Halloween

Halloween is happening complete with trick or treating!!! Everyone is so excited!

Traditional pumpkin carvings... Smiley face for Kate, BYU for Jacob,

angry face for Liam, creative for Claire, 

and Halloween-themed for Torin, who designed his own haunted house.

Liam decided that he was going to be Jared for Halloween, so we found a Precoa hat and nametag (we don't have much Great American stuff yet). Jared, conversely, was Liam, which meant jumping around and flapping his arms and talking nonstop.

The kids wore masks outside while trick or treating. There were some houses that had candy chutes to send candy down to the awaiting bags.

After the kids collected their haul, the optimized the contents of their bags through a system of exchange of sweet goods. I think everyone ended up happy with their candy.

 

Misc fall photos

One of Jacob's goals - fixing a bike - was accomplished by changing Dani's crank.

Jared's view. 2 deliveries by different UPS trucks at the same time!

The piles of laundry can be intense!

A regular site - masks washing and then drying.

Liam's school picture - a CLASSIC!

Halloween activity

Halloween art activity part 2

Liam and Torin got creative with their decorations!

 

a new office

Now that we are a few months into Jared working from home, we finally got the vision for how we want to finish our office and have gotten it done.

First, we bought a 10-foot butcher block (which was the exact size we needed). Dani finished it in the garage. We set it on Ikea drawers, added floating shelves and some other decorative elements.

We're super happy how it turned out! Jared's desk, on the other side of the office, gives him a great workspace with a nice window view.

 

Raking the neighbors leaves

The leaves have fallen, and one of our neighbors homes across the street dropped an especially large number of them, so after soccer, the kids grabbed their rakes and started raking.

They were especially excited to jump into the huge piles of leaves and bury themselves.

It was a wonderful act of service that they were all in on - so much so, that they started on the Sutton's right afterwards!

 

Mornings with Torin

Our mornings begin early with Jacob and Claire waking up to do seminary at home Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and to go in person on Tuesdays. Kate and Liam are up at 7:30 practicing piano, followed by Liam's cello practice. By 8:40, all that action is over, and it's just Torin, but he finds lots of ways to keep busy.

Often during the chaos, he spends time snuggling with Dani. Or just dropping off his fuzzy doggy so Dani can snuggle with it!

He went through a phase where he played with his kinetic sand on a daily basis. He made up story lines from the things he built and often accessorized as if he were at the beach.

Torin loves to play ABC Mouse, an educational computer program. As we led up to Halloween, Torin started wearing his Halloween costume, which he was given at a recent dentist appointment.

Torin sometimes joins Dani as she goes for a run. One day, they went one day over to Summit Park for their run and ended up going to the top of the tower. 

Jared takes Torin out to the bus stop almost every day. They enjoy playing a game of soccer or looking at the flowers.

 

Soccer season

This year is Torin's first year playing soccer - we are so happy to have the kids out on the field playing. Torin is in the instructional league. They split into 2 fields playing 3 v 3. According to him, at least, they're undefeated!

With the COVID pandemic still going, all soccer practice coaching and game spectating involve wearing masks. Most parents comply with it and most spectators sit 6+ feet apart. Coaching with a mask is a little challenging to be heard, but we're just happy to be playing!

We didn't get any pictures of Kate and Liam's teams... oops! Kate's team had 2 girls, including her friend Charlotte Busby, who were great soccer players so they were legitimately undefeated. Jared coached Liam's team, and they had a fun season.