Making Pie!!!

The girls really wanted to make pies with Grandma! Tiana and Grandma made a pumpkin pie together! It was yummy!

Larisa and Grandma made a German Chocolate pie - Yum!!!

The girls had a great time and it was fun watching them!

Buffet Dinner

We considered doing a big early Thanksgiving dinner, but thought it would be more fun just to visit! We did go out to the buffet for a Linner and we had a great time!!

Mark, Jackie & Tom

Chris & I

The girls with Aunt Megan!
I am glad that we didn't try to make a big dinner!! I really liked not having any dishes!!!!

Toys!!

Chris' mom did an awesome job at teaching her children to take good care of their toys! While we were there she brought up these Toys to see if we wanted them! Chris and Mark loved them when they were young and a great time playing with them. We were going to leave them, but Tiana REALLY wanted them!! This is a picture of Chris and his brother Mark!

Mark showing how cool the toys is!!!

Mark is getting ready to bit hit by missals!

Can you see the missal just a couple inches away!!!

Veterans Dinner

Chris was only able to get Thanksgiving Day off this year so we decided to go to St Louis the week before Thanksgiving to visit Chris' family. Chris' father lives in a Veteran Care home. They were having the family Thanksgiving dinner while we were there. Chris was able to go and spend the evening with his mom and dad. They had a nice dinner and enjoyable entertainment. He enjoyed the visit!

Daddy's Help

Tiana came to me wanting help with her homework. I was busy and I really don't enjoy having to look things up to help my children with some of there assignments. Her homework was on electricity and currents. I would have read through the information and tried to re-explain it. So I said the old familiar, "Go ask your dad for help!" A few minutes later I heard great excitement coming from the kitchen - this is what I found!

Chris and Tiana were having a great time doing her homework! She loved the visual and she understood it!! What a cute daddy daughter moment!

Relief Society is Awesome!

We have been trying as a Relief Society to do more service in the community. As one of our projects we put together Christmas Bags for the Veteran Hospital in our area. It started out as our ward and grew into 3 wards!! Amazing! Our ward goal started out at 20 bags! Well, we assembled them on Saturday and had so much fun! We ate yummy food and enjoyed visiting with one another! We worked on blankets and stamped cards and Christmas bags! We ended up putting together 78 bags!! It was so wonderful! Thanks you amazing sisters!!! Isn't it wonderful to a part of the Relief Society! I forgot to bring my camera, but here are some pictures of about 1/2 the bags that are being stored in my guest room until we can deliver them!

Happiness!

Fall Vocal Showcase

The girls are both in choir at their schools and they had a showcase with all of the choirs in the school district! Tiana is in the fourth grade choir. They meet once a week and I am very impressed with the director and all the she teaches in a short period of time! They sounded so beautiful!

Tiana and this little girl, Maddie, were both nervous and would look at each other and giggle! It was so fun to watch! After the first song, they were able to gain control of the nerves!

Larisa sings in the Middle School Show Choir. They meet everyday for an hour! Larisa really enjoys it. The first song they sang had a lot of motions with it and Larisa really got into them!! I was impressed with how comfortable and relaxed she seemed!!

Larisa had the instrument for this song! She did a great job! When it was over I told her that I didn't know that she was the instrument for the song. Larisa said, "Mom I told you that I was playing it!! But, I talk all the time so you probably just tuned it out!!" That pretty much said it all!! The choirs sounded so amazing!! Chris and I were proud parents!!

Tall Tales & Heroes

The fourth graders in Tiana's school put on musical production called, "Tall Tales and Heroes". It was very cute and Tiana really knew all of the songs well!! She didn't want a speaking part - she thought it was too scarry!!

Tiana and her friend Kelly

Tiana was really excited to play the Soprano xylophone! Look how serious she is about it!
The play was a lot of fun! The children did a great job! We were so proud of Tia!

Fall Leaves!

I remember being so excited when the trees we planted in Utah were big enough to give us a pile of leaves to jump in!! Well, now we have enough leaves to jump in a lot of piles!!! They are so much fun to play in!! Can I tell you how much I LOVE the smell of the leaves!! Love it!! I would love to say that when we rake we are the perfect example for our neighbors of a family KINDLY working together, but I can't!! There is a lot of whining and they sometimes wonder why we have so many trees. But, after it's done there is some playing and a sense of accomplishment!

Throwing the Leaves!

Here they come Larisa!

What would playing in the leaves be without throwing some at your sister!

Tiana liked putting sticks in her braids and pretending they were antennas!

Tiana and I playing and laughing in the leaves!

Tiana coming alive after being buried in the leaves!

Looking so grown up!

Larisa was babysitting all day so Tiana had a chance to earn some money raking leaves a second time with me! We had to have some fun too!!!

I love Fall!!

Halloween!

This year Halloween felt a little different. I think it was because so many people were sick with the H1N1 virus, that there weren't near as many trick or treaters out! We had our traditional mummy dogs for dinner - I know- so nutritious!!! Larisa and some friends at school decided that they were going to dress up as the Disney Fairies. Larisa went with her friends and bought some material and said that she could just wrap it around her!!!! Needless to say we were sewing Larisa's costume and trying to figure it out a good portion of the day!! Yes, it did require a lot of sewing, but we did end wrapping it around too! They had a couple of parties to figure out their costumes, but mostly play. They meet at our house and then went trick or treating in a couple of neighborhoods - I played chauffeur!!! Tiana wasn't sure what she was going to do and Larisa said that she could with her friends. Then Tia's friend Regan called with a change of plans and they were able to go together. I really wanted to go as a family, but this is probably Larisa's last year to go out and she wanted to go with a group of friends. They are such good girls and they had a blast!

Tiana and Regan! Regan was a jelly fish and he her costume light up so cute in the dark!
Goofy Girls!

Maria, Megan, Susanna, Larisa and Sarah!!

I thought this picture was cute! The little fairies are clinging to each other to stay away from the Evil Fairy!!!

Trunk-or-Treat

We went to the tri-ward trunk-or-treat. It was raining so we went trick or treating down the hall. Larisa helped with the YW's room where they had bags of gross things that they had to stick there hands in and figure out what it was. She enjoyed it. The YM had a ghost alley on the stage and they had a lot of fun putting it together. Larisa brought 4 friends from school with her. Tiana had fun being a cow!

Larisa and her friend Adri had fun dressing up as babies.

Larisa and her fairy friends!

I can literally say that the missionaries rock!!!

Don't you love Brother Greens costume!! Elder Hansen looks a little nervous about it!
We had a great time! Isn't this time of year so much fun!

Classroom Party

I was excited to be able to go and help with the Halloween Party in Tiana's class! I love being able to see all of the excitement and the fun costumes!! Tiana was a Cow musician! She came up with it all on her own!! We made bread sticks shaped like bones and spaghetti sauce to dip them in - Blood and bones!! I love watching Tiana interact with the students! She is such a cheerful happy girl and she is a magnet when it comes to friends!!

This is her special friend in class, Brielle! They are really good friends and get along so well!

They know how to have fun!!!

I loved this gnome costume - so creative!!!

Pumpkin Carving

It is always so much fun to carve pumpkins! The girls had a great time choosing what they wanted their pumpkins to look like! Larisa wanted to carve a design from the book. It ended up taking a lot of time, but -

She was pleased with her results!

Tiana wanted help from Dad. Can you guess what Tiana wanted to make? Yep, a monkey pumpkin!!

They decided to add her hat from her costume last year, and make it a cowboy monkey pumpkin!!!

I enjoyed baking the pumpkin seeds and watching the family have fun!