The "other" Holidays

We didn't go anywhere for the UEA break this year, but were able to enjoy some activities close to home.  The annual pumpkin walk is always a favorite.

Who needs Disneyland when you can have the full "It's a Small World" experience at the pumpkin walk?

Another favorite display was the Coco themed one.

The boys are getting taller!

On Sunday, October 21st I turned 42 years old. The kids helped me celebrate with a delicious pie and Adam surprised us all with a personalized family history bingo game and word search for my birthday party.

The next day AJ bundled up for his preschool field trip back to the pumpkin walk.

The weather was great for some pumpkin carving with the Kirks.

The university football team had a fantastic year and Jameson and Adam enjoyed going to a game with some friends.

Johnny, Jameson, Walker

Andy, Josh, Adam, Jameson

Britton's club soccer team finished off a great season at the end of October.  He has already started winter workouts for the high school team.

Britton front row far left

The last couple of years Jameson has really been bothered by the fact that he can't do anything really crazy with his hair on crazy hair day at school. This year I got some orange color hairspray and he loved it. Of course AJ didn't want to be left out of the fun.

Jenna and Korinne made their own costumes for Halloween.  Jenna was an angel and Korinne was a devil.

Jenna had a ballroom dance performance at another high school in the morning that required zombie make-up so she kind of turned into a zombie angel, which confused quite a few people, but she loved it.  She is the kind of person that really LOVES dressing up for Halloween.

For school on Halloween Jameson was an army guy and AJ was Thomas the Train.

Johnny, Beckett, Jameson and Ace waiting for the bus.

On Halloween night they both picked warmer costumes.  Jameson was a shark and AJ was a chicken.

The day after Halloween I felt a little bad for leaving town and making Adam deal with the post Halloween hangover craziness that always makes for a challenging few days at our house, but our K-1 reunion in Las Vegas was planned months ago and I wasn't about to miss it.

Malinda, Kaylynn, Hilary,Heather, Cyd (Ker-dog taking the picture)

You know we must be kindred spirits when we all fly in wearing the same color without coordinating. Purple for the win!

We hit old town Las Vegas and had an early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Um, yes, please.

Hilary and Heather in front of the Bellagio fountains.

The night we hit the World of Dance live tour show.  World of Dance is on NBC and although none of us had watched the show I did see some clips of the 3 LDS dancers that were some of the top finishers and were selected to go on the live tour. In fact, one of the dancers was the son of Austin's cousin (Kaylynn's husband) which is how we got the idea to go to the show in the first place. 

I enjoy watching crazy talented people. They were absolutely amazing!  Afterwards we waited around with Andres' family and snapped a quick picture with the dancing star.

Hilary, Keri, Kaylynn, Andres, Cyd, Malinda, Heather

Jenna actually did watch the show and was more than a little impressed that I was able to meet him and get a picture.

 The next day we went hiking to see some petroglyphs.

That afternoon we hit the pool (actually I took a nap while the rest of the girls went to the pool) and then went to the outlets in the evening. Before we knew it our two days together were over and it was time to say goodbye.  Malinda and Kaylynn left early Sunday morning, Cyd left around noon, Ker-dog met up with her sisters for another quick girls trip and Heather and I stayed one more night and flew back on Monday.  We walked to a Sacrament meeting just a few miles from where we were staying and enjoyed a quiet Sunday afternoon getting caught up on our reading.

When I got home on Monday I walked into Christmas, literally. Knowing how much I don't love the Christmas season Adam and the kids thought it would be hilarious to decorate for Christmas while I was gone. They had a countdown chain (only 50 more days til Christmas), Christmas cookies, Christmas decorations and my least favorite Christmas song ever, "Feliz Navidade", playing as I walked in.  They filmed my reaction and we haven't stopped laughing about it since.

I've got to hand it to them, it was a clever practical joke.

Korinne sang in a choir for the middle school's Veterans Day assembly.  This assembly was powerful and Kristen K would definitely approve of the strong patriotism being taught to the students.  They invited military veterans from our area to attend and honored them for their service. They also had everyone in tears with an amazing video honoring those who have served in every war in our nation's history.  The program really gave the kids a greater understanding of the incredible sacrifices that have been made and are still being made so they can be free.  I went in thinking it was going to be just another boring assembly, but I left with a greater appreciation for all those who put their lives on the line every day for us. It is so refreshing in our current political climate to see students in our area learning about our amazing country and being proud to be American.

When the choir started singing "Freedom Isn't Free" a flood of memories came back because I sang that very song in elementary school!

Freedom isn't free

Freedom isn't free

You've got to pay the price

You've got to sacrifice

For your liberty!

Region and All State

For the Region XC meet this week it was plenty chilly outside.  The races started at 11:00 a.m. so AJ was able to watch Britton and Jenna race with me while Korinne and Jameson were at school.

Jenna took 2 1/2 minutes off her Region time from last year.  It wasn't quite a PR for her this season, but was pretty close.

Britton had a nasty cold, but said it was the best race he has had while being sick.

Proof that it was cold outside.

AJ is notorious for ruining Jenna's piano practice sessions. She will start to practice and he'll run in and climb on her lap and start playing with cars on the piano keys.  It definitely makes practicing a challenge for Jenna.

On Friday afternoon Adam got a text from his sister Bethany that her family was going to be at Lagoon that night for Frightmares.  We decided to join in on the fun and meet them there.

With Frightmares in full swing it was crowded, but we had a good time with cousins and got a kick out of the random shows they put on for the season.

I love living in a University town.  We went to the Homecoming parade yesterday and the kids got so much candy that they started to complain that their bags were too heavy  Definitely a first world problem.  I told them I would take a bunch of candy so their bags wouldn't be so heavy, but they both refused my offer.  Somehow they didn't trust that they would get all of it back. 😀

The marching band playing the fight song

Adam and Korinne

Stuggling with the weight of their bags at the end of the parade.

The kids loved the parade candy, I found it to be a bit excessive.  I had them give me everything they didn't absolutely love and kept it to give out to trick-or-treaters in a few weeks.

Jameson's stash.

AJ's pile

You would have thought they went trick-or-treating instead of going to a parade. It was fun and all, but I have not been enjoying the candy hangovers.

Jameson was invited to 2 birthday parties yesterday so it was non stop fun for him.  He was able to go indoor rock climbing at the first one and one of the Mom's sent me a few pictures.

He had a lot of fun, but told me afterwords he has discovered he has a fear of heights.

Britton went with the high school choir group Rhapsody to All-State on Thursday and arrived home on Saturday night.  They stayed in SLC at a hotel for 2 nights and then performed with other groups from several high schools across the state at the Tabernacle downtown on Saturday night. Each group learned the same 6 songs and performed them all together after 2 days of rehearsals.  Britton absolutely loved it and really felt like he was able to bond with the other members of Rhapsody.

Britton with his hotel roommates

Performance at the Tabernacle

RHS Rhapsody members in front of the Assembly Hall on Temple Square

I feel like a rookie mom when it comes to Rhapsody because none of my kids have ever done anything with choir until this year. I don't remember there being an All State choir performance when I was a Madrigal in High School, but Britton said the Murray Madrigals were there so apparently it started in the years after I graduated and has become a long standing tradition. I was blind sided by it this year, but next year I will be more prepared.

Changes in the air

 When its the week of parent teacher conferences and your kids are in 4 different schools with different schedules things get a little crazy.  The high school was out of school on Tuesday, Korinne, Jameson AJ were out of school on Friday.  How adorable are these preschool superheroes hanging in the hall outside of AJ's classroom?!

                                                          AJ the preschool superhero.

AJ has such an outgoing and fun personality his preschool teachers love working with him.  As we were leaving the classroom some of his classmates were in the hall and greeted him enthusiastically. The parents responded with "Oh, this is AJ? We hear about him all of the time at home"  After AJ's very first day of school he was telling me about it and simply said, "I have a LOT of friends." 😀 He has made so much progress in speech that he accomplished his goal for the school year in the first month so he may only be in speech for another month or so until he is released.  He has pretty much caught up with his peers at this point so he has really come a long way from not being able to speak a word of English 14 months ago.

Jameson is doing really well in French and I got to see him in action at his parent teacher conference.  His French teacher never speaks a word of English to the kids, in fact she had Jameson leave the room after a few minutes so she could speak to me in English.  She lets them speak to her in English right now, but in February she will suddenly not be able to understand English anymore so they will have to speak to her in French.  Jameson doesn't know about that yet, so he may be in for a surprise this winter.

Britton and Jenna had a piano recital on Friday night and each played an impressive piece.  Jenna played "Waterfall" by Jon Schmidt and Britton played Tarantella by Stephen Heller.  I wish blogger would let me upload portions of the video, but they are really stingy with their video files anymore.

We really loved General  Conference this weekend!  For months rumors of 2 hour church have been making the rounds but I never gave it any consideration because I just couldn't see it happening. Well, I was wrong and I couldn't be happier about it! I'm excited for the new balanced curriculum and am excited about all of the changes that are happening in the church right now.

After the last session of conference we went on a little walk to see the leaves in the canyon.  It was beautiful. 

In our family this is what an attempt to get a group picture looks like.

I told AJ to smile for the camera. 😊

I think October should last for 2 months. It really is my favorite month of the year.