Table for Eight

Jr. and Zu--on their way to Trunk-or-Treat. Dust off your Thriller CD/MP3 people because it's party time:  Halloween is FINALLY here.  Heck yeah! We had a kind of "dress rehearsal" for Halloween last night and attended our ward's/congregation's annual * Trunk-or-Treat Party. It was AWESOME. We had soup and pie for dinner, a children's costume parade, and then the traditional "trunk-or-treat." It was tons of fun! (Though we missed Papaya because she was at her team's Volleyball Championships. They came in 4th overall. Yehoo!) ( * For non-Mormon peeps = Mormons like to decorate our cars, park them in the church parking lot, pop the trunk, and have the kids trick-or-treat from car to car. I think in many areas this began as a way to give kids access to lots of candy without making them canvas large, aka spooky, neighborhoods. It's really fun.) Lu as a Native American hunter. (She got the bow and arrow first--because she lov...

THE HoneyCrisp Apple. No existential crises today on the blog. Phew! But I do have to one question for you: How much is too much for an apple? In other words, when you buy your produce how much do you typically spend on, say, apples? Why, do you ask? Well, thanks for asking. (Ha!) You see, yesterday when I was grocery shopping I asked Bam to pick out the apples. (She's our apple eater.) And so she did.  She looked at the choices (which seemed like they were in the hundreds), grabbed a pre-packed sack, and put them in the cart. To me, and my untrained eye, they looked like your average apples. But oh, how wrong was I. Apparently Bam picked out the Apples of All Apples. How do I know?  As I was putting the receipt in my bag, my eye caught the price of said-apples: 6 apples = $15.70 I nearly fell over when I saw that price. I may have paid $500.00 for a rotisserie chicken on Survivor Caramoan, but that was after not eating for 28+ days. I've never, ...

Bam as Alice In Wonderland. (PS: Thank you Marthe--her church youth group leader--for MAKING this dress!) First of all, I just have to say this: our daughter Bam is hands-down the most peaceful person I know. Just thinking of her calms ME. She finds happiness in every new day. It's incredible. And this photo is a super-amazing reminder/example of that for me. (Plus, I've may have said this before? But I think adopting our children has given me an extra helping of gratitude for their personalities and traits. They are sometimes like Dave and I, but others times so SO different. I'm really grateful for that/this.) Okay now: it's Halloween week and I have 2.8 million things on my To Do List. And while I could write the list here, and give you a serious laugh-attack, I thought I'd just share the 2.8 millionth thing on the list. It pretty much sums up how I'm approaching life right now:  DAWN's TO DO LIST # 2...

We were able to take the kids to a corn-maze-pumpkin-festival-thingy in Utah last night. (And two friends. Which is always a hard thing for us. With 6 kids, if everyone brings a friend, we are short on seatbelts-- and sometimes cash --ha! So we end up doing this somewhat consistent rotation for bringing a friend to family events. Which, I'm pretty sure the kids will need therapy over because it never turns out "fair." If you know what I mean.) Anyway, my point! I don't think we'd been to something like this since the kids were tiny, and it was actually a lot of fun. There was so much to do! (The corn maze itself, pig races, goat races, pumpkin launching, mini-corn mazes, horror houses, paintball shooting, potatosack slides, and so much more.)  It felt a little like the County Fair, only with more "all inclusive" rides and games. We liked it! (PS: I'm always reluctant to post the names of places we go--because I'm wo...

Papaya--a long time ago. Probably age 6? I read something this week that really got me thinking. And I'm bummed because I didn't write it down, but here's the jist of it: "Some of us are expecting our children to grow up to be respectable citizens ... without ever showing our children what a respectable citizen LOOKS LIKE." BOOM!   In other words, unless we are SHOWING our children HOW to be a "good human being" on Planet E., then we can't expect them to KNOW how to be a good human being on Planet E. BOOM! I know, profound, right? It's not that I had never thought of this before, but I think I needed to be reminded . Big time. Because if Dave and I can't show our children HOW to treat people kindly, how to care for living creatures (including themselves), how to work hard, how to bounce back after failure or disappointment ... how to ENJOY life, etc., then how in the world do we expect them to do it themselves? It all...

This year's corn maze. I am an early riser. I like being up a few hours before the sun. But this year's end to Daylight Savings (U.S. peeps) is killing me: I'm seriously up for HOURS and HOURS before the sun. And I tell ya, it's got me all upside down. I can no longer "sense" when it's time to stop doing MY things and get the house going--waking up the kids, prepping for class, doing laundry, etc.  It feels like it's just pitch black every morning ... until 8am on the nose. When. Will. It. End?  Soon, I think. November-something. Thankfully. (Then I'll have something new to complain about: as it will be pitch black from 5pm on. Ha.) PS: I hope you are having a great week. Our kids are on Fall Break and loving it. And to be honest, I am loving the lack of structure/schedules, too. PPS: Dave and I are NOT on Fall Break, but we are good, too. Just not in any photos. Hahahaha. ******* Bam and Papaya went to a Sp...