Sydney, Claire, and Haley.


There was not a blessed vegetable to be found on our dinner table that night. It must be Halloween.


Aiden and Andrew just hung out watching TV. They were not up for a costume this year. Aiden has Andrew's text book in hand. No wonder he gets straight A's.


Stone and Hannah didn't dress up, but they had fun handing out candy to the trick or treaters.


Now Sage, on the other hand, was full swing into the Halloween spirit. She had her Dad do her make up. She was supposed to scare the children upon arrival at the door, but it is not in Sage's nature to scare anyone. So with her ghoulish face, she would say "Hi", and welcome them to some treats. One child saw Sage, and just refused to come to the door. Poor thing.

Here is Claire with her "take" for the evening. As my friend put it," Our tax base is dwindling." We used to have 5 people contributing candy and 2 "on the dole". Now we have 1 person contributing candy, and 6 "on the dole". Sounds kind of like our Social Security System?

WHAT !!!

Okay, so winter is coming, and the weather is starting to get a little cold in the mornings. Stone informed me that he only had shorts to wear. Money is tight, but I knew he needed pants, so I bought him several pairs of new pants. He comes home from school all excited, and can't wait to show me what he did today! "Look!", he says, face beaming. He actually thought that I would be as thrilled as he was at what he did to his pants. He gave a sharpie to all his friends and had them sign his pants. I was a little less than thrilled. Mostly, I just laughed and asked him," Did you really think that I would be happy about this?" After we talked he confirmed that," I was not thrilled with what he did, but I was not angry either, right?" I know where he got the idea. There is a real cool 17 year old kid in his Shakespeare acting class who lets everyone sign his old cut-off jean shorts. Stone just wanted to be cool like Kyle. Oh well, you are only young once.

Our Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

Every year we lay a huge tarp on our garage floor and invite our friends and neighbors to our house. They bring a pumpkin, carving tools, and a treat to share. Here are my kids, the missionaries, and our neighbor Max at the entrance to the fun.


This is our neighbor, and Max's mother, Sherry Lewinger. She is just beginning the long, and laborious process of carving an intricate pumpkin.


We always invite the missionaries to our pumpkin parties. There are lots of non- members present, so that gives them the permission they need to have fun at a party.


Here is Claire working hard. She chose a large pumpkin, and proceeded to carve out her father's trademark "Have a Nice Day" with cross bones on her pumpkin. She loves her daddy!


Lindsey helped Claire draw her design on her pumpkin. Lindsey didn't need to carve a pumpkin, she was one.!


Here is a photo of some of the crowd in the garage.


Aunt Jackie claims that this was the first time she has ever carved a pumpkin. Although Dad informs me that he and Jackie carved pumpkins almost every year while growing up. I guess she just doesn't remember doing it. She was a little grossed out by the pumpkin guts on her hands. But she enjoyed the experience.


This was Aunt Jackie's final product. She wanted to make a girl pumpkin. I think she achieved her objective.


Stone and Claire carving away while Aiden sits by and partakes of the cornucopia of Halloween treats that people brought.

OUCH !

Claire, Claire, Claire. What are we going to do with Claire. Our family went to the Meadow Vista Park for a little exercise last Saturday. Lindsey and I were walking the track, while Stone and Claire went roller blading around the school. When it was time to leave, Lindsey went to get the kids. What she found was Claire on the ground bleeding, and Stone Laughing.

Claire had fallen and injured her knee and elbow. See photo above. But Claire has a problem with fainting at the sight of her own blood. She sat down on a bench, and then passed out hitting the ground face first.

She managed to do worse damage to herself by splitting her chin open. I took one look at it and knew it needed stitches.


So here are the stitches of which I speak. The original fall from her roller blades was not that severe. It was the fall from passing out that caused the most damage. She has done this before at school. She fell on the playground and was brought into the office. Her initial injury wasn't too bad. But when she passed out and bonked her head on the office desk, things got worse.


Here is the final product. She went to church and school like this. We call it her Santa Claus imitation.