Lexi's 6th Birthday

This is Lexi's 6th birthday. She's wearing the outfit Grandma sent her and carrying the puppy she got in the same package. She took these cupcakes to kindergarten to share with her class.

Lexi opening up the kangaroos stuffed animal she got for her birthday. She also got a Littlest Pet Shop collection and a Veterinarian Barbie. Needless to say she's an animal lover.

Lexi holding the Bee Pinata we made her. She wanted a Bug Party.

Lexi and her friends posing with the pinata (Julia and Abby, Angelina, Kaitlyn, Lexi, Sarah Anne, Megan, Lindsey and Kara)

Lexi taking a swing at the pinata.

Lexi and mom with the Lady Bug cake.

Beautiful October Sunrise and a Huge Snowstorm

This is the beauty of Colorado. Hyrum took some of these pictures of the sunrise in mid-October at about 6:30 in the morning.

We will definitely miss the beauty and the weather (most of the time) of Colorado!

Three days before Halloween it started snowing and kept snowing and kept snowing. The snowfall lasted about 36 hours and dumped 17 inches of snow on us. This is a picture of our patio table on our back deck.

Denver doesn't plow its side-streets so we were pretty much snowed in for a day. They cancelled all schools though and we enjoyed the time off together.

Hyrum and Joe playing King of Bunker Hill. We also were able to go sledding together the afternoon of Halloween.

Joe and Hyrum on top of the hill. We were worried about all the snow limiting Halloween (they did have to cancel our ward's Trunk-or-Treat but Colorado being Colorado the roads and sidewalks were almost completely melted 2 days later and temperature on Halloween night was a comfortable high 40s to low 50s. It's been great living in Colorado and we'll truly miss it.

Denver Mint

We took a tour of the US Mint in Denver here. Disregard the erroneous date. We went on Oct 26. Eliza had H1N1 and thus Angie stayed home with her and I took the other kids. This is a picture of the gate outside. The security is very heavy for obvious reasons and they did not allow any photos inside.

These are the main doors to the building. The Denver Mint makes about 12 coins a second or 750 a minute totaling some astronomical amount that escapes me for now, but it was pretty impressive.

The kids in front of the main doors again. The gift shop right next to the mint is pretty fun. If you ever want to tour the mint though the tickets fill up 2-3 months in advance so plan ahead. The kids really enjoyed this tour and we're definitely glad we made it before we move!

Halloween 2009

For the first time ever, our kids did not buy costumes this year. Joseph, Hyrum and Lexi are shown here the night of the school carnival. Joseph, unfortunately, was unable to go to the carnival, due to the swine flu. He made the best of it though, by drawing a pig nose on his mask and posed with Lex and Hy for the pictures! Hyrum used pieces from old costumes to be a knight and Lexi dressed up in her Tinker Bell costume she got for Christmas last year. Joseph had the swine flu and so he missed the school carnival but posed in this picture as a kid with swine flu.

Our neighborhood loop is awesome for trick-or-treating. 1-1 1/2 hours around the block and the kids get more candy than they'll ever eat. Lyzie spent more time opening than eating candy. It was like a mini-Christmas for her.

The kids' jack-o-lanterns. Josephs is a rich man, Hyrum's is Super Mouse (a fictional character created by him and his best friend Tanner--they're writing a series of short stories about him) and Lexi's is cotton candy.

Lexi (the lady bug) with her friend Abby (Snow White) and Abby's sisters Olivia and Julia. The ghost in the background I believe looks like Joseph but how he became transparent is a mystery to all of us.

Hyrum went trick-or-treating with his best friend Tanner.

Hyrum dressed like a football player, Joseph like a rich man (he gave every house a fake cash bill after they gave him candy) and Lexi wearing her ladybug costume she wore when she was 2 or 3.

Lexi, Joe and Eliza ready for Trick-or-Treating. The first house we went to no one was there and Lyzie wouldn't leave. I had to carry her away. She eventually got it though and we all had a blast!

Flag Football

The boys both played flag football this fall. Although the driving distances were a bit crazy the whole family enjoyed being involved and watching them play. Hyrum's team is the purple one and he has the blue superman hat on.

Hyrum was all over on defense and one of the best running backs his team had. Their team as a whole struggled but they won their last game on a touchdown scored with no time remaining so it was a great way to go out. I got to coach the defense on Hyrum's team.

Joseph's team is the black one. He's #12 executing a perfect block in the back, a technique no doubt inherited from his father:).

Here's Joseph lined up on the defensive line. Joseph was one of the biggest kids on his team, but also very fast and always played his assignments perfectly.

Joseph played full-time fullback and either line or linebacker on defense. Here he is with a nice lead block. Joseph's team dominated the second half of the season winning all their second half of the season games by 3-4 touchdowns. I got to be the assistant coach for Joe's team.

Family Home Evening Fun and Haircut time

Here's a couple of our fun family home evening pictures. Hyrum's lesson he dressed up like a prophet and then taught about some of the lessons the prophets teach us.

Angie's family home evening came during flag football season. She baked pizza pockets in the shape of footballs, glass bottles of root beer and other "tailgating food" and talked about being a team family.

Here are the kids holding up their pizza footballs.

Joseph (and Hyrum) hate getting haircuts. It's a major battle every time so we took some before and after pictures of Joe's haircut so that one day he can look back and understand our angst.

Quite the ham, but much sharper look, no?