Fall 2011
Happy birthday to Abigail! She has been looking forward to this birthday and her entrance into the Young Women's Program for quite some time! She got a soccer cake and a pool party with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Each kindergartener has a chance to bring something in the "Share Bag" to show to the class. Brock delighted all the other kids (especially the boys) when he brought his snake in to share. The teacher agreed to it, as long as she didn't have to touch it.
Pretty corn harvest and pretty girls.
My brother Mikah and his wife Shelley and their kids, including their beautiful new baby Caitlyn came to watch the opening Boise State game and have a barbecue with us. It was great to have them over, and Mikah even watched half the game before falling asleep!
What a group of cute boys these are! My sister Emmi stopped by our house on her way from Seattle down to Utah. Here are the cousins on their way to try to catch frogs. Brock is bringing Long-Tongue (his snake) along for the party.
Close to a year ago, Stone completed his requirements for his Eagle Scout rank. This Fall we finally did his Court of Honor. This car was built by a man in our ward. It is a Cobra and he is very excited to share it with others. He wanted Stone to ride to his Court of Honor in it, so he did! Gregg may or may not have gone over 100mph on the way, and Gregg and I may or may not have taken it up to the Cheesecake Factory late that night after the Court of Honor was over.
At the Court of Honor.
At an Eagle Court of Honor the Eagle Recipient is supposed to choose someone to give an award to who helped them achieve their rank. It needs to be someone other than their parents (Parents automatically get awards). He chose his Scout leader from when he was a Deacon, Neal Koyle. Brother Koyle didn't know he was receiving this award and he was visibly touched. It was cool to see.
It was a fun evening for Stone.
So many fun friends that we find at our house! This was the coolest, biggest, fattest frog. Brock loved it. No one else wanted to touch it. We kept it in the tank with Long-Tongue for awhile before letting it go.
My biggest baby and my littlest baby.
Here is Abbie with Mack on her back, playing soccer during her lunch recess after Mack and I had come to lunch at the school with Abbie and Zeke. Abbie loves showing off her cute little brother.
During the October 14-15 weekend, we headed up to McCall because Zeke had a football game up there. Quite a way to go for a football game, but we made a weekend out of it and it was a really fun little trip. We got there late Friday afternoon. After checking into our room we let the kids swim for about an hour until it was time to head up to the room for the Boise State game. We ate and enjoyed watching the game. Once we were assured that it was going to be a blow-out, Gregg and I left and went out to dinner. It was delicious and a nice little get-away. Back at the hotel, we finished the game, watched some other movies, and eventually fell asleep. We were in a family suite, so Gregg and I had our own room. These four cuties fit on the king size bed, and Stone and Zeke took the hide-a-bed. The next day we had breakfast, swam, played by the lake, went to our favorite deli in McCall for ice cream, went to Zeke's game, and then attended the post-game barbecue afterwards. The game was great. They lost 18-0, but that didn't matter to our family because Zeke had such great plays. He had a sweet tackle (keep in mind--Zeke's one of the smallest guys out there--but he laid the kid out), an exciting interception, and caught a beautiful long pass. After each one of those plays, he would turn right to us and smile a big smile. It was the cutest to see how he wanted us to be a part of his excitement.
I'm including this picture to show Brock's funny dance he does. He does this at the busstop after Stone's bus (which comes before the elementary bus) has looped back around by our house. Brock stands there on the side of the road, puts his arms out to each side, and moves his bum side to side, all with a goofy, eyes-half-closed look on his face.
We had a wonderful Conference Sunday. Some of our Saturday Conference was taken up with Abbie's soccer game and Zeke's football game in Emmett. But Sunday was all ours. The night before Abbie and Ella and I made fruit kabobs, pei mei salad, chocolate chip cookies, cherry tartletts, poppyseed bread, and cheese and crackers during the Priesthood session. We enjoyed those treats all throughout the day on Sunday. Before the first session started we all went on a little ride on our boat out on the pond. In between sessions we visited Hubbard Reserve, a nature reserve just north of us and checked out the fox dens Stone made for his Eagle project last fall. They looked pretty good! It was so wonderful to have a whole day, uninterrupted, to be together as a family and to feel the spirit of Conference.
Brock's praying mantis friend.
Ella made Mack's monkey "Georgie" a cool Boise State shirt. Ella loves making elaborate things out of paper! This was Conference weekend, as you can tell!
Abbie played on the same soccer team this fall that she played with last spring. She had a fun season, and, as usual, shone on the soccer field.
This was Zeke's first season of tackle football. He loved it. He loves football in general; it is rare to see him without a football in his hands--really--he carries his football around everywhere. The tackle element added an intensity that he really enjoyed. Some kids struggle with it-- not only because it is more physical, but because the coaches and practices tend to be more intense and difficult. But Zeke's take on it was: "Our coaches are so cool. They are really nice to us and they really yell at us and they make us be better." Probably the reason the intesity and yelling was positive for him where it can be negative for others is because the coaches fell in love with him immediately. He is a great catch, he's super fast, and he's very focused and intense. Throughout the season he played starting receiver and he also started on defense. They also had him play some running back--they just wanted ways to get the ball into his hands. His team ended up with a losing season, but Zeke still really enjoyed it. Even he, though, was relieved when it was over--not because he didn't want to play football--he plays whenever he can--at recess, at home, etc.--but because the practices were every night and he had little to no down time. It was nice to have some breathing space in his schedule (and mine!) once it was over.

He looked so handsome in his practice uniform. His game uniform was way too big, but his practice one fit him perfectly.
Stone had a great--albeit short--football season. Well, it wasn't that short. He worked out with the team throughout the summer and started two-a-day practices in August. He moved himself up to starting receiver and starting kicker. He played four good games. In the fourth he had just caught a nice pass and gained about 20 yards for a first down when a big defender tackled him and broke his collar bone. We went to the emergency room that evening and his season was over. However, during that fourth game, he kicked a 43-yard field goal--a school record!

Stone was in a sling for quite some time as his collar bone healed. One day after school as he was waiting for the bus, a kid ran up behind him and knocked him over. He didn't even know the kid--he was just messing around. Stone couldn't extend his arm to stop himself because it was in the sling, so he landed on the cement on his elbow---and broke his elbow. He's a pretty tough kid for being made of glass!
One fall evening we went to Linder Farms, a local corn maze and harvest festival. The kids had a blast. Their favorite part was a big sandbox-type place filled with corn. I'm still finding kernels of corn in the house.
Here is Brock on his field trip to the fire station. He's the shortest in the class--just a cute little bug!
Our Halloween festivities began with a super fun Halloween party thrown by Gregg's mom. Everyone enjoyed dinner, decorated cupcakes, played games, did a skit, and had a dance party deejayed by Gregg's brother Ben who delighted everyone by stringing himself with Christmas lights under his shirt and turning himself on and off to the beat of the music.
The dee jay.
On Halloween we donned our costumes, drove up to Star to pick up Carmie, then met Gregg at Pizza Hut, then headed to Gregg's sister Emily's house to go trick or treating in their neighborhood.

I try to sew at least one Halloween costume every year, a tradition from my mom. This year it was Ella's Rapunzel (Tangled) costume. Mack wore a dinosaur costume I made for Brock a couple years ago. Abbie was a beat up soccer player, Zeke was a football player (of course), Brock was a vampire, and Stone was Stone.
We raised 14 turkeys this year--the most we've done yet. Four toms and 10 hens. Gregg posted an ad late one evening on Craig's List, and by the end of the next day we had sold every one.

These are the pictures for the ad. Brock's a little nervous--pressed up against the wall. They are as big as he is!
For two years now the Kuna 1st Ward Relief Society has come over to our kitchen one day in November to make pies for the Kuna Food Bank. It is such a great activity--everyone working together for a good cause. I really enjoy it. We even made the local paper! That's my hand in the bottom right.
Pilgrim Brock at his kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast.
The day before Thanksgiving we headed over to Carmie's to rake her leaves. It was a surprisingly tough job, considering her small little yard. Carmie kept walking around saying, "well, these little trees surely have outdone themselves!"
The kids thought it was a blast. The wind takes care of the leaves on our trees, so it's not something we ever have to do at our house. I was commenting on how nice that was. The kids insisted that they would LOVE to rake leaves, year after year. Whatever.
Second annual Turkey Bowl.
Big, mean football players. It was fun to have the Rich cousins come to it this year! My brother Derek also came to play.
After the game Hudson and Brock had tons of fun playing with Long Tongue.
We had a great Thanksgiving at Gregg's parents' house. We provided the turkey. It was 37 pounds this year. Our biggest turkey was 40 pounds, but we sold that one.
The Friday after Thanksgiving we drove down to Twin Falls to go to the Temple. (The Boise Temple is being remodeled). This was Abbie's first time, so it was a special time. It was so wonderful to be back in the Temple again. Here we are on our way down for youth baptisms. The four youngest enjoyed a fun day at Grandma and Grandpa's.
Brock and Mack sharing a chair and some scrambled eggs.
Thanksgiving weekend my brother Mikah and his family were in town so they came over Saturday afternoon to watch the BSU game and have Gregg's famous hamburgers. My brother Derek and his family came over, too.

Everyone enjoyed holding Caitlyn, Mikah and Shelley's newest, as well as bopping in front of the camera while siblings were holding Caitlyn. Goofballs.