Rest of October

And here are the others from October

 One day Mark was just super smiley and happy, so we had fun taking lots of pictures of him and Amy on the couch.

 It was my birthday this month! And that is about where it ends. Later that week I celebrated with two of my friends who also have birthdays that week. We had dinner and yummy cupcakes (not made by me) and then sent the menfolk to the Priesthood session and the kids downstairs to destroy play while the birthday ladies chatted and watched "Just Like Heaven"

 After Conference on Sunday, we drove up Swan Valley a little ways to do some "treasure hunting". For those of you who don't know what this is, there are crazy people out there who go hide boxes, or caches as they are known, and then post the coordinates online for others to go and find. We use Robert's GPS from work and it can be loads of fun trying to find just where they have hidden those silly things. The area was just gorgeous along the Snake River.

 The pumpkins we carved for Halloween with glowsticks inside (my favorite way to light them, but not every night). "We" being the kids who chose the pictures and me who did the muscle work. I think they turned out quite cute, especially with the different colored glowsticks inside!

 Sam and Amy holding the medical play dolls I made for patients at Primary Children's Hospital. Even though I had a gazillion things going on, a friend of mine posted on FB that she would be going to Primary's and was taking donations down. I have always wanted to do something in honor of our Kaylie, but the right situation never presented itsself. Until now. So I did it. According to their directions, you needed 1/3 yd of fabric to make one doll. So I bought 2 yds so I could make six dolls. Well, it made 11. That turned into a huge project real fast to cut, sew, trim, turn, fill, handstitch and then make gowns for 11 dolls. It ended up being nearly 12 straight hours of sewing and working, but it was well worth the effort!

 Kids being crazy at bedtime

 Sam showing off his ghost while waiting for our first parent teacher conference. Sam is doing really well in school. He is at grade level in everything and above grade level in a couple areas. He is loving the Spanish immersion program and I enjoy being able to help in both classes on Thursdays.

 This is a quick pic from the Halloween Mystery Dinner we did for our YM/YW combined that I was mainly in charge of. It was a ton of work and kinda crazy the night of while serving the dinner, but it was definitely memorable and I think the youth really enjoyed it!

 Next comes our awesome trip to St. George for my family's reunion. I know most families do theirs in the summertime, but that just doesn't work for our family, so we tried it in the fall. It worked out pretty well because it was UEA for my brothers, my oldest sister home-schools her children, the next does year round school and they were off, and Sam had Friday off of school so he only ended up missing 1 day.

 We had a blast doing all of the "usual" Whatcott activities like four-wheeling, shooting, hiking, pictures, eating, etc.

 Sam was a pretty good shot with the bow and arrow.

 The older kids painting rocks

 Out on the hike to see the hieroglyphs - I packed Mark in the front carrier the whole way in and out - I was pretty proud of myself!

 Shooting skeets

 Sam and Daddy pulling for everyone

 Isn't this an awesome pic? Yeah, my sister is gorgeous even while shooting in the desert.

 Some of the grandkids lined up on the Pine Valley Church. We went to see this, the oldest chapel in LDS history, but it wasn't open this day, darnit!

 Kisses for Opa

 And the day after we got home, I did a cake for my friend who took the awesome family pictures you see on the side of the blog. We traded a cake for pictures - it was sweet!

 And a glance at how Sam has changed over the years. My favorite part about getting new pictures is to take out the old ones and line them up! I definitely have a handsome little guy!

So photogenic, even while sleeping! Maybe I should try that? :)