Watching the destruction of Hurricane Sandy in our favorite East Coast states of New York and New Jersey was hard for us.  New Jersey will always have a special place in our hearts and so we decided to do something to help.  As a family we raked leaves here in Boise to raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief.  Here’s our cool flyer:

We even made a website where people could go to sign up.  We passed out about 50 flyers, but only had a handful of people sign up.  We were able to raise over $100.00, though.  It was lots of work, but it was such a great experience for the kids.

I will say that it was more work to keep the kids on task and raking than it was to actually do the raking, but such is life with little kids.  And ironically enough, if I had to give out a “Hardest Worker” award it would go to Levi.  He is the smallest, but he worked hard MOST of the time.  Way to go Levi John!

We did let them play a little bit.

When we were done at Byams, Uncle Calvin made us his “internationally” famous pancakes.  They were very yummy and the boys are STILL talking about them.

Thank you to all those who helped us with this service project.  Our thoughts and prayers are still with you, New Jersey!

I recently started a Lego Club for my boys and several other kids with another homeschool mom.  So far it’s been lots of fun.

First challenge: write your name.

Next challenge: using just the legos from your kit, see how long a creation you can make.

We helped out at Aunt Janie’s farm last week with all the kids.  The kids had lots of fun and worked hard-mostly.

I didn’t anticipate how cold it would be so Aunt Janie let us borrow some hats. They were just a little bit too big. I love his ears.
 

We loaded three or four truck loads of wood! 

Even Liberty helped out.

We’ll be back to help out with the rest of the leaves!  Thanks for giving us a chance to serve, Byams!  Somehow you escaped without being in any of our pictures, but we’ll get you next time!

Reagan hit double digits last month!  It’s hard to believe it.  Seems like just yesterday…. ok, I won’t make you read a sappy mother’s trip down memory lane. 

Reagan has grown up quite a bit this year.  He is thoughtful and very aware of other’s feelings.  If he sees someone suffering or hurt in any way his heart is touched and he wants to help and often does.  Most of the time he is acutely aware of how his actions or what he says could affect someone.  Watch out when he sees any injustice in the world-it’s not pretty.  He has recently made a new best friend in our neighborhood/ward.  He is very much into politics and has a keen sense of his liberty and even, to his mother’s horror, asked his new best friend if he was a republican.  The world is very black and white for Reagan.  It’s a good thing he has his father, because the world is very black and white for me too, I’m afraid. 

I dropped him off at Webelos the other night and the thought struck me that now, especially in light of the new age requirements for missionaries, we have had Reagan in our home longer than we have left with him in our home.  The thought was sobering and sad to me.  Made me cry a little.  I thought of all we have left to teach him and it was overwhelming.  Then when I shared this sad, sobering thought with Rock, he just cheered and said, “We’re more than half way done!”  Typical.

Here are the birthday highlights.

Nine 10 year olds.  Believe it or not, it was much calmer than his 8th birthday party.

He had a Ninjago lego party.  That is a Ninjago figure cake. 

Letting Liberty help open presents.

Harry Potter #4.  We’ve been holding him off for a while now.  Thus the reaction.

Dart guns from his siblings.  They now have a full set again and enough darts to have a good war.  They’ve had a dart gun fight every day this week.

Levi had a good time at the party.  A sucker from the piñata AND birthday cake.  Go sugar overdose.

Happy Birthday, Reagan!  We love you!

The Pumpkins

In order from left to right: “Didn’t Have Time to Carve, but at Least She Won’t Really Care Till Next Year”, “Freaky Eyes”, “The Falcon” and “The Fox”.

The Costumes:

The Pig

What ELSE could she be?  The only pink animal that exists.  Thank goodness there is one!

The Fox

Can you say, “CHEESE!”

Harry Potter

It’s Daniel Radcliff!  (with dimples) 

The Ninja

Trick or Treating:
Think about what would be the WORST thing to happen to you on Halloween night just before it’s time to go trick or treating?  If you guessed throwing up, you’d be right!  And that’s exactly what Cade did.  Twenty minutes before it was time to go, he lost his dinner (before he could get to the bathroom, I might add.) thanks to a flu that he caught from Reagan (who was just barely well enough to go T or T’ing himself).  Poor guy.  His brothers worked EXTRA hard to get enough candy for the three of them. 
I must say it was so refreshing to Trick or Treat here in the West again.  It’s very different out East and not nearly as much fun.  For one thing, people actually trick or treat AT NIGHT here.  But we are thinking of all our wonderful friends in NJ who didn’t get to go trick or treating on Halloween for the 2nd year in a row because of crazy storms.  You’re in our prayers!

This was Liberty’s first time and she had a blast.  She yelled thank you as loud as she could at every door.

“Hmm, something pink…..”

”Aha!”  

First thing she ate of course.

On a side note, the homeschool Halloween party I was in charge of was a hit.  We had about 75 kids and it pretty much went off without a hitch.   It was crazy and loud and fun!  But I am soooo glad it’s over!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

One of my favorite things about fall is our family trip to the pumpkin patch.  It’s so fun to see the kids pick out their perfect pumpkin.  It’s a hoot to watch them try to carry it to the car even when it’s bigger than they are.  I love getting new pictures of them traipsing through the pumpkins and vines and I love the hayride.  Yeah, well, not this year. 
We went to the “Pumpkin Patch” on Friday expecting to do the hayride and pumpkin patch last so we didn’t have to carry around our pumpkins while we did all the “agritourism” activities like the air jumper and the corn maze and the giant lizard (I’ll explain).  But once we were ready to go to the pumpkin patch and pick out our pumpkins, they informed us that the hayrides were closed and we would not get to go the pumpkin patch!  The farm was supposed to be open from 10-3, and it was only 2:00, so we were a little frustrated.  Ok, I was really frustrated and had to seriously bite my tongue so that I wouldn’t be a bad example for my children.  Would have been really nice for someone to tell us the pumpkin patch closed early.  Grr.  I will get over it, maybe by next year. 
We did have fun though, and I was able to get some good pics.  We had company this year!  Aunt Janie, Uncle Calvin, Penny, Lincoln and Dustin came along.

Jessica, who is working at the pumpkin patch this year, gave us our little introduction to farm life and its importance.
 

Feeding the goats.

Lincoln’s oh so awesome hat.

This trampoline was really cool.  I’ve never seen anything like it.

After the fancy tramp the boys tried to rope a steer.  Not being a cowpoke from Idaho, Levi needed a translation as to what that meant.  “We’re going to lasso a cow!”  Ah! Then the light bulb clicked on.  Luckily, Uncle Calvin who IS a cowpoke from Idaho at heart, knew how to show em…. sort of.

This little sneak peek is for Alli and Sarin who I know have been waiting for this day as long as I have!!! 

And those of you who are a little more observant will see something else new in this picture if you look close….

Yep.  Braces.  It’s the new thing, apparently.  Give them a small set when they’re young and a more complete set when they’re older that overall takes less time and makes for less hassle.  He gets to wear these for 15 months.  Rock’s family will find it interesting to know that we are using Kelson Orthodontics, Malaena’s  husband makes the gear and his brother is our orthodontist!

I know.  I shouldn’t have.

But I couldn’t resist.

I didn’t even try to talk her into an orange one.  I’m an enabler!!!!!

Liberty has been up to some funny things lately.

She learned how to put her hands in her pockets this week and thought she was pretty cool.  She walked around the house this way for quite a while.

Trying on Mommy’s shoes

This girl is almost ready to potty train.  She tells me as soon as, if not before she has a dirty diaper and when she’s wet-something her brothers never did or at least never cared about!  I finally dug the potty chair out of a box this week.  Unfortunately, the first time we had her try it she was naked and so now if she wants to try it, she takes off all her clothes.  We’ll have to work on that.  She might get some weird looks when she’s older if we don’t!

Yes, she’s still obsessed with pink.  It’s a little extreme now.  She will go through the crayon bin and pull out all the pinks and purples and carry them around the house.  And of course she loves the Little People pig too-he’s pink.  I’m thinkin she’s gonna be a pig for Halloween!

My favorite thing about Liberty right now is that every night when I put her to bed she asks me to sing her the “Temple song” (I Love to See the Temple).  I sang that to the boys too, but she really loves it and it’s the only song she’s ever actually requested.  She also notices every time we drive pass the Boise temple and yells out, “Temple! Temple!”  I can’t wait to take her through the open house in October!  I’m so glad she already has her sights set on the temple.  Hopefully she’ll take it well when she finds out her wedding dress can’t be pink.

For Rock’s birthday last week Levi made him this card all by himself.  (Ok, I helped with the spelling.)
You have to click on this one to read the bottom. 
Levi loves to write even though I haven’t given him any formal writing lessons yet.  I think it’s time!  He wants to do everything his big brothers do.

My nephew Dustin James was born in August and these pics are from the first time the kids got to meet their new cousin.

This weekend we took Aunt Alli to Aunt Jane’s house to play with more cousins; Katelyn and Jessica.  The boys love seeing all the animals too.


They helped groom Moe before taking him for a ride.  Or more correctly, before he took them for a ride.


His helmet was almost bigger than he was.

So glad to be close to so much family again!