Brace Face, Metal Mouth, Tinsel Teeth or Railroad Tracks

About two weeks ago, I got a call from the school one morning. The school secretary started the conversation with, "Andrew's okay, but...". At this point, my stomach felt sick and my heart started to race. She then finished her sentence with, "...he chipped his front tooth playing football on recess." This is how Andrew looked with his chipped tooth. Can you see that middle tooth on the bottom? Poor boy, it really hurt. Luckily, the dentist was able to fit him in that afternoon and now he looks as good as new.


And now, he looks like this. Yep, Andrew got braces. Call him brace face, metal mouth, tinsel teeth or railroad tracks, but we think he looks pretty cool in braces!!

SEVEN

Benjamin had a birthday. I can't believe he is seven already! He opened presents early in the morning and asked for pancakes that spell his name.





He got a new Wii game from Andrew, Itunes card from Sarah, cool sand from Spencer, a Swap Force game from Levi, money from Nonnie, money from Grandma and Grandpa and a basketball hoop from mom and dad.





He was able to celebrate his birthday with his classmates. His class sang Happy Birthday Cha Cha Cha to him and then enjoyed eating Krispy Kreme donuts.



Taking the first bite...


Yum!!


Later that night, we had soup and bread for dinner (his request) and then had a rice krispy BSU cake (also, his request).





Seven things about Benjamin...

Benjamin is always happy.

He talks the most of anyone in our family.

We think he might be a doctor when he grows up because he loves to look at blood and at anyone's wounds.

He loves the Piano Guys!

He's amazingly talented at electronics.

He is always the first kid awake in the morning and he's always happy about it.

He gives GREAT hugs!!

We love you so much, Benjamin!!

Weekend with the Family

My entire family came for a long weekend. My mom came the day before Halloween to help me get ready. Jayna, Ryan, Jon, Heidi and their families came on Halloween and Angie, Mark and their family came the day after.

We trick-or-treated with the cousins.










We had a great day together at the Zoo and had a picnic, too.  The weather was absolutely beautiful!





















I love this picture of Caleb holding his new cousin, Will. Aren't they both sooooooooo cute!!!



On Saturday, we hosted an early Thanksgiving meal and were fortunate to have all of our in-laws join us as well (except Angie's in laws as they are serving a mission in the Palmyra temple).  We had a total of 27 for lunch.


After the dinner, Jayna and Ryan were able to bless Will. It was a wonderful blessing!









Someone was always holding Will. He is such a sweet and mellow baby!



We had a family picture taken. Thank you, Dawna!


I love this picture of our beautiful mom!


We loved having all of our family come visit. There is something so wonderful about being surrounded by family!

Happy Halloween 2013

Happy Halloween from our scary spooks!!



A frightening Zombie...


a brave knight....


a magical fairy... (it was Sarah's first year to stay at home to pass out candy. She didn't mind because she got to snuggle with her new cousin, Will.)



the scariest werewolf EVER...



a morf... (yea, how does one describe a morf?)








The weather was ideal, the kids got plenty of candy and we got to share the evening with family! We had a WONDERFUL Halloween!!

October

We had a fantastical October!!

We took the kids to the Idaho Penitentiary.
It's a pretty amazing place. The kids kept on saying that they NEVER wanted to do anything that would make them go to jail. That's not the reason why we took them there, but it was a great way to teach them about making good choices.










We went to a fun movie night at the Barn in the neighborhood. They filled up a bathtub with candy and we watched The Black Cauldron and the big kids watched Monster House.



Andrew spent a week at MOSS with his classmates. He had an awesome time.




Levi and his friend, Brig and I went to the Aquarium. We fed the tropical fish, sharks and sting rays.






We went to a Harvest festival at Farr West and painted pumpkins.



Levi had a sick day. Poor boy!


Nathan got into watching Cake Boss on Netflix so he decided that he would make his own birthday cake. It was amazing!!


At the very last minute, a friend offered us tickets to Disney On Ice. It was amazing!!!




Nathan and Levi went shopping for Halloween costumes.


We went to the Hidden Springs Halloween party and had a blast!






We had the most beautiful Fall and I loved all the colors.


Benjamin had his end-of-season soccer party.



At times our month was just exhausting!


We had a fun evening eating soup, carving pumpkins, frosting cookies with the Ramey's.










Levi had a fun preschool Halloween party.