Man, I am behind in my blogging. The kids just went back on track this week and so I think I will just highlight the past 3 weeks while they were off track. It might be boring to everyone else, but I want to do it for me.
The boys had their last flag football game of the season on October 18th. We had to divide up the 2 games between Taft and I since they were back to back at different places. I was sad that I missed Brayden's last game. He scored a touchdown! Yippee! Go Brayden. Carter had a little bit of a rough ending, cut still played great. He really grew this year in football. It is crazy to see what 1 year does for skill.
October had the most excellent fall weather that I can remember. So warm and nice crisp mornings and night. I loved, loved, loved it. The kids had fun playing ball in the backyard and I loved our trees in our backyard this fall.
Some of us got to go have fun bowling with friends. I haven't been bowling since I was pregnant with Ellie, and it was so fun! I actually broke 100, a small miracle! It was fun to see Ellie bowl and see her cute little feet in cute little shoes. She was really quite independent and caught on quickly. It was also sweet to watch Brayden help her out (when she let him). Life really has gotten easier the past few months with Ellie growing up. We finally get to enjoy some fun activities again with her!
Our biggest highlight of week one was that the Griffeths came to visit! We all loved having them here and I love seeing how much baby Ty has changed and grown, he is so dang cute and sweet and fun! I love how our kids just play, play, play together. I wish they lived next door. We got in some great shopping at an awesome Children's Place outlet sale, fun climbing at Daniel's Park, lots of chatting, eating and running around the house and back yard. We wish they could have stayed longer.
Windy at Daniel's Park
Beautiful private Golf Course at Daniel's Park (how rich do you have to be to own that! When I say private, I mean you only play there if you are friends with the owner)
Could he be any cuter???
The Big Boys
The Girls
The Little Boys
The awesome parents to the cute kids
The night the Griffeths left we went to our ward OctoRootbeerFest. :) We had a chili cook-off and pumpkin carving contest. The kids ran around and were noisy, got their faces painted and ate candy. Good times. I actually got 3rd place on the chili cook-off! But I don't know, my chili was a new recipe with weird stuff in it like cocoa and unsweetened chocolate. Before we left I caught Carter carving a pumpkin all by himself. I was surprised at what a great job he did! But I guess he doesn't like to clean out the pumpkin first. 
We got to finish out the week by celebrating Logan's 7th birthday with her and the 2 families. We all got to go bowling and have our "official" family birthday food, pizza. One funny thing while we were bowling was that Ellie threw the ball so slow that it actually stopped in the middle of the lane. :) Ha!
We had a great 1st week off!
We started a "new to us" tradition last year. On Christmas Eve we write down what Gift to the Savior we are giving for the new year. We then place the paper on our tree. The kids have been really great with what they want to do to improve themselves and be more like the Savior. We decided to give a gift to the kids to keep in their room to remind them about their gift. They loved the pictures of the Savior. Brayden said it was his favorite gift, he just loved it. If we can only keep him thinking this way when he is a teenager. Carter said it made him calm down when he was mad and went and looked at the picture. I thought that was sweet. Ellie said that her gift to the Savior would be "to smile at people." We asked her why she was going to do that and she said "I like Jesus and I follow His ways." Seriously. How many 3 year olds say that? Her Nursery teachers must be awesome!
