A Texas Halloween

My first Halloween in Texas as a missionary we carved pumpkins on P-day and went to the Bishop's Storehouse Halloween night, it was fun. My Second Halloween in Texas we dressed up as Elders and passed out pass along cards with candy at a members home, it was fun. This years Halloween started out a little rough, it is so warm and green here it doesn't feel like Halloween and work and home projects have kept us so busy we didn't get into the Halloween mood as much. I was so excited for our Halloween in, just us, carving pumpkins, passing out candy, watching a movie... Well Halloween day I went to the store to get chili fixins and pumpkins, Pumpkins were super expensive and weird looking, I decided I would rather buy lamps for our bedroom, I bought little mini plastic jack-o-lanterns instead but I was sad we didn't get to carve anything! We ended up painting our window trim and baseboards while we passed out candy to the few trick-or-treaters who came then went to some friends house to hang out. The scariest part of the day was when I left the grocery store and stopped by blockbuster I realized I had left my wallet in the shopping cart, I darted back to the store and thankfully my cart was still in the cart return and the wallet was sitting in the cart! Even though Halloween had no costumes and no pumpkins, we enjoyed our chilli dinner and spending time together and the mini plastic pumpkins lined up and lit in our driveway looked real cute and festive, and only cost $1.49.

The day after Halloween we had some friends over for Training Table Style Burgers, Homemade fries and potato chips and I made this delicious and festive Popcorn

• 1/4 Cup Butter
• 3/4 Cup Corn Syrup
• 2 1/2 Cups Powder Sugar
• 1 Cup Marshmallow Fluff
• 2 tsp. Cold water
• 1 tsp. Vanilla

Melt ingredients and bring to a boil, boil for 1 minute while stirring, pour over popcorn and mix. It is a perfect popcorn ball treat, or mix in a candy- whatever, its delicious!

We enjoyed this popcorn while we watched the UT vs. Texas Tech, what a sad sad sad game!

Grandpa and Scout Sleeping

This was so cute. I had to take a picture of it. We had so much fun while mom and dad were here. We had a date night and went to a great place called Bardenay and dad said "This steak was the best tasting steak I can remember having". Mom and I went to Phantom of the Opera which was my favorite thing we did.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Dear Kate and Karl,

I am practicing for the big day!

Love you Two!!!!!! Congrats~

Linds

FYI: everyone, I just spent like 40 minuets posting this blog below and it came out all messed up! the text does not match the pictures. I'm way mad, I think this may be the end of my blogging career.

Conference weekend

It was a conference weekend miracle! Scott was asked to a dance! Dad wanted to save the corn dogs and eat them, we told him that gross, he said they're still frozen they're still good

Ethan needed a haircut and Spencer volunteered. It turned out looking fine, but it was an interesting look during the process

It was kind of traumatizing, but he pushed through with Lisa's support

Conference brunch was delicious! New to the menu this year was eggs in a bag (thank you sandy). They did look a little sketchy but tasted great! And of course we had all the other conference usuals: maple logs, waffles, sausages. we sure missed Lindsey's cooking this year, but i think we did o.k.

Our Jonas Brother

Scott and I got bored one night, so we flat ironed his hair...

He went from Geek...

... to Chic

Jonas Brother number 4... I think so!

Get your pictures with him now, this boy is gonna be famous.

September by Lisa

Had a great visit with Joy and Stephanie when they came to Provo for the weekend. Ate pizza at my house, played Wizard (card game) and roasted marshmellows in the backyard. We all talked for hours, and the night went by so fast!
Dan's beloved pillow. Pretty much a lump of dust mite feces inside a pillowcase. Dan doesn't care.
The peach thief! She stalks in the orchard behind our house (which smells so wonderful this time of year) and sneaks peaches a few at a time.
Ryann is so cute. Every time she comes to our house, she and Summer run straight to the dress up box.
Summer with her favorite food. Just plain hot dogs (all summer long), no bun, ketchup or mustard please.

Max had some finger trouble

This is a picture of Max in a little bit of a pickle. We were on our way to Silver wood with some cousins for one last hurrah before it closes for the year. Max was sitting in the back with Sammy, his cousin, when they found some sprinkler pipe. Sammy put it on his finger and got it stuck but was able to get it off. Max wanting to up Sam put it on his finger but went past the second knuckle. The pipe was bevelled inside and turned out to be like a Chinese finger torture. I got some tin snips and was able to cut it off. I realized when I would pull I was actually taking off his skin. I was really glad I didn't didn't have to take him to urgent care. We ended up going to silverwood and having a great time.

Sunday Dinner by Lisa

This was a little freaky. That is a black widow that has captured and killed a small snake in her web. Mom and Dad's back porch. As disgusting as it looked, we couldn't stop staring.
AAAWWW. How sweet, nothing like an after dinner nap.Andrea and her husband, Jason, are now living in Lindon. Jason will be a BYU student. We hope they will be coming to many more Sunday dinners.
It's great to have Collynn back. She is a stylin' pregnant mommy! We are all excited for October 21st when her C-Section is scheduled. Will it be a boy or a girl?.......I know, but I'll never tell.
The best surprise! Grandma and Grandpa Gordon came to Utah for Gordon's family reunion and stayed with mom and dad. We had a great visit Sunday night. Grandma had to opportunity to observe my guitar lesson from Kate. It didn't sound pretty, but it gives her an idea of where I am starting. I hope to be significantly better the next time I see Grandma.

Greek God? - by Kate

As you all know I have been back on the market expanding my social scene. To ease back into this I reconnected with my old high school flame Jean Paul. It was a, well, interesting experience. He has undergone some transformations, gaining about 100 lbs of pure muscle. He came by the house one night and Dad and Scott (especially scott) were amazed by how different he looked. The next day at family dinner Scott was trying to describe to everyone how different Jean looked. I was saying he is just so big and muscly now, then Scott exclaimed, "He's just a Greek God, he is perfect like Zeus" we all thought this was kind of awkward, but scott stood by it saying, "what, it's a good description, he is a handsome man". I got this picture here, you be the judge.

Life as usual

This post is mostly for Lindsey, its probably boring, but its just some pictures from last sunday dinner. Mom and Dad and Spencer were out of town so Scott and I cooked sunday dinner for lisa and dave (and family). We miss all our family who cant be with us.

Our Wicked Weekend- by Lisa

Dale and Sandy at the Universal Fountain
Incredible candy shop, that is Marilyn Monroe made of Jelly Bellys
Our sweet parents! Thanks for planning this trip!
Family reunions are great. This reminded us of the reunions we used to have. We definitely need to continue this tradition. As much as we love to visit with each other, it was so memorable when we had fun activities to go with it.
Inside the Pantages theater before the play started. Wicked was an incredible show. I can't wait to bring Dan and the kids to see it sometime. We ate New York Pizza in a run down pizza shop across the street. Fantastic. Had fun seeing all the Hall of Fame stars while we walked to the theater. Steph loved the Johnny Cash star, I could not hold my enthusiam when I found Barry Manilow's star right in front of the theater. We got to the hotel around midnight and had to leave early Sunday morning. Porta's pastries for breakfast, wonderful. We saw Scott and Collynns apartment building in Burbank. I wished I would have come to visit them when they were there! We had an action packed day!

Our Wicked Weekend!

It was a quick trip, but action packed! Saturday around lunch we all joined up together to go to Universal Studios City Walk in Burbank. We had a great time catching up on eachother's lives and looking at all the unique stores. We hurried back to the hotel to get ready for the play. Don't we look fetching!


I put this in sideways, it's the Wicked logo. Not many photo ops to show the theater, too many people.
It was great to see Stephanie! She is always so enthusiastic and fun.




Dad is so fierce and intimidating!

The night before the move...

Here are a few pictures from the fun night we had
Jack seems so sad, probably because we were leaving...

This game is the best ever! Hooray for Crocono... how do you spell that?
Girls night watching the Jane Austin Book Club
Kev and Spence on the scooter together! Kev hates when two boys are on a scooter together!

We had to say goodbye to Scott early so he could go place 7th in Fencing Nationals, Way to go Scotty!!

The Owens' Visit to Provo

On Monday Leann drove down with Max and Scout. It was so much fun! We went shopping up in Park City, we went to the zoo, we ate lots of food, we told good stories, we played b0cce ball, we swam, and of course we all got our hair done! It was so fun to have her here visiting! Ben was able to come down on Wednesday and we loved that too!

Leann's Family Scout and Summer

Krista, Mom, Joy, Linds and Leann

Tonight we all went to Grandma and Grandpa's to celebrate their 65 wedding anniversary. All the cousins were there and we got to hear about events that have happened in our grandparents lives. It was fun to learn more about them and their experiences. I thought it was fun to hear how they met. Grandma was 17 and her friend from work, Minnie, asked Grandma if she would like to go out with her brother. Minnie introduced Grandma to her two brothers and said she could pick which one she wanted, She chose Grandpa! We thought it was fun that they kissed on their first date and they got married after 17 dates! Since back in the day they could only get 4 gallons of gas a week grandpa would steal gas in order to drive to Heber and see grandma. We had such a fun time and feel blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Conference Brunch

Hey everyone!
It was so fun to get together for conference brunch, the maple logs were amazing as usual, thanks Kate, and the stuffed french toast addition was delicious! I am going to get the recipe from mom and post it. This is a pretty eventful month for Kev and I, my last day of work at Sundance is the 22! Graduation for the both of us is the 25! I am not going to walk but Kevins graduation is at 5:00. Kev's mom is doing a little get together after that so we plan on having a dinner at Riverside Wednesday night for anyone who can make it I know it will be a good time! Sorry Collynn, I know that is the day you plan on moving!

With things starting to wind up and slow down, I am restarting the family journal. Lets ease into this so we'll have through may to get this in. The April/May topic is Injuries and Accidents. After Ben was shot and we knew he would be okay Kev told me how it was kind of cool, now Ben had one of the coolest stories ever, how many people know what its like to be shot! So lets record some of the injuries and accidents we have survived! Remember when Dave was riding the horse and the horse slipped and fell on him, or when I was running so fast I didn't see the barbed wire fence and I ran smack dab into it slicing my leg open from the knee nearly to the ankle, or how bout that time Kate hit Spencer so hard she thought she broke her arm, and we made fun of her and called her a wimp, and the next day we discovered she really had broken her arm! These are cool stories, lets record them!
Also I am going to visit Leann and Ben on Monday, if anyone would like to contribute to a care package, movies, treats, x-box games etc. just bring them Sunday to Moms.

Tonight we are just sitting here at our place and Lindsey and Kevin are over visiting.  Lindsey ran the half marathon today in Moab.  She finished in 2 hours and 45 minutes.  She is laying on our couch and has an aromatherapy pad over her knees.  Earlier today Collynn and I cleaned our whole house.  She taught me to clean all the different parts of the house so I can do the cleaning as she becomes more pregnant and has the baby.  She is doing really well though and hasn't really been sick.  After we got done cleaning Collynn took the kids to Chick Fillet at the mall and I stayed here to help install an alarm at our house.  I guess that one of the perks of working for an alarm company is that will always have the most up to date alarm systems in our house.  Hopefully the kids won't always set it off!  We are probably just going to hand out tonight at home and watch a movie or something cause we have church early (at 9:00) tomorrow.

Owen News

Tonight I got to shoot during half time at the BYU game for $1000. It was pretty cool. I don't think that I've ever been in front of that many people at one time. Unfortunately I lost, but the guy I shot against works with me and we decided beforehand that we would split the money 50/50. I told Collynn that I would give her the money to go shopping! I think she's excited about that. Another bit of good news from our family is that COLLYNN IS PREGNANT!!! This will be our third child. We don't want to find out the gender until the baby is born. Collynn has already started buying some clothes for the baby. Of course they are in neutral colors so they will work for a boy and a girl. Ryann and Jack are really excited about having a new baby in the family. Ryann is always telling Collynn that the baby is hungry or tired and that she should eat or take a nap. The other day she even said that the baby wanted to go to Chucky Cheese! It was really funny. She is getting very smart and for the most part is really good and obedient. Jack had his tonsils and adnoids removed a couple of weeks ago. He had tube put in his ears as well. We thought that the recovery would be hard for him but he seemed completely fine right when he got home from the hospital. I think that his ears had been bothering for so long that the pain from the surgery was less than the pain that he had been experiencing all the time. He is doing great now and is full of energy. Ryann and Jack have been riding their bikes outside since it has been getting warmer. Ryann is scared to take of her training wheels but I think that we will be able to get them off before the end of the summer. We are moving to Portland for the summer for my job. We are excited to go. This will be the last summer that we move out for the summer. My division and personal office are looking really good. There are a lot of good guys going out with us and I'm excited to work with them. We are going to go to California in a couple of weeks for my Dad's 50th birthday. It will be the last time that we are able to go to stay in the mission home before they finish their mission. See you all later.

Sweet Air!

Yesterday we all had so much fun sledding at Grandma and Grandpa's! It was like being a kid again, we built some sweet jumps, almost slid into the river, threw some snowballs and attempted a mini snowman and fort! We all had so much fun we decided next big snow we need to hit the hills again!

After Sledding I made Jack a Spiderman cake for his Birthday. He was so excited about it! It was really fun to decorate. I am trying to get better at cake decorating so for everyones birthday I want to try to make them a cake so let me know what kinds everyone wants!