Cookies for Santa

Amy got to get the plate ready. We gave him two cookies and some milk.

Adam got to pour the milk.

Amy decided the milk looked good. Elli was off singing and forgot to speak up that she wanted to help. Oops.

Gingerbread House

The kids have been so excited to make this house. Now that it's done they just want to eat it.

They all did a really good job decorating. There were only a few little disagreements about where the candy should go or who was eating too much of it. It was pretty fun.

Elli's face is so funny to me! Some of you will get this one in your Christmas card.

Decorate the Tree

Here's our little tree again. It's been a good tree. Amy was the only one who would act natural, so she's the only one I would take a picture of.

Pet?

One afternoon Adam spotted a lizard in a corner of our family room. It quickly became a situation. I called my mom and Steve said they are harmless and promised it wouldn't bite our toes or come after us. I told the kids it would eat the bugs that got in. We were almost ready to consider it a pet and let it be. We thought maybe it had been around for a while and we just didn't know it. But later that night, we changed our minds as it started it's way toward the bedrooms. Luckily we caught it on the wall in the biggest tupperware we have. It really was cute and Amy wanted to be the one to let it go outside. I used to be brave like that. She's the one we call when we find a bug in the house.

Park

Luckily we've had some pretty warm days so we can play outside a little.

Adam likes to jump out of the swing and see how far he can go. He just can't swing very long or he gets sick.

Beautiful Fall Day

It was so pretty the other day. Adam decided to climb the tree in front of our house. He said he hadn't done it forever. It was a little chilly, but still sunny and warm. Sorry you have to miss it Riley.

Amy

Elli

Adam

All in a Row

Rest of Halloween

Yes, hello. I know it's almost Thanksgiving. I just took these off the camera. This is Aunt Erin carving the pumpkins. We took out the seeds and she roasted them up. Yummy seeds.

Adam was all ready to start carving.

The kids were troopers this year. I think it's the 3rd time Adam and Elli have worn these costumes. Amy just goes to the dress up box and has to wear what we have in it. We have so much stinkin candy though. Still. It doesn't even sound good anymore. I'm trying to see how long it can last.

At Work

Here's Riley at a change of command ceremony. We sure are proud of him!

Halloween Party

The pinata aftermath. It had been rainy all night and morning, so we decided to have the pinata on the porch.

This is the donut eating game. No hands allowed. Amy is watching Morgan and Carol try to catch a bite. We also had a cake walk and cookie decorating. So much sugar going around. Sorry moms.

Here are all the kids (minus one) and their costumes. I hope everyone had a good time. Thanks Lenette for keeping the party rolling and keeping my sane!

Sunday

Here we are after church sitting around. Elli is grumpy again. Must hate camera.

Soccer

Adam got to play goalie a few times. He kept picking up the ball when he was out of the box and the other team would get a penaltly kick. He finally caught on.

This is the team. The whole league wears purple and the "away" team wears red jerseys over the top. Adam hates the purple.

This is what we do while Adam plays his games. We fight over who gets the one chair. We would sit on the grass, but the ants come and bite us.

Monkey Bread!

For General Conference, the kids helped me make one of our favorite treats. To help them listen to the talks, we had different snacks they could eat when they heard a certain topic. They listened so hard for each word, but probably didn't really listen. At least they sat and were quiet for me. I ended up giving half of the monkey bread to our neighbors so we wouldn't eat it all. So yummy!

Looking at Fish

Elli was trying to touch a little sting ray kind of thing. You have to stick your arm all the way up to your armpit and they go pretty fast.

This is the glass to the huge tank. They have sharks and sword fish and everything in there.

NC Aquarium

Posing by the big alligator.

Cheese!

Here we are trying out the camera in the computer. As soon as I figure out how to get the pictures from the camera, I'll really update this thing. It's been a while.

KaPOW!

Look who Riley got to meet! Chuck Norris himself! Riley said he couldn't stop smiling when he saw him. No one knows, but Riley has spent many Saturdays watching Chuck on TV, refusing to do anything else. Rough times.

Days of our Lives

I know it's been about a month since we updated this. I was waiting for some really exciting pictures of us doing something great. Beach pictures are getting old, so I thought I'd let you see what we do everyday. Here's Amy while the kids are at school. She likes to make lists and take care of her "kids". She never likes to be the mom, just the big sister who is babysitting. She plays pretty good by herself for a while. We go to the library, get groceries, go jogging, and clean together. She's a great mopper and weed puller.

Elli and Amy like to make "sheds" on the chairs. Each one is like their own house. They put purses and animals underneath and visit each other. Thank you Grandma for all the blankets. No one wants to clean up when they are done though.

Here they are ready for church. Rarely will you see all three with clean faces and combed hair all together. Only on Sunday mornings.
Pretty exciting, right? Sometimes we do cool stuff, just not lately.

End of Summer

To cool off from the heat, the girls favorite thing is to put the sprinkler on the trampoline. They drink, sit on and play in the water. Adam claims he doesn't like it, but the one time he got on, he had a lot of fun.

This is the beach just down from the house. Adam got to go for a canoe ride with the Elders from our church, so the girls and I said farewell and played a little. The water's not the best, but you can sometimes find shark teeth and little crabs.

Beach Kids

Trying to see how deep they can dig

Elli was just learning how to ride the waves. Adam wasn't happy about sharing, so we'll have to bring both next time.

Amy has been so scared to get in the water. Even when we hold her she wants to go back to the sand. For some reason, she tried this day and had so much fun. The water was warm and she liked how it pushed her back. You can go out pretty far and still touch. It looks like she has one big 80's side pony, but there are two.

Adam making me nervous. He thinks he is invincible. He could do this all day.

End of Vacation

Adam's birthday was the day before school started. He opted for a new bike this year instead of a party. Way nice for the party planner. Maybe next year. Now he's seven! Yikes!

This was Elli's first day of school. She got to ride the bus and was so excited. Luckily I didn't start to cry until I turned around and was walking toward home. She starts a full day next week. Adam had already been a few days and wasn't so excited.

For a little fun, we went to Beaufort where there is a museum with some stuff about Blackbeard the Pirate. Beaufort is where the Navy finally caught and killed him. Boy was Adam excited! Unfortunately, the museum was a bust. It had mostly fishing boats and beach wildlife. The highlight was some yummy strawberry ice cream.