Mexico Trip Picture (for Karen Young)

This is for you Karen. We spent over 24 hours in this position while our kids sat in front of us, on the bigger bench, watching movies and being hand fed from behind. So, going to LA is going to be a breeze!
Sorry the picture looks weird. We took this with our film camera, so I took a picture of the picture with our digital camera in order to post it (talk about ingenuity!).

Christmas Lights

These are our Christmas Lights. It took us several weeks to get them up because of work schedules etc. and then Jeri chewed up one of the power cords. We are still not sure if she got a shock or not, but she hasn't chewed them since!

Ephraim Barlows, this one's for you!

Becky and I are sitting here just enjoying the repercussions of my blog. Now Dad barlow and Daniel have started a blog of their own, and I must say they are very entertaining! Here are the latest pictures from my camera.
As for the latest news from our family, we have been verrrrrrrrrrrrrry busy. I piano students had their first recital just two nights ago, which went very well, but was stressful and a little scarry for me! I played two pieces, and each of my 11 students played two pieces, so it was a lot of preparation.
We are getting all ready for christmas as well. Our tree is beautiful, and Michael has made sure the outside of the house is pristinely lit. Our little cottage looks like a gingerbread house!
Love you all, and I promise I will do better at keepin up this blog.........after the Christmas season!
P.S. Joshua sat on Santa's lap today. This is a big achievement for him, since last year he wouldn't go within 20 yards of a santa!

Pinewood Derby

The elders quorum decided to have their own pine wood derby this year. Mike says about thirty of the elders signed up to participate, but in the end only nine cars showed up to the race. Mike and I really got into it. I found a manual with all kinds of tips and tricks on the internet, and together we built this car every night after the kids were in bed. We had a great time! And to top it all off, we won the derby! What did we win you ask? Well, we won a bag of Reesins chocolates. Not too flashy, but it was a healthy boost for both Michael's and my competitive natures. I guess it also proves that we are a little obsessive, but like the boyscouts say, "Do Your Best!"

Hardware Ranch Elk Festival

Saturday morning we all went up to Hardware ranch which is just 15 miles up blacksmith fork canyon (which we conveniently live right next to). There was a festival going on, which consisted of pumpkin painting, lasooing, track stamping, fishing simulators, wagon rides, gun shooting, archery, dog sled displays, mountain men displays, and wildlife displays. We had a fabulous time. Josh really wanted to shoot the guns, but we wouldn't let him. The mountain men were our favorite -- Bear Butt and Wapiti Dung (that is really how they introduced themselves) were very excited to show us all their mountain man gear, and fur pelts. They even insisted on dressing us all up as mountain men for a picture. That's Wapiti Dung in the picture with us. The wagon ride was fun as well. We didn't get to go for a very long ride, but the horses were beautiful and it was a really nice day to be up the canyon.

Getting ready for Halloween

We are getting ready for Halloween at our house. I just finished Joshua's costume this week, and if I do say so myself, it looks pretty good! Thanks to my sister-in-law Carrie who encouraged me to make the pirate outfit without a pattern! I used one of Mike's old t-shirts for the pants and some leftover material from a quilt for the shirt. The rest is just felt, and dollar toys!
Andrew gets to be a little devil, which is what Joshua was for his first Halloween. Here we go already with the hand-me-downs!
Joshua and I hung fake spider webs and fake spiders all over our house just in the name of festivity. It looks pretty creepy, but it is amazing what you will do to please a child.
This week we also signed Joshua up for a mini-preschool class being offered at the highschool. It goes for three weeks, and is taught by the highschool students. I think he will really like it.
One more bit of info: we took Andrew to the therapist again yesterday, and his head is getting much much better. It still isn't round, but the rest of his head is finally catching up with the big lumpy side!

Joshua wants to say "Hi"!

Joshua has been particularly interested in the computer lately. So I thougth I would let him post something on our family blog. Here goes nothin!

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Whew! That was fun! Last night for family home evening we watched a documentary about fighter jets and their pilots. Joshua was riveted! He has been flying his hand around the house like a jet all day!

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Mike and I were released from our Webelo Den Leader callings this week. It
s a bitter sweet thing, when I gave all our supplies to the new leaders, Joshua cried and cried. It will be particularly hard for him to not have scouts at our house any more, but he can wait until he's 8 and can be a scout for real!

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P.S. these pictures are a little random, but cute none-the-less! The feet are Andrews, about a month ago.