Pumpkin Carving

Getting started, Lucy was fascinated!

David getting in on the action . . .

Lucy helping Daddy to get all the "corns" out . . .

Lucy "mixing it" . . .

We're all done!

Meet our pumpkin, "Eliza". . .

*The ONLY pumpkin our garden produced this year!

Pumpkinland

This little gem of a place is turning into quite the fun tradition for us . . .








We had so much, we had Grandma and Grandpa come and join us again a few days later . . .

FALL

Can you please stick around a little longer? We don't really need winter just yet.

Who is it?

Marc brought a Santa mug home that he had won from some activity at work that day (I know, random). He handed the mug to Lucy and she loved it. I asked her, "Who is it?" (wondering if she had picked up on who Santa was through various books we have read). She looked up, smiled and very confidently said, "NOAH!"

We laughed and laughed and laughed. She has a couple of books about Noah's ark that we read frequently. So apparently an old man with a white beard fit the mold perfectly.

BYU Homecoming 2009

We were True Blue this year and did our best to support as many Homecoming activities as we could. We started with my family cheering me on for the 5k race. Then The McKay School held a reunion for all the alumni that included dinner, games, door prizes and even a professional photographer (where were you guys?)!
The kids enjoyed getting their faces painted . . .
OK, we held David still long enough to get his painted, but Lucy LOVED it. She kept saying, "Y" and "BYU Cougars".
Then we were crazy enough to attempt watching the game as a family! Here we go!
Our seats were amazing. 10th row back in the north end zone. At first the kids did not like all the yelling, but they acclimated to it quite quickly. Lucy was actually in heaven.
And life only got better when she got to eat fist fulls of popcorn! She was so funny to watch. I found myself watching her way more than the game (of course the game was nothing to write home about).
We made it to half-time and actually had a very enjoyable time as a family. Marc walked us back to our car and stayed to watch the end of the game with his Mom. On our way out, we ran into the band so Marc asked them if they'd play something for Lucy. I told them she loved the fight song. They happily obliged and Lucy was in awe. She really enjoyed the "rah, rah, rah, rah, rah" part at the end.
On the way home Lucy was so excited. I just laughed listening to her in her car seat saying ,"BYU Cougars football" and "B-Y-U!" and "Goooo Cougars" and "Daddy Football!" over and over again.

A little while ago . . .

I looked like this . . .

all for this little piece of heaven to come join our family . . .

then 4 1/2 months later I ran this . . .

I am going to take a moment to feel really good about all of that!

Outakes

We all take these amazing family pictures of our families dressed just right, our hair and makeup done perfectly all in the name of keeping up some sort of appearance for others to see our "picture perfect" family. For a change, I thought it might be fun to post some of the "not so perfect" moments as well:

BYU Video

Check out what great things we're doing:

http://education.byu.edu/cpse/
(my former students will be particularly interested)

Waiting

trying hard to see . . .

a stool sure helps . . .

Finally! Grandma and Grandpa have arrived!

Fall Photo Shoot 2009

Such a fun time and such CUTE kids! So which should make the cut for the wall?

#1

#2

#3

And these were just so cute, I had to include them: