Butterflies and a prayer

We just had the local news out to our house to do an interview for the new "I am Mormon" campaign. I am so nervous to see the segment on the news this evening. I love this Gospel so much and I just pray they put the church in a positive light. I hope they understood a little more about the church. We just broadcasted to the entire community that we are LDS, in one small interview. Wow. I hope this brings positive experiences for missionary work. Sorry this is a rambling post, just so many thoughts going thru my head right now.

Wyatt's birthday party

We had Wyatt's birthday party Friday night. He had 5 friends over for a Halloween themed evening. It was a lot of fun. I didn't get a lot of pics because we were too busy playing. I did get pics of the doughnut eating game. It was hysterical watching them...

It was freezing out (46 ) and very windy but the kids were great sports. We roasted hot dogs over the fire pit and then did the doughnut game. We divided into teams to find all the bones of a skeleton and the first team to find all of their bones and assemble it won. They had a lot of fun running around with flashlights looking for bones. Then we gathered around the fire to handle the remains of poor Mr Smith. It was gross and so much fun. We had oatmeal for brains, a whole peeled tomato for the heart, cooked lasagna noodles in oil for skin, baby whole pickles for fingers, a laytex glove filled with flour for a hand, pearl onions for eyes, dried apples for ears, dried mango slice for a tongue, and candy corn for teeth. After the game we decided to have a scary story. Looking back, I may have overdone the story...but it sure got a great reaction when Tyson revved up that chain saw from the woods behind us. I have never seen a group of children take off in a dead run so quickly. Chairs were thrown, McCoy was trampled, and the screams were deafning. Those little stinkers got to the house before me ( I stopped to pick up my truely traumatized McCoy) and they locked me out! They really believed there was the ghost of a murder in our back yard and they left McCoy and I out there to face certain death. It was hysterical. Once they let me back in and after Tyson came screaming to the back door, we calmed them all down and convinced them it was all a joke. The story was completely made up. They were sure wound up at that point and refused to ever go into our back yard again. Luckily it was almost time for the parents to get there, so we opened presents and had monster cupcakes and caramel apples to end the night. It really was a lot of fun, even if my 5 year old refused to go to sleep that night :)

Pics of the boy's birthdays

This was the only pic we could get with Madden smiling. He had the stomach flu and was miserable. He was in bed 15 mins after this was taken...the poor little guy. My sweet 9 year old. How can you not love that face?

First day of school

Four of my kids went to school this fall. I can't believe it. Mariah is in 5th grade, Wyatt's in 3rd, Makayla is is 2nd, and McCoy is in kindergarden. The first day was hard for me. Yes, I walked away from the bus crying. Here's my beautiful kiddos as they start another school year. I love the one of them getting on the bus, Wyatt is holding McCoy's hand.

Indiana Lakes

One of the things we loved to do this summer was explore these beautiful Indiana lakes. There's nothing like packing a cooler and heading out after work on a Friday evening. We'd arrive around 6 and stay until dark. We had a great time, every time. Here's some of our favorite pics to remember...