And Halloween

When my kids were little, I loved to create and sew their costumes for Halloween. Then I had a fourth child and something had to give. I guess (through default) I gave up homemade Halloween costumes. I also gave up on laundry, but that's a different story for a different time.

Usually, the children wear hand-me-downs from cousins or whatever they can come up with on their own. But this year was so exciting! Grandma Suzie was visiting from Hawai'i. We were walking through a store looking for winter coats for the boys and we saw a beautiful Cinderella dress--just in Beth's size. Well, who can pass that up? Not Grandma! Before we knew it, she had bought the kids their dream costumes! They've played in them for the last month, so the costumes are already a bit worn. But really, what is the point of preserving a costume for one night? Dress-ups are fun.

Sarah's Special Day

Sarah had a beautiful day the day of her baptism and confirmation. She is such a wonderful little girl. She has been preparing herself for this day. She felt that she should work on her temper and learning to control her anger. She felt that she should try to be nicer to her siblings. She came up with her goals on her own, and she has progressed so much in the past few months. Sarah's Grandma Suzie couldn't come the day of her baptism, but she came the week before. She brought Sarah a special dress. Much of Chris' family who live in California came out for the weekend. My family was also very supportive. After Sarah was baptized, I went in to help her get dressed. She looked at me and started crying. She said, "I love you so much, Mom. Thank you for teaching me how to get baptized." I love her, too.

Speaking of the Beatles...

(which I was in the post I just wrote.)

Check this out:

This is Christopher on Abbey Road. (THE Abbey Road!!)

And here is the studio. Abbey Road Studio. You know, some pretty crazy singing went down in there. 

The budding musician...

Nathan wrote a song recently. He plays it on the piano and sings it at the top of his lungs. It goes like this:

"Bethie-bae; Bethie-bae. I love you with all my heart today!"

He sang it for Beth. She loves it. Then they put their arms around each other and walked down the hall singing, "I love you, yeah, yeah, yeah," together. (You know, it's the Beatles!)

Awwww.

B-E-T-H

Beth loves her name. She loves to spell it. She writes it on everything. Today she wrote "Beth" on her shirt. Hmmm. She marches around the house chanting, "B-E-T-H..B-E-T-H."

She got her very own copy of the Book of Mormon the other day. She immediately looked at it and said, "This says my name! B-E-T-H."

Look closely.

B (in "Book") E, T, H (in "The"). Not only can she recognize her name, she can unscramble it!

Eight years of Sarah...

Today is Sarah's birthday. She had a wonderful day. Her grandma is visiting from Hawaii. Grandma has a way of making Sarah feel special. Chris escaped from work for an hour so we could have a party and Grandpa and Grandma Rawlins were sure to shower Sarah with love. Even though he didn't feel well, Ammon went out of his way to make a banner and party hats and do anything he could to make Sarah's day special. Nathan and Beth have been keeping Sarah entertained all day. Sarah has a way of demanding special treatment. She's a sweet girl and was very excited to receive gifts of things she could make and do. Would you like to see how she has grown over the years?

2002: She's a pretty little newborn. (At 9 lbs 8 oz, she was anything but little.)

Age 1 and loving her cake.

Age 2: I love that her attitude comes out in her face.

Age 3: with Ammon

I can't believe this is the best picture I have of her 4th birthday.

Future reference: 4-years-old is too young for a friend party.

Flamingos are still Sarah's favorite animal.

Her Cinderella costume is still hanging around--a little worse for wear.

I love her.

What? Another flamingo? No wonder she didn't want a flamingo today.

Sarah makes our lives colorful.

We are blessed to have her in our family.

Words can be confusing

We've been focusing on language skills today.

Chris' mom is visiting. She has highlights in her hair. Nathan said, "Grandma, why do you have brown and red parts in your hair?" She said, "Because they put bleach in it and that's what color it turned." Ammon said, "Weren't you afraid they'd suck your blood?" Um...

"Not leach, Ammon. Bleach." Oh.

Sarah saw the Tasmanian Devil on a truck's "mud slaps." (Also called mud flaps.)

We passed a hospital and Chris' mom asked if we have Kaiser in Utah. (A common medical insurance in California and Hawaii.) Sarah piped up and said, "No. Those are only in Yellowstone."

"Not geyser, Sarah. Kaiser." Oh.

While eating at a Chinese restaurant, Nathan asked if he could eat with pork chops. He didn't ask if he could eat pork chops; he asked if he could eat with pork chops. I don't know what they call them in China, but here in America, we usually call them chopsticks.

We were playing Go Fish with some really cool cards featuring real fish found around Hawaii. Nathan said, "Dad, do you have any piney-porn fish?"

"Not piney-porn, Nathan. Porcupine." Oh.

Bethie kept asking if she could have more Star Wars candy. It's delicious. It's also called Starburst.

Well, that's all.