Trick or Treat

Its trick or treating time!! These kiddos are so excited!!!

Scary faces. ;)

Mommy decided to dress up a bit too.

Brendan went off on his own and I walked with the girls and Jackie and her kids. Paige and Jack walked together. Aren't they cute?

Our neighborhood is awesome! So many houses particpated in trick or treating. Malcolm and Jason stayed home to pass out candy. Does the dinosaur costume look familiar?

The Farnsworths had visitors who dressed up and entertained the kids. He is on stilts.

We amassed quite a following as we walked, picking up other neighborhood kids that we knew along the way.

There were some impressive and scary decorations throughout the neighborhood. 

We walked for an hour and a half.  The girls came home with quite a haul.

Brendan arrived home soon after we did. I think he hit every house in the neighbrhood (we did about half). His pillowcase was SO full! He was exhausted as I think he ran most of the time.

We settled in to watch a spooky movie and binge on candy.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

We finally carved our jack o'lantern for Halloween this Family Home Evening. I turned on spooky music and the kids picked the face to carve. First we had to scoop out the guts.

Darby thinks they smell disgusting.

Daddy pinned on the stencil and carefully carved our scary face.

He did a great job!

This is how it looks outside with a candle. We also roasted the pumpkin seeds. They were so good!

BBQ with Friends

Wanting to soak up as much time as we can with the Heaths, we decided to have a bonfire and make  s'mores and have hot chocolate with our neighbors.

The guys spent all night out by the fire. The kids eventually came inside and ended up watching a show.

Eamon is so funny. He never sits still. He rolled all over the kids laying on the floor.

Paige and Jack = best buds. She was hugging on him all night. She will miss him so much when he leaves.

Trunk or Treat

It was Trunk or Treat tonight. The kids were very excited. Even Brendan. Don't let his grumpy face in the first picture fool you. I wonder how many more years he will participate.

Eva was a peacock. It was a pretty costume.

Darby wanted to be Helen of Troy. I'm not sure where she heard about that.

Paige went classic with a black cat. Hooray for easy costumes!

Brendan reused his mad scientist costume. I was glad. He likes to act the part.

Here's the whole gang (I was wearing a witch hat). Daddy decided that the bishop needed to dress up so he borrowed this dinosaur costume from Malcolm. 

Before the actual trick or treating, the youth had carnival games set up for the little kids to play. 

Because of bad weather, the Trunk or Treat had to come inside. The ward members set up classrooms and the kids walked around the building. 

After the candy was all given out we waited in a classroom for Dinosaur/Bishop/Dad and ate our candy with our friends, the Tomolas.

Faux Thanksgiving

Because they will have moved by Thanksgiving, the Heaths wanted to have a big dinner with their friends before they go. So we had an early Thanksgiving meal. Malcolm deep fried a turkey and Jackie made mashed potatoes and pies. I made green beans and rolls and Erin made sweet potatoes and stuffing. It was all SO good! The best part was spending time with these great friends!

Inviting a Friend to Church

Jackie Heath is a very big pro-life advocate and devoted Catholic. She has helped organize a program called 40 Days for Life where people stand outside of clinics and raise awareness for alternatives for abortion. They pray and pass out pamphlets and educate. She has gone to local churches to spread the word. She asked Jason (since he's the bishop) if she could come to our church and set up a table. After much thought, he agreed. She and another of her associates would come and set up a table in the lobby where members of the ward could go and talk and see if they wanted to participate. It would be totally voluntary if members wanted to stop and talk with them.

As a result, Jackie came to church with us. I have never had a non-member friend come to church with me before and it was interesting to see things through her eyes. It turns out that the hymn we sang was one she chose at her wedding. Coincidence?

She had so many questions about the sacrament and things that were said in talks. I had to go teach Primary but Jason was able to have a great discussion with her about our beliefs and answer a lot of her questions. Apparently quite a few members stopped by to talk to them as well. It was such a nice experience. I should be braver about inviting people to church.

Ultra Marathon

Jason signed up to run the Uhwarrie 100K Trail Run a few weeks after he finished his other ultra marathon. He likes to have a goal to work towards. Uhwarrie National Park is not too far from Fayetteville so we were able to go and see him run for a little bit. It was rainy and I didn't know what to expect or I would have brought lawn chairs. 

We arrived a few minutes before he was completing one of the laps. When we saw him he was 1/3 the way done. Go Daddy Jason!!

Here is a picture later in the race. 

He finished fifteenth after almost 20 hours of running, ending around 1:45am. Here is a screenshot of the race results online. He's awesome! And maybe a bit crazy. ;)

Then he slept in his car until morning when he drove home.

He was so tired the next day! But he made it to church and caught a nap later in his well-earned race shirt.