Finally! He's Here!

This is the bus he came in on. There were two of them and they were honking as they turned the corner. It felt like we were waiting forever.

Riley looked right at us and didn't see us, so Adam had to chase him down.

It was so good to see him, but we were ready to get home and warm. It was about 3:30 by time we got home. Riley is still a little off with his sleep, but we're slowly getting used to having him here. The kids follow him everywhere and want to climb and wrestle and play. He looks pretty good, hu! (elli's picture was blurry and didn't work out)

Getting Ready for Dad

This is the sign we made for Riley. There's a long fence along the road where everyone hangs up their welcome banners. Too bad it fell off before Riley could see it. I think the fabric ripped in the corners from the wind.

I woke up the kids about 1 o'clock in the morning. Here we are waiting for the buses. It was cold and Elli and I were getting pretty grumpy.

Sunday

The Primary President took these pictures a few Sundays ago for the Primary bulletin board. They turned out really well, so she sent them to me. Good thing I did their hair that day!

Who's Kids Are These?

I couldn't believe it when I saw it either! Good thing I have proof! They CAN be nice!

It's just me and Amy again since Adam and Elli went back to school. She plays and watches her show. We shop and visit friends. So nice.

Aquarium with Grandma

My mom came to visit for Christmas and one of the things we did was go to the Aquarium. Getting her to get in a picture is like pulling teeth, but she agreed to this one. Amy was CRANKY and wouldn't cooperate. She ran away. We had such a nice time having my mom here. I forgot how lonely it is until she left.

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.