halloween preview and a pond

kinda a weird combination i know, but the kids' costumes and the pond daddy made is the talk of the house lately. i gave in to the commercialism of the holiday by letting the kids choose their costumes--no cutesie family theme this year. but the girls are both gonna be lady bugs so i guess its a small victory. more spooky cooky fun to come. fishies are swimming and turtles are on their way. its a fun new obsession for 'em.

the next great public speaker

caden was asked to give his first talk in primary--up till now we knew he wasn't ready to be poised at the pulpit. with caden you just never know what he could choose to belt out into that very fun microphone. so we prepared a simple talk on prophets and how they teach us to be a strong family. as i walked up to the stand to assist him i walked by Seth and Chelsea and said, "please just don't let this turn out to be a circus act". i was so nervous and totally apprehensive of the unknown future. his only other glimpse of public speaking was reciting his nursery rhyme at preschool graduation--which he was awesome and took several bows. Caden always surprises us (like this nite-nite spot he discovered). his talk went flawlessly. i was a shakin mess but he repeated back everything i told him to even with inflection as i did. starting off with his famous clearing of the throat: hu-hum--he stood proud and delivered. all my worrying for nothing. he stole my heart as always. when finished as he went to go sit back down he said, "gee mommy i sure do like talking in the microphone". yep he got lots of squeezes all day--we were all so proud.

my boyz & a little scout

i promised i would blog about a couple fun/cute happenings so here they are. ummm yeah. caden is a crack up. his teacher called me that day to assure me all was well. he didnt like the teachers aide's loud voice so hence his shoe flung at her head. she was ok and i couldn't help but giggle--don't worry i made sure he understood it was wrong--then i giggled again. workin' and playin' brady insisted on feeding the birds in our back yard; it was licked clean after 2 days. on one of our few warm days we busted out the pool and uncle ryan set up a private hot tub for baby scout. who knew that paint bucket would come in so handy--we all just loved it!

kendra's baptism--oh the wonderment!!

what a marvelous series of highlights for this special occasion. after the invites were out, family arrived, speakers and music planned, programs cutely assembled, goodies made, and all the little details double checked we were so ready for our daughter to enjoy this big step in her life. kendra was so excited and handled the whole day like such a little grown up. the actual program she was very attentive to and will hold dear with some of these special parts. #1: Caden stealing the show during the musical number--he went up to sing with the cousins having a hard time with the 2nd and 3rd verses but conducted the music with such pristine form. after the song he stood and took a bow with arms neatly layed around his waist and behind his back saying to his audience, "thank you thank you". he proceeded to take another bow and another one and probably about 3 more after that then added that "i want to be an opera singer". #2 when kendra came up out of the water caden said, "i want to go in". #3 brianne quite sneakily grabbing hold of the skirts of Taylor and Zoey--thankfully she didnt hold them up too high. there was plenty of giggling during the song but the cousins, uncle dan + caden did a wonderful rendition of "i am a child of God". according to kendra she loved the whole thing but really enjoyed getting lots of gifts, the yummy food, and everyone being so nice and loving to her on her special day. she bore her testimony the next day and taught us all that even though the water was freezing cold she had a warm feeling inside. as parents we couldn't have asked for a whole lot more.