We had General Conference in October, when we get to listen to the prophet and other church leaders give talks on various topics. I love conference, it is inspiring and a great time to reflect and try to become a better person. It is also interesting to try and listen with all the kids since there are four two hour sessions. I came up with some fun games and activities for the kids so I could try and listen to some of conference. Here they are all ready to listen!
Oliver loves the music best. He loves to lead music and sing the hymns, so it was fun to watch him as he learned some new songs.
Oliver built a conference center with his legos. There is an organ, the circus man is playing the organ, there are some people sitting in the front waiting to speak, an audience – including an elephant, of course, and he said that President Uchtdorf is speaking. I love this kid. He left this set up in my room for weeks and would come in and sing and pretend conference was going on.
Oliver got a haircut! I love his long hair, but it was getting to the point where he couldn’t keep it out of his eyes, so we got it cut. He looks very handsome! We all said, “Who is this new little boy?” At first he didn’t like that, but then he thought it was funny and said “When Daddy comes home from his trip he will say, ‘who is this cute boy?'”
I took the kids to Zion for a little picnic and hike. James loved crawling around. He also loved picking up rocks and unfortunately likes to throw things and hit Marion with the rock. But after we got everyone all calmed down and had some snacks (including some yummy sandy food for James since he kept throwing everything), we enjoyed our hike and picnic.
Elora is growing up so fast, every once in awhile I look at her and think, “Who is this grown up girl?” It was a beautiful afternoon with really nice lighting too.
Marion liked rolling around in the dirt. Funny girl. My camera battery died after this, so everyone got to enjoy hiking without Mommy stopping everyone to take pictures. We had a GREAT time and I was sad when it was time to leave. I need to come here more with the kids, we always have to much fun exploring.
The kids liked the Apple Festival so much that they decided to make their own apple festival in the backyard, complete with fun games like this “apple walk”. I love these kids, they are so fun. And I am glad they love the Apple Festival enough to want to play with apples in the backyard!
I dug out a bunch of costumes from the costume box and found these cute outfits that our friend Jon (in Vienna) had his wife make for my kids. They still fit well and the kids were so excited they decided they wanted to be Aladdin and Jasmine for Halloween. Oliver also wore his cute outfit to church, but Elora couldn’t because it is covered in bells so it makes a lot of jingling noise when she walks around!
I just like this picture because it shows off these little ones and their mischievous little personalities.
The kids had a costume parade around the kitchen with some of the costumes I brought in the house. Oliver changed his costumes SO MANY times between this time and Halloween. I could never get him to decide what he wanted to be, so he just wore different outfits every day and would ask me to make even more! I told him I would make him a new costume next year. If he will ever decide on just one costume.
Marion told me she wanted to be an octopus for Halloween. Seriously? An OCTOPUS?!?!? She is a funny girl. I found these cute octopus hats on etsy, but they were really expensive, so I asked my friend Kayla if she could make one, and here it is! So cute. Marion wants to wear it ALL THE TIME. She is so excited about her hat. More pics of the rest of her costume to come! Hers was the only one I spent time making this year, everyone else wore things from previous years, which made this a pretty easy Halloween! I love making costumes, but with six people in the family it is getting harder to find time to make a costume for everyone. We are all about recycling costumes these days!
