'TIS THE SEASON

For basketball.

This will be my sixth year reffing,

and I can't express in words

how excited I am

to do this again.

SANTA'S WORKSHOP

It's time to get to work.

We've only got a few more weeks until Christmas 

 Where some husband out there is expecting a quilt

 And I have no idea what I'm doing.

Yay...

THURSDAY NIGHTS

To try to represent following the Holy Ghost,

we tied the girls' legs together

with one girl blindfolded

And they had to make their way through an obstacle course 

Trusting on the directions given by the other girl. 

It was pretty freakin funny.

Then, in an act of bravery, we tried these: 

Meet a Twinkie-wrapped hot dog with Cheez-Whiz. 

 GROSS.

I can't believe how many people ate them.

KLEENEX

A very dear friend moved away today.

You'd think I'd be used to it.

Our Bishop always says

our ward has the very best people in the world

who are on their way to someplace else.

So we have super-high turnover.

Not a good thing for someone like me with attachment issues.

 Kieiki,

who has been serving as one of my YW Counselors for about six months,

is moving with her beautiful family to Springville.

And I cried like a baby today.

Here's a woman who knows who she is,

how to fully dedicate her life to serving others,

and how to bear testimony of Christ with the Spirit.

Oh, how dearly I will miss her!

PHOTOSHOOT

Since Phil was out of town this week

I decided I needed some girl time with my neice.

Yes, this one. 

 She is probably my favorite person ever.

And we were getting pretty silly. 

 I mean, how many two-yr-olds

can make these kinds of facial expressions??

It sucks so bad she lives way out in Salt Lake.

SANTA IS WATCHING

In the spirit of a true Halloween-Scrooge

I suggested we set treats outside and let the kids go to town.

I saw this idea on "The Chew"

 Just a screwdriver and a bag of DumDums.

We each went to town with the pumpkins we got from our garden
(that's right, we didn't buy ANY pumpkins this year!)

and ended up with this: 

It was so cute, and we heard the neighbors loved it!

"CRUISE"

In attempts to "broaden our horizons"

we decided to go down to Provo's Clas Ropes Halloween Cruise.

After some Mexican food, we bundled up and got in a "boat"

And waited for something exciting to happen.

We saw some carved pumpkins on the side of the river

and saw ghost/pumpkin lights...

And had nothing else to take a picture of.

Never again.