Backyard Campout

Hannah suggested that sometime we should have a campout in our backyard before it got "too cold". (Which should make all of you who live in Utah smile.) So Friday night was the chosen night and it was so fun. Maddie had her last soccer game for this season at 9:00 am Saturday, Melissa is expecting her baby anyday and Bonka and I would always pick our own bed, so it was decided that those were reasons enough to just have a "pretend" sleepover. We had sub sandwiches and then went to the backyard and began preparations for the tent, fire and s'mores.

Here are the mighty men setting up our tent. Thank you Josh, Jeremy and Bonka!

Bonka started our fire for us and we enjoyed the warmth it provided as the evening began to get cool enough for a light jacket :) Hannah brought the biggest marshmallows we had ever seen and the s'mores and roasted Starbursts were a hit!

I realized that Halle slept through most of the campout so I thought I'd better get a pre-campout picture of her so you knew she WAS here :)



Maddie, Molly and Kate loved playing inside the tent with their flashlights. Here they are making silly faces for the camera.

Josh, Melissa and Kate

Hannah, Jeremy, Molly and Maddie

Bonka telling his idea of a "scarey" story for 2 and 4 yr olds. Obviousily it wasn't too scarey since the adults all seem to be laughing :)

Jeremy and Maddie listening to Bonka's story.

I do believe this was the first time I had seen Kate and Molly holding hands. They walked around like that for part of the evening and it was so cute! I hope they will always love each other and who knows maybe someday they can be roommates with Avery at BYU.

Molly did a little shopping and her best find was Kate!

It was such a beautiful night out and so much fun. We will definitely do this again sometime and who knows, maybe next time we will actually sleep all night in the tent :)

An Afternoon with the Girls

Bonka and I had a great time playing with Maddie, Molly and Kate Saturday afternoon. We had gone to Maddie's soccer game and brought the girls home with us afterward. We had so much fun playing with the blocks, watching Barney, playing with Tanner, swinging, eating, playing in the kitchen for real and pretend :), jumping on the trampoline, eating again and making pumpkins out of apples (which I forgot to take pictures of but they were so fun to make) and eating again :).

Here is Bonka playing blocks with the girls. (He bought these blocks several Christmas' ago and just knew that "someday" the grandchildren would like playing with them...well, "someday" has come:)) Thanks for buying them Bonka!

Molly

Kate

Maddie

Playing in the "kitchen".

Maddie was cute about this. She went into the "real" kitchen and loaded her little grocery cart full of real foods and then put them into the pretend kitchen so she could play with them instead of the play food. (I understand completely, afterall, what fun is it to eat fake food? :))

Jumping and "fishing" on the trampoline.

We will definitely do this more often. It was fun to watch the cousins play together and they are now getting old enough to enjoy it. So fun!!! Can hardly wait for Avery to join them at Thanksgiving! Party on!

Our Visit to Provo

Dad and I had planned a trip to fly to Utah and had to change it at the last minute so we decided to save our tickets for another trip and just drive. Who would have thought we would hit the kind of snow that would bring us to a mile per hour travel for over an hour? We were so glad we had the "big" Tundra so we felt safe in spite of the weather. We left 90 degree weather...how is this possible? :)
Dustin and Mariel are the Activities Committee Charimen and had planned a Halloween party for their Ward. They strongly encouraged everyone to dress up so how could they not do the same? :) Here they are...

Dustin as a flower (what a great sport!)

Mariel, his favorite butterfly :)

Dustin and Mariel had craved pumpkins with Mariel's family.

Here they are...Mariel's ghost and Dustin's Michael Jackson

Whitney was able to help make crayon costumes for she and her friends. They were adorable! Great job girls! Here they are making last minute adjustments with the stapler :)

Here is the "box" of crayons. The pink crayon is definitely my favorite!!

(Although I really like all the colors :))

Just hanging out with the "fam".

Whitney made chocolate cake mix cookies with milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chips, Reeses chips and mini semi sweet chips...YUM!!!!! This was after she made us Chicken Bruschetta Chicken for dinner which I forgot to take a picture of but it was FABULOUS!

Thanks for cooking for us Whitney!

It was a great trip but WAY too short! Good thing Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away.

FHE Halloween Party

On Sunday afternoon Bonka and I had the idea of having a Halloween Family Home Evening the next night. Leave it to us to have a great idea at the very last minute :) We are so glad we did it though and have decided to make it an annual event. Next year we will have to think of it soon enough to have the Hills join us.

Happy Halloween!

Molly, Maddie and Kate with their treat bags

Donuts on a string

The girls were great sports!

Shooting out the flames on candles.

The Dads just had to have a chance after the girls did it. (Of course, since I'm so new at this whole blogging thing the pictures are in the wrong order...help girls, how do I change the order? :)) That's cute Melissa watching with baby number 2 :)

The little girls showing the Dad's how to shoot out the flames "the right way".

Maddie at the fishing pond. The girls could have done this all night!

Grandpa and Grandma Skinner were in town and got to enjoy the evening with us.

Maddie and Molly making Mummy Dogs for dinner.

Kate making Mummy pizzas.

Hannah and Melissa helping the little girls. (I'm blessed with the best daughter-in-laws in the whole world and that includes Mariel, too, even though she wasn't here...thanks Darla, Lynn and Jamie for sharing them with me!)

We couldn't believe how well the little girls did and how much fun they appeared to have. We will definitely do this again next year.

PS...I have one really great son-in-law, too :) Thanks Marie! :)

My "New" Friends

I have been blessed to serve in the Tempe Arizona University Stake Relief Society Presidency and it has just been reorganized. I was blessed to be called again to serve with these great ladies. They are my newest best friends! I want you to meet them (from left to right)...

Joyce Wold (Secretary), Beth Dibble (Sister Specialist), JoLynn White (President),

Sue Kempton (1st Counselor) and then me (2nd Counselor)

This is going to be so much fun I'm not sure it should be allowed!

Weekend with the Hills

Kristin, Mike and Avery came to spend the weekend with us while they enjoyed the "big city" and we enjoyed every minute with them.

Bonka and I love giving our granddaughters a "double kiss" and Avery loves getting them. Notice her hand around Bonka's neck. She will pull both of us together to do it again :)

We love you Avery!

It's amazing to see how fast Avery is growing up. In no time at all we won't even notice the age difference between she and Kate and Molly. Josh and his family and Jeremy and his family came to visit and the little granddaughters had a fun time playing together (although this picture doesn't seem to reflect that Molly is having fun:))

Avery LOVES playing outside and can even say "outside".

We enjoy every visit we can get with Kristin and her family.

We are so glad Sahuarita isn't too far away!

Maddie's Soccer Game

Maddie has been playing on her very first soccer team..."The Lil' Gators" :) Bonka and I have had fun going to some of her games. It brings back great memories of going to Jeremy's games when he was a little boy...the "beehive" play, orange slices, aftergame treats and drinks and this time we have added hairbows and cheers :)

Maddie (the fastest runner on the team and a big scorer!)

Halle (one of her youngest fans)

Notice she even wore green :)

Molly (all set with her styling sunglasses, her binky and her very own soccer clothes:))

Down on the Farm

Jeremy and Hannah invited Bonka and me to join them at the pumpkin patch. It was fun to be with them and watch how excited the little girls got when they found pumpkins, rode the tractor, and ran through the maze. It wasn't your typical "farm" like they saw in their Maryland days, but they were good sports as they had an Arizona "fall" experience :) Such a sweet family!

Halle

Molly

Maddie

Thank you for inviting us to join you! We had such a good time!

An Evening with Kate

Josh and Melissa went to the Temple one evening and Bonka and I were blessed to have the opportunity to babysit Kate. We always have so much fun and this night was no exception. We were playing in the backyard and Kate learned how to ride the tricylce all by herself. It was cute to watch her face light up as she pushed the pedals and actually moved by herself. Such a BIG girl!


All our little granddaughters love pumpkins. It was fun to take pictures of Kate sitting on one by the front door. Her smile was as big as the one on the pumpkin! What a cutie! Thanks Josh and Melissa for sharing Kate with us!