The Employee Club Halloween Party!

On Saturday October 25 in the evening, we went to the prison's annual Halloween party! The kids were excited to get dressed up a little early! We had a Punk Rocker(Spikes and all), A Viking, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, and Belle. The kids had fun at the party, they had a costume contest for all the different age groups. Sammie won 1st place and a $25.00 gift card for her age group! Unfortunately Justin didn't get the memo that most of the teenagers don't dress up for this party. So at the party they proceeded to ask all the kids 13 and up to come up for their age group, Justin was the only one. He had to parade around the room all by himself and can you believe it HE WON! HA HA. Our neighbor said "Wow that is 2 years of therapy in the making". Justin is a good sport and he did win the $25.00 gift card!!

Parades in Indiana are CHILLY!!

On Saturday, October 25 we enjoyed the ISU Homecoming parade. Both Allison and Justin were in the parade, Justin plays percussion for the band and Allison and Justin are on the Scholastic bowl team for their school. This year, the students are learning about Norse cultures and the Vikings. The students built a Viking ship for the parade. Allison is behind the ship, we sat on the wrong side of the street to see her but we did catch a glimpse of Justin and his big drum! I decided I better take a picture of the little ones, Sammie had a terrible time because it was so cold. There was a plus, Every parade entry throws candy to the spectators, we left before the parade was over because the kids bags they took to put candy in wouldn't hold anymore! Halloween came a week early for them!

Happy Fall Y'All

Well here in Indiana we have lots of trees, so that makes a lot of leaves for my girls to play in! In California there weren't very many leaves or trees for that matter. We have big trees in our front yard and the girls think making leaf piles is so fun! My older kids remember playing in the leaves in Colorado but the twins were too little to remember! FUN TIMES!!

Happy 11th B-day for Allison!!

Well on August 14th our "little ladybug" turned 11. I cant believe how fast the days go by. It seems like she was just our little first born girl. Crazy how time fles. We had a dinner out at Olive Garden and then came home and had cake and ice cream with the neighborhood! Good times!!

VROOM VROOM!!!

Well today the Employee's club from Charles' job sponsored a car show here on the grounds of the prison. Because it was right down the street we decided to check it out. After about 10-15 minutes of talking about going Shelby asked me what kind of tricks the cars were going to do at the car show. Wow, to be 5 again! The cars were pretty cool! Shelby and Rachel even got to sit in a few. We had a fun time!

Samantha's Baptism!!

On Sunday, Samantha finally got baptized! We have been waiting since her birthday on June 15th. Because of all of the flooding there was a bunch of stuff going on, the bishop encouraged us to put it off for a few weeks until everything settled down. It was a great day. Even though we didn't have any family here because we are so dang far away, it was still awesome for Sammie! We did have alot of friends from our ward here and that was awesome, we are grateful for the great friends we have made here in Terre Haute. We are grateful for them and for their support. I am grateful for Sammie and the joy she brings to our family. We are so proud of her for her decision to be baptized.

ONE GOOD THING ABOUT INDIANA! FIREWORKS!!!!!

Happy 4th of July! Well we have been in Terre Haute for about 8 months and we haven't found too many positives about this place. Well it finally happened! Just about any fireworks you want, they have them here(and they are legal). We had a great 4th, we had some families from our ward over,we had a BBQ, and then the fun started! We headed over to the softball field across the road from our house and after 30 miutes of just sparklers(when you have 20 kids they take a while), we started the big guns. The guys started a great show! We got a few fountains but the best part was the big ones you can shoot off in the air. We got alot of compliments on the show from our neighbor! He wanted to know where we got the "commercial grade fireworks" we told him we just went to Sam's Club and got them there. As the show was winding down the older girls got a little distracted trying to do their best showgirl immitation. I'm thinking Allison's long legs might come in handy one day. We had alot of fun!