Fashion show

The girls have been in desperate need of new Sunday  clothes . So after a trip to DownEast (and more money than I care  to admit) we are set!

Christmas prep!

We started off the next holiday season by checking out the tree. You may recall we got this 12 foot pre-lit tree for something like $50 many, many years ago (in July). So of course we keep using it!
But Josh noticed a lot of the lights were dying - he looked it up - the lights are only suppose to last for 90 hours of being lit. Crazy!
Anyway, he made the kids unwind all the lights on the whole tree and then we got many more lights and strung them up. That is why the tree is not decorated yet. We will finish it tonight (if Josh ever gets home from tithing settlement). And, to continue Grandpa Bluemlein's tradition, Josh said we could have chocolate again.

Golf

To start off the holiday season, I took the kids and several friends to the golf range to putt! A good time was definitely had by all - especially since I got the junior golfer cost on the bucket-
 o' balls.
It was all fun and games until Michael got wacked in the head with a golf club. He seems to be surviving.

Major de-junk

On my alone day, Monday, I did a major de-junk. All the rooms, the kids' closets - it was a wonderful feeling. Nine bags to D.I. and nine bags to the trash (for which I used the 'tithing/bishop' blessing of the church garbage - don't tell anyone).
Also I cleaned out under Ellie's bed. Holy Hannah!
I am feeling very free.

Family night

We are slacky on some things, but pretty good about Family Night.
So yesterday Ellie made cookies to go along with a dinner for a family in the ward, and we sang the "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" song and everyone ran over and gave dad a hug! It was cute.

Happy birthday Grandma!

Grandma Charlotte Bluemlein turned 79 on Sunday so we all motored over to Orem to party!
There was ham, potatoes, pretzel-delight, salad and cake. It was delightful.
There was lots of chatting, snowballs fights, etc.
Happy party!

Nickel arcade

Saturday we did our housecleaning. Then we planned to go off to SLC and do our errands. But then I remembered the Primary program, so we stopped there first.
Then we drove off, got the cello bow replaced, got dad a new saxophone mouth piece thing, more music, craft store, toy store, kitchen store and then the very popular nickel arcade. After that was Baskin-Robbins - what an awesome day! I even got pictures! Man, I love skee-ball!

Primary activity

So the Primary had a big activity on Saturday and we moosied over to support them.
Josh even got in on the doughnut eating activity!

Also cute

Holly and Matt blessed Thomas last Sunday. After lunch the men traded items from the mini-vans. Bikes for chicken food. Pretty good trade. Also a picture of Joy the chicken, so you can see how big she is getting. Ash runs out every morning to check on her.

Baby Max

So we turned the Lewis big kids to their home Sunday after church.
Everyone was VERY excited to see the baby. And, as I told Emma, Ben and Sam - they got to STAY with the baby!
So everyone held the cutie-pie, ate pizza and chatted.
When we got home, Michael put himself to bed at 8:34 and didn't even ask for a good night kiss he was so tired. Go cousins!

Cousin weekend

Emma, Ben and Sam then came to Tooele to spend the weekend. Let me just give you an idea of how it went.
On Friday, everyone ended up watching a movie. Bedtime: 10:47. The next morning everyone got up! At 6:36 a.m. No one took a nap.
On  Saturday, there were horse-rides, a trip to wally-world, the Emjoi movie (save the hours of your life) and lots of jumping around. The boys were led up to bed and immediately collapsed at 9:15. The girls were up giggling and snorting when I closed my eyes.

Welcome Max!!

Maxwell Henry Lewis made his entry into the world on Friday afternoon. Go Heather!
Auntie and I tag-teamed the Lewis family during the delivery. Auntie went to two Veteran's Day programs at school. Sam and I hung out at home. We picked up and cooked some rice pudding.
The kids and I went off to see the new baby. (After we got lost twice - good job Emma was there for back-up).
Max was adored by all.

Halloween

Some more pics of our Halloween adventures!

Good old bikes

We cleaned out the garage (so Josh could once again park in there) and the shed for the winter. These good ol' bikes are moving on to their next reward. Moo's to Ben. One of the girls' to  Emma. Other to D.I., unless someone in the ward wants it. Ah, summers of fun. Now we have bigger scooters  (which, by the way, are MUCH smaller for storage).
Happy fall!

Feeling chart

Michael and I have been working on identifying feelings. Here is the chart and some pictures of my cutie. Also a picture of Bunny- his favorite stuffy and Calvin Black, one of his best friends.