Book of Mormon Party

Each year when we finish reading the Book of Mormon as a family we have a Book of Mormon party.  The kids decided this years part was the best we have had.  We went to a place called "Dave,s Need For Speed."  We raced go-carts, played miniature golf, and laser tag.  It was a lot of fun because we were the only people at the whole place so we could let Abigail and Ryan play with us on everything.  Abigail was not of fan of laser tag, and I ended up holding her gun the whole time, but other than that we had a great time.  We ended the night with a trip to Ruby Tequila's for fajitas.  This simple celebration has become one of our kids favorite traditions.  They are always excited when we are getting near the end of the Book of Mormon.

Halloween

Halloween was a little different this year since it was on Sunday.  We didn't go trick or treating, but we had lots of parties leading up to Halloween.  We had a playgroup party at our house on Wednesday for Ryan and Abigail.  We had trunk-or-treat on Thursday, and Friday Emily, Tyson, and Justin all had a Halloween party at the house.  It was all  a lot of fun.  We used to have Halloween parties every year, and as life has gotten busier we had stopped, but I am glad we started it up again.  I decorated the basement and the kids had a dinner of Bat Wings and pumpkin guts (chips and Queso) Monster bones and oozing coffins (ribs and twice baked stuffed potatoes) and cooled mice and eyeball for dessert.  I learned with so many kids it would have been better just to have pizza.  The cooled mice turned out pretty realistic, here is a picture of them.

The kids had a contest girls against boys dressing someone up with napkins and tape.  There was a lot of dispute about who made the best costume.  You can look and decide for yourself who did the best job.

They ended the night with a game of capture the pumpkin outside.

Here are a few pictures of the kids dressed up in their costumes.  We didn't do a lot with costumes this year since we weren't going trick-or-treating.

Justin as Mario

Abigail as a princess

Tyson as a jail bird and Ryan as a Police officer

Emily as a mad scientist.  She and her friend dressed up as thing 1 and thing 2 for a Halloween party earlier, but I didn't get a picture.  Here friend was sick for the trunk-or-treat so we had to come up with something else quickly.

Tradition

One of the traditions we have in our family is to go to a BYU football game each year.  Since the Mountain West started it has been easy to make those games because one year they play in Albuquerque and the next year they play in Ft. Worth.  This year the game was against TCU in Ft. Worth.  BYU has not had a good year, and we wondered if we should even go since we kind of knew what the outcome of the game would be, but we went anyways so we wouldn't break tradition.  The game was as expected, but we had a great time as a family.  I am thankful for traditions that help make us take the time we need to take to be together as a family.  We were only there Friday night and Saturday, but we were able to go to Six Flags Friday night and Saturday morning.  The kids all agreed Friday night was the best time they have ever had at Six Flags because there were very few people there.  Here are a few pictures from the game.

Emily

Tyson

Justin (he had just finished a frozen strawberry thing, you can see the results on his face)

Ryan

Abigail trying her hardest to cheer the cougars on to victory.

Emily Wins Her First Tournament

We had a lot going on yesterday.  Jeff and Emily left the house at 7:45 for a tennis tournament, and I followed with Tyson, Justin, Ryan, and Abigail to be in the Harvest Festival parade.  This was the first time we have ever done that parade.  I was in charge of the entry for Bennett.  We were just going to walk, but at the last minute someone offered to let us use their trailer, so we had some kids walking and some on the trailer.  The kids had a wonderful time.  Tyson was not excited about it, but when he saw a lot of his friends show up, and realized how much candy they could pick up while walking in the parade his attitude changed.  After the parade was the annual Fun Run.  Justin and Tyson both ran in it, they were both in the top ten, but didn't get a medal.  Soccer games were next, we had two at the same time so Jeff left the tennis tournament to coach Ryan's soccer team and I went to Justin's game; Tyson played after them.  Jeff watched Tyson while I went back to the tennis tournament because Emily was getting ready to play in the Semi-finals.  I made it in time to watch most of that match, and then Jeff and the kids made it in time to see half of the final game.  Emily won the match 8 - 2.  We were all so excited for her.  I think this is the best I have seen her play.  She played a little more aggressive than she usually is, and it paid off.  I had given her some spirit socks to wear since it was a little chilly in the morning, and we are now calling them her good luck charm.  Tyson said she shouldn't ever wash them, thank goodness Emily doesn't agree!  Here is a picture of her with her trophy and her "good luck" socks!

Justin's Baptism

Justin right before his baptism

Justin was baptized on September 18.  In some ways it is hard to believe he is eight, but in others way he seems a lot older than eight.  Justin has always done things with the older two, and sometimes I think we forget how young he is.  He was very prepared for this day.  Jeff made sure he fully understood the covenants he would be making.  One night while he was quizzing him Emily said, "Man, no one taught me all of this stuff before I got baptized."  She agreed she still would have been baptized, so I guess we are OK.   It was a special day, and we are so grateful to everyone for coming out to it.  Grandma and Grandpa Yardley, and Aunt Andrea, Lindsey, Heather, and Savannah all came out for the big occasion.  They just changed to stake baptisms, but Justin was the only one in the stake getting baptized that month so he still got his own baptism.  He had our friend Rich Hardy, and my sister Andrea give the two talks.  Emily and Lindsey did a piano/violin duet.  They did a great job especially since they only had a few days to practice. 

While Grandma and Grandpa, and the Andersons were out here we decided to show them some of the sights around Lubbock.  On Friday we went to the Caverns in Carlsbad, NM.  My younger three kids hadn't been, or at least didn't remember going, so it was a first for a lot of people.  I took the elevator to the bottom and just walked around the big room with my Mom, Ryan, Abigail, and Savannah.  That is the way to do it with young ones.  Abigail keeps asking when we can go back. 

Savannah, Ryan, and Abigail

Everyone right before entering the cave

Saturday night after the baptism we were planning on going to Joy Land, but it had closed down for the season so we went to the corn maize.  I thought this was a unique thing to Lubbock, but as we were going through it Andrea said they had been to several of them,  After we took turns shooting the corn cob cannon.  It was pretty fun trying to hit the target.  Grandpa Yardley thought he could show us how it was done, but in the end it was Heather who was the pro at it!

Grandpa showing us all how to do it

Heather showing off one of her two free candy coupons she won.

The whole gang after shooting the cannons

This is the first time any of my family has come to Lubbock.  I have always discouraged it because there isn't a whole lot to do, but we are so glad the Andersons could come.  The kids had a lot of fun playing with each other.  I am always amazed at how well they get along even though they hardly see each other.  There is definitely something to be said about having cousins.  We don't get to see any of them very often, but when they are together they have a wonderful time!

Trip to Palo Duro

We usually go to Palo Duro canyon during spring break, but we didn't go this year since we went to Oklahoma City.  When we asked the kids what they wanted to do for Labor day they all agreed on Palo Duro.  We were excited to go and got up early, packed a lunch, and headed out.  We realized when we got there a lot of other people had the same idea.  We had to go further into the canyon than usual to find a spot for lunch.  After lunch we decided to do the Lighthouse hike.  It was 6 miles round trip and we figured that wasn't too bad.  Everyone started out excited, but two miles into the hike Ryan and Abigail were done.  I decided to head back with them while the rest finished since they were so close.  It was 102 degrees, and there are very few trees and the water was all dried up for the year.  It was a long two miles getting back because Abigail refused to walk so I had to carry her the whole way, and Ryan thought he was going to die and wanted to be held, but I couldn't hold both of them.  Ryan asked why we said this would be fun when it was just hot and tiring.  I was thinking the same thing by the end.  The older kids and Jeff made it to the top and they said it was beautiful.  Tyson said it wasn't really fun, but more rewarding to know you had finished it.  I think we all agreed going in the spring is a better time of year at Palo Duro than the end of Summer.  Here are a few pictures of the occasion.

Ryan and Abigail Start Preschool

Ryan and Abigail both started preschool on Tuesday.  I wasn't sure how Abigail would do since she has not even stayed in Nursery by herself yet (I am a Nursery leader).  Walking into school she was all smiles and so was Ryan.

We took Ryan to his class first.  He was excited to see all of his friends from the year before.

Abigail was not as excited about her class when I told her she would be staying without me.  Here is the picture of how she looked when I left.

 I know these two teachers well and I knew she was in good hands.  I left her and went to help out in the Library.  I was anxious to see how she had been when I picked her up.  They said she was crying really hard and Miss Ginny said, "Look at Abigail's cute dress."  Abigail looked at her, stopped crying and said, "It is not a dress it is a skirt."  She didn't cry again the rest of the day.

The real test was on Thursday.  Ryan woke up with strep throat.  I debated about even trying to take Abigial without Ryan going in with her, but she happily went.  She didn't cry once and was sad on Friday when I told her she couldn't go to school.  Maybe I will get a few hours without any kids for the next 9 months.  I haven't had a day without any kids at home in 13 years.