Noah's New Look

Boy, was it hard for me when Xander decided that he really wanted a faux-hawk. I have always been so conservative and didn't think I could handle anything outside of the conservative missionary haircut.  But Xander sure did look cute and I learned to love it. Now there's Noah - ever since he saw his cousin Kellan's mohawk that was all he wanted. So yes, I caved and once again am pleasantly surprised.
The casual look:

A little more dapper!

The day after Noah got his mohawk we were at Xander's soccer game and a little friend of Noah's ran up to his mom and said, "I want a mohawk just like Noah!"  Little Noah, starting a trend among his peers! Never thought I'd like it but it totally fits Noah's personality.

What Lump?

For the past 20 years this has been an ongoing exchange between me and my dad:
My dad: "You know, Tracie, with today's advances in medical technology we can definitely take care of that lump."
Me: "What lump?"
If this funny little conversation sounds familiar then you might just have seen the hilarious Mel Brooks movie Young Frankenstein. In one scene Gene Wilder, who plays Dr. Frankenstein, pats Igor on the shoulder, noticing that Igor has a substantial hump on his back. Dr. Frankenstein proceeds to say the whole thing about how medical advances could remove his hump and of course that's when Igor, with all seriousness, answers, "What hump?" It then becomes a joke throughout the movie especially when the hump moves to Igor's other shoulder. Anyway, my dad has always found this so funny with me because although I do not have a hump on my back I DO have a lump. This lump, or really cyst, showed up sometime in my high school years and has been there ever since. I don't really think about it but David has never found it too appealing and my mom even drew a face on it last summer. Over the past few years I've noticed that it's been growing larger so I finally decided to go ahead and get it removed.

It turns out that modern medicine does make it a pretty easy procedure but it's still a surgery that required donning the lovely little hospital robe, getting painful though extremely fast action numbing injections in my back, and enduring the smell of burning human flesh and insides as the cut was cauterized. I asked to see the cyst once it was removed and was thoroughly disgusted by what had been in my back all these years.

The first few days I was in a bit of pain but had wonderful painkillers on hand. Unfortunately it turned out that I was allergic to them but that's okay because I really started feeling better quickly. Unfortunately the stitches don't come out until next week - 12 days after surgery! But I am now lump free and my dad is going to have to find something else to tease me about for the next 20 years.

Opportunities to Serve

We were so blessed to make it through Hurricane Sandy without any mishaps but others were not so fortunate, especially those in New York and New Jersey. The Sunday after the hurricane our church leaders put out a call for donations that would be driven up to New York and given to those most in need. The items asked for included winter clothing, winter coats, shoes, and blankets. Monday night our family headed to our Stake Center with donations as well as to stay and help in whatever way we could. When we walked in this is what met our eyes!

Tons of volunteers tackling the immense piles and bags of clothing that had to be sorted and packed up into boxes. We dove right in to help!

My little Mormon Helping Hands workers!

And hey, I even made the Mormon newsroom! That's me in the back with my wonderful University of Utah shirt on. (I bet those BYU Mormons absolutely hated seeing that - Utes are supposed to be a bunch of drunks, not good Mormons doing service!)

It was such a rewarding night and I truly hope the kids remember the part they played in helping out those whose lives were devastated by this horrible storm.

Bright and early the next morning the kids and I joined a few other families from our ward to sell baked goods to help raise money for those same Hurricane Sandy victims. We set up shop outside the elementary school hoping to draw people to our little stand after they stopped in to vote.

We were extremely successful, raising over $300 to send to those in need. It was wonderful to see how good people can be in a crisis! We had people hand us $10 and $20 without purchasing anything but just wanting to contribute. I am so grateful for these wonderful opportunities we have had lately to serve others.

Xander's Soccer Season

Xander had another fun fall soccer season! His team, The White Sharks, only lost 2 games and Xander was able to contribute to his teams' success by scoring a goal in almost every game they played. His skills are improving each year but, most importantly,he is having a ton of fun!
Some pictures from the season:

We ended the season with style - a pizza party!

Another trophy for the dresser!

Great season, White Sharks!

Halloween

Although the kids were out of school on Wednesday, October 31st, the rain had let up and every kid in the area was ready to get out and trick or treat! Yes, Halloween was still on!
That afternoon we finally got around to carving our pumpkins.

Unfortunately for poor Xander his pumpkin did not survive Hurricane Sandy. Due to its extreme rottenness, we only carved out a mouth and pulled some of its guts out to make it look like the pumpkin was throwing up. Xander drew a little face on it as well. Xander was a good sport about the whole thing and the other kids were actually a little jealous about how cool Xander's pumpkin turned out to be.

Along with the puking pumpkin we had Savannah's cyclops pumpkin (with stubble, she was proud to point out)

and Noah's pumpkin with three eyes!

Since finally joining Pinterest a couple weeks ago I had a ton of fun Halloween foods that I decided to make for dinner. The kids were really excited to dine on mummy dogs, bones with blood dipping sauce, apples with caramel, ghostly bananas, Frankenstein kiwis, string cheese fingers, Jack-o-lantern mandarin oranges, and Frankenstein pudding.

Ready to head out and collect candy from complete strangers! Yes, I still believe Halloween is the strangest holiday.

Scary Xander, the Phantom of Death! He only made it through our neighborhood and then headed home with David.  He's just not a candy guy.

Hermoine Granger  and Sir Noah made it a lot longer and we actually hit a bunch of houses outside our immediate neighborhood.

What a candy haul!

Surviving Sandy

In anticipation of Hurricane Sandy hitting us late Monday, the schools closed and I had the kids home with me. Even David was home after our state governor directed everyone to get off the roads and get home. So, what to do as we sat inside, waiting for the brunt of the storm to hit us?

• Sleep in!  I love when the kids don't have school because we get to stay in bed a bit longer than usual.
• Movie Marathon!  We had been warned that we would lose power sometime Monday night into Tuesday so I allowed the kids to watch a ton of movies on Monday.  They loved it and watched all four Halloweentown movies.

• We did some silly things, like one of my personal favorites, the face-on- chin conversation.

• We were lucky enough to still have power Monday night and as the rain poured down and the wind roared we cheered on our 49ers to victory!

We were lucky enough to never lose power so Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in comfy jammies and a warm house with all our modern conveniences in check. I know that so many in our area were not as lucky as we were so I was definitely counting my blessings. We did a lot of :

• talking
• snacking
• reading
• playing games

• putting together Legos

My heart goes out to the thousands of people that suffered and are still suffering from the affects of Hurricane Sandy. For us it was basically a few fun days with the kids home from school.

Trunk or Treat

Thank goodness for the Trunk or Treat at church, especially as Hurricane Sandy approaches and we don't know if there will be regular trick or treating on Halloween! The weather was absolutely beautiful this year, unlike last year when everyone was so bundled up to survive the freezing cold temperatures that a person couldn't even tell what everybody was dressed up as. David and I fell short on the brilliant costume ideas this year so last second I threw on my Utah Ute shirt and paired it with my devil wig and horns. I figured since all the BYU fans in our ward think we're heathens anyway I would play up that angle. Upon pulling my devil wig out of our costume bin I happened across a BYU hat. Who knows why we would have such a thing in our house but it ended up being perfect - David wore it and was the sweet, angelic BYU guy and I was the devilish Ute. People in the ward got a kick out of it!

Savannah's friend from school came along for the fun and they had a great time collecting candy!

Xander was the Phantom of Death though he didn't like wearing the hood on his robe. Although he did collect some candy he had more fun hanging out with David at the car and handing out the treats to all the kids.

This year Noah chose to be a knight and asked multiple times a day to go look at his costume which I kept in my closet so it wouldn't be ruined before he could wear it for actual trick or treating. He sure looked cute!

The great candy swap! Every year the kids divide up their candy and trade the kinds they don't want in hopes of getting something more to their taste. It cracks us up.

Once again we had another fun time at the annual trunk or treat. Not only is it fun to hang out with friends and get candy but I love seeing all the fabulous costumes that people come up with! We had the wicked witch of the west, Charlie Chaplin and the orphan, and our bishop was the chef guy from the Muppets but the best came from the Blood family once again who got their inspiration from the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Jon was Indiana Jones, Megan was the huge boulder Indy runs from in the cave, their little boy Seth was a native, and their little girl Catherine was the golden idol Indy was after. I wish I had gotten a picture! Can't wait to get the creative juices flowing for next year!

Family Fun

We were so lucky to have both sets of grandparents as well as the Clarks here to witness Xander's special baptism day. As always, we have so much fun together! The kids absolutely love having their cousins here and come up with all kinds of fun things to do to keep themselves entertained.
Noah and Kellan love to dress up, play Star Wars, and run around togeher.

The girls had a blast doing "un-makeup"; one girl is blindfolded and then applies makeup to another girl. The results were just as one would expect in an activity like this one.

Too funny!

And of course there's soccer! We all woke up bright and early for Xander's game and had to bundle up because it was quite the cold morning.
All his fans!

Xander had a great game, scoring a goal, and celebrating another win with his team.

We were a little warmer at Savannah's afternoon game which just happened to be one of the most exciting games of the season. The game remained close until about the middle of the second half when Savannah's team started to break away, scoring 3 goals, one by Savannah right at the end, to deliver her team the decided victory!

We definitely cherish these special times we get to spend together.