My Dad is so awesome! He wrote a song about his experience in Africa and sang it for the Nu Skin Convention last Saturday! It was beautiful, and very moving.  This is not something I ever thought I would see my dad do. He was so brave, and it was well worth it. 

Family Business

(a family home evening tradition)

- Baden gave a talk on service in primary yesterday! (he did great!)

-Gavin gave a prayer in primary yesterday! (actually I gave the prayer... but Gavin stood there!)

-Jer & Chrissy met the Goo Goo Dolls (it was better than expected)

-Avery stood up all by herself yesterday for the first time!

High: Watching Dad sing the Africa Song at the Nu Skin Convention

Low: Putting Avery's baby clothes into storage. (I miss those days!)

The Goo Goo Dolls came to the Nu Skin convention last weekend.  It was a great show! We got to meet them after!  

    Jason's Dutch Oven Dinner Night!

We had a full UEA weekend this year. The weather is absolutely gorgeous and I don't remember a fall with more vibrant colors or mild temperatures. I took the kids to Barnyard Boo out at Thanksgiving Point on Thursday.  I had never been before, and we had a great time.  Early Friday morning we took Gavin down to the hospital to have his second set of tubes put in his ears and his adenoids taken out. He seems to take after me in the "don't let the doctor touch me" department. But we had a great anesthesiologist who treated him like gold and made the whole experience much, much easier than last time.  I'm writing a letter to the hospital to sing his praise. Gavin has been a champ during recovery.  We had hoped that losing the adenoids would alleviate his snoring, but last night when I checked on him he was as loud as ever, I could hear him down the hall - poor kid. We spent the rest of the day at Cornbelly's which has been a really fun Halloween tradition for our family. A highlight for us this year was getting to crack open a geode and launching pumpkins out of a canon. We also found that Avery goes nuts over slides.  The boys are getting braver every year when it comes to "The Beast" (a dragon-like monster that you walk through similar to a haunted house) but they still don't love it like I do. Halloween is my #2 most favorite holiday - second only to Christmas.  Saturday night, Grandma & Grandpa Blick came over because Jason cooked a dutch oven dinner for us that was AMAZING! Thanks Jason. Sunday we spent with my dad's side of the family. It was a good old fashioned Lund family Sunday. It was a great UEA - and now it's back to school, work and laundry. 

I went with Gavin's preschool class on a field trip to the fire station, which we were both really excited about! He got to climb through a fire truck, wear firefighter clothes and spray the hose. Too bad my flash stopped working and my pictures are blurry - grr.  

Pumpkin Bars

4 eggs

1 - 2/3 c. sugar

1 c. oil

1 16oz. can pumpkin

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

Frosting

1 3oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. butter softened

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. powdered sugar

Beat eggs, sugar oil and pumpkin till fluffy. stir in dry ingredients. 

Bake on 15x10x1 baking pan at 350 degrees for 25 min. cool and frost.

Frosting: cream together cream cheese and butter.

 Add vanilla and sugar in small amounts, beat well. 

Mashed Potatoes

6 cups cubed redskin potatoes

3 heaping TBS horseradish

3/4 cup butter softened

1 1/2 tsp. salt, and to taste

1 1/2 cups shredded Gouda cheese. 

Boil potatoes until very soft - Drain.  

Add butter, salt and whip until butter melts. 

Whip in remaining ingredients. 

Serves about 6. 

Avery turned one last month! She is a joy for our whole family. 

It's so fun to make a girlie cake!

How about a little help

Kelsey gave Avery some funny baby high heels!

Jeremy was the soccer coach for my boy's team this fall. It was a lot of fun, and we had a great team with fun kids. These are some clips of my boys:

When Baden plays soccer he pretends to be Anakin Skywalker and he's flying in a starship. If you watch, you can tell.

Gavin is 4. We have found with our kids that at age 4, soccer is all about exposure : )

Seriously, this is how she moves around!