September and October 2020

Since the summer got away from us visiting family, it was time for me to take a quick trip down to see our friends in Amarillo! (Besides, there was a new family member to meet!)

This time it was just a girls trip, so Hannah and I packed the car with all the boys clothes Dallin has grown out of and headed south.

Miss Halle was approaching her 8th birthday, so that means baptism pictures!

 

We also brought our felt boards with us to help entertain the kiddos- and they LOVED them!

And when things get dull at church- just go catch a preying mantis!

Hannah always loves the time to be with girls!

And this squishy little guy!

Oh my goodness, he was delightful.

Hello baby Boyd!

And since Seth wanted to get in on the action we got some pics of him too!

It is always nice to get to chill for a few days with the Smith family!

And getting to take pics of them is an added bonus :)

Back at home, with the basement done we moved on to building shelving space in the top half of our oddly tall garage!

To make sure it would hold all the Christmas decorations we had the kids go up and test it!

My artist- always making something new!

My soccer player (since with covid they don't do official pictures we did our own!)

And with the close of soccer comes the fall colors...which means a trip to the park for some family pictures!

We were trying to pose this one with my camera set on a timer, and it wasn't going super well.

A couple from our ward came by and helped plop Dallin on top so we could snap the picture using the remote pen for my phone, and we did it!

With school still being a sketch situtation, there was no field day this year...so we went to the incline just us (and Benji!)

October brings Levi's birthday!

Look who is 7!

We did a family party at home, with a Nerf theme.

Whoa, that is a big gun!

My first home-made ice cream cake!

He wanted orange dreamcicle ice cream and vanilla cake- which left me with no choice but to do it myself. But it was quite yummy!

For a friend party we did a combined party for Levi and Hannah (who's bday we skipped because the world was quarantined!) at Sky Zone!

What a mottley crew of kiddos!

(All of whom were happy to see each other, in public, at a play place- again)

Just a Saturday night at the Basses- our 8 kids together is a sight to see!

Guess what else opened back up???

The Candlelight Dinner Theater! Hurray!

And last, but not least, October contains Halloween!

This was was especially memorable for a few reasons...

On our way out the door to the Trunk-or-Treat things were, as usual, a bit hectic!

Through all the confusion about who was coming with me and who needed to be in a separate car, etc. we were left with the front seat of my car unoccupied but the door wide open while I am idling in the middle of our street.

I asked if anyone was going to shut the door- and heard nothing but silence- so I decided to try my hand at Jeremy's trick of slamming on the breaks to shut the door....right at the same moment Nathan unbuckled and started to lean over the console to shut the door.

What happened was Nathan flew into the dashboard and wound up with his glasses cutting a nice slice in his eyebrow!

This Legolas was going to need to be patched up. I had him go inside where J assessed the damage while I dropped my car/trunk off at the church just down the street (because of covid only 20 cars could sign up to hand out candy and I hated to drop out last minute if it could be helped!)

I parked, left the 3 other kids there and ran home (my fastest half mile yet!).

By the time I got there, Jeremy had super glued it shut!

Nathan really wanted to go, so off we went- battle wound and all!

This was the first year we did not do a family costume because the kids wanted to give a go at choosing their own costumes and the world was closed up, so what they hey!?

Levi was Master Chief- shown here with his bestie Trevin!

Hannah went as Sleeping Beauty- Aurora- and met up with her girls!

Once the super glue dried, Nathan was able to don his wig without worry of it becoming permanently attached :)

Sure enough, he quickly met up with his bestie, Cooper, and told the tale of woe.

When everyone asked what had happened, he started with "I was in a car accident...my mom hit me with the car."

?!@#$%$#@- really son?

I let the kids help a lot with the decorations this year, and Hannah loved it!

She would go out and light these poor shrinking candles as often as she remembered to.

We also went to the Castle Rock trunk or treat to meet up with a few friends we had been missing from school at Cloverleaf- what with the virtual school and all.

We decided not to carve our pumpkins until the day of Halloween this year, so they would stay fresh!

It was great, and helped keep the "how much longer" questions at bay.

And finally, it was time.

Posing with our scary porch people/statue thingys:

And a spooky pre-trick-or-treak dinner with our friends, the Basses!

They went all out and even made homemade pizza!

We had so many pumpkins that they could not all fit in one picture...

but they turned out great!

Levi's Needler gun lit up at night to look pretty cool.

And even a princess can look a little bit like a witch in the right situation!

The spoils!!!

So many people were happy to have inter-personal interactions that the trick or treating this year was super awesome. What a haul!

That officially wrapped up our October- and as we got closer to fall and winter...the itch started to return to head back to Arizona. And when you have an itch, it's best just to give it a scratch!