Jane's Halloween program

Jane's preschool class had a fun Halloween party and then performed some songs for the parents. Miss Tiffany, the preschool teacher, teaches sign language along with the curriculum (so Jane is signing and singing) (yes, I know, I forgot to turn the camera the correct way to film until after I'd started filming. I'm pregnant, work with me). Because the weather was cold and drizzly, we enjoyed the program inside. Jeremy, as you might guess, is the make-up artist for our butterfly.

free time

I've finished my grape juice for the year! It's all boxed up, labeled, and organized in the food storage room!

The 10 buckets of green grapes (pictured here) make the pinkish colored grape juice and purple grapes make the pretty purple grape juice. Thanks to Jeremy and Griffin for picking all of the grapes. Thanks to mom for giving me one juicer (I bought a second one several years ago). Thanks to the retired ladies in the ward for the bottles they've donated to me over the years (including the anonymous one who snuck in and placed several boxes of empty jars by the garage door). Thanks to mom and Donna (who lives down the street) for most of the grapes this year. We bottled nearly 80 quarts. Wow.

My tasty recipe:

1 quart grape juice

1 cup sugar

1 packet lemonade

fill the remaining 2 gallon pitcher with water

Midge, my amazing next door neighbor, mixes in Sprite or 7Up. Yum!

Hollywood Hullabaloo

Anna was cast in the Midvale-Copperview Theater Arts Program play entitled Hollywood Hullabaloo, in which she performed last weekend. She was the youngest cast member and had a fabulous, fabulous time! I think it takes a lot of courage to get on stage, act (she had a speaking part) and dance on stage, and sing a solo. She did an amazing job and we're so proud of her!

I'm not sure why I filmed her the way I did, but in order to rotate the video I have to upgrade my video player to the tune of $29.99 plus shipping. So, tilt your head to the left and enjoy 38 seconds of Anna singing. :)

caring=

Webster: caring: compassionate or showing concern for others

Zachary: caring is being nice to people and helping people out

Griffin: caring is playing nice with your friends and picking up junk off the ground

Zachary and Griffin were both recognized in the Character Ed assembly for being caring. It's a blessing to have such nice kids. Griffin is standing next to his good friend, Lucy, and Zachary is with the principal, Ms. Houlihan, and his friend, Garrett.

The boys got to miss a little bit of class after the assemblies to enjoy a cookie with their parents. :)

Scarecrow Festival

Last week we were at the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point, a two-day fall party with carnival rides, dancing, festive Halloween decorations, entertainment, and lots of people. Anna's performing group entertained and it was quite nice.

I had a funny chat with another mom about the green pants. We came to the conclusion that it's fabulous for 8 year olds to wear brightly colored plastic pants, and good that they don't make them in adult sizes since some adults would try to wear them. Don't worry, I'm not tempted.

I like this second picture of Anna because she looks so tall and lean. How can she be 8? Honestly, where does the time go?

pregnant sisters

My sister, Sarah, who is ten years younger than me, is pregnant with her first baby (girl!) and is due 3 days before me! I don't think you could really plan due dates so close; it's been pretty cool to share this experience with her. My other two sisters had babies (girls!) in the spring.

Interestingly, two of my Wright sisters-in-law have baby boys due in the next couple of weeks. So, my little buddy will have lots of cousins his age.

2009 is a good baby year. :)

Halloween skirts

I thought it would be fun to do some sewing with Anna so we pulled out some coordinating Halloween fabrics and made up a pattern based upon a skirt that we saw that Anna thought was cute. Anna did all of the sewing on her skirt (with the exception of the bottom band) and I am so proud of her!

The fabrics are the same in both skirts, just in different patterns. Cute sisters!

Book of Mormon Retreat

Last weekend we had a Book of Mormon Retreat with the young women in our ward.

We were challenged by the stake at the first of the year to read the Book of Mormon by November. Many of our girls haven't read (or aren't planning to read) the Book of Mormon yet so we planned said Retreat.

We went up to the cabin property (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Wright) and started with a Murder Mystery Dinner, then applied it to the story in Helaman 8-9. We then each took turns sharing the highlights from start to finish. It was an awesome experience for all of us. We stayed up way too late (the youth are good for me) and wow, we enjoyed our time together.

My little family had fun while I was gone, too, eating pizza and also staying up late. Kudos to Jeremy and the kids, they arrived on time Saturday morning to two soccer games and one flag football game, and two of the three games we had half-time snacks and end-of-game treats.

We all got home about the same time, early afternoon, and after lunch Jeremy went to help a neighbor put in his sprinkler system. I feel fortunate to have a calling that is fulfilling and especially, and more importantly, to live with such great people.

trip to California

So a few weeks back Jeremy mentioned to me that he felt like we should go and visit his Grandma in California. We discussed logistics and punched the numbers and decided that UEA weekend would be a great time to go.

We got a good (and early) start, as planned, and just outside of Primm, Nevada (on the Nev and Cali border) about 5 minutes after I took over driving, the fuel pump went out on the van. Long story short, we were towed back to Henderson, Nevada, where we spent the day while waiting for the new fuel pump. The second leg of the trip was long, but we made it.

The next day we spent a few hours at Downtown Disney wandering through shops and checking out the Disney holiday decor, which was a lot of fun and then to Grandma Chalker's house. The kids played in the kiddie pool in her backyard while the adults visited. Later on we went to the beach (fully dressed) and played until the kids were drenched and watched the sunset. It was beautiful.

We spent a couple of days in San Diego with Jeremy's brother and his family and we all had a grand time. We spent some time at Cabrillo National Monument where we wandered through the museum and watched a movie about the tide pools. Then we got to investigate the tide pools at low tide which was really cool.

We spent a couple of hours at the beach body surfing (the boys got very good!) and playing in the ocean and sand. This was definitely a highlight of the trip!

We spent a day at Legoland and thoroughly enjoyed it as well. It's amazing what you can do with legos!

We enjoyed Sunday General Conference with Grandma Wright and GrGrandma Chalker. It was relaxing and nice.

We (thankfully) had an uneventful drive home and arrived home to find all well here. It was such a fabulous weekend and a treat to be able to spend time with Grandma and with cousins.