Introducing Jarlie

Here's the newest member of the family, Jarlie. I'm not sure where the really dark eyes came from, but he/she looks like he/she could be a sibling to our other four. After seeing Mom and Dave's internet baby, I had to try it out too. Here's the website if you want to try: http://www.vw.com/vwhype/babymaker/en/us/

True Blue Fan

Do you recognize this man? He may look like a bruiser to you, but it's really just Jarin. He decided he had had enough of his long, curly, lush hair. So he cut to the chase and went straight for the buzz. I thought I would hate it, but it's only been two days since the hack and it's starting to grow on me. (The real reason he cut his hair was because he made a deal with his Young Men that if they got rid of their long hair, he would too. Well, the deacons kept their end of the bargain, so Jarin had to keep his. Way to be a good sport Jarin!)

If you can't tell in the picture, Jarin is holding BYU sugar cookies we made last night for his co-workers. There were about 60 cookies and he saved the last 5 for us. They ranged from oval shaped cookies with a Y on it, to helmets with a Y, to brown footballs. Jarin said his office LOVED them. They are gluten-free and surprisingly taste better than normal sugar cookies. He respectfully wore his black U of U sweatshirt to symbolize "death to the Utes" tomorrow as he hopes to be attending their funeral (well, at least watching it from Uncle Jim's house).

Happy Halloween!

I loved Halloween this year. The weather was unusually warm. Halloween was on a Friday. We hung out with Scott, Maran, and Hannah that night. And, of course, the candy is always delicious. Thanks kids for doing all the work and getting the treats! Jarin actually did a bit of trick or treating himself. Instead of staying home to hand out candy, we brought it with us to hand out as we passed by the neighbors. You'll have to see as you scroll down how my creative and attention-loving husband handed out the candy. Boy is he a ham!

Here's our darling angel walking along in the school parade.

Dallin couldn't decide what he wanted to be until about a week before Halloween. That's when he picked out the cheapest Halloween costume anyone could think of. He wanted to be a bag of trash. Unfortunatley, we miscommunicated about what he should do with his costume at school and he threw away his "trashy" costume. So, he wore three other costumes that we had lying around that day (he was a bit undecided).

We didn't get good individual pictures of Sienna, Taylor, and Jarin. But here is a group shot. If you can't tell, Sienna was a Snow Princess and had the most beautiful eyes that day. We put mascara on her and her blonde eyelashes turned into these lush, long eyelashes. I think she enjoyed feeling so pretty and getting comments on her eyes all day. Taylor came up with the idea of being a hobo for Halloween. That was easy enough. His sign said, "Hungry. Need treats." In a sense, aren't we a bit like the beggars on the streets at Halloween time? And Jarin . . . was a toilet. Nice, huh? The kids would lift the seat to retrieve their prize from inside the toilet bowl. He would tell the kids, "Trick or treat. Lift my seat." Some kids weren't too sure about that and would give him funny looks.

Afterwards, we got home about 8:00 and ate Mummy Dogs, fruit, and orange/banana smoothies topped with Cool Whip shaped ghosts. I should've taken pictures. But I got in such a hurry that I forgot. I probably won't make this meal a tradition. Personally I like the soups and chilis in a bread bowl. We'll have to see if we can find gluten-free bread bowls next year.

We ended the day by snuggling up with each other on the bean bag and watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas." We thought it would be a good transitional movie from Halloween to Christmas. But it ended up being even more weird than we remembered. The most important thing was just spending time together. While lying there on the bean bag, I felt so much joy just being with my family.