Dear Santa

William's letter to Santa. Anyone think they can crack the code? It does make perfect sense if you can follow it!

William's face is so funny when he colors, cuts, or writes.

This is my favorite thing Soren does. I ask these kind of questions often. Who wants to go to the store? Who likes hamburgers? Etc. I love that Soren already has learned the response by watching his brothers. The "mmmm" is "me"!

Soren is into playing peek-a-boo, and his newest word is "boo". It's so cute.

Sam, Jessica & Skyla

A few weeks back I visited Cleveland and got to spend some time with my mom. We had a great time! On the Saturday we drove out to Sam's new house and spent the day with him and Jessica and her darling daughter Skyla. They live out in nature, atop 30 acres of land, pretty incredible. They are fairly close to Amish country and while driving up to Sam's house we saw a few horse drawn carridges. Sam has a fireplace in his house, and we had a toasty night of telling stories, dancing to Elmo's songs, and eating cookies. The next day Jessica had a great idea to go out on a hayride at one of the nearby farms. We fed the goats, picked pumpkins and all around had a fabulous day. The picture here, is of Sam, Jessica and Skyla playing in a huge pit of dried corn at the farm. The other picture is of Skyla with her special stuffed animal (reminded me of my own attachment to my teddy bear). Really happy to have Jessica and Skyla as part of the family.

Life is Good.

William's 3rd Birthday. Life is good.

Don't forget to post on Don's B-Day post below.

Happy Birthday, dear Donald ...

Hey!!! It's Uncle Burke's 55th Birthday....

Happy Birthday to the best brother! I love Burke because
He is the most generous person I know
He is easy to approach and he is willing to listen
He is interested in the world, in politics, in great thoughts
He "reads" a ton on CD....he has really enriched our audio book collection
He is willing to admit he has made a mistake and earnestly seeks to be a good person
He is a great story teller
He is the hardest worker I know
He is meticulous in his work
He is gifted in the work that he does
He is a true artist with an eye and a heart for all things beautiful
He has an infectious laugh that our children love to imitate because it is so real and so full of
raw joy in something funny
He is a great gift giver....loves to find something that will be meaningful to the person to whom
he is giving the gift
He is a loyal brother and a loving son
He gave Robin and me the joy of having a real live "baby doll" when we were 5 and 6 and he was
a newborn (well, I guess you would say Mom and Dad gave us the baby :)....all I can say
is that we ADORED him!
He is dear to me and to Rich and to all of his nephews and his niece. We feel so lucky to have
Uncle Burke in our lives!

Joe's Halloween 2009

This Halloween my Stake had a Trunk or Treat, and I had the opportunity to Dress up. I decided an "easy" costume would be, the Grim Reaper or Death.

I started the Costume by finding a Robe. I found a cheap Costume that fit me that was from the movie Scream. All I had to do was throw away the mask. I then bought some cheap Cotton Gloves.

I then had to find a Scythe. I found a bunch of cheap ones but they were cheap and small (no more than 3' in length) Obviously I wanted something better. I went to Home Depot and found myself a rake handle, Poster Board, and some spray paint. I then took two days to paint and assemble the Scythe.

One of the Rules for the Trunk or treat was that we couldn't use masks. I instead chose to paint my face as a skull. I got some Red, Black, white, and Ivory face paint. I had a rough guide I got online, and I painted my whole face with my fingers. Lastly I took a small brush and painted individual teeth causing the face paint to really look like a skull. I then put some red on my face to make myself a little scarier. I also colored my hair black with black Hairspray, just in case.

I then went to the Party. While most of us were young adults, there was also a few little kids. I noticed one of these kids (he was about the age of Burke, or William) staring at me. I noticed him and Smiled. He instantly turned away from me and was generally scared of me for the rest of the night.

The Party had a Costume Contest, which was judged by the Stake Presidency. I won the Category of Scariest Male Costume, and for a prize I got a huge bag of candy. I think David was happy with the candy.

I had a lot of fun this Halloween, and I hope to see pictures of more Halloweens posted here.