Gale Munchkins

Brrr!!! What a cold night to go trunk-or-treating! We have been in the cold 40's during the day, so I don't know how cold it was tonight. Kaylee wasn't too excited to put on all of the layers I had her wear, hopefully she was thankful and warm as we collected from car to car. Here's Kassi and her friend Cadence. We attended the tri-ward trunk-or-treat at the Buntin Building. Decided that was probably the best place to go, because of the cold weather. Mikenna even had a bucket (her stash goes to Mike, of course, most all the candy goes to Mike:P) Once home, we quickly got out our hot chocolate and the girls checked out their candy. We said they had to wait until morning to sort and figure out how much they got. Here are my princesses of 2006! ...and here's our finale Halloween picture of the night. Happy Halloween!!

Once again, the girls have requested to be princesses, but from two different Barbie movies: Swan Lake and Princess & the Pauper. When Kiera & Emma chose to have the same costume, Stacy decided to give sewing another try! So, we have been hard at work sewing the girls costumes. I searched for different ideas online, then pieced together these versions. I think my creative juices need to be replenished, until next year!

I love that Kaylee can read stories to her sisters, and I KNOW her sisters love to be read to even more often!! When Kaylee was little, we read ALL sorts and many books to her each night. She had so many favorites. Then Kiera came along, and we began to limit the number of stories to two books each night. When Kassidy came, we told them they could each choose 1 story...and now with Mikenna in the mix...well...it's nice having Kaylee and Kiera reading!

big and round, we're glad you grow upon the ground! We're glad you don't grow on the tree, For then you might fall down on me!! This year we kept our pumpkins very simple. Kassi chose to have 5 teeth and Kaylee chose 6 and Kiera wanted a plain happy smile! I know Mike was glad to carve such easy, happy faces!

Here's a video of the girls singing a song from their primary program today. We thought we'd tape it and send it to Grandma & Grandpa Chan, but then I figured I could try and posting it on the blog. The girls are a bit out of tune...o well...you might notice that they drop about two keys, one at a time, during the chorus. Kassi didn't participate in the program, she's still in nursery, but she's learned the songs from just listening to her sisters. So, here she is, singing an almost solo!

Each year, in the week between Kaylee and James' birthdays...we have an interesting phenomenom that occurs in mine and one of my brother's households. Our 8 children's ages are in sequential order... So as of today, their ages would be: Kaylee 7 James 6 Kiera 5 Emma 4 Kassidy 3 Adam 2 Mikenna 1 Kyle 0 Stacy stumbled upon this during the quiet moments of nursing :)

Today, Mikenna and I got to go with Kiera's Kindergarten class to the pumpkin patch at the Country Mercantile. Boy, do they have a system! They must have had 5 different schools there, 2 classes each, and they had us all organized: riding out to the patch in hay filled trailers pulled by tractors, then to the barn with the animals, then up the hay "pyramid", through the hay maze and then finally a quick snack of cookies and juice. It was a crazy type of organized adventure! Here is Mikenna, Kiera and the "chosen" pumpkin. Amazingly, most of the pumpkins in the patch were a decent size. This is Kiera and her friends, Britney & Riley, on the hay "pyramid". Despite the rain, we had a great time!!

This afternoon the girls and I watched a BYU program about the Young Ambassadors in China. They showed clips of various parts of their performance, and one was from the Fiddler on the Roof, "Traditions." During this number, the dancers kept throwing their arms in the air...soon Mikenna joined in too. Then Kassi and Kiera were dancing along as well. A fun way to spend our Sunday afternoon. (Mikenna likes to dump her water, thus her pants are soaking wet!)

What a beautiful day to go to the pumpkin patch! Kassidy's preschool group, moms' and siblings all attended-makes for a fun field trip!

Kaylee and Kiera participated in their school "Jog-a-thon" on Thursday. They both spoke to their Aunts & Uncles about sponsoring them, (more like Kiera asked for herself and Kaylee) and then ran! We're not sure how far they actually ran because the school had set up a smaller track for the younger grades. According to what they remember, Kaylee ran 24 laps and Kiera ran 19. GO GIRLS!! I was only able to get pictures of Kiera, Kaylee's group had gone earlier that day. (oops) Yesterday, after Kaylee's party, they had fun creating their own jog-a-thon in our backyard. This is a pic of how they kept track of the laps they did. It was pinned to their backs and marked off as they passed through the check point. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU THAT SUPPORTED KAYLEE AND KIERA!!

What a FUN party!! Here's a picture of the fairy clan! Kaylee's friends-Maddy, Jessica, Kylie, & Alaina were able to attend our festivities. Kassi had her friend Cadence and Kiera had Emma to pal around with! We began our celebrations by sprinkling ourselves with fairy dust and painting our nails. Then we had a yummy lunch. When we finished eating we decorated our fairy wands and put together our own designer fairy necklaces! Afterwards we played a game of fairy freeze as we danced to the music of the Sugar Plum Fairies. As we played we "earned" our wings and garlands. Then of course came the much anticipated opening of gifts and birthday cake!! Happy Birthday Kaylee!!

Mikenna has discovered a new preferred mode of transportation. Over the past few days, Kaylee, Kiera, and Kassidy have taken turns pushing Mikenna around the house on the ice cream truck. Tonight, instead of taking my hand to walk to the other side of the house, she pointed to the ice cream truck and then climbed on. We love our Mikenna, we live to see her smile!

This past week in gymnastics the girls have been working on how to do tables and bridges. Tonight they showed their dad! Mikenna has been watching closely and learning as well. She loves doing this prequel to a somersault. (I couldn't get this to publish any bigger, so click on photo to enlarge.)

So, Kaylee was adamant that she didn't need glasses. It took a few days before she relented to try on some frames and "maybe" order them. But she was NOT wearing them to school. When she first put them on she exclaimed, "Mom, I can see those numbers!!" and then as we were walking around later she said, "Guess what mom! The glasses help me to read cursive now!" Lastly, the frames are pink.

So, in between conferences today, we cleaned out all of the old bread from our fridge and went down to the duck pond! The geese must be migrating because there were hardly any ducks or seagulls. As you can see in the pictures we had plenty of geese willing to eat. Kassi and Kiera do not have much of a throwing arm, Kaylee chose not to throw too far, and eventually, the geese backed the girls up against the car. Mike even enjoyed "messing" around with the geese. He'd raise his arm up-all heads up, lower his arm-heads down, flick of the wrist-heads turn...it was quite the orchestra :) Kaylee also had fun just throwing the bread at my feet, trying to get the animals to bite me. Kassi was concerned that certain ones weren't getting fed. "That one is watching mom. He's hungry."