Pumpkins

Loved carving pumpkins this year. The kids really took over and knew what they wanted to do. We didn't choose a pattern for them, and they carved everything themselves - except Braden. He knew what he wanted, and we had to help him. I won't bore you with the gory details, I'll just show you their finished pumpkins. They were all so proud and they looked AWESOME outside with a light in them.

 

Braden of course did Mickey Mouse

 

Kylie surprised me and wanted just a basic Y on hers (for BYU)

 

 

McKenna's was a little more detailed - a football with a Y at the bottom

 

Tyler's was the traditional BYU

 

Tyler's 12th Birthday

It is so hard for me to believe that my oldest is 12. I don't feel that much older so it's weird that the little people keep getting older! For Ty's birthday, he had a birthday party with lots of boys over. We set up the basement with the projector and band hero, food and the wii. They spent a lot of time down there and my favorite part was hearing them sing Taylor Swift songs.  HILARIOUS! After it got darker outside, they spent a long time outside playing night games. All in all, it was a very successful party and Ty had a great time.

 

As a family, we celebrated Ty's birthday on the 29th. Of course we had to do the "tradition" party hats. Braden gets so excited about these and we have to use them for EVERY birthday. Ty opened presents and had his traditional sam's club chocolate fudge cake!

 

One of my most favorite things about Ty's birthday weekend was he was ordained a deacon and received the priesthood on Sunday, the 30th. So special and so neat to see him each Sunday pass the sacrament and get excited to collect fast offerings. He also serves in the Deacon Quorum presidency and what a great leadership and learning opportunity for him.

 

Again, definitely growing up!

 

Primary Program

The primary program has usually always been held in October of each year. Tyler was so happy about this because that meant since he turned 12 in September, he wouldn't have to participate this year. However, for whatever reason they had the primary program on September 23rd, a few days before his birthday. He was not too excited about this.

 

The fun thing for him is that we got a new counselor in the primary presidency and she also has a daughter whose birthday was at the same time of the primary program. She did a great job making them feel needed and put together a little orchestra for one of the songs.

 

Lots of practice hours later - I even helped out by going over and over it with me on the piano and Ty on the violin. They did great!

 

The primary counselor also had a special song for all of the children who were baptized this year and had them wear their baptism dresses.

 

It was a great program and I of course had to get pictures of them on the day! I also couldn't leave Braden out. He was pretty well behaved this Sunday!

 

Posts

I know there are 12 new posts. I should have kept up with it throughout the summer. Just didn't happen. I know some are lengthy, but again, it's more for remembrances for later. Not that anyone reads my blog anymore, but if you do, and you are bored, at least there is something new!

McKenna's Broken Wrist

I always thought Braden would end up with the first broken bone, but McKenna decided she wanted the title more! On September 15th she was riding her ripstick at the neighbors house in the morning and fell off it and hit her arm. The neighbor was sweet and gave her a bag of ice to put on it, she came home crying and I put a different ice pack on it. She cried for awhile but could move it just fine. It was her wrist and she could bend it and move her fingers. After awhile she said she felt better and wanted to go and play so I let her thinking we would check on it later anyway. A few hours later she came back home in tears because it got bumped and it hurt. It was swollen at that point so I made the decision to just take her in.

We get there and she was so upset about the possibility of having a cast - that's all she could think of. The doctor came in and was able to squeeze it without her yelling in pain. At that point I started really doubting me taking her in. So they x-rayed it and I was fully prepared to hear - it's just a sprain. I was in shock myself when they said her wrist was broken.

They put on a temporary splint until swelling went down. It was hard to keep her still. We went back when we were supposed to but they said another couple of days because it was still really swollen. On the way home McKenna said, "I'm sure it is swollen because someone bumped me when I was playing 4-square." At that point I decided it would be best to keep her home for a couple of days from school until we could get the cast on it.

Finally we got the cast on it, people have signed it and it seems to be going well. Still need to get it x-rayed again to make sure everything is healing well. But so far, so good.

9-11 Memorial

For September 11th, Allen's group of students wanted to put up a memorial of flags for the day. It was a big deal and a lot of red tape to go through. Once given the go ahead, they needed to find the flags. There was an organization that was kind and donated their flags for BYU-Idaho to use. There were 530 flags that were placed - each flag representing 20 people who died on September 11th.  In the evening, we took everyone over so we could see it for ourselves.

Not the best picture, it is a view from the skywalk - but the best I could get. It was really neat and just a nice reverent feeling there.

Of course, everyone needed their picture by a flag!

Summer Randomness

Just a few random pictures. The first one is Braden in the bath. He loves bubble baths because goofy loves bubble baths. The second two are ones not taken by me but found on my camera!