Costumes!!!

Last Sunday, was Mikael Anderson's homecoming talk. It is super fun that Josh and Mikael served in the San Diego Mission together. Their mission president and his wife came, Pres. and Sis Schmitt, came. Mikael gave a great talk. It was fun to visit with all of them for a bit after the meeting.

The Anderson's had Josh and Sara over for dinner after church. Good times!

 

Then Mikael came over here and the boys taught him how to play Settlers of Catan.

Monday after school, I went upstairs to talk to Drew and found him sound asleep like this. I guess the floor is more comfortable than the sofa?

Wednesday, Sara went with the young women from church to the WHAM Art Studio here in Surprise. Kelley Smith, from church, was the featured artist for October.

Back: Larysa Mitchell, Kelley Smith, Mackenzie Mitchell, Meghann Fleming, KenaDee Anderson
Front: Sara, Brynn Wilde, Brianna Watkins

They went out for a treat at Yogurtini afterward.

This week has been insane with all the last minute costume making. I thought I was starting early enough to not be overwhelmed, but somehow the month flew by and I was living at my sewing machine all week. I love it though. There is just something about seeing something in your head and then creating it. I was so happy with how things came together!

I was trying out the hat mid Halloween construction. This was one of my favorite costumes to make!

Andrew keeps things exciting when I take him with me to any store. Well, when I take  him anywhere actually. He is just nonstop fun. I love it! (most of the time)

This was at Walmart.

This was later that same day at Costco. Can you see him?

Friday evening, we took Daniel, Laney and Susanna to Mesa High School to see The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the musical. Gram and Papa met us there. We saw their production of Cinderella last year, and loved it, so we decided to see this year's show. We were not disappointed. It was delightful!

With Tom Sawyer

With Becky Thatcher

With Injun Joe (He was awesome and super scary!)

With Huckleberry Finn

Halloween costumes completed! Hooray!!

Sam did his own, and did an awesome job! He was the Crocodile Hunter.

I didn't see Josh dress up, so no pictures of him.

Sara was Strawberry Shortcake! 

The twins were Tweedledee an Tweedledum this year. They never did decide who was who. I don't think either of them wanted to be Tweedledum.

Daniel wore Tim's bunny costume and was super cuddly.

Laney was a Southern Bell. We found this awesome Civil War period ballgown at Goodwill a few weeks ago. With a little repair work and a few alterations it fit Laney perfectly!

Susanna was a flapper. She picked out the dress at Goodwill and said she wanted to be a bling girl. I thought she meant flapper, since that's what kind of dress she wanted. I think she just wanted to be glamorous and sparkly. We worked it all out and in the end she was happy.

Saturday we had the ward Trunk or Treat. There were so many cute costumes!

Sara and KenaDee

Brandon was Bongo the Bear. He rode his unicycle and juggled, just like Bongo! It was awesome!!!

Elder Towle tried out the unicycle too.

We got a new bishop a couple of weeks ago and last night I got this picture of our previous bishop, Bishop Smith and the new one, Bishop Anderson!

Dennis Smith and Ryan Anderson

Josh Jordan and Freddy

By the end of the evening our Bell had melted into the floor. She was so tired.

The older kids went to a Halloween dance after the Trunk or Treat. 

Freddy and Rachel Mounteer (Brandon's sister)

Brandon was SO cute!

Gwen and Susanna

Bling Girls

There has been a lot of sorting and trading of candy going on. I don't know if the little girls have eaten much other than candy today. Oh well, they will survive. They have been playing happily together all morning.

Fall Break

Monday, for Family Home Evening, we went over to Tony and Wendy's. The kids had been dying to see Tony since his surgery and he is feeling well enough now that we could visit and play games. We got to introduce Leigh to them too. We laughed and laughed as we played Smurfing. Smurfing is similar to 20 questions, but instead of guessing a noun, you are guessing a verb. So Smurfing is always some action. It gets pretty hilarious. Josh was the one guessing when Smurfing was proposing. He had a hard time getting it. He knew that it was something that a man does to a woman, as few times as possible, it is enjoyable, only Tony and Dad had done it, Tony twice and Dad once and Freddy is looking forward to doing it someday. It was so funny to watch him trying to figure it out.

We are all so grateful that Tony is ok and doing so well. We love him and Wendy so much!

We had kids in and out of the house all week having fun, playing games, talking and giving back rubs. We have so many great friends!

Sara, Brynn and Daniel

KenaDee sending her love to Tim!

Josh and Mikael

 (We have been enjoying Mikal's guitar skills all week. He's pretty amazing!)

Sammy got a perm from Sara. It helped her win a cosmetology services bingo game. Drew got a perm too.

Laney was so excited about her new lights for her bed. She has been looking for just the right ones for months now. She loves them!

Thursday morning, I took Sara, Andrew, Freddy and Daniel to the temple with me. We were there while Gram and Papa were working there, so they were able to come and help out with the kids as we did baptisms and confirmations. It was really sweet.

After the temple, we went to Goodwill. The boys had way too much fun with the costumes. They were running all over the store dressed up and superheroes and such. This crying baby face was really something!

Thursday evening at choir practice, we were happily surprised to have Professor Mendenhall as the director for the night. He said that he was so bummed to have not gotten to see Tim while he was at the MTC. He now has classes for his doctorate program on Tuesday evenings so he wasn't able to play the organ for the MTC choir while Tim was there. He sends his love to Tim in Korea!

More choir friends sending their love to Tim
Andrew, Kaden, Kathrine and Freddy

And of course Alex and Laney

We also had a surprise visit from Cousin Bob!!!! It was wonderful to see him and to get to hangout with him for a day. He came over Friday afternoon and stayed the night with us.

He is now free from any stray hairs. Laney always takes care of that for him. That girl loves to tweeze.

They played jungle uno and snuggled while watching Finding Dory.

Sara and I slipped out for a while to go to the viewing for Jefferson Livingstone. He is the son of two of my dear friends. He passed  away a week ago in his sleep. He had a heart condition, but it was not something they ever expected to take him away like that. Even though it was heartbreaking, we enjoyed seeing so many people that we love. We are reminded how precious our time together here on earth is and how grateful we are to know that families are eternal and that we will be together again someday.

Jefferson was a senior in high school and an amazing kid. He will be missed by so many. There were a thousand people at his funeral Saturday morning. Rich, Sara and I attended the service as well as my parents, Dandi, Jessi, Gavin, Cadie and Ben and Nan's whole family. It was a beautiful remembrance.

During the funeral, Bob hung out with the kids at Gram and Papa's. We all visited for a little while after the funeral, then we headed home and Bob headed to Tucson to see Dandi and her gang.

You can NEVER have too many Bob hugs!!!

We love you so so much, Bob and can't wait until next time! Hopefully soon!

Daniel and Daphne

Saturday night, Jessi took me out on a sister date. We went to The Crescent Ballroom and watched the Flamenco performance. It was so cool! I learned a lot about the music and the dance. Mostly, I learned that it is improvisational, like jazz. It is a conversation between the guitarist, vocalist and dancers. After learning that, it made watching them even more exciting. You could see the musical conversations. I know that there was a whole lot going on that I still could not see or comprehend. It was a super fun date!