It's getting cold out there

The kids rediscovered this whiteboard and have been having lots of fun with magnets

 We had a fun FHE this last week learning about gratitude and coloring thanksgiving pictures afterward

 Since moving to Idaho we have seen a lot more spiders than back home. I found this guy out on the driveway in the evening while I was cutting some wood

 It is a false black widow. It has got this name because it resembles and is often mistaken for a black widow spider. He didn't last very long after I got my pictures

 It's starting to get cold around here and the kids are excited to wear their winter gear

 Learning about shapes at preschool

 Lyza and her best friend

 What happy kids

 Nixon's latest bad habit is not eating his food at dinner time unless he is sitting on my lap. I hope we can get him out of this phase soon

 I put up the Christmas lights last Saturday before it got cold and snowy

 It is hard not to turn them on

Mr. Nixon got a hair cut last week. We had to bribe him with a sucker to get him to sit still

 He looks so grown up with his short hair

 Last week at church 

 Here he is before church this morning. What a little model!

We got a Fisher Price catalog in the mail and Lyza loves looking at all of the toys

 Interesting place to read

 There was a huge windstorm here on Tuesday and lots of areas lost power because of damaged trees. We got our head lamps out in case we lost power (we never did) and the kids had a great time playing with them

 This guy decided it would be a good idea to draw on the wall with crayon. His mother made him clean it all up. We hope he learned his lesson

 Kim and the kids made some cookies for our new neighbors. The kids were excited for them to come out of the oven

 The library had a visitor and our kids were terrified of him. I don't blame them! Look at those dead eyes.

 Our little composer

 I had a little repair project under the sink and Nixon was right there by my side willing to lend both hands

This is a video of the kids getting a little crazy with their good night hugs

Here is a video of how Nixon says "hello." I think he is so adorable!

That's all for now. We are excited for Thanksgiving this week and some company. Take care.

Grandma, don't leave us!

Grandma Bullock visited this past week for a few days. The kids had lots of fun with Grandma. She was pretty fun to shop with.

Here is Nixon making himself at home in one of the stores

Her visit wasn't all fun and games. Kim put her to work on some different projects. Here she is helping Kim make a tipi. This is going to be a Christmas present for the kids. Shhhhh, don't ruin the surprise ;)

Nixon, Lyza, Sharp-tooth, and Grandma all coloring together

Looking at pictures and watching videos together

It was hard for Lyza to say good night

We sure enjoyed having Grandma stay with us. Come back any time!

Here are the kids having a great time with their train set

Yesterday morning I had a blast playing in the back yard with the kids.

We had lots of fun playing ball. I would throw balls all over the yard and the kids would chase after them. I imagine it is something like playing fetch with a dog.

Nixon figured out that he can swing above the slide just like he does at other playgrounds

Nixon was super active last night just before bed.

He had lots of fun jumping and playing with this exercise mat

What a cute little boy!

Take care.

Halloween Fun

Before we get too spooky here, there are a few things to catch up on. Like Nixon's mad painting skills

He is pretty proud of himself

 Lyza uses some more advanced techniques

 But we all know the craftiest of them all is Kim. This window frame is from her grandparents' barn.

 Lyza has really liked "playing ball" this past week. She can actually catch pretty well now.

 I had the pleasure of blowing out the sprinklers this week, which meant going down into the crawl space to turn of the water for the winter. Nixon wanted to come down there with me.

 We have had a really rainy week, but that hasn't stopped the kids from getting some outside time.

 The kids had a Halloween activity at the library this week. It was really cute seeing Lyza waving around a scarf to music with her multiple arms

The kids came to my office on the 30th and did some trick or treating

 This book I was reading to Nixon was really silly. He kept covering his mouth and laughing hysterically.

 I had lots of fun with Nixon yesterday building with some magnet toys.

 And then Halloween happened. We had an expert makeup artist get the kids ready

 The kids looked pretty cute

Miss Lyza was a spider, but not just any spider, a daddy long leg spider

 She gave awesome hugs with all of those arms

 Pretty spooky

 Nixon was a cute little dalmatian puppy 

 We started off the festivities with a ward harvest party. Nixon's favorite part was the dessert. 

 There was a little costume parade for the kids

Then there was trunk-or-treating

 After that we took the kids by the house of a family in the ward that really goes all out with their decorating. In fact, it was a little too scary for the kids

There was a motion activated spider right at the front door (we didn't get it on video) that scared the crap out of the kids

This is a video of us trying to take them back up to the house again, they weren't having it 

We then took the kids to an old folks home to trick or treat. It was so much fun! It was sweet to see the residents having so much fun with the kids. This is definitely something we will do again in the future. This lady had a motion activated crow that the kids loved

 Kim did a great job on Lyza's costume

 We then went home and Nixon and I handed out candy while Lyza and Kim hit up our neighborhood. Here is Nixon having some much deserved candy

 After a little while Kim and I switched because Lyza couldn't get enough trick or treating. 

When we finally got home a tired little girl got to lay out all of her candy.

This was our first year in this neighborhood for Halloween. We have always been in low traffic trick or treating areas, so we were not prepared for how many people would come to our house. Lyza and Nixon really got a lot of candy throughout the night, but we had to give most of it away because we didn't buy enough to hand out. I guess we will know better for next year. And we don't really need as much candy as we would have otherwise had.

Lyza counting out her candy is too cute

Nixon and I had a good bedtime read last night. I love hearing him say "apple"

That's all for now. Take care