Brooklyn gets baptized.

We went to our second day of church this month.  This time it was to see Brooklyn get baptized.  Her ceremony was a lot different than Jacob's.  She got all the way in the water.  

All the babies there were really good about sitting there without clothes on and then going in the water.  

Brooklyn's dress was very lovely.  It was made from her Nana's old wedding dress.  

This toy was a total hit.  It was a bear that talked.  Not in a silly babyish voice, but in a man voice talking about prayers and how you need to give your parents a break, be good, etc.  She was enthralled.  The bear had a very commanding presence and had everyone's attention.

snow

It snowed a whole bunch last weekend.  We went out to play and went sledding Saturday and Sunday.  

We built a snow cat.  I have no doubt that this is the best snow-being ever created.

It was a lot easier to take pictures when it wasn't snowing cats and dogs.

I don't know what Lukey was doing in this picture.  

Lukey was constantly eating snow the whole time we were out.  Even when he was sledding.

By Sunday the snow cat had fallen over.  We tried to sort of put it back together but it ended up pretty sorry looking.

Before we went out Anna said that she wanted to fill a bucket with snow.  She got right to it.  

reading and writing

Anna has started writing the alphabet.  Some of her letters need work, but overall she's doing a pretty good job!  She's also gotten into asking how words are spelled.  She can spell cat, owl, mommy, Anna, Luke, Da, Batman, stop, go, bat, no and maybe other things on her own.  

We had never asked Anna to write her first and last name before but she could spell it, so I gave it a try.  She did this all by herself without help with what letter came next or how to write the letters or anything!  Our last name is not easy, so I thought it was pretty good.

Lukey loves school and has brought home some cool projects.  This was one of our favorites.  Its about who lives in his house with him.  He wrote most of it himself (obviously not the part that the teacher wrote under his words) but said he needed help with how to spell 'sister'.  It's nice that this year he likes to draw.  Last year he didn't have much interest in drawing things. 

Fall leaves and Jacob gets baptized.

We got seeds to put in a pot early in the summer from Target for about $1.  I don't know what kind of flower these are, but we really like them.  They're really tall and kept sprouting new flowers through almost November.  

It was good day to take some fall pictures because it was warm out.  As always,  Anna was happy to frown for pictures.

Ha!  Caught a smile!

And another frown.

Last Sunday we went to church for Jacob's baptism.  The last time we went to church was for Paige's baptism about 2 years ago.  This month we'll be going twice in one month!  (Brooklyn's baptism is coming up). I think that's a record for Lukey, Anna and myself.  The kids were pretty good there for the beginning then Lukey said he didn't want to be there and they went upstairs in a play room where Lukey got to hang out with one of his favorites friends from school.  

They were really good during this kids message time when all the kids were asked to go to the front to learn about how special they are.  They got a certificate for being a VIP.  

Jacob was pretty good at the baptism.  The minister said he was a big boy.  

Halloween

Lukey had a really fun Halloween party at school the day before Halloween.  He wasn't allowed to wear a mask for the parade so he decided to go as Luke Skywalker.  There were a lot of Darth Vaders but only one Luke Skywalker, which was this boy.  He had fun at his party and was in a really wild mood for the rest of the day.  

This year Lukey has gotten really into coloring and writing, which is pretty great.  

Uncle Ben came over the night before to help carve pumpkins.  Anna was very excited about this and requested a Hello Kitty pumpkin like she had last year.  She also wanted a butterfly.  Uncle Ben made a Darth Vader for Lukey.  They looked great!  

Anna decorated this pumpkin.

Lukey drew all over his pumpkin and laughed hysterically about it.  He didn't draw anything worth carving.  The best thing he did on the pumpkin was draw a picture of Darth Vader and wrote next to it, "You are my son."  We thought that was really funny and will probably forever think of that as what Darth Vader's lines should have been in the Empire Strikes Back.  Later, while he was distracted by watching Star Wars, I wiped it all off and Uncle Ben turned it into Darth Vader.  

We messed up and didn't get a white pumpkin to draw a sheep on like we usually do.  This worked out pretty well though.

The whole crop.  The painted ones our neighbors gave us.  They all look great!  

During the day on Halloween, we went to Maeve's soccer game then to their house for her birthday party.  As usual, the kids enjoyed watching Kent play with his I-pad.  

Lukey was Darth Vader and Anna was Hello Kitty.  We played for awhile at the party then went home and rushed out to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. They did pretty well.  They were good about saying trick-or-treat loud and clear and always said thank you.  I didn't get any pictures later in the night because by the time we got home we had to just get out there right away then get back to have a late dinner. 

Evie joined in too.  

Anna said she wanted to be Hello Kitty for Halloween.  I looked on Amazon to try to find just a cat ear headband and this costume ended up being really cheap so I just bought the whole thing.  Even cheaper was a big Hello Kitty costume.  Anna was very excited for us to dress up together for Halloween.  It was worth the $9.  Usually we're "mum sisters" but on Halloween she said that we were "mummy sisters".  I thought that was pretty clever of her.  

It was very rainy out in Holland so they set up the piñata inside.  This worked until it started to make a hole in the wall where it was hanging.  All the kids got a turn though.  Then the started just attacking it to get it opened.  

Kent was VERY concerned with making sure that everyone just got as many hits as they were allowed and that the blindfold had to be on the bigger kids.  He really wanted to knock it down.  

No one actually knocked it down.  They just all attacked it at once.  Except Anna.  She stood off to the side uncertain of the whole situation.