See How She Grows

One of our family traditions is to measure the kids at the beginning of the school year and at the beginning of the new year. We forgot to do it this year - I guess only having one child at home will do that to you.

Years ago, back in 1988, we began this tradition. Jim was smart enough to do it on a board instead of the door jam so that we could take it with us when we moved!

Logan was 4 and Clark was 2 the first time we measured them. It has been so fun to watch how the kids have grown over the years.

Well, this past weekend Jim remembered we hadn't measured Tessa yet - so out came the board

We figured she must have grown a bit because of the growing pains she has been having and yes - she has grown since we last measured her in January - she has grown a 1/4".

She is now officially 5'6 5/8" making her a little more than 1/2" taller than Cali - sorry Cali!!

She is less than 2" shorter than Logan

She is 4 1/2" inches taller than her mother!

She is not taller than Clark or even close!

Here's the proof!

Stuffed Pumpkin

I had a few minutes waiting for dinner to cook so I thought I'd grant Michelle's request - a picture of the pumpkins we made at our Craft Night. Isn't it cute. We stuffed it with fiberfill and then put a layer of those plastic beads they use in doll making in the bottom to weight it down.

The one from Hallmark had a fabric bow but I like the ribbon we used.

College Kid Update

I think Cali is having way too much fun at school! The pictures from last week's activities are evidence of that. One draw back from rolling around in blue foam on the grass is you get bit by bugs - Cali ended up with what we think were numerous bug bites on various parts of her body this week!!

There were more Homecoming activities. Both Cali and Clark went to see Logan in Homecoming Spectacular and Cali went on a big group date to one of the Homecoming dances.

Cali and Logan went to the BYU Homecoming football game (it was too cold for Clark so he sold his ticket, bought a pizza and watched it from his apartment!)

Logan doesn't usually get to attend the football games because of Young Ambassador practice but Randy let them out early so they could go to the game - thanks Randy!

A group of girls from Cali's dorm had a group date with a group of buys from their ward and went to one of the Homecoming dances. Here are the group of girls from Hinckley Hall ready for their date - it was a casual dance so they wore jeans.

They had dinner together before - according to Cali she went with "some random guy from Finland" - or at least that is what her text said.

In between sessions of Saturday conference Clark enjoyed a drive up the Alpine Loop with some friends

Clark - always trying to impress the girls!

I have no explanation for this picture - found it on Cali's Facebook page - any explanation Cali????? (just in case you don't recognize her - that is Cali on the left!)

Logan - sorry there are no pictures of you but your facebook page is quite boring!! (Where I have to go to see what my children are up to!)

How about a picture of that new girlfriend of yours, I mean those new golf clubs you just bought!!!

Fall Happenings

I'm a little late posting this week. For the last week I've felt pretty yucky. About once a year I get an attack of gastritis (a precursor to an ulcer) and this was the week. I finally went to the doctor on Tuesday where I got some good drugs and I'm finally feeling better. In addition to the pain it makes me feel light headed, woozy and nauseous - fun! The doctor said I should be fine but to call him if I start throwing up blood - yeah that made me feel good

Despite feeling yucky most of the week we managed to pack a lot of activities into the week.

Jim spent a few days in Spokane and while he was gone I had my Moms of College Girls Support Group (we all have daughters who have gone off to college this year, the girls were all friends together growing up). We have decided to change our name to Play Group! We had a potluck dinner ( I took a pasta salad) and we each brought something to put into a care package for each of the girls. I brought cute little bags of homemade caramel corn. The packages were full of lots of fun stuff - Cali called after receiving hers to say it was amazing!!! We plan to get together once a month so watch for more care packages Cali! (sorry boys!)

Thursday during the day I hosted a Kikapaprika Party - it is a new Direct Sales company my friend Kim Shaw has started. They make casual clothes for women. I served lunch to the group - made a yummy Asian Noodle Salad, homemade bread and apple crisp.

Thursay evening was my Camp Craft Ladies night - the craft ladies from camp and the Destiny leaders - we had a craft room tour in September and decided to get together once a month to be crafty! This month we made these darling stuffed pumpkins out of beautiful tapestry fabric. One of the gals had seen them at Hallmark for $30.00 and we made them for $10.00!

Friday was a no school day so Tessa slept in while I went to an American Mother's Board Meeting.

That afternoon we had a fun fall activity. Jim, Tessa and I went to the Apple Festival over at Portland Nursery - it was a perfect fall day for it.

Wetasted lots of yummy apples and pears and then bought some of our favorites Since Jim eats 5-6 apples a day on his diet we go through ALOT of apples.

We also enjoyed some apple strudel ala mode at the festival!

It was time to harvest the pumpkins in the back yard. We let Tessa pick her pumpkin first.

and then we let the neighbor kids come pick out a pumpkin - we had nice big ones this year (pumpkins, not neighbor kids!)
Of course Delcan always gets a little bit of the preferential treatment from Jim!!

My Young Women's lesson this week was on living the Lord's Standards so I decided to pass the lesson on Elaine Dalton's Conference talk from this past weekend - an excellent talk!!

I made these handouts for each of the girls - they turned out so cute I just had to share. I wanted them each to have their own yellow banner that would remind them of Sister Dalton's call to Return to Virtue. We all have some area in our life that can be worked on and improved - some area that we need to Return to Virtue in. I attached the card and ribbon to a yellow pencil.

I haven't forgotten about the College Kid update - since this post is getting a little long I will do it in a seperate post!