Halloween

Please note Super Girl in her flying pose.  That girl is full of personality.

 We trick-or-treated this year with two of our neighbor friends.  It was a lot of fun.  Dad even got in on the action at the last minute which is a good thing since Mom was such a party pooper and didn't dress up this year.  Mom can be lame like that sometimes.

Aren't they just adorable.  I especially like the nun, oh I mean the Saudi prince.  Hehehe. 

Turning Twelve

Birthday cake that he decorated and lit himself.

 Mr. M turned 12 this year.  His Grandma Vance and Uncle Gary and family came to our house for the occasion.  It was so much fun to have family here to support him in receiving the priesthood.  He is such a great young man.

Mr. M and Baby I.

Gary's family with us down at the river.  

Ondalynn and me down at the river park.  She is sold.  Now that she lives closer she and I are going to party here for a week in the summer.

Little L, Sweet S and Cutie J.  I love these girls.

Some football lessons from Uncle Gary.

The big game.

This is the day of Mr. M's ordination.  He even bore his testimony in sacrament meeting.  What a great young man.  I love him so much.

One of many games of Uno played over the weekend.

Halloween Party

The kids and the spooky spread. Eat at your own risk.

 This year Leanne and I did a little party for our cousins who were in town and a couple of other friends. It was a fun time for the kids.  Leanne is such a great party hostess.

Da Guys.

Grandma Vance and our cute little cousin I.

Cousins.  Aren't they adorable.

Cutie J.  She was a little witch.

Our hostess Leanne and her mother Janet.

I don't know what to say about this one.  

Lady K, nice hair.

Business Trip to Denver

Here I am at the Denver Temple.  

 Dad had a business trip to Denver, Colorado in October and he asked me to come along.  It was a lot of fun to go with him, although, I have to admit, I missed the kids a lot!!  While Dad was at his conference I  was able to go to the temple, visit Joel and Heather Gardner (cousins,) read, workout and shop.  I kept wishing the kids were there to experience it all with me.  Dad and I were treated to dinner by Joel and Heather, went to a movie, swam in the snow and just enjoyed being together.  It was a great trip.

Cheesecake Factory with my soul sista Heather and two of her four cute kids.  I loved getting a tour of their amazing neighborhood and their incredible house.  Heather and I were non-stop talking the entire time.  

The second day we were there it dumped snow on us.  Too bad we are too cheap to have the valet do the scraping for us.  

A night out with our cousins.  We had so much fun hanging out with Joel and Heather.  We had to keep reminding ourselves to stop talking and eat.  

Our fancy hotel.

This was in the Denver Airport.  There were a bunch of paper cranes all over the walls  (10,000 to be exact.)  The story is that there is a lady who was writing a book and ended up making her manuscript into paper cranes.  The electronic copy of her book was subsequently lost and so now the only copy of her book is on 10,000 paper cranes in the Denver Airport.  Weird but true.

Fall Sports

 The Girls had a great volleyball season.  It was their first year playing and both were great assets to their teams.  Lady K has a killer overhand serve and Little L is very good at bumping the ball over the net.  She hardly ever missed.

Mr. M played a little church flag football with the men.  He has great receiving hands.  He really liked having that time with Dad to play.

Lady K and her team.

Before and Afters

 We were hard at work last spring getting our house fixed up.  Here are some of the fun projects that we did.

This room took more than a year to figure out.  I couldn't ever find anything I liked.  During a Memorial Day sale at Macy's I found this beautiful set and decided to go for it.  I even tore apart the headboard and re-stained it.  Dad calls this room the honeymoon suite.  

The deck was falling apart when we started this project.  We ended up replacing many of these boards,   power washed it and painted it.  It looks so fantastic now.  I love it.

Here is the dining room side of the deck.  Grandpa V gave us this  really nice  BBQ grill.

Our neighbor gave us a really nice patio set that had a lot of rust on it.  We sanded off the rust and sprayed Rustoleum on all the painted surface of the four chairs and table legs.  It is a really comfy set and I love how it looks now.

The living room changed a lot after my good friend Marci and her husband Sean gave us a really nice couch, chair and ottoman.  We also removed the tree and had a family picture that I love put on canvas.  This room is a lot more comfy now!! 

Kids' Tri

The YMCA hosted another kids' triathlon in September.  Mr. M and Little L were the participants (Lady K had a volleyball game.)  They both did really well and had a great time racing with a lot of their friends.  The race is 50 yd. swim, 3 mile bike, 1 mile run.  Little L was the first for the girls and Mr. M and his buddy came in together in second.  Great job guys!!