Our Busy Fall - 2014

Here are the boys on an indian summer walk in late September. They spent most of the month saying, "I can't believe how nice the weather is."  We've spent most of the past few months saying, "I can't believe how big you are all getting." The boys started school, got back into their music, and I started classes at the Y. Melissa is serving on the PTA, running the book club at the library, and serving in the Relief Society at church.

We dressed as cowboys for Halloween and went door to door holding up neighbors for candy.   We usually dress up as a family for Halloween in some way (see below), and sometimes that can be pretty time consuming and expensive. This year, we really didn't want to spend a lot of money, so we came up with this idea...we ended up buying two or three shirts at the thrift store--the neckerchiefs the boys took home from a work party, and the vests are made of felt and hot-glued together, and we borrowed  hats (it helps to have a cowboy for a grandfather).

One year in Lubbock the boys were sharks.  The sweaters are still around the house, and every once in a while a shark is spotted swimming through the house.

Our busiest year in Lubbock we opted for simple...black bat hats.  I can't believe how little Ian is!

 I think this was my favorite year...And Nolan as the clock toting crock! You just can't beat that.

Not our best year in terms of theme.  But again, Nolan as a duck? This is why Halloween exists. For duck costumes on babies.  Oh, and for chocolate.

The Franklin gang...they specialize in stage coaches, west-bound trains, and snack size candybars.

Completely unrelated to Halloween, but a fun photo. We stopped in at a military surplus store in Orem and they wanted to try everything on. 

And Fall photo dumps have to have pies. Right? Cranberry pie.  I was totally unoconvinced that this would be any good.  Mostly I was grumpy that we weren't going to make a chocolate pie.  But this...this was good pie.

We ate up in Salt Lake City with Melissa's family.   Their apartment has a great social room with a kitchen and fun dining area.

After dinner we took a walk through memory grove, which is just a few blocks from their apartment. 

A few weeks later we had Nolan's baptism.  A bunch of family came over to the house afterward for brunch.  

Okay this jumps us forward to Christmas eve. Our ward to a "truck stop Christmas" service project inwhich we baked 480 cookies and bagged them up along with a small Christmas note and then delivered them to semi-truck drivers parked at truck stops near our neighborhood.

About 15 people came and helped assembled bags and then on Christmas Eve night about eight o'clock we delivered the bags with the help of Melissa's parents and two families from the ward. We met a few truckers, but most were tucked into their cabs or out of their trucks, so we hung the bags from their mirrors.  We delivered 96 bags.

Also that night...we all put towels on our heads and pretended to be Israelite shepherds watching flocks by night...

And Ian put out cookies and carrots for Santa

And Nana and Papa stayed the night on Christmas Eve.  We actually had to wake little boys up on Christmas morning.  We could't believe it.  

Ian's favorite present was his new guitar.  He's been asking for one for years.

That two-fist celebration is Callan, excited about his six-week community rec fencing class.

The boys spent a lot of time in the heavy snow that fell on Christmas.

 And we made Christmas Cake for Christmas Dinner dessert.  This is a popular Christmas dessert in Japan and we try to make one every year.

Saturday after Christmas we had a white elephant party with a lot of Melissa's family.  

And that same day I took Nolan, Callan, and Cousin JT to the BYU game vs. Gonzaga.  

This december we also got around to bottling some rootbeer with a homemade root beer kit that we got for Christmas last year.  It was the best root beer we'd ever had.

We did some sledding at Rock Canyon Park and two of our sleds didn't make it home.

 and Callan got to go skiing for the first time.  

That was our busy Fall..  What I didn't mention above is that over the thanksgiving Holiday we spent almost every day from Friday to Friday with somebody sick at the house.--really sick.  First Ian, then me, then Nolan, then Mom, then Callan.  We had a brief break long enough to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, but we spent the entire time feeling pretty awful.  So our bar for Christmas break was pretty low--if no one got sick then that would be a success. And we did it. No one got sick.  We did some meaningful service, made some great food, and saw a lot of family with no major drama anywhere.