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More pics of Addison

Addison's hair is very difficult to do anything with. Before taking these photos, Dacia smoothed down her hair, but less than 5 minutes later, well, you can see the results.

Awesome!

"Awesome!" That is how Caleb described it to me today. I went and picked Caleb up from school this afternoon and he was all a buzz about some paper he had gotten in school today for being a good kid. I did not know what he was talking about so he went back into school to look for it. Senora Barker came out and told me that in an assembly today Caleb was named "Student of the Month" for her class! WHOA! I was so proud and blown away. Last year when that stuff happened they told us so we could go to the assembly with him. I really wish I could have been there when Caleb's name was called. Mrs. Neral said that he was so surprised and excited when they called his name. What a good kid! He said it felt great to be up there, as it should. I am so excited and proud of him, he makes my heart smile. But that is not all, Senora Barker also told me about how he had lunch with her. I was a bit confused so she went on to explain. In her class the students are given pesos when they do good stuff. After they accumulate enough pesos they can buy stuff from the class store. With some of Caleb's pesos he chose to purchase a treat bag that had a cookie and some suckers in it. But with the remainder of his pesos he bought a ticket to eat lunch with Senora Barker. So today, along with a few other kids, they sat in the classroom and ate lunch together. How cute is that?! I thought it was so sweet that he wanted to have lunch with her so he used his "money" to buy that ticket. Not only is that cute but he told me the other day that teachers are able to visit a magic store. I asked him to give me more details and he proceeded to tell me that this magic store was for craft supplies and that teachers were the only ones that were able to go to this magic store and get supplies for any type of craft. Then he made me smile by telling me that he wants to be two things when he grows up. An Architect first and foremost (he has wanted that ever since he was three). Secondly, he wants to be a teacher so that he can go to that magic craft store and get some stuff from there. Oh, how cool are kids!

And on a side note: Happy Thanksgiving! This is our Turkey Family for this year. They turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. Love you all!

Happenings

Well, you have all heard about Halloween. It was fun, my boys loved gathering candy and they loved their costumes. Well, William really did not love being taped up with all those glowys but it was fun once we were done. Rob's office also had a trick-o-treat thing on Friday so the boys went to that as well. We did not dress the boys up with their glow sticks so Willy went as a little Architect. It was so adorable !

And everyone loved the boys' costumes. There was one cubicle that the boys really wanted to avoid, they had steam coming out and a strobe light flashing. They made all the kids go past the lights and then there was a guy with a spooky mask on, it was the least favorite part of the trip. Now since November has begun we have had parent teacher conference with Caleb and he continues to make us proud. He is such a little stud in the classroom. We were told that he can be a little "chatty" with his friends but they are very impressed with how smart he is. He does great at getting his work done and he does really well with working on his own and following instructions. Senora Barker is very pleased with how well he is doing with Spanish and he is even starting to read some Spanish on his own and speaking in class with the teacher. Caleb has also finished up with his reflections project for this years competition. The theme is Beauty and at first Caleb did not want to enter a project. He was a little unsure of the word Beauty, but after talking it over and figuring out what was beautiful to him, we hunkered down and made something. Caleb said that the mountains were beautiful to him. He loves to go for drives through the canyon and look at all the rocks, trees, mountains.... He also loves going to Scofield and exploring up there. So, we came up with a 3D project to incorporate some pictures we took this summer, Caleb's talent for drawing and his enjoyment for folding paper and came up with something pretty cool.

There is a picture of Caleb at Scofield, Willy at the cabin in Manti, Caleb's cave going down to Scofield, and one of the deer we saw at Scofield this summer. Then Caleb's drawing includes a lot of details of bears, deer, elk, rivers, trees and bushes, trails going up the mountain, and an eagle and red tailed hawk in the sky. He is a great little artist.

Gray Halloween

We had a great time on halloween night with Grandma, Grandma Gray and Emily! Caleb dressed as robot, Peter a robot cowboy, and Willie as an robot alien. Jonah went as a vampire, Jonathan as dark spiderman, and Spencer as a hunter who hunted, killed, skinned, and then wore the skin of Tigger. Ok, fine, he actually went as Tigger, but we couldn't get him to keep the hood/hat part on, so Rob commented that he actually looked like he was wearing a Tigger skin. Grandma and Grandpa fed us all pizza before we went out and we had a great time!

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Yesterday found me...

Yesterday found me doing many different things that are not on the normal to do list. First, rake leaves in the snow. Monday we spent a lot of time playing in the leaves and having fun, but I knew it was going to snow on Tuesday so I was trying to get them up before they got all mushy. Well, after the garbage man took a bunch away in the morning Peter and I bundled up and put another load in the garbage can all the while it was snowing on us. We then came in, had hot chocolate and then started working on the Halloween costumes. I was putting the finishing touches on Caleb's robot costume when Peter decided he also wanted to be a robot and he wanted me to make him one too. Hummm? Weren't you going to be a cowboy? Yeah, he replies, he is going to be a cowboy robot. :) Only Peter. So, I started making his robot costume, put him down for a nap, and then Willy and I went outside to play in the snow. He was so excited to go out, he loves to be outside. And he had fun in the snow, it was very fun to watch.

That was yesterday, now for a few random photos of how a pile of leaves can grow and grow:

You might be wondering about Willy being so high up in the tree but he had a total blast. I would put him up there and then bring him down into the pile of leaves. He loved it! Caleb did some jumping from the tree too, but Peter stuck to the ground being happy with just climbing the mountain of leaves and playing in them. fright

The rest of the week you ask? Today is getting Willy's alien costume ready and getting ready for the Gray Boy's Sleepover. It should be a "Frightfully" Fun time. :) Ha Ha! Caleb's Halloween parade at school on Thursday, trick-o-treating at Rob's office on Friday and then up to Granny's house on Saturday. Caleb has decided he will be the box robot on Thursday and Friday, then Saturday night he is going to be a glow-stick robot for the night time. Should be fun!

Pumpkin carving

Monday night found us carving our pumpkins for the boys. It was fun. Willy is the only one that really got into scooping the guts out, and then he started putting them back in after they were out. :) Caleb and Peter did not appreciate the slimy feel of the guts. But Peter did enjoy the fact that my hands were all slimy and orange. The boy's two favorite parts of carving was designing the face and slicing into the pumpkin. Unfortunately for them Rob and I would not let them take over and use the knife. Caleb chose a spooky face, Peter also chose a spooky face (only later to put a happy face on the other side because he did not like the "sad face" of his pumpkin) and Caleb designed Willy B.'s pumpkin. It was fun. We made carmel popcorn for the boys to enjoy during the night and I think Caleb ate half the bowl. :) Fun family times.