October

We got to see this spectacular low-lying rainbow, the second one in just a couple weeks.  

One of the things I love about our family life right now is the relationships we are building. The kids get to play creatively sometimes for hours at a stretch and I have to convince them to pause so we can do school. It is a happy life! Here they are in their tent.

And here's the one they made for Jenna and Seth lol!

We are so lucky to have Kent at home with us! Every once and a while he gets a midday game in down in the basement and it is such a welcome interruption! =o]

Caleb is such a creative architect! 

We got to host some of our best friends from SoCal! They came to see our house and then we showed them our favorite hangout- Thanksgiving Point!

Cuties!

Seth missed it so I had to get one of him too!

They probably would have stayed longer in each exhibit but we had to push them through a bit. It was so fun to catch up with our friends while the kids caught up with theirs. 

Then we went to Costa Vida- YUM!! My favorite salad in town!

Then we went to Corn Belly's, for what I'm sure was the first time of many years to come! It was SO FUN and we didn't even do a 10th of the stuff there!

It was FREEZING. Luckily our prepared friend had coats to lend the girls (who had both insisted they didn't need a coat when we left home) but we ended up buying a sweatshirt for Caleb because the poor kid was literally shivering within minutes of getting out of the car! We are not prepared for the winter here lol!

Can you tell who was my buddy all night? 

We did the corn maze and even though we chose the easier one we still got utterly lost!

Just when my arm was about to fall off from carrying Seth we found the entrance of the other maze instead of the exit of our own. Oops! Oh well!

Our final, and my favorite, stop was the corn beach. It felt so cool to sink in and be surrounded by corn kernels! Weird but true!

The classic huge chair!

Such good friends! They are the type of friends that you can just pick right back up where you left off regardless of the time that has passed. I hope they get to come for the Provo Temple Open House like we planned!

The kids were STARVING on the way home so they ate all the chips Kent had saved from Costa Vida. 

We all found corn kernels in our clothes when we changed into pajamas. =o]

Seth LOVES to read. It makes me so happy!

One night Kent and I came upstairs to go to bed and found Jenna and Caleb camped out in the hallway. Hilarious! It was too cute to move them! =o]

One of our very favorite fall traditions is to make pumpkin spice cookies. They are DELICIOUS!! Especially when warm with milk mmmmmmmmmmmm...  

We couldn't find them at any stores here but I had two packages saved from last year, and my saint of a sister Rebecca bought me 5 packages from her Walmart! =o] 

I am so glad we are not going to have so much dirt around here anymore now that our yard is done! I mean just look at what happens every time they went outside!

Natalie put on a Mickey Mouse puppet show (they are missing Disneyland??).

And then they played Mickey Mouse Club House with Jenna and Seth because it is one of their favorite shows. So kind!

Sometimes I find the boys practicing with the punching bag lol!

One day we got a book in the mail. I order books online frequently, but this time I was confused because I didn't buy it. Turns out Kent did. He thought we should just have the book "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch" because "it's a good one". 

Looks like we have converted Kent to the coolness of kid books. =o]

I have been working on Family History a lot lately. It is so fulfilling and fun! 

We went and took family pictures with Melissa. We got some good ones of the whole family but we are going to have to do a second session for the individual ones of the kids. 

We still went out to dinner at the Golden Corral after though! =o]

Just more relaxing playtime. They are so silly!

This one time I thought I heard Seth but I went in and he was still asleep. He just looked so cute in his crib that I had to take a picture. 

Caleb went to a double birthday party for his friends that live in the next cul-de-sac over. He asked me before he left what he should do if they give out special treats because he can't earn a MacKay buck at someone else's house but he wanted to eat them. With a total straight face I told him to just ask if there was anything he could do to help, like hand out plates or take out the trash. He smiled and said "oh! ok, yeah!!". My friend told me later that he was super helpful the whole time! Precious! When he got home I asked him how the party went and he said that when I first dropped him off he was scared but he just cried for a second where no one could see him and then got up and played with his friends and had a great time. What a tender hearted little guy! Here he is with the goodie bag he got to bring home. 

Seth LOVES watching "the game" with Kent. He only ever wants to wear his BYU shirts! I don't know what we are going to do when it gets really cold.

We are switching to 9am church next year, and I am definitely going to miss our laid back Sunday mornings!

I decided it would be a good idea to do a No Sweets November. To make it a whole month I started on October 25th. BUT I missed all the fall baking! So I decided to make whole wheat pumpkin bread with no sugar. It was sweetened with applesauce and raisin puree... yep. 

It was super fun to make! We ground the wheat in our hand-crank grinder. Natalie enjoyed it more than anyone! =o] 

As soon as we opened the can of pumpkin Natalie left, and Caleb took the lead! They ate their bread with frosting on it. I ate mine plain. It was...different. Probably wont make it again. Ever. 

Natalie made a corner of her room into Samantha's bedroom. I remember decorating my space when I was young with tons of little things all over so this was cute and fun so come in and find her doing!

One of the best parts of living here is that there are always friends to play with. The schools here are on a track system, so someone is always off track and ready to play once the kids have finished their school work. Good times!

I was so proud of myself when I served Jenna this ice cream for her special treat and didn't take a single lick myself! Sugar addictions are hard to break! But I know I can master myself if I am diligent!

One night Kent and I came up to bed to find that Jenna had camped out again, but this time alone and in our bed! She is such a funny girl. She didn't wake up when we transferred her to her own room. She told me the next morning that she was scared of the shadows in the corner so she had to come into our room instead. 

On Halloween I went to the temple during quiet time to print all these cards to do the sealings for these ancestors (that my Mom, Donny, and I have found) as a sibling group in a session the next weekend with Melissa, Karl, Derek, Raycelan, and Kent. I love Family History! It is so exciting!! And I feel so much love as I do the work!