Palmyra

We took a little trip to Palmyra last weekend. I love the Sacred Grove and the overwhelming feeling of peace that is there. Here is our whole family in the Sacred Grove:

On the way back, we stopped at a couple cemeteries in New York state where Ron has direct ancestors buried. He recently discovered a lot of geneaology on his Dad's side of the family so it was really meaningful for him to visit these places:


All of these pictures were taken with our new camera and some of them turned out looking really cool, like this one of the Grandin Building:

Also the Grandin Building. The floor is original so it was fun to tell the kids that they were walking on the same floor that Joseph Smith walked on:

The Smith farm:

The kids' favorite activity was rolling down the Hill Cumorah:

Gracie on the Hill Cumorah:

Joseph on the Hill Cumorah:

Christian on the Hill Cumorah:

The front windows of the Joseph Smith farmhouse:

Moi and Gracie in the Sacred Grove:

Gracie in the Sacred Grove:

Christian and Claire in the Sacred Grove:

Claire in the Sacred Grove:

Joseph in the Sacred Grove:

Here's Joseph's log house:

And here's Claire on the Hill Cumorah:

This weekend

We had a great Halloween!

Gracie received a pair of purple fangs at our ward's playgroup Halloween party. She loved them. She wore them almost that whole day. When we picked up the big kids from school that day, she walked up to a complete stranger (someone else's Dad), looked up at him, and said, "Look at my teeth!" She is usually pretty shy around people she doesn't know but she was just so excited to have those teeth...

This is a pre-Halloween picture. The kids don't have their complete costumes on, but you get the idea.

We carved pumpkins.

Claire didn't love sticking her hand into the pumpkin...

We set our jack-o-lanterns out the day before Halloween. The squirrels proceeded to devour them. On Halloween, one of the pumpkin faces had been completely chewed out. The day after Halloween, Gracie's small pumpkin was completely gone. I can't believe how quickly they ate these pumpkins. Maybe some deer were involved too. We came home from church today and our front porch was covered with squirrels. It was kind of like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Although initially Ron felt pretty good about providing nourishment for the squirrels, he became totally grossed out by today's pumpkin carnage and threw the remains away, muttering things like "rabies" and "squirrel germs."

By the way, my other favorite thing about Halloween this year were that Ron came trick or treating with us! It was fun to have him with us and it was very nice to have a helper.

Also this weekend we finished up our fall sports seasons. Joseph loved flag football. I hope you can get an idea of the INTENSITY with which he played:

He is very proud of his flag football medal:

Claire loved playing soccer with her buddies. Her trophy party is next week.

As Christian's coach awarded the trophies, he described Christian as "the wrecking crew" because Christian is good at charging and stealing the ball. He had 3-4 goals this season. He did great! Christian showing off his soccer trophy:

The following pictures were taken by Ron today with our new camera.

On the top is Claire looking cute with a piece of Halloween candy in her mouth. On the bottom is proof that Claire is losing teeth like crazy!

I absolutely love this picture of Gracie.

I took this one...

September

So this morning I was cleaning the kitchen while I burned CDs for the families in our ward with the Primary Program songs on them. I was sitting at the computer changing the CDs and Gracie started walking around my chair saying, "Duck, Duck, Duck." I took her subtle hint and asked her if she wanted to play Duck, Duck, Goose. Her face lit up and she said "YES" so we went into the living room and sat on the rug with Joseph to play. Gracie took her turn to be the "ducker" first. Then it was Joseph's turn and he started to say, "duck, duck" but then instead of "duck" he started counting, "one, two, three." For some reason, we all thought that was really funny and we started laughing. After that, the entire game was making up new things to say instead of "duck, duck, goose." It seems like any time I play a game with Joseph, he changes the rules on me. It made me think about the spontenaity and joy that my children bring into my life. I am not a very spontaneous person--in fact, I'm pretty boring when it comes down to it. My kids love the unexpected and the "silly" things that they encounter. And I'm glad they do because it helps me to lighten up and to enjoy life more. Here's a picture I took of Joseph and Gracie after we played our little game:

Also, here's our first day of school pictures. My camera is broken and doesn't always focus for some reason. Claire looks worried in a couple of shots and I'm sure she was nervous that morning. But she LOVES 2nd grade, she loves her teacher and she lucked out because her best friend is in her class. Christian is mixed on 3rd grade--he says his teacher isn't very "fun."

I did a friend party for Christian's 9th birthday. We did it at night and had pizza, cake and played capture the flag in the dark. I let the boys paint their faces with camoflage makeup which was a bad move. I intended the camo paint to be a few stripes of green and light brown. But some of them dug their fingers into the black paint and CAKED the black all over their faces. Of course, Joseph was happy to jump on that bandwagon. I'm somewhat stressed about what the mothers of Christian's friends secretly think of me now that they picked their sons up from Christian's party covered in very-hard-to-remove black paint. I do know that it took me 20 minutes each to clean Joseph's and Christian's faces. Christian and his friends had a fun time though so I guess that's the most important thing.









Here's the kids playing a game they call "monsters." They lay on my bed and kick all their feet under the blankets:

Joseph and Gracie and I went to the zoo this week with our ward's playgroup. You can't see it but there's a HUGE pig in the background of this picture:

Ron took Christian to the Yankees game last night. They had really good seats and had a great time!

Well, that's what we've been up to in the past month. I worry about things--my brother Mike, being so far away from family, trying to get more organized, the economy and abortion (it bothers me that it happens so much and that the battle lines are so artificial). But life is going well and I feel blessed.