october 2015.

Ohhhh, my!

Looking through our October pictures just makes me smile!

For a lot of reasons.

Miss Emma had her SEVENTH birthday!!!

Can you believe she's seven??

We sure love this spunky little girl who keeps us on our toes!

Those eyes!! My heart melts!!

She had fun with her photo shoot with mom. That was all actually the next day.

On *the* day ......

Letter pancakes for breakfast:

So spoiled, she got her whole name, instead of just her first initial.

We still got away with just a family birthday party. I have a feeling that by next year, she may be asking for another friends party.

Alyssa got her a t-shirt so she could show off some school colors!

"Heavy heavy hangover, thy poor head...

whatcha gonna do with a bonk on the head?"

(Waiting for that bonk!!)

(Whoops! Another t-shirt picture. But what a big personality!)

Phone calls from faraway aunties are the best!!

(The hat came from the OTHER sister. I see a competition with sisters and college apparel going here!)

Onward .......

Emma played soccer again this fall.

I know, it sounds like everything is about Emma -- but seriously, ... Cameron won't pose much for the camera, and the rest of the kids are gone!!

Soccer has been good for her. She has fun, makes friends, and gets the exercise that she needs.

Of course, she spent a good deal of time just playing with her ponytail:

... and chatting it up with her friend!

And, by the end of October, we get to our annual pumpkin-carving.

Cameron and Emma cleaned their pumpkins together. (I'm pretty sure that Cameron also  finished cleaning her pumpkin for her, cleaned my pumpkin, and maybe Todd's pumpkin, too! He gets extra points for pumpkin cleaning this year!)

She was so focused as she put her pattern on her pumpkin .....

(I was playing around with camera settings that night. Sometimes, I almost know what I'm doing with that!!)

Our final group of jack-o-lanterns was a smaller bunch. You can sure tell that we have less carvers living at home this year!

Todd was especially impressive with his own jack-o-lantern (he enjoys doing the intricate work on these things), as well as working hard on Emma's "Frozen" pattern. She was so thrilled to wake up the next day and see it glow.

Brandon & Cecilia decided to have Baby D's blessing on November 1st, so we made the trip down to Utah so we could be there for the blessing. More about that in THIS POST.

Cecilia made super-cute matching Halloween costumes for the kids....

Emma, of course, had to be her favorite new princess.....

 

She thought that wearing purple eye shadow, mascara, and sparkles was just maybe the best part about her whole look!

(Brandon and Cecilia matched, too!)

Poor Miss Alyssa wasn't feeling too well that evening ....

I love this picture of Todd and Darius!!

What a cutie!!

A lot of the photos I edited the scratch on his forehead out. But, in the interest of full disclosure, there's the scratch on the poor little guy's head!

Meanwhile, down at college, .... Darcie has been having an absolute BLAST:

....      uhhhhhh, that's a lot of blue foam, there.

She goes hiking with the roommates and friends ....

And they had a blast at the football games:

And finally ---

I absolutely loved how our mums bloomed this year around the patio:  

That one in the middle hadn't yet opened up, but it was just as pretty as the others!

Flowers make me happy!!