Halloween

 Wow, only Livvy could pull off having her costume on, on the day we were "on location" at the beach!

 Lemo's Farm - awesome every time!!!  Colton loved the goats, Ella and Olivia loved the pony ride and Anna loved taking the little ones on the train ride by themselves.  She is a really cool older sister.

 Bobbing for apples in the back yard after a soccer game

 Ward Party with Greta and Hudson Acreman - they always have the best costumes each year.  Ella and Anna wanted to be soccer players this year, so I let Anna buy a Messi jersey and kind of ran out of money for poor Ella, so she wore her AYSO team jersey for Halloween.  More to come about soccer this season, of course, as they still have 3 games to go!

 Anna wanted to wear her more "girly" costume when she went trick or treating with her BFF Tirzah, the pirate, and her sister's friends.  (and one of my piano students, actually 3 of my piano students are in this photo, because I get to teach Tirzah and Tea, along with Chloe too.  They're amazing!)

 Yeah, a new friend in nursery.  The Harris family is back from Germany, and have a 3 year old girl, Lily, to play with Olvia at church.  Thank you Harris family for coming back!!!!!

 Eric getting pumped to take the girls trick or treating!  Sorry Eric, wish I had got you in your usual cheerful smile expression!

 More of Anna.  Is she getting tall?  They had a lot of fun on Grand Street.  Every house is c-r-a-z-y.  Ella went trick-or-treating with her classmates and Eric and Liv and Colton, and I split off with Anna, because she doesn't get to see Tirzah very often.

 Jane, without her bubble bath costume, Anna in her Messi jersey and Maddie Harris.  Did I mention how happy we are that they're back?  They have added a new friend to each of my kids' church classes.

Colton scooting crawling around the gym.  He is such a fun little boy, and just turned 9 months.
Jenny, what are you guys this year?  I wish I could see your costumes!!!  I'm going to have to join Facebook just for that.  And Ethan, I hope I see pictures of you on that pirate ship too!  I can't wait to see pictures of all the cousins.  Happy Halloween!!!!

Olivia aka Ariel

Wow..Olivia had her Halloween Party today.  Did I mention that her preschool is free?  All it cost was $25.00 for supplies!  Anyway, I've never been to such a nice halloween party!  Way to go for free pre-schools, with a Halloween Parade to Gospel Music and pony rides, free pumpkins and petting zoos and carnaval games.  Ariel (Olivia) was very excited to get together with other princesses from throughout the land as well!

Iphone Memories (thanks mom!)

More photos (from her iphone) that she sent me for a book we are making for her Christmas Present entitled, you guessed it, "Wednesday Mornings with Grandma Nan".  Aren't we lucky to go on adventures with such a sweet and fun grandma/mom?!  I am looking forward to more to come too, and Thanksgiving with the whole family for T.J.'s Palo Alto Reception as well!  Thanks for organizing and going on such fun outings mom.

My mom's 66th Birthday!

Happy 66th Birthday mom!  My mom celebrated her 66th Birthday on October 16th, and if you couldn't tell,  she has a bit of magic in her!  I don't know how she created such a harmonious home for us to grow up in, or how my brothers, sisters and I all had so much fun together, learned to work, love the gospel, love nature and music and have the whole "Waldorf" education at home, but she did it!  And now that I'm a mother, and can barely keep my kids from fighting for more than a half hour, beg them to look out for another and try to tell them we can all "have fun" as a family...she just did it!  Slowly, slowly as the kids get older, we're learning to be a Waldorf family too, but thank goodness we have her influence as a grandma, to help us out a little bit on our "Wednesdays with Grandma Nan!".  I appreciate all you are and all you stand for mom.  Happy Birthday!  I hope it was a great day!

Do you remember your first crush?

Doggy for a day!

I know that it's a common thing for kids to want a dog...but Ella desperately wants one.  The frogs were hard enough to keep alive!  How can we clean up after and help something as big as a dog be happy living among us?  All that changed when we met Rosie!  A gorgeous, red dog that was sitting on our doorstep when we came home from school last week, as if fallen from the sky.  We couldn't find her owner anywhere and she didn't have tags, so she spent the night with us.  Then the next day, Eric and the kids went on a long, long walk and found the teary owner.  And now we have Ella's tears to deal with.  And I guess we all still feel a little teary about it.  Maybe one day we'll have a Rosie of our own.  We were on a honeymoon with her before the vet bills and too much doo-doo showed up on our lawn, I guess.  We sure grew to love her in 2 days though.  We miss you Rosie!

Conference

"I've been where you are now, but you've never been where I am."

"Seek for wisdom instead of power."

"Great power can come from memorizing scripture."

"No matter where you live, how humble your circumstances, how little your calling may appear to you, you are not invisible to God.  He sees and acknowledges all of your actions."

I LOVE CONFERENCE WEEKEND----