Halloween

Halloween turned out to be a success even though I was so totally fried from lack of sleep and the fact that on Friday Gavin came home sick with the flu. Turned out he only had the 12 hour deal and was able to hold down food all day on Saturday. He however had to wait until today to eat his candy, so that his stomach wouldn't be shell shocked. My boys mostly make up their own costume ideas. They love having their faces painted. This is Gavin as a bloody ninja.

Hunter was invited to go trick or treating with his friend Rio. He is a corpse that died from hanging. Oops I guess corpses can't die but you know what I meant. Todd had to look on the internet to learn how to tie a noose knot. So if anyone needs to know how, just give Todd a holler he is now an expert.
Aiden is Frankenstein. Unfortunately the flash in this picture washed out his face a bit.
Mason is dementor from Harry Potter. For those that don't know they suck the souls from people.
Here is Alaina as Pocahontas. She was not happy that everyone was getting their faces painted but her. We added rosy cheeks and that seemed to help a little.
For those of you that are wondering were our other child is he was the casualty of my total lack of sleep. I seemed to miss getting a picture of Dallin. I think it was partially due to the fact that he was fixing his costume clear up until the time we walked out the door.

Odds and Ends

Just thought I would throw in a few pictures that didn't actually go together but were fun anyway. This is Dallin on 80's day for Heritage HS. Not easy in a household were things not used or of sentimental value are given away. He asked hey dad you have any 80's clothes and this is the best we could come up with. The hair was borrowed from a neighbor. He was pretty excited about the way he looked.

A couple of weeks ago we had a little philmont for the four stakes in the area. It was an adult meeting but the main speaker President Gibson from the general YM presidency asked for two youth to help him out that night. Todd volunteered Hunter. It was a great experience and Hunter was beaming the whole time. Pres. Gibson gave each of the boys a really neat coin that had the whole armor of God on it, in addition to that he got a really cool wooden tie slide thing.
This is Alaina in one of her many pouting poses. I just had to get the picture. I thought it would bring her out of her pout as well but no such luck.

FHE Halloween prep

The annual Halloween pumpkin carving FHE. They worked hard and scary jack o lanterns eventually arrived.

Our beautiful rooster

He was the man, afraid of nothing but the lead hen. Chickens and humans really are not that different.

Wet Willies

Mason told me today that Alaina climbed up on his bed this morning to wake him up. He was already awake however and was watching her threw slitted eyes. He said that she proceeded to put her pinkie finger in her mouth and when she pulled it out promptly stuck it in his ear. How is that for a three year old with five older brothers. Some of the things she does seem so out of character for a little girl.

The other day she informed me that she really likes bugs but not spiders. That is thanks to the influence of her 10 year old brother. She wrestles with Gavin and other boys her age. One time while wrestling with a boy in our ward that was her age I saw her hit her head hard and expected her to start crying but she acted like nothing happened. Then about a minute later the boy became interested in playing with someone else and she came and sat on my lap and cried quietly.

A couple of weeks ago I had a friend come over and chat and she brought her five year old son with her. The second Alaina was introduced to him she said, "I have cool lego guys you want to see?"

Even with all those brothers she still is all girl. She likes her nails painted and her hair pretty and loves to hang out with her aunts and girl cousins. She loves to go shopping and put on pretty clothes. I find it so much fun to watch her interactions in our family.

Pumpkin Patch

One of my favorite things to do during October is to go to the pumpkin patch. We have always had the rule that the kids could pick any pumpkin they just had to be sure to be able to carry them. It has been fun over the years to watch them struggle with the biggest pumpkins they could manage. Gavin and Alaina are two of our children that have realized small pumpkins are better because they are not that hard to carry. This year she looked at me and said, "Mom I want a small one."

Here is all the Kestner cousins, around here anyway, with their pumkins. Not a bad haul.
I didn't want to put every child's picture with their pumpkin but had to put this one in because it really is a beautiful pumpkin. Plus you can see that our older boys can easily walk away from the pumpkin patch with the biggest pumpkin. Boy they grow up fast.
Our children's six pumpkins.
Just thought this was a cool picture. At the time I was frustrated because you can't see my kids but after I got it home I liked it. The only one that is mine in the picture is Hunter. He is standing up top in the middle.

Relatives in town

We were fortunate to be able to spend four fun days with Aunt Kitty, Aunt Heidi, grandma Kestner and cousin Karen. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing visit.