Starring Kennedi Smith - as Timon!

 Kennedi Auditioned for the school play, "the Lion King" in September. At first she thought she wanted the part of young Nala, but her director, Miss Rucker knew better! She landed the part of Timon, and stole the show with her cute sense of humor! What a fun night! Great job, Kenz! All of your hard work definitely paid off!

 Dallin and I, excitedly awaiting the performance!

Timon discovering a very thirsty and tired Simba

Singing one of her two song solos, "Hakuna Matata."

"King...? Lady, have you got your Lions crossed?"

Finale!

 And, pleased with a performance well done!

They were so cute & proud of her!

 Kennedi with Ms. Rucker, the music teacher/Director.

A Team Ashlynn!!

    Ashlynn is playing soccer and basketball right now. So she goes straight from school to basketball practice. I then pick her up at 4:50 with some food and her soccer gear & drive her over to the soccer fields where she has practice from 5:30-6:30 & on Thursdays, she goes straight to piano practice. Luckily this will only last for 3 weeks! (Yes, that's Ashlynn exhausted after 4 hours of exercise in one day!!)

But even with all of her business, she still made the A TEAM!! Go ASH!!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween continues to be a favorite holiday!  The kids still love to carve pumpkins and they seem to be less and less grossed out by the pumpkin guts each year. 

              

On the way to the Trunk or Treat!

Tanner decided to be Superman! We were at Walmart and within 2 minutes, he saw this costume, and grabbed it. He loved having black hair!

                                              

Kennedi knew from the beginning that she wanted to be a "day of the dead" ghost girl. She loved playing the part & was very patient with all of the times we had to repaint her face.

Peyton had a hard time deciding what he wanted to be. 

So, about 5 minutes before the trunk or treat, he pulled out Harry Potter from last year. He thinks he looks better with black hair! 

The weather was absolutely perfect for Trick or Treating! It reminded me of North Carolina, with everyone outside visiting!

And Dallin decided be Dwight. He looked awesome!

There's a Snake in My Boot . . . or Driveway!

So, last night, Benson and I were driving home from the adult session of General Conference, and we pulled into our driveway. Benson stops his truck and then backs up. I have no idea what he's doing until he points out a snake coiled up in the center of our driveway. We get out to take a look at it in the light of the headlights, and sure enough there, lit up, is a RATTLESNAKE, ready to pounce!

So, obviously we have to kill it! But what's in the truck? Benson then remembers that he has this tiny little 22 in his truck. When we bought it, the salesman said that he has that exact gun to shoot rattlesnakes with. . . bingo! We call Dallin to bring us some scatter shells, so the bullet won't ricochet back towards us.  

The kids get in on the action, and watch Dad take 4 or 5 shots. Nice form, baby! The snake is obviously hit and injured by this point, but he is still moving. 

So Dallin wants to get in on the action! But he's scared of the snake and starts beating it all over, with the head of a shovel. 

Benson, feeling sorry for the snake, chops it's head and rattle (for a souvenir, of course!) off with the shovel,

 And throws it in the bushes! I don't think I will be exploring in the scrub oak for awhile!

Top Golf

    Benson has discovered something recently that he quite enjoys, Top Golf. So he wanted to take us and share with us this new found fun! 

It reminds me of bowling, only with a golf club, golf ball and a driving range type setup. Oh, and to make it even more fun, there's a menu to order food off of. 

Ashlynn took to it quite quickly and won the first game. With me in dead last.

 

Here's competitive Ash, checking the board to make sure that she is still in the lead!

 With great coaching, I'm sure, Talie's swing and game improved.

A guy next to us gave Dallin some tips, and told him that he had a nice swing. (Apparently this guy was coached by the same guy that coached Tiger Woods), and said that we need to get Dallin into some golf lessons. Dallin Woods perhaps?  (Although he did hit one ball into the ceiling, which came flying back to where we were sitting! When Benson asked the waitress if we could have helmets, she was utterly confused. Apparently, she hasn't seen that trick performed before).

There's Benson, checking the scores, hmm, I wonder where Ash gets her competitive nature from...?

And on the second game, I totally kicked butt!! That's right, I lead with 75 points! (I won't mention that it just happened to be because of a lucky bullseye shot worth 20 points...)

Well, I think this photo says it all, it was a fun morning outing with the big kids!

Then we came home to do yard work, which Peyton quite enjoys!

Tuesday, everyone was in school or work except for Tanner and I. Since we had one full day before he starts kindergarten, what better thing is there to do than climb Castle Rock!?! So we drop Kennedi and Peyton off at school and off we go!

I love the flag and the star on top of the rock, that are reminders of the free, promised land that we live in and that Christ is the reason for our celebration of Christmas. And I LOVE that Castle Rock continues to stand for these truths!

Had to match Tanner's selfie!

Tanner is always cracking me up! As we were hiking the rock, here are a few thoughts he shared with me: 

We hear a siren, "Phew, they're not after me, I sat in my carseat the whole way here!"

and

Tanner is a typical 5 year old little boy, and every potty word just cracks him up, so recently, to try to get him to stop saying them, Ashlynn told him that potty words are bad words and we can't say them in heaven. Apparently, that's been on his mind, because on Tuesday, he says, 

"Mom, will we have a house in heaven?"
"Yes, Tanner, in the scriptures Jesus tells us that he will build us mansions for us to live in heaven with him."

"How long will we live there?"

"Forever!"

"Sigh, I don't think I can keep my bad words in for that long!"

 Then we met Dallin at the Ortho's for a long appointment and a chance to talk to the ortho. to see how his progress is going. I go back there, and there is Dallin with his braces OFF! But it didn't last long, they threw them back on and told him to continue to faithfully wear his rubber bands! I'm sure he was SO disappointed!

Before

After!

A much needed Kindergarten haircut! Tanner probably lost 5 lbs.! He is cute; he just jibber jabbers the entire time he gets his hair cut. I'm sure he's telling the lady all of our family secrets!

And then, that night Ashlynn makes a buddy as he is crawling out of her bathtub drain! I don't even want to know what he climbed through to get out of her drain! She brought him upstairs and he hops off of the pink container, right onto Tanner's head!