Thanksgiving and Other Fun Things

I forgot to mention last time that Josh had a birthday!  He turned 5 in November.  Unfortunately, the morning of his birthday while we were making his cake, he told me that he had water coming out of his ear - his eardrum had broken!  Poor thing - we got him on anti-biotics that morning so he could enjoy his birthday.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun.  We stayed home and had Grandma and Grandpa Bell stay with us for a couple of days.  Check out the turkey legs the boys are gnawing on! 

McKayla and Kyle are in their school choir and they got the opportunity to sing at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building at Temple Square a couple of weeks ago.  There are 135 kids in the choir and it sounded amazing!

Another fun thing that their school choir got to do was sing the National Anthem at the Utah Flash basketball game.  The Flash is the NBA d-league team here in Utah that supports the Jazz.  We had a great time at the game!  During one of the first time-outs, one of the Flash cheerleaders came into the stands and picked Josh to go out to the middle of the court to open a gift from Santa.  He got a big sword that makes sound effects but didn't know what to think about going out on the court.

Last week I got a surprise phone call from my sister-in-law Deanna from Houston saying that she was in town!  Unfortunately, I had such a busy day that we only got to spend an hour together, but it was great to see her and my darling niece, Chloe.

On Saturday, Joe competed in a Jujitsu Kata contest, where he and his partner, Mike, were judged on a series of jujitsu techniques.  They did a great job, and not only took first place in their brown belt division, but they took the trophy for highest all-around score in the entire adult division.  This is Joe's second year in a row taking this trophy!

This last part is going to sound like a commercial, but I found these beautiful temple pictures at Costco and bought one of the Logan Temple to put on our family room wall.  They are really nice and they have a bunch of temples and Del Parson prints in a variety of sizes.  The prices are also very reasonable - much cheaper that I have ever seen at Deseret Book or Seagull.  Since most of you don't live here to go to Costco to check them out, if you are interested, you can see what they have at http://www.culturalhall.com/.

A Fall Update

Here are a few of the things we have been up to (in no particular order) -

We cleaned out the flower beds and raked up the leaves a couple of weekends ago. Kyle and Josh were helping out in the backyard with the leaves from our silver maple tree. Halloween was a gorgeous day - warm and sunny! We met Grandma and Grandpa Bell at our land and roasted some hot dogs, then we loaded up the camper and hauled it home for the winter.
Our house was invaded a couple of weeks ago - by wasps! Joe set off three Wasp Foggers in our walls where the wasps were coming in, and so far we haven't see anymore wasps since then. This is Joe caulking the holes in the concrete by our front porch where they were coming in.

Sunday afternoons get a little boring sometimes - so Joe showed the kids how to build a huge fort in the basement. I think they used every spare blanket we had in the house to build tunnels behind and in-between the couches. The kids had a so much fun!
Our first snowstorm of the season was October 27th. I'm not sure that we were really ready for the snow, so we were glad when it melted the next day. In typical Utah weather fashion, it snowed last week and hit a record 75 degrees a few days later!

I spent all of my extra free time one week working on a scrapbook of our family reunion trip to North Carolina. I haven't scrapbooked (except for the picture-a-day) for a long time, so I had a great time working on this and I think it turned out nice. It made me want to go back to the beach house and do it all over again!

Halloween 2009 - at our ward Trunk-or-Treat. Kyle and Josh were both Iron Man and McKayla designed her own "dead bride" costume. We love our ward party every year because it's safe and warm, and we always have a great chili and cornbread dinner. And of course, tons of candy!

Joe's dad, Tom, gave us his 50 gallon aquarium in the middle of October. I have been surprised at how much FUN it has been to have fish in our home. We have two frogs, a catfish, an algae eater, a plecostomus, neon tetra, red-skirted tetra, and a bunch of guppies. We find ourselves watching the fish more than we watch TV a lot of days. On Monday, Josh and I sat and watched one of the female guppies have babies (they have live births). They are little, and hard to count, but I think there are 18 or 19 guppie babies in a containment tank so the other fish don't eat them. If anyone is interested, I'm sure we will be have plenty to give away soon!

McKayla decided it was time for a change and got a new haircut. She donated 9 1/2 inches of hair to Lock of Love. She loves her new, shorter, easier hair-do and it's really cute on her.

Kyle's Baptism

Kyle was baptized on October 10th by his dad. It was a wonderful day and he was SO excited! He said he liked being "pushed" under the water - and that the water was warm!
This is Kyle with our ward bishopric. He got to sit on the stand with them Sunday and he loved that!
We are so proud of Kyle and his choice to be baptized. He is a great kid with a strong, kind spirit and we love having him in our family.

The Monster Mash

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Bell Family Reunion - Outer Banks, NC

I can't even begin to explain how much we loved our family reunion in the Outer Banks. The beachhouse was awesome, the company was great, the weather cooperated (most of the time), the beaches, lighthouses, etc. were fascinating, and the food never ended! And, the best part is that Joe was able to join us for most of the week!

I was so sad when I woke up this morning and realized that I have to get back to real life again and that I don't have an amazing vacation to look forward to anymore. But the memories are so great! Thanks to the NC Bells for doing a great job, and to everyone else for making it a wonderful week for my family.

I have a bunch of great pictures (somebody will figure out the best way to share them, right?), but here are a few of my favorite pics from the week:

Piano Recital

Last Tuesday I held an end-of-summer piano recital at my house for my students. They all did so well, and I was so proud of them! I have been teaching for 8 1/2 years, and some of these students are starting their 6th year with me. I LOVE having them come to my home each week and visiting with them, sharing their lives, and watching them grow - not to mention teaching them to play an instrument that they will use for the rest of their lives! It's a very rewarding job for me - now if I could only get my OWN kids to practice!

Back Row: Taylor Tahbo, Breanne Taylor, Hannah Norton, McKenzie Harmon, Alyssa Harmon.

Front Row: Shawni Muhlestein, Bailey Tahbo, Garrison Norton, Alex Weaver (and don't those two look excited to be there?), Andrew Perkins, and Joshua Greathouse. The only one who couldn't come was Jordan Taylor - he is the quarterback of his football team and didn't want to miss his game! Go Lehi!

Now I am taking a couple of weeks off so I can go on vacation!!!!

What do I do with this?

So, we have family pictures coming up in a couple of weeks, right? (By the way, someone needs to make a decision on what we are all supposed to wear, because I'm getting conflicting reports.)

Well, Josh decided that he wanted to "make his hair look like he was jumping on the trampoline" - whatever that means - and took the scissors and clipped two big chunks right out of the front. How do I fix this? His hair is so light that if I cut it too short, it completely disappears, but some of it is chopped clear down to the roots. So as far as I can tell, I have two options:

1. Cut it all really short - it will look like he is bald in pictures.

2. Cut it a little shorter and try to "blend in" the missing chunks.

I hope Great Clips has a miracle worker there tomorrow. What do you think? What have you done when your kids do this? Because I know they have, or if not - I know they will! : ) By the way, we had a really great time at the Salt Lake Bees game last night. Thanks Raida for the tickets!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

The kids went back to school today! I had them pose in front of the petunias to keep up the family tradition, even though some of my petunias didn't make it this summer, and they look all lopsided and sparse.

McKayla is in 6th grade - it's her last year of Elementary School. Her teacher is Mrs. Davis and she said she had a good day today. There aren't alot of her friends in her class this year, so she will get the opportunity to meet some new kids and make new friends.

Kyle came home from school today and said "This was the best day of my entire life!" I said, "Even better than a day at Disneyland?" He said, "Oh yeah! My class is awesome!" You gotta love that kind of enthusiasm from a 3rd grader. His teacher is Miss Rose - a first year teacher straight out of UVU - and she seems like she will be really great!

I'm so excited for my kids to start this new chapter in their lives, even though I can't really believe that summer is over!

Another room make-over!

This time it was McKayla's turn for a more grown-up look in her bedroom. (the pink fairies were so fun when she was 6 - but she will turn 12 in just a few months!)

I painted all the walls "Parisian Taupe" - which means tan - except one wall which is "Dreaming Blue" and the doors and trim are ultra white.

The room looks great, and she also now has a closet - so she is thrilled. I told her that she has to keep it this clean from now on!

Garden Fresh

Josh and I picked another huge bowl of tomatoes tonight. We already have this many in our fridge waiting to be bottled. I've got a project ahead of me this weekend! I'm so grateful that our garden is producing well this year; the last few years our tomatoes have been lousy.

I survived Camp Jeremiah Johnson

Since I'm Primary President, therefore a member of the Cub Commitee, and I'm also the parent of a brand new Cub Scout, I got to help chaperone eight 8-9 year old boys at Camp Jeremiah Johnson. The camp is up Hobble Creek Canyon near Springville and it has been around for years. It's extremely well organized and they know how to make a great adventure for the boys.

Luckily, this was the last rotation of our day: rafting. How did I possibly think that I could go out on the raft with the boys, and enjoy a nice ride up the pond and back without getting wet? Just because every other rotation of the day did this? Not our pack of boys! There were two rafts on the pond, and instead of just racing the rafts to the end of the pond, they had to start a water fight - I ended up SOAKING wet. I could wring water out of my hair! Everyone had a great time though, so I guess it was worth it. Here the boys are - Panning for Gold. I don't know what kind of "gold" it is, but each boy took home 4 or 5 little pebbles of something shiny.

Another rotation was the BB Gun range. Kyle has shot guns with his Dad a lot, but he still had fun shooting the bb guns.

In another rotation they taught the boys archery:

At one point in the day, the leaders showed the boys how the indians and pioneers made rope. They made a 25 foot rope, then had a tug-o-war with another pack from Eagle Mountain (Cedar Pass 16th Ward -do you know them?)

It was a fun, exhausting day. I have been before, but it is much more fun to go with my own son and watch him learn new things and get along with the other boys. Let the Scouting begin, right?

Kyle's 8th Birthday

Kyle turned eight years old on Monday! He is so excited to be able to be baptized, and to be a Cub Scout! He got a mountain bike for Joe and I - it's pretty big, but he seems to handle it just fine and it should last him for several years. On Tuesday, he had a party with his friends. Most of them know that he loves Pokemon, so he got a shirt and lots of Pokemon cards. He was in heaven!

We took him and his friends to Chuck E Cheese for his party. All of the kids had a great time - and the pizza wasn't even as bad as I remembered it being.