All Things Halloween!

Tonight we had a bunch of people over for dinner, and then we made caramel apples, thanks to Laura Peterson. That is Elder Montierth having way too much fun making his!

It was so exciting, in fact, the Reid's cute little baby got plain tuckered out!Can you guess who this is?? Well, Connie Haws gives it away! This is at our ward Halloween party. Brent came right up to me and said some arabic sounding words and I still didn't recognize him! They looked great!

This is Jayce and Loraya at the party. She was so cute as strawberry shortcake. When I told her I never knew she had freckles, she announced "They're fake!" (like, duh, Sis. Sutherland!) So cute! I have these cute little halloween pans that I only get to use once a year. So, I made pumpkin bread batter, and poured it in. The rest I used in the little loaf pans to make baby pumpkin/ chocolate chip bread. They turned out like this!

We have a pumpkin carving tradition in our house...we've always done it...for years!! But this time, Derek and Cody had to be strongly encouraged to participate. I reminded Derek he needs to appreciate it because it's his last pumpking carving at home :(. I don't know if he appreciates what that means yet! They made their pumpkins, and Jayce and Mark had a blast. Thank heavens Mark doesn't mind digging out the goo...I really don't want to! I bake while they carve! It's a good system!

And we always take this picture of the pumpkins lined up on the counter. I can't remember what Derek's says...it's like "eat goo" or something. He's so funny!

This is the adorable skeleton Jayce made at school. We proudly put it on our door! This is Jayce before school on Friday. It was the Park Village Elementary costume parade.

Parading...with the rest of the school...

Just so you know...this is not the cutest costume, but we have a bin full of costumes we've accumulated over the years, and he went to it and found this one that fits. Easy! We no longer have to buy any...we have so many to choose from. Yay!

Another great Halloween. Such a fun time of year! Now to look forward to Thanksgiving and getting ready for Christmas!!

Tears and Dallin

When Dallin was 16 years old, I probably cried daily with worry for him. It has been a long road of learning, but now I only cry about once a month or less. I may hear a song, or see one of his favorite foods in the grocery store, or just be driving the carpools and I'll think about him and be sad. It seems like it's been a while since I've had tears, but this week when Jayce and I were reading books at bedtime, I opened this book: And saw this:
I don't know exactly why that brought on tears, but it did. That is his handwriting. It took me back to when he was three, four and five years old and we would read books for hours. And what I hoped then his life would look like now. One of the books that holds special meaning for us is this one. He knows it well. As a matter of fact someone read this exact book at a powerful seminar that Dallin and Mark and I attended together. I remember sobbing then. I also remember at that seminar, I think it was that one, that Dallin and I hugged and I never wanted that moment to end.

It's important to note that Dallin has a heart of gold. He is so tender and kind. These pictures from Caitlin's wedding give you a window into Dallin. Look at his face and into his eyes in every one. He is so caring and sweet with Jayce. He adores Caitlin. He loves us, his family.

Dallin was home for almost a week for the wedding. I was pretty stressed with seemingly unending to-do lists. He was calm and helpful. I remember, particularly, I was pretty stressed on the day of the groom's dessert we were having at our house. Dallin calmly jumped in to help, willing to do anything and everything. I know he thought my stress was silly and unnecessary. He is such a simple guy. But he also knew it was important to me, so he just quietly supported and helped.

I love and miss my beautiful son. The tears are flowing freely now. I hope he knows how much he is loved.

Shout out for Elise!

When we began Caitlin's wedding preparations we were hoping to find a great photographer at a good price. We loved Danny and Whitney Hall's wedding photos so I looked at Elise's work on her blog - http://www.elisethephotographer.blogspot.com/. - and loved it! I emailed her, fearing her prices would be more than I could afford. But, no, she was less than all the other photographers I had considered! I have been so impressed with Elise's talent, but also her professional customer service. Here is some of her work:

Yep, that's Ben and Jayce. Such a great shot!

An artsy shot of Caitlin's wedding dress.

When you have four sons and a husband preparing for a wedding, you get five ironed shirts hanging on the bed :).

And, one of my favorite shots, at La Jolla Cove. Beautiful! Thanks Elise!!

Elise is actually holding a giveaway for a free family photo shoot, which I would love since we haven't had an official family picture taken in more than ten years!! And this blog post enters me in the giveaway! Plus, I just really, really like her!

Thank you to the Bishop!

Tonight the Activity Day girls wanted to say "thank you" to the Bishop and his family by bringing us dinner! They brought a noodle casserole, fruit salad, green salad, and homemade breadsticks. YUM! They also brought the SWEETEST thank you note, where they ALL signed it. I love these girls! They were SO cute when they dropped it off...all smiles and explaining all the yumminess!!

I think only a couple of people read my blog, but that's okay, because they are important people to me and I love to let them know what's going on at home :). You know who you are :).

Scary night!

Yesterday (Sunday) the missionaries dropped by. (They heard we had two pans of still-warm brownies and didn't want to miss out!) The boys were, of course, doing what they do, nerf gun fighting and the missionaries joined in. While trying to shoot Derek, Elder Moses hit Pennie right in the eye!! She whimpered and ran over to me. I held her and saw she was blinking and favoring her eye, but thought she'd be fine. After a couple of hours passed, she wouldn't come out of her kennel and she wouldn't open her eye! Mark looked at her and thought the eye looked so bad she might lose it! We were scared because it was 9:45 on Sunday night! We called an emergency vet clinic and asked what they would charge for a visit - $55 - so we were there! The doctor was super nice. He put a dye in her eye so he could get the best look at it. He said she is in pain because the eye is so sensitive but he didn't see anything serious. We left with eye drops and pain medication. Whew! We love our little old dog!Today I'm happy to report she's been up and about (a little) and she seems so happy to be snuggled in at home.

A Rough Sunday!

This is the "after" picture! Today was the children's Sacrament meeting program at church where the children give all the talks and do all the music. It was wonderful, but Jayce just has a hard time sitting still for the entire meeting! I kept whispering in his ear that the louder he sang and the more reverent he sat, the bigger the brownie he would get later. After church, Jayce found a tree to climb...in his suit. You probably can't tell from the picture, but his suit is covered in tree dirt! So, I will wash it and hope for the best!Last night, I ran the Light the Night 5K in Balboa Park! I ran with Sandi and Crystal (the teacher I work for at Park Village) It was super fun! It was an easy, flat, out and back course. It made me want to train for and run another race! The first picture was AFTER, the second picture was BEFORE

This has been a fun baking week, with Halloween coming up. Sugar cookies are such a process!! One day we made the dough, rolled them out and baked them. The next day we made frosting and decorated them. Yum!!

These were just two beautiful shots after our recent storm. This first one is looking west, out toward the ocean. The rainbow is looking east.

Boy fun!

On Saturday, Jayce and I pulled out an old craft project we've had around here for a LONG time. We used to make these when the big kids were little. Caitlin even took these on babysitting jobs to do with the kids she was babysitting. It was always a big hit. Jayce lost patience and needed help putting those little things on the pattern.

Jayce has been coming into our room each night either in the middle of the night or early in the morning. This puts a cramp on my morning run if he wants me to stay with him until he falls back to sleep. This morning I just went anyway! When he comes in the middle of the night, he asks if Dad will go sleep in his bed. We've got to break this little habit :).

On Monday, for Family Home Evening, we had a home fire drill. Cody is working on his last requirement on his last merit badge before we embark on the Eagle project. This is the Emergency Preparedness merit badge. This was the "get down low, get outside to the meeting point, and fast!" Jayce wanted to do it over and over!

Even Pennie evacuated! She was confused. And wouldn't pose for a picture!

Today was "nerd day" at Westview. I never knew they had nerd day. Cody was too cute! He went looking like this:

Today was a VERY wet day here in San Diego. We were worried that the back hill would come tumbling down again like it did last winter.

I'm happy to report that the landscaping held up and our yard looked very happy for the extra watering! Whew! Jayce got completely soaked (and I did, too, when I went to pick up the kids from school) and had to change all his clothes. But he had fun!