OCTOBER

I have totally neglected the blog this month so here's a little bit of what we've been up to:

Fall has definitely arrived in Utah County. It is so beautiful with the crisp air and fall foliage. We carved pumpkins and the kids are all ready to go Trick-Or-Treating on Saturday.

We have new wheels. VERY excited about these! We decided to buy American and I hope that isn't a mistake. I LOVE having the 4-wheel drive for the snow.

It was a bitter-sweet day leaving the van at the dealership. We bought our van brand new when Abby was born. It has been between Las Vegas and Utah more times that one could count, especially when we were moving to Utah. It has made numerous trips to Disneyland. I have changed more diapers than I'd like to admit to on the floor of the van. I can vividly see in my mind 2 little girls strapped in their car seats watching Dora The Explorer or Elmo sipping on juice cups. One thing I won't miss-when I go to church and try getting into the EXACT same van, thinking it's mine. There are 2 other identical vans to mine in our ward. I can't tell you how many times I have attempted to get into them, by mistake of course. It usually isn't until I see how neat and clean those vans are that I realize that I'm at the wrong van.

I have really missed these guys this month. This past week the Japanese students from Sotaro's school came again for a week. Since he is in high school now, he didn't come. We didn't host a student this year because frankly, we had too good of an experience with Sotaro. We felt like it wouldn't be fair to the student that stayed with us because we would always compare him to Sotaro. But maybe we will next year we will be a host family again. All week I kept seeing them around town and in my neighborhood and at church. It made me miss The Iinuma Family. A few weeks ago, Sachiko (Sotaro's mom) called me from Japan. It was so wonderful to talk to her on the phone. I love them so much and I sure wish we didn't live half a world apart. So, hugs via the blog to the Iinuma's.

I went to a holiday boutique earlier this month. I bought this cool watch that Daren hates. He says it looks like bubble gum. I said, "I LOVE bubble gum so what's the problem?" It has other bands that switch out so it's a lot of fun.

Tanner is doing so well. I am SO proud of him and the wonderful young man he is becoming. He is doing such great things in his life. He had straight A's this term and is applying to be on the National Junior Honor Society. Way to go Tanner!

BETH

This past week the kids had Fall Break at school. We went to Idaho to visit Daren's family and his beautiful 88-year old grandma. Abby is named after this wonderful grandma and they are a lot alike. They are both very artistic and creative. Abby wanted to draw grandma a picture and spent ALOT of time making her the perfect picture. Grandma is slowing down these days but it was wonderful to see her.

When Abby was born we wanted to name her after her Grandma Beth. I am so glad that Abby has BETH as her middle name and is named after such a wonderful woman. Camille is named after my grandma, who passed away over 15 years ago. As we were travelling to Idaho, Camille said, "Abby you are SO lucky that you get to know the grandma that you are named after." She is so right! After Abby was born we called Grandma Beth to tell her about her namesake. She was so excited that we named her Abby because unknown to us, Grandma's favorite aunt was named Abby. It was the perfect name for our family.

MY HERO

The wait is finally over!! After months and months of fighting with Camille about braiding her hair, having ponytails, or making her hair look like "a spoiled baby" (that's what she calls it if you curl it), she is FINALLY someone's hero.

Camille cut over 10 inches off of her hair to donate to Locks of Love. It is an organization that collects hair to make wigs for cancer patients. She has said for months that she is doing it so she can be "someone's hero."

Well Camille, you are definitely MY HERO because I know how much you have HATED having long hair!

BEFOREDURING
BUNNY WITH THE LOCK OF CAMILLE'S LOVE

AND...AFTER!

VIDEO (I love watching her face when she gets it cut off)

If you would like, please leave a comment for Camille. She has been SO excited for me to do this post about her and LOVES to read to comments on the blog.

UPDATE: As I mentioned over the weekend, tragedy has hit our community. We live in such a close-knit community that even though I personally didn't have a child on that bus that rolled, I know many students who were either on the bus or travelling in other buses that saw the crash. The teacher that died was a true hero is grabbing the wheel when the bus driver passed out. She gave her life to save the students on the bus. Church was extremely sad yesterday and I hope we can all heal soon from this tragedy. ksl.com has more information. Thank you for all your prayers!

PRAYERS REQUESTED

An accident has rocked my neighborhood and city tonight. A bus carrying high school students from American Fork High School crashed after the bus driver passed out. The bus was coming back to American Fork from Idaho after a band competition. Many of those involved in the bus accident are from my ward and neighborhood. I can only hope and pray that they are each okay. Latest word so far is that 1 person has died. She was a band teacher at American Fork Junior High. She was the band teacher of several of Tanner's friends. Tears are flowing through my neighborhood as we await word on the condition of ward members and friends who were on that bus. Please join our community with your prayers.

CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE

The first weekend of April and October our church holds General Conference. It takes place in Salt Lake but is broadcast all over the world via television, Internet, radio, etc., and in numerous different languages. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year. We rarely plan anything on these weekends. We stay in our pajamas most of the weekend as a family to watch conference together. Since we don't go to our normal Sunday services or meetings, it is such a nice relaxing time we can spend together as a family and hear inspiring messages from our church leaders.

If it is General Conference weekend, you must have a fort. And cinnamon rolls.

But this year things went a little different than expected. Sunday morning, about 45 minutes before conference was to begin, our power went out from the storm. I was in the middle of making cinnamon rolls and I think my neighbors could hear me scream, NOOOOOOOOOO! Timing plays such an important role in the roll making process and this was definitely an inconvenience. Well, since the power didn't come on when conference started, we listening to it on the Internet, compliment of Daren's battery operated laptop. Well, it was bugging me listening to it on the computer because it kept freezing so I went in the car to listen to it by myself. When President Monson started by saying, "We'd like to welcome all of those listening via Internet, radio, television, satellite, etc. I think he forgot to say and those listening in their car in their pajamas! About half way through the Sunday morning session, the power was restored and thankfully we were able to watch the rest on television and the cinnamon rolls turned out too! I did NOT like experiencing conference the "Pioneer" way.

But most of all, I love the messages that were shared. They inspire me to be a better person and be a little kinder. When President Monson was talking, he was sharing a scripture from Matthew 25:40, which talks about serving other people. There is a part of it referring to the Savior that says, "When saw thee naked and clothed thee, when saw thee a prisoner, etc." Camille blurted out, "President Monson was in prison?" We all started laughing.

Then Abby asked later if the choir lip syncs. Some of the things they think of just totally make me laugh!

What a fun and relaxing weekend!

SPINNING DRESS

I took the girls shopping for new fall dresses. Abby couldn't find a dress that she liked UNTIL she tried on this dress and realized it was a spinning dress.

What is a spinning dress? According to my girls, when you twirl around in the dress, the skirt must spin. And, when you are 6 and 7, the size of the spin is a BIG requirement on whether the dress is acceptable.