Halloween

The second week in October Joey had a half day at school so Peter decided to take a half day too and we all went to Sea World. The boys loved trick or treating sea world style. They got loads of chiquita mini bananas and sugar free candy. And we saw all the fish pumpkins and magical jelly fish :)

Do you see baby Shamu? She's so cute!

The boys really wanted to sit in the SPLASH ZONE since we never had. They were so excited to get splashed by Shamu! Until they actually got splashed--drenched actually. Joey did say it was awesome after a few minutes, but Kimball was traumatized. He and I got clobered by a tidal wave.

Halloween at Sea World. It's so fun to celebrate all the holidays there.

Ward Trunk or Treat. Kimball was Batman and Joey wasnted to be Shamu again (sounded good to me!)

Joeya nd Kimball sahring some chili and rolls with Caleb, or is that super man?

celebrating the loot!

For Halloween we continued the Taylor tradition and made witch's brew. It's so fun watching the kids' amazement at the boiling steam. We also had jack-o-lantern pancakes. Orange butternut squash pancakes with chocolate chip faces. It was fun to have Sally and her kids here too.Brian (friend from El Paso), Kimball, Joey, Sally, Caleb

Because Halloween was on Sunday, and we had a special guest from El Paso, we decided to just have the boys do a candy hunt in the back yard. They loved running around and picking up all the candy.

New Dog

On October 26th we got a new puppy! A sweet goldendoodle--who happens to be all black. The boys love her and she defintely loves all of us. It has been fun to have her around. The first week of potty training wasn't so fun with me stalking her all around the house watching to see if she put her bum to the ground. But after a week of peeing on the carpet, a few spanks, and lots of treats for going outside, she finally got it. I am just so glad she never pooped!

Conquer the Coast 2010

2 of my firends and I decided we needed one more race to end the 2010 season, so we decided for a 65 mile bike ride around the coast of Corpus Christi, Port Aransas, and Mustang Island. It was a blast. Besides the obstacles--switching to a new thyroid medicine and having my dose incredibly too low so my body was functioning on minimal power; missing the cutoff of the race start by seconds because we got there late--which ended up making me the official last person to begin; getting stuck behind a million people on the steep part of the bridge and almost falling off my bike into traffic because I couldn't even pedal forward; finding a small gap in the crowd and zooming past to get around, only to not see the hige block of wood I was unable to avoid; realizing 2 minutes later that my tire was flat; then realizing that I had not idea how to change a tire; finally getting back into the race only to find the road left desolate--everyone was long gone after the 25 minute delay and we had no idea where we were supposed to go for the next 63 miles.

But it was a great way to realize my blessings. To know that Heavenly Father always answers prayers--just not always the way we intended. Like when I prayed that my bike would work fine and that I wouldn't have a flat tire. Instead he sent me along with two wonderful friends: Jennifer who is always prepared and immediately gave me her spare tube, not even thinking about how she might need one later; and Aubrey who was not one bit worried about shouting at all the people who past by, pleading for anyone who could help us change the tire; and finally, a very sweet older couple who graciously stopped and took lots of time out of their race day to change my tire. I saw these sweet people further ahead that day stopping to help another poor soul with his bike. I want to be more like all these wonderful people! Heavenly Father didn't make everything perfect, he showed me how aware He is of me by placing little angels all along my way!

I also realized again how much I love my Peter and what a great husband he is and how much he does for me. With all those hard things happening during the race I was really wanting him with me. Now I just need to help him build up endurance so he can come with me on the next one.

We did end up finishing--and not last--hooray! It was a great experience. Hard work is really worth it. You feel so good when it took so much to accomplish what you did. Hopefully the next big one will be 100 miles!

This is a very small portion of the bridge that devoured my tire

This is what scorching sun will do to you

My training buddy Jennifer. I will always love our 4 hour rides together!

Course route

The insainly crazy directions

When I got home I found this cute note hanging on the door for me

Pumkin Carving

It's always fun to carve pumpkins with these two cute boys. They love getting to design their

own faces and see all the pumpkin guts. Can you tell they are silly?

This year we carved a K and J into them

Happy Late Birthday Sally

We did celebrate Sally's birthday on the actual date, I just haven't gotten around to the pictures until today :)

Since Joe was gone at the hospital all day, we had Sally, Caleb and Ella over for lunch dance party (at Sally's request) and finished it off with a cinnamon roll cake. It was a fun lunch and was cute to see Caleb and Kimball dancing away.

caterpillar and friends

Our big fat caterpillar finally exited the cocoon a couple of months ago. Poor thing was huge, but badly deformed. I don't thing it ever flew, and probably became lizard food the first night. I felt bad for it, but it really was fun seeing it go through all it's little life stages.

The first time kids came over all by themselves and knocked on the door for the kids to come play. It was so cute! My boys are growing up and can have those wonderful times of playing all day with friends.

Big Brother

It was so sweet. One day Kimball took the baby doll and dressed it, got it water, and then read the baby Green Eggs and Ham. He'll be a great big brother someday.

While I was making dinner I overheard Joey trying to teach Kimball to write all the letters. It was very sweet, but the moment lasted only as long as Joey's patience. Brief but sweet.

Messy

One day the boys were outside playing when I noticed they were getting a little crazy with the chalk. Let me just tell you that orange and purple chalk does not come out of bleach blonde hair!

And another thing that doesn't easily come out, is red crayon that has been melted into the dryer and all the clothes inside of it. *%##*!!!!!!! All I can say is OXY is a blessing I am very grateful to have!

Cristmas Countdown

In order to think more about the season, I decided to change the way we do our countdown. This year, each day we will open the box and find one service assignment we will each do all day, and then report back to the family at dinner what we did.

I hope this will become our tradition of our gift to the Savior. Since The prophet is pretty tight with Jesus, I figure if we give the Savior the same birthday gift requested by the prophet, that he would be really happy. And I think we will be too.

"Just over a year ago, I was interviewed by the Church News prior to my birthday. At the conclusion of the interview, the reporter asked what I would consider the ideal gift that members worldwide could give to me. I replied, “Find someone who is having a hard time or is ill or lonely, and do something for him or her.”¹ Pres. Monson

Here's our assignments

1. Donate gifts for kids who don’t have any

2. Smile at everyone you see today

3. Find someone who is having a hard time and cheer them up

4. Say thank you to everyone all day

5. Write grandma Froerer

6. Write Great grandma and grandpa Gurr

7. Write grandma and grandpa Gurr

8. Write Great grandma and grandpa Starkey

9. Write grandma and grandpa Taylor

10. Give lots and lots of hugs today to as many people as you can

11. Do something nice for someone in your family

12. Watch someone’s kids—for a couple who never gets to go on a date (with special needs kids)

13. Make cookies to give away

14. Make bread to give away

15. Smile at everyone you see today

16. Say thank you to everyone today

17. Give hugs to as many people as you can today

18. Do something nice for someone in your family today

19. Write thank you notes for your teachers

20. Bring treats and thank you note to teachers

21. Bring treats to neighbors

22. Find someone who is having a hard time and cheer them up

23. Sing a Christmas song to someone

24. Read scriptures about Jesus and think of how much he loves us

25. Say a prayer and thank Heavenly Father for sending Jesus to help us