Our Thanksgiving

I have no pictures to share, because my camera is not working right and our little point and shoot broke. So we are camera less for awhile, which really stinks!

But we did have an enjoyable Thanksgiving. It was just going to be the 5 of us but as the holiday approached, a friend invited us to share Thanksgiving with her family at her parents home up in Charlottesville. We had a great time with them and were so thankful for the invitation.

We drove the up there Wednesday afternoon. Her parent's in an old farm house dating back to the late 1700's. It was really fun to walk through and imagine what life would have been like back then. The house has since been updated and added on and it was nice and cozy. But all the old doors and flooring was in place, it was really neat! The house sits on a large piece of land. Not sure how big the acreage was, but it was huge! They have a little youth size four wheeler and that was the big highlight of the trip for the kids. RJ got to learn to drive it all by himself and he had the time of his life. He can't stop talking about it.

We camped in the backyard with our friends in their LARGE tent. It was equipped with a wood burning stove, and was extremely toasty in the middle of the night.

The Wall family has a turkey tradition they do every year, that we thought was pretty cool. The single daughters (there was only one there this year), shape a turkey out of Rice Krispies and everyone is given a paper feather. Then just before dinner the turkey gets passed around the room and everyone names something they are thankful for and places there feather on turkey. RJ told everyone that he was thankful for the world, Savannah was thankfully that we could spend spend thanksgiving with friends, Zachery was thankful for food, Jared expressed his thankfulness for his family, and I mimicked Savannah's thanksgivings and expressed how thankful I was for the invite to join their family or the holiday.

We had an enjoyable time and I am very Thankful for wonderful friendship I have made while living here in Virgina this past year. It makes being far from family a little bit easier.

Our Primary Program

Two weeks ago we had our primary program in our church. This was Savannah's first Primary Program, she was very excited to be a part of the program. Now, every primary program has a kid or two that takes center stage. Well, this year that kid was Savannah. She sang her little heart out, even when she didn't know the correct words. She even sang an unexpected solo. I teach the 4/5 year old primary class, so I was on the stand with the children. I was having a hard time not laughing through the whole program at my daughters spirit. I was both proud of her and a little red in the face from the attention knowing people weren't only looking at her but at my reaction as well. We have had so many people comment on how much they enjoyed her singing and that she made the program that much more enjoyable. I so wish I could have had a video camera. Even the Bishop made a comment, during his closing marks in the program, about how much he enjoyed Savannah's enthusiasm and spirit. Unfortunately, Savannah missed his compliment. After the final song, just before the Bishop got up to make his remarks, Savannah fell asleep, right there on the stand. It was hilarious! She seriously put that much energy into singing, it wore her out. Yes, I am bragging about my daughter, but that is what a blog is for. I am so proud of her sweet enthusiastic spirit. Bravo, Savannah!
And I can't forget RJ, he did a great job in the program as well. He memorized and presented his part well and he knew all the songs as well. He worked so hard learning all the songs for the program, and it paid off. Good job, Bud!
We love you both and are so proud of you.

Our Halloween Fun

RJ entered the Pumpkin Carving Contest at his school this year with this bloody spider that has been stabbed with a plastic knife. Why are boys so morbid? I gave with the idea of turning his pumpkin into a spider but he insisted of painting blood and stabbing the thing.
Boy will be boys I guess.

Now on to our costume fun. This year a friend gave this awesome Ninja costume to RJ. He was in Ninja heaven and had a blast becoming a Ninja each time he wore it.

Savannah was a darling little witch this year. I found this gorgeous costume 50% off with one left in her size. I couldn't pass it up especially since it wasn't a cheaply made costume. Like last year she wanted to keep changing her outfits but we talked her in to staying a witch for each Halloween event we went to. And I think she is the prettiest witch around.

And our little munchkin sported the Giraffe costume this year. Each kid has worn this for their second Halloween. It has gotten some good use.

Our church held a Trunk-or-Treat Wednesday evening that we attended. Unfortunately is was raining a little so be brought the trick-or-treating indoors.

I think Zach was a little tired after all the trick-or-treating.

Friday morning I took Savannah and Zachery to the city Library for some Trick-or-Treating fun. Zachery did not want to wear the giraffe costume again. I think it was a little too hot for him. I manged to dress him up as a cowboy though.

Zachery has become our biggest sweet tooth. He is always asking for candy.

Friday afternoon RJ school had a Book Character Fashion Show and Fall Classroom Parties. I was able to attend both but don't have any pictures. You were only allowed to attend school in a costume if you had a book that went with it. And then the school had a fashion show and then walked the runway and showing off their costume and highlight their book. It was really fun. We have been reading the Magic Tree House series and RJ LOVES them. One of them is called Night of the Ninjas, so that is what RJ based is costume off of. It turned out that there were about 10 ninjas in the fashion show and they all chose the same book. There must not be a lot of ninja book out there.

Saturday we went to a Halloween Festival at the YMCA. It was a lot of fun but extremely crowded. The kids rode ponies, Zachery even rode one. They watched a magician show and walked trough a not-so-haunted maze. Because Halloween fell on a Sunday we didn't go out and trick-or-treat in the neighborhood. But we did have some friends over after church and enjoyed our traditional dinner in a pumpkin and grave yard pudding with them.

And that was our Halloween.

Trip to DC

On October 15th we drove up to DC and took the subway (or sub as RJ likes to call it) to the National Mall where we saw the Lincoln Memorial, The World War II Memorial and the Washington Monument. Jared had seen these before and really wanted to see them lit up in the dark. This was the first trip for the rest of the family. And we had a blast. We are looking forward to seeing them again in the day light as well as the capital building.

This is part of the Word War II Memorial. It is a beautiful Memorial in between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. RJ enjoyed walking around and reading all the state names on the pillars.

It was a long day. This is Savannah trying her hardest to stay awake as we waited for the "Sub"

The next morning, we headed over to the Washington DC temple to do some service work. The youth from our stake were helping to put up Christmas lights and the children and their parents walked the grounds collecting bits of litter. The kids did very well helping to beautify the temple grounds. We also enjoyed some time in the visitor center.

Randomness from October

Fall is here in the East. The colors are beautiful!!! This has got be be one of the ultimate best thing about living here in Virgina. There are TONS of tree which makes the fall season simply gorgeous! These two pictures are views from our yard.

We started our October month with the 180th Semiannual General Conference it was a wonderful weekend full of spiritual inspiration and truths. Below is a photo of Zachery singing along during one of the rest hymns. He even has a pretend hymn book in his hands.

RJ's school had their Fall Fundraiser Festival. The kids had a blast riding ponies, playing small carnival games, doing the cake walk, and playing in the jump houses.
Savannah even won a round of Bingo.

Savannah's newest pass time is puzzles. She can't get enough of them. She will spend all afternoon working on puzzle after puzzle. She has been doing 24 piece puzzles to 150 pieces all by herself. I am so glad we can find puzzles on here level at the dollar store. Getting a new puzzle is one of the most exciting things for her.

RJ has been busy loosing more teeth. He lost one of his top front teeth the beginning of the month and at the end of the month he lost the one just to the left of it. He is very sentimental and has a hard time parting with things. He didn't want the tooth fairy to take his tooth away. He wanted to keep it and so he wouldn't but his tooth under is pillow. Lucky for him the tooth fairy was feeling generous and left him a gold dollar coin anyway.

And Zachery turned 18 months at the start of this month. He started going to nursery and has been doing pretty good. He is much more attached to Mommy and Daddy then the other two kids were. We also took Zach's Cowboy photos keeping with the tradition. I will post more of those later. But this one is a favorite.