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!