I ordered a wall calendar from Vista Print last year for free. The offer stands now you just have to pay for shipping!

Halloween Costumes:
Exactly like last year Dax could not decide what he wanted to be. The list included: Iron Man, Ostrich, Dragon, Cowboy, Snake, Mole, Ninja, Spider, Bat, and Zebra. The only one he kept going back to was Iron Man which I have absolutely no idea how he knows who he is, however, we settled there.

Lucas on the other hand wanted to be a Fly Fisherman and never looked back.

And Nolan is a dragon

"BUGS, BUGS, BUGS, That's What I Like!"
So the project for this month at school was to build a bug. Dax wanted a dragonfly. A red, orange, black and green dragonfly. With help from his dad using some wood, paint, plexiglas and a few other materials here's what the two created.

While on the subject, we have had hundreds of baby wolf spiders! They are everywhere. I suppose that each of those 5 humongous wolf spiders we killed laid well over 2000 eggs and tempo only killed a mere portion of those. I really hate bugs. It's gotten a lot worse with having kids. I'm a big ol pansie when it comes to killing one too. I hate having them on, around or near me. Nolan will pick up the little spiders and bring them to me while we're outside! I can hardly stand it!

Because this is all about bugs, this is among one of my kids favorite books "Ant, Ant, Ant! (An Insect Chant)" by April Pulley Sayre (Trip Park is the illustrator which makes this book so great)

My picture of Dax's treat for this month is terrible as it looks like I was short on frosting--which I wasn't! That being said, these are the best cupcakes I have ever had. This is not my recipe and I can't find where I found it, but here's the recipe:
1 box cake mix (any flavor)
1 cup buttermilk
vegetable oil (the amount suggested on box)
4 large eggs.
Place all ingredients in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until moistened (about 30 seconds) then increase the speed and beat 2 minutes longer. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full of batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Frosting:
1 stick butter
1-2 T milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar.
Beat until fluffy.

They are awesome!

Today Greg ran a 5K and the boys a hundred meter dash for Eagle View Community Health Awareness Day. They've all been preparing for weeks. Greg was the first guy to finish in his race and Dax took first and Lucas third in theirs.

Dax is really into racing lately. You can tell that this is his element (at least for the time being). They run around the track at school for PE a couple times a week and he always reports back as to who won. Lots of times he's just right being Bryce or Kaden and some times he wins. Too bad we don't live by the Ogilvies anymore so they could give him a few pointers!

Pumpkin Pancakes and Buttermilk Syrup my favorite.

One of the goals I set for myself a few weeks ago was to spend less leisure time on this computer. However, there is some great stuff to be found on it, when I do give myself a little free time!! Here's a couple sites:

"Sugardoodle" is a great Family Home Evening help.

"House of Smith's" has an adorable Halloween display. I'm not a big Halloween decorator, but I couldn't resist copying some of her ideas.

I'm going to make a Christmas Advent Calendar. I'm trying to reproduce this one from "Paper Princess Chronicles". I just really want my children to know the reason for the season as it seems every year Christmas comes and goes. We reenact the Christmas story on Christmas Eve, open our presents the next morning and it's all over. Over. I want it to be so much more than that. I want to savor the music, the smells, the feeling, the moments. Everything Christmas has to offer. So for this year I'm going to try to make it an experience and have something for us to do as a family 20-25 days out that prepare our hearts and minds for the holiday. Some of these ideas aren't bad. I welcome any traditions you might have!!

Everyone probably already knows about this website "The Learning Page", but I use it almost daily for at least one of my kids. It has great coloring pages and helps with learning the alphabet.

Boys are good. I'm gaining lots of weight and Greg finally got to go golfing.