Ding Dong The Wicked Witch is Dead!!!

So I, being a huge fan of Thanksgiving and an un-ashamed Christmas addict, am not a big fan of Halloween, and I am SO excited it's over!  Hence the title, it aptly describes my joyous emotions for the end of a rather time consuming (and in my opinion kind of pointless) holiday.




David: He is growing so fast! He is walking like a pro, even in shoes too big for him, can go up and down stairs at his leisure, and thoroughly enjoys a good dum-dum lollipop with the best of them.

He has started using words, and can say things like "dog, thank you, glasses, and shoes", and likes to make shooting sounds when he's holding a nerf gun.  He often can be found walking around the house going "a-choo" because it makes us do it, and he thinks it's hilarious.

He loves dogs, and was caught trying to run across the soccer complex last week to catch up with one that was in no way close enough for him to ever reach.  He is so full of life and I enjoy being his mommy every second of the day...except right before and after nap time when he turns into a screaming banshee. :)

Caleb:  Caleb is enjoying a lot in life.  He is potty trained!!! He has only had one accident this week (he was having way too much fun playing with friends and didn't want to stop to go potty) and is even staying dry most nights, although he likes to wake up before Byron's 6 am alarm and come into our room saying "Daddy, daddy! I need to go the bathroom" followed by a very groggy Byron following him in while he says "I wanna sand" (I want to stand)

He loved Halloween and has been asking every morning since the first Halloween party "Can I have a trick-or-treat?" He started this Halloween's festivities as a skeleton in his glow in the dark pajamas, but ended up a cow-boy by the end since I was so tired of washing the skeleton pajamas every other day.

My favorite right now though, is that he asks every morning after breakfast if we're going to go "ekersize".  He loves going to the Y and playing with Miss Brandy in childcare, he is such a great motivator in the morning when I'd rather stay home and tackle laundry.

Byron: I don't know if there is much to report this week on my beloved.  He is working hard, loving the fact that he can ride his bike, and he gets to go play racquetball this morning with a brother from our ward who moved here over the summer from Idaho.  He invited some other guys, but none of them could make it.  Hooray for friends with Y passes though!

Arielle:  I am a lot more social than I was 6 months ago.  I regularly attend a girls night that my friend plans every month, have recently found myself in charge of our weekly playgroup, and make it to thy Y almost every morning again.  I am getting better at keeping up with dishes, which is pretty major since I have done everything I could to avoid them since moving back here, and have even almost thought of them as therapeutic, except for the days where the boys won't take naps and end up hanging on my legs as I work on them.

In General:  This week has been a busy one.  Monday was Charlie's 4th birthday, so after my morning work out, we invited Charlie and my parents to join us at Chick-fil-a for lunch.  That evening after dinner we went to the soccer park and enjoyed cupcakes with him and the rest of the family.
Wednesday night we went to the temple.  My wonderful visiting teacher watched the boys while Byron and I went to a sealing session.  It was wonderful, and I loved being in the temple and feeling Heavenly Father's spirit surround me.
Thursday night we had the elders over and our new Home teachers.  One of our Elders has been playing the piano since he was 8 years old and is incredibly talented.  He has memorized several songs and can play almost anything by John Schmidt.  It's awesome to have him over and feel the incredible strength of the spirit amplified through his gift for playing such beautiful music.
Friday night was Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  It was a dark, cold, rainy night and even though I went through 2 or 3 huge bags of airheads, I didn't even go through a whole bowl of candy this year, and have a ton of leftover candy.  I wish I had kept the receipt so I could return all the leftovers that are still in their bags.

Byron's Birthday!: He's 27 years old now! He got nerf guns that he and Caleb play with regularly, and I gave him tickets to the Schuster Center's Season Opening performance.  It was a beautiful collaboration between the Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Ballet, and Dayton Opera called A Russian Panorama.  They did 8 pieces from different Classic Russian composers and we really enjoyed the atmosphere of the Schuster and the live music. I was a bit nervous, since I really just wanted to get him tickets to a Philharmonic performance, but Byron had never seen ballet before, so it turned out to be the perfect gift.  My wonderful parents took the boys over night, so we got all dressed up, went out for dinner, and were able to enjoy the entire performance without worrying about how early we would have to get up the next morning with the boys.

Well, I guess that pretty much covers what we've been up to recently.

We hope you're all enjoying life and making memories to last forever!

Caleb went trick-or-treating last night as a cowboy

It worked out that his coat seemed to just be part of the costume. :)

We went on a hayride and pumpkin picking one week last month for playgroup 

David got the bigger pumpkin which Caleb quickly claimed when we got home.

My handsome love the morning of his birthday - with David trying to steal his fruit.

At the Schuster Center.
The room was backlit and I forgot my camera.
so this is the best we've got, but it was fun dressing up and spending an evening out together.

My handsome baby David. This was the first time he wore shoes.

Playing at the playground and waiting for Uncle CJ's game to start.