Kaitlyn says...

GOODBYE TO

BRACES!!!

Mike and Karol say goodbye to paying for them.

It's a good day!

BEWARE...

Logan is turning 10!

OK, I know he doesn't actually turn 10 until December 15th,

but I can't have a backyard birthday party in December and I love

our backyard parties so we decided to celebrate 2 months early

while we still have nice weather.

We went with a Halloween theme and sent out coffin invitations

and made R.I.P. cupcakes.

We put spiderwebs all over the backyard.

The party started out with pizza.

(In case you're wondering Logan has one of the plastic bugs

we decorated the table with on his forehead).

Next up...GAMES!

We started with the Mummy Wrap...

They all seemed to have a great time wrapping each other up like mummies.

Next up the donut eating competition...

We all loved the minute-to-win-it cotton ball game we played at our

family reunion so we decided to play it again at Logan's party.

Opening presents

Cupcakes and ice cream

By this time it was dark outside so I gave the kids a bunch of glowsticks

and put glowsticks around a ball and on our volleyball net and they

ran around the backyard having fun in the dark.

Unfortunately the pictures of this part didn't turn out,

but I did get Kaitlyn and Mallory showing off their glowsticks.

We were all happy with how it turned out and best of all,

I can take one thing off my list for December.

Young Women In Excellence

Tuesday night was our Young Women's annual night to celebrate
their accomplishments in Personal Progress.

It was a Hawaiian themed evening so the girls started out by

passing out leis to everyone as they walked in.

(Cheyenne, Madisen, Kaitlyn, Madalyn, Erin and Megan)

Kaitlyn displayed the quilt she made.

She made some scrapbook pages of the garden

she grew this summer.

A soccer trophy and her scrapbook.

Madisen put together a board representing her family blog,

crosstitching and pictures of her garden.

Paige brought a poster she made to show what she wants

to be when she grows up and her drumsticks to

represent her mad skills on the drums.

Taylor brought her coupon binder, volleyball and other

items to represent her personal progress projects.

Kara made a scrapbook, quilts and brought her ballet slippers.

Madalyn made a quilt and some pillows.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to get pictures of all the girls.

The best part of the evening was to be reminded how lucky Kaitlyn is to have a great group of girls in Young Womens that enjoy spending time together whenever they get the chance.

Hiking with Dad

Recently Mike went to a jobsite for work near Keller Canyon in Pittsburg.

He thought it was such a cool place he wanted to take

Kaitlyn and Logan there to do some exploring.

Friday they went to see what they could find.

Swallow nests.

Kaitlyn was a little afraid of getting close to the cows,

but Logan thought the whole adventure was very cool.

Logan wanted to bring home some of these bones,

fortunately Mike talked him out of it.

Music Man

Now that Logan is in fourth grade he can join the school band.

Logan decided he wanted to learn how to play the alto saxophone.

Today is the big day he was able to bring his new instrument home.

Very exciting and so Cute!

We'll see how many practice sessions before I

don't think it's all that cute anymore.

Daddy Daughter Campout

Mike and Kaitlyn went on our ward

Daddy Daughter Campout Friday night.

They hiked around the campsite and found a cool pond

with little waterfalls and when it got dark they sat in a

meadow and watched and listened

to the ground squirrels and owls.

The group sat around the campfire and played games - the daughters

put as many marshmellows as they could fit in their dads mouths

and then had to recite an article of faith.

Of course they finished off the evening making s'mores.

When they got home they both said they had a great time!

Kaitlyn didn't take very many pictures,

but atleast got a shot of the two of them together.

Logan and I had fun too we went to Lumpy's for burgers and garlic fries, the library - he needed the next book in the series he's reading - and watched a video.

A good time was had by all!