November 11 Our Primary Presentation gave me the perfect excuse to make the boys all dress up in their suits. Mitchell even wore a little blazer I have, but when we took these pictures after church (on the new retaining wall in the front yard), it was already dirty and Mitchell needed a nap, so he is absent. Caleb is blurry in the first one because he wouldn't quit bouncing up and down. Now, I know I'm probably biased, but I think that's a mightly good-looking group of guys.
We have been enjoying the most glorious weather for the last couple of weeks. The days have been warmer than normal, and the light reflected off of the leaves gave everything a golden glow. The boys have made good use of the playset, often staying out until the sky was dark and their fingers a little frozen. The pictures didn't turn out as well as I hoped (I've no idea what Sheridan is looking at in the second picture, and Mitchell really loved the swing, despite what his face may show), but I wanted to try and catch some of the bouyant feeling I've had with these gorgeous days. Supposedly, tomorrow will be the end of it, and for the sake of our reservoirs, we need the storms to start coming, but I have loved our Golden November.
November 1-4 17+ years after graduating, three good friends from high school and I finally got together for two really great days in Arizona. We started out with a temple session in Mesa, and the rest of the time was spent just catching up, laughing and talking, eating really good food, and not sleeping much. Between us, we have 16 children, 53 years of marriage, and a wealth of experience, and it was so wonderful to renew our friendships. Thanks, girls for the fabulous get-together and for being such wonderful friends.
After the boys knocked on a few doors in our neighborhood, we met up with my family at Deren and Liz's house for dinner and some more trick-or-treating. I thought it was great that my parents dressed up. My mom was a witch and my Dad an Argentinan Gaucho. I think in the last picture, my Mom is casting a spell on me.
Marcus decided he wanted to be a dragon this year and when I found Mitchell's jester costume, I thought it would be fun to try and do a theme this year, so Caleb was a knight, Sheridan was a wizard and I was going to be a princess but ran seriously short on time. mom was a huge help in making Caleb's and Sheridan's costumes. Luckily my sister-in-law, Carol, sent me Noah's old dragon costume which was a real life-saver because I did NOT want to have to make that one. By the way, Sheridan specifically did not want a wizard hat for his costume but by the end of the night he decided that it would have been nice to have so that people didn't keep asking him what he was. 
I just loved this jester costume I found on ebay for Mitchell. He wasn't all that fond of the hood, but we still managed to get a few cute pictures with it on. The last three pictures show what happens when Mitchell finds a glow stick, gets it taken away and finally prevails on his parents to let him keep it. 
Here are the boys with the pumpkins they carved. I did help some (after doing pumpkin-guts duty which ends up being mine every year), but they did most of the carving themselves. Caleb thought he was mighty cool using the carving knife. 
My October baby thought the pumpkins were really cool. He even thought they made great bongos. 
We took some steps to help Mitchell gain back the weight he lost when he was sick, and these have now paid off, at least in getting him to eat more (he hasn't been weighed again, but he sure feels heavier in my arms). I've decided that he's eating like a hobbit now. He has breakfast when he wakes up (which is anytime between 5:30 and 7 am--ugh!), then 2nd breakfast a little later, often followed by elevensies, then lunch, second lunch, a snack, dinner and a bedtime snack. It's not always that bad, but I do feel like I spend a great deal of my day getting him in and out of his high chair and trying to clean him off. He loves yogurt, baby cereal and fruits, and has finally decided that a sippy cup is ok. He's been pretty reluctant to eat anything with a texture, but has decided that most pastas are ok. Oh, and his first official word is "cracker" because graham crackers are his favorite food of all and he gets very excited when we give him one. He also says "hi" and "bye" (sometimes) and "Go!" if I say "Ready, set. . ." first. 
He is a very busy guy and loves to climb (picture 1) and feels like he must do "work" in the kitchen whenever I'm in there (picture 2). He's getting excited about books and scribbling on paper, and likes his Baby Einstein farm animal movie best (he moos when he sees a cow). Church will likely not be very restful or enlightening for us for the next 5 months because Mitchell has discovered the water fountain and what it does, and I see an obsession forming. I'm still his favorite person (it's his thing with my hair), but sometimes he prefers Dad and he's become very fond of his grandma, too.
October 21, 2007 We woke up one Sunday morning to find that a very wet snow had bent the boughs of our large mullberry tree all the way to the ground. We considered skipping church since we were "snowed-in" (:-) but in the end decided to drive through the branches and hope for the best for the car and the tree (the boys thought it was very exciting and it made their day). The tree actually blocked off half the street as well. Since then, the leaves have all fallen so we shouldn't have this happen again.
October 27, 2007 These pictures are from Sheridan's last flag football game of the season when we finally remembered to take the camera. The first two show one of the runs Sheridan had, and the third shows the funny flag football blocking. Sheridan had a really good time playing this Fall.
At the cabin, we watched movies, played games, had really good food, and the boys played lots and lots of football. We tried fishing, but the reservoir levels were so far down, the fishing was a bust. But everyone except Renae (who's expecting), Mitchell (who's too young) and me (who forgot my swimming suit), loved the hot tub. It was a really fun little trip for us, and we had a great time with our friends.
Scott brought some of their "toys" on the trip and Saturday, while Mitchell and I napped at the cabin, everyone else took the toys for a spin. The first picture is Sheridan on the ATV. Scott said that Marcus had a perma-grin the whole time he was riding, whether he was with Guy (2nd picture) or on his own (3rd). Caleb even had a short turn.
