Who needs presents?

I guess we can forgo the letters to Santa this year. Who needs new fancy presents when you have a container of Q-tips?

Afton making her Q-tip tower and Mya lining them up. They played with them forever, dumping them out, putting them in a new container, dumping them out again, arranging them, and repeating.

Fall Catch-up

Looks like winter announced its presence today. So before we usher fall fully out the door...

Pumpkin Harvest

Jim and Karen invited our girls over to pick pumpkins with their cousins. Afton and Mya love being able to do things with Gavin, Derek, Megan, and Lauren. They love to be around the big kids and to be involved in doing big kid activities.

Halloween

Cutest Tinkerbell and Toast you've ever seen, right? For those that maybe haven't heard the back story on Afton's costume, months ago we were looking at costume ideas online and Afton came to look at the pictures. We just did a Google Images search of Halloween costumes and one that pulled up was some random guy dressed in what was called a "Weird Toast" costume. Afton decided then and there that she was going to be a Weird Toast for Halloween. And she really didn't waver from it, so Stefanie put on her creative cap and made a very cool toast costume.

Stef and I were Edward and Bella. Stefanie looked great, and I ended up looking like some creepy vampire dude hanging out with Bella. But I did have amber colored contact lenses to show I'd been well fed. Or was it hungry?

Karen hosted our family Halloween party at her house again.

Some of Stef's creative culinary creations. The pumpkin and ghost cake was commissioned by my dad for the family party. I thought the sign looked so real. The tombstones marked chocolate graves filled with cream cheese and chocolate chips.

On My Way Home

At a recent ward activity, our girls performed a little number with their cousins (and our bishopric).

Some explanatory information:

- When Stefanie and Karen took the girls over to the church to practice they placed tape on the stage for each girl to stand on. Mya stood on her tape and didn't budge. That is why she looks so cute headed out to a specific spot on the stage, and why her and Afton check where they're standing halfway through the song and back up to be on the tape again.

- Afton of course memorized the words to the song during the practicing and sang them during the actual performance. She loves to learn lyrics so she can sing along with songs that we listen to while driving around or as we watch concerts/music videos at home.

- You can see in the video that Mya had to be persuaded to leave the stage. After I cut the recording off she actually went back on the stage and stood on her spot marked by the tape. Aunt Karen had to go and coax her off the front of the stage...she was ready to do it all over again.

- Megan and Lauren were great teachers and very patient with the younger girls. Congrats to Karen and Stefanie for a great idea that turned out great.