Scary Stories and Smores

It's becoming a Young Women tradition - a campfire in October with smores...

and scary stories!

I even freaked them out with a creepy video about taking selfies. But one of the best moments of the night was when Carolyn's younger sisters tried to spy on us from their bedroom - they looked like two ghosts in the window!

And right before David showed up Melissa had told the girls a story about some psycho in a red flannel shirt. Check out what David was wearing! Yeah, the girls were a little on edge by this point.

Their "freaked out" picture. I absolutely LOVE Savannah's face in this one! Everyone else looks scared and she looks like a devil child.

Soccer, soccer, soccer!

This is what fills up our Saturdays in the fall - soccer!!! And lots of it!!!

Go, little No!

Big kicks from Xander.

Fighting for position.

Turn on your jets, Savannah!

Sometimes Xander was in goal, making great saves...

and then other times he was on the field, showing off his great throw-ins...

or evading defenders as he headed down the field with the ball.

I love this picture - he had just scored!

Throughout the season Noah continued to enjoy a front row seat on the field...

not sure what he's looking at when clearly everyone is running the other way...

and occasionally have moments of soccer brilliance. Okay, maybe not brilliance but when he would put his mind to it, he was a really good little soccer player.

Such concentration and foot work!

Battling against our least favorite team in the league...oh, how we couldn't stand this team!!! They were brutes with nasty attitudes.

We played them three times and each game was hard fought. Unfortunately our girls never beat them; we tied them once and then lost the other two.

Watching my kids play soccer is one of my favorite things to do so, even though our fall Saturdays are busy, busy, I wouldn't have it any other way.

X Turns 11!

11 years old! It's hard to believe!

The traditional sibling pose with the birthday balloons.

After getting Savannah and Noah off to school, David, Xander, and I headed to IHOP for Xander's birthday breakfast.

Me and my birthday boy.

He got one huge breakfast - eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, sausage - and finished it all! That's my Xander; he's an eater!

As a special birthday treat Xander got a Dr. Pepper for his dinner drink. He was pretty excited!

The gift pile.

Xander is all about smelling good so cologne was definitely on his wish list.

Some other highlights were a new Wii game,

a football,

some new pants since he keeps outgrowing all his clothes,

some Star Wars journal books,

and the biggee - a Peyton Manning jersey!

We  had some strawberry pie to finish up his birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday, X-Man! I hope all your wishes came true! (Except for the poor Legos selections I made.)

Xander's Favorites at 11:
     Color:  purple
     Food:  any kind of meat
     Movie:  Star Wars movies
     TV Show:  Lego Ninjago
     Book:  Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events
     Toy:  legos
     Animal:  cheetah
     Thing to Do:  play sports
     Sport to Watch:  football
     Sport to Play:  baseball
     Sports Team:  Broncos
     Sports Player:  Peyton Manning
     Fruit:  strawberry
     Vegetable:  onion
     Song:  "Sweet Caroline"
     Singer:  Neil Diamond
     Holiday:  Christmas
     Candy:  snickers
     Dessert:  ice cream
     Season:  winter
     Restaurant:  5 Guys
     Temple:  Salt Lake
     Scripture Hero:  Moroni
     Place to Go:  Grandma and Grandpa Schaeffer's house
     What He Wants to Be When He Grows Up:  NFL football player
     Best Friends:  Devon, Calvin, Ashur, and Drew

Buddy Burners

Noah is absolutely loving being a scout! Every week is another fun activity, like this one with the buddy burners. The boys got to cook hamburgers and hot dogs on their own little burner!
Getting it started!

Hamburgers take a little while to cook.

Hangin' with his bud Gabe.

Diggin' in!!