Out of the mouths of babes--October

Happy Halloween! Here are the tricks and treats from my kids for the month.

10/1--After school Brandon informed me, "I'm almost positive that I'm related to Alec[one of his buddies from school]. We must have the same Great-great-great-great Grandpa."
Me: Why do you think that?
B: Because we're such good friends!

Here's who you're really related to.

10/4--At dinnertime, B. came down the stairs and said, "It smells like an Italian restaurant in here." Oh. My. Gosh. I think that's one of the biggest compliments I've ever received!

He knows how to make a mom feel
good about herself.

10/7--Brandon's up to his money-making schemes again. This morning he told me, "When I grow up, I hope I have two million dollars in the bank. Then I'd earn a dollar of interest every minute! I could buy a flat screen TV in like two days!"

Another money saving tip:
Buy your fur coats at Goodwill.

10/12--W was talking about becoming an astronaut and said, "I want to go to the planet Lexicon!" For those of you unfamiliar with PBS kids, that is the home of the cartoon character "Word Girl."

10/12--Whit brought home a book that she made at school. It's called, "Robert Makes Me Sick." It is made of pictures. It shows a boy(presumably Robert) on the first page. A school bus on the second page. The school on the third page. And Whit saying, "Cof." on the last page. Her commentary, "See? Robert made me sick! He was sitting at my table and coughing!"

10/13--Whit had a field trip to a pumpkin patch today. She brought this one home:

She said, "My pumpkin looks like an old man."

10/15--B just asked me the most random question. "Mom, what's the square root of fish?" I didn't know how to respond. Caviar? Where does he come up with this stuff?

10/16--The kids are all about describing tastes in funny ways right now. Whit was peeling a banana today and said, "Did you know you can eat the bruises? They're yummy. They taste like cinnamon."

To each her own?

10/17--Andrew not only let me sleep in this Saturday morning, but had pancakes cooking when I woke up. (Have I mentioned that I love this guy???) Anyway, Brandon's pancake must've been a little overdone. He said it tasted like a tortilla. Whitney said hers was delicious and tasted like honey.

He prefers donuts.

10/18--Sweet little Whitney is getting a little sassy. It had been slowly happening over the last several months. But today took it to a new level. She got mad at me over something small. She walked over to a piece of paper on the counter and wrote this:

Ouch! The Anti-Mom sign.
Nooooo!
What happened to my little princess?

10/26--We were enjoying a gourmet dinner at Taco Bell tonight. Nickelback's "If Today Was Your Last Day" was playing in the background. Andrew asked Brandon what he would do if today was his last day. Brandon thought for a few seconds and said, "I'd figure out how to put a camera inside me so I could take pictures of heaven."

He's creative.

10/30--Caroline said her first three word sentence today: "Mama all-gone wa-wa," when she finished her sippy cup. Actually, we should probably count it as four words? Maybe I need to go back to kindergarten with Whit.

10/31--We just found out that there's a boy in Whit's class that has a huge crush on her! I can't believe we're barely hearing this news. She was telling us that he always hugs her and tells her that he loves her. (Whoa!) Anyway, this is how she describes him, "He's like a ninja he hugs me so tight." Back off, little guy!

A look at the many faces of Caroline this month:
Pouty

Curious

Happy

Cheezy

Free LDS books

I just received this forwarded e-mail and it was too good to not share. There are no catches, sign-ups, or passwords--just free downloads. I already tried it out. Enjoy!

Subject: free church books (seriously)
From: John Hilton III
Sorry for the form email - I'm just excited about this and wanted to pass it on. I'm working on my doctorate degree and part of what I'm studying is what happens when books are made available for free.

I've been working with Deseret Book and they have made 8 of their books available for FREE DOWNLOAD at http://deseretbook.com/free. Several of the books are ones I thought you might be interested in. The books are:

1. Please Pass the Scripture (by me).
2. What I Wish I Would Have Known When I Was Single (by John Bytheway).
3. Women at the Well (by Richard and Jeni Holzapfel).
4. Digging Deeper (by Robert Eaton).
5. 10 Secrets Wise Parents Know (by Brent Top and Bruce Chadwick).
6. Growing Up: Gospel Answers About Maturation and Sex (by Brad Wilcox).
7. Saving Kristen (by Jack Weyland). (fiction)
8. The Hidden Path (by C.B. Andersen). (fiction)

I've read part or all of all of these books and they are great. If nothing else, I recommend that you go download them all and save them for future reference as they will only be available online for free for a short time. A lot of people aren't aware that books like these even exist, much less that they are available for free.

Please feel free to forward this email on to anyone you think would be interested in getting some free church books. I would love to help share these great, free resources with as many people as possible. Some of the books help you get more out of the scriptures. Others are good for parenting. Some are just plain fun. Go check out http://deseretbook.com/free. I hope you like the books!

--John Hilton III

Fall fun: church party

While holding its annual Fall Festival
and Chili Cookoff,
a local LDS (Mormon) church was
surprised to receive a visit from several
notable persons affiliated with
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
including

Hermione Granger

and The Boy Who Lived
(aka Harry Potter)

Shouts of "Expelliarmus!"
were heard throughout the night.

They were accompanied by gamekeeper
and good friend, Rubeus Hagrid.

And Professor McGonagall was there
to keep an eye on everyone.

A surprise bonus guest:
Dobby the house elf

It was a magical evening.

(OK, I am such a Harry Potter nerd.
We loved these costumes, though!)

Fall fun: camping

Andrew has been itching to go camping before it gets too cold. This weekend seemed like the ideal time for it. We got a campsite on Friday night and headed to the woods.

Caroline enjoyed some quality time on
the little camping chair that's just her size.
Andrew and I were talking about how scary
it is to have a toddler out in the woods at night.
How did more pioneer children not get lost?
If she walked a few feet away from us, it was
almost impossible to see her. We had to
follow her around like pre-teen girls at a
Jonas Brothers concert!

Andrew tutored her on the fine art of hot-dog roasting.

We enjoyed our dinner by firelight.

It is so relaxing to get away.
Even if your destination is just a
20 minute drive from home.

After enjoying s'mores (YUM!),
the girls headed home to our nice, cozy beds.

These two brave souls stayed the night.
They had a blast, even though it rained.
The cheap tent we bought on clearance
at Target for $9 pulled through!
They stayed dry, but still didn't sleep much
because the rain and wind were so loud.

Fall fun: harvest festival

Andrew had to conduct a funeral last Saturday, so the kids and I were left to our own devices. We decided to head to the science center, but on our way there we passed this harvest festival that looked fun and decided to stop there instead.

They had a little hay maze.

Brandon helped Caroline.

We got our own personal hay ride.

Caroline was an old pro by now.

Whit thought this was a good photo op.
(She is SO my daughter.)

They also had a bounce house, pumpkin painting,
and a bake sale. The kids were in heaven.
Except Caroline wasn't quite acting like herself.

She wouldn't even look at the camera!
When we got home, I realized she had a burning fever.
Poor baby! We were home sick for the next two days,
but she's all better now.

Fall fun: pumpkin patch

We have had so much fun with fall activities. I thought I would bundle them all into one post, but now that I see all the pics, I changed my mind. They deserve their own posts. So look forward to a busy blogging week.

First up: Caroline's "field trip" to the pumpkin patch. All of our joy school friends met up at a nearby church. We had a little storytime, took a hilarious hayride with teenage boys hanging from trees and a little girl pretending to be lying on her grave (wow, it doesn't sound so funny when I type it out, but in the moment it was cracking us up!), colored halloween pictures, and sang songs. Very fun and memorable.

So many little pumpkins to choose from

One of these pumpkins is not like the others.

This one looks like it would make it a good kick ball.

Maybe I'll take this one.

Here, Mia. Try this color.

I'm not so sure about his hayride thing.

They look like they're having fun.

I guess we'll enjoy it, too. Weeeee!

The results

While I think Megan's idea was great, I'm too lazy to follow through with changing the pictures around regularly. (I am open to switching a couple out as we take new ones, though.) So here's what we ended up with:


They are hanging on the wall at the top of my stairs and make me happy every time I walk up. And I forgot to give props to Andrew for taking the bumble bee pic and my bro, Paul, for the cacti. Thanks for sharing your opinions!

Your input

I bought eight matching frames to put together a collage of photos. But now I can't decide which pics I want to use. Any thoughts?

Snowy mountains

Pilot Mountain

Tree Sunset

Kure Beach

Cottonwood Canyon

Grand Cayman

Florida palm trees

Ocean sunrise

City Lake

Daffodils

Sacred Grove

Bridal Veil Falls

Cacti

Mushroom thingies

Daisy

Bumble bee

A river runs through it

Mountain sunset

The Rockies

Flag sunset

Irises

Icy tree

Which ones look the most frame-able?