Trick-or-Treat

Cami went begging for candy with a few friends on Halloween.  They had lots of fun and brought home a pretty good haul.

Carving Pumpkins

We were really serious about carving our pumpkins this year.  We decided to pay homage to our boy in Utah with the flag of Kiribati and BYU.  I think we did an excellent job and Dallin felt rightfully recognized ;)

Happy Halloween!

BYU vs Boise State

Ed, Walt, and Jim decided to go to BYU and take their kids to the Boise State game.  It's not very often that they get to have a "guy" trip and they had a great time.  Jim and Valerie are about the biggest Boise State fans ever, so Valerie's shirt was perfect now that she is attending BYU.  They also went to a basketball game where Dallin tried (and failed) to putt for an ipad during a time out.  Ed also ran into our old roommates and friends Greg and Tiffany at the game.  Fun times.

Some Other Seguines Come to Visit

Dan, Trish, and the kids came to visit for a few days.  We haven't seen them in a while and since they now have the freedom of homeschooling, they came up to visit and see some historical sites.  The kids always love to see their cousins and Ed and I were so glad to catch up.  Thanks for coming!

Wisdom Teeth

Taylor had her wisdom teeth removed.  Things did not go smoothly.  The surgeon had a hard time getting one of the lower ones out and accidentally dislocated her jaw on one side. She also got an infection in one of the lower incisions.  She was pretty miserable for about 2 weeks total.  The poor thing ended up on several rounds of antibiotics, steroids to calm down the muscle spasms in the jaw, and pain medicine to get just a few hours of sleep at a time.  Through it all she kept up her homework and seminary make-up work.  She is a trooper.

When she was coming out of the anesthesia we didn't know any of the above problems had or were going to occur.  We were just waiting for her to wake up so we could take her home.  Ed usually doesn't come to stuff like this with me, but this time he was able to come.  We both agree that the hour in recovery was one of the funniest in our lives.  Yes, I know we sound like terrible parents, but Taylor was beyond hilarious.  I am going to list all the crazy things she talked/cried about below.  Remember that all these were expressed with the following; crazy eyes, slurred speech, loud volume, and often uncontrollable laughing or crying.

I entered recovery to her crying and yelling at the nurses about the "illegal" pictures of her mom on the wall.  They were sheep.  Our doctor loves country animals.  She was convinced all the sheep in the pictures were me and they had been stalking me to take the pictures.  She wanted Ed to search the building for pictures of him.  As soon as I realized she thought the ugly sheep were me, I started to laugh.  I couldn't stop.  Ed and I were laughing so hard we had tears running down our cheeks.  The nurse thought we were upset at the sight of our crazy daughter and tried to comfort us.  After she realized we were laughing, she chastised us.  We didn't care and we couldn't seem to stop laughing.  Here are the things we could remember from that hour.

*Pictures of sheep were actually mom.
*Wanted to go for a run and kept stretching.  Wanted to race Zoey (age 5), but if she lost there would be pictures in her wedding album and it would ruin her day.
*Wanted to play the piano with Hudson singing - only she couldn't remember what instrument he played.
*Wouldn't allow the nurse to put gauze in her mouth until she told her the chemical composition.
*Wanted to rake leaves and was really mad that we didn't have a rake in our car.
*She did NOT want to eat applesauce and insisted we find some grape-sauce for her.
*Was SO upset that we would even ask if she wanted cheese when she got home.  We are SO mean.
*She kept asking Ed to arm wrestle.
*Said she liked her football band aid and told us she could watch football while singing.  She then sang gibberish really loudly.
*Every time the blood pressure cuff came on she would cry and say we were cutting her arm off.
*The nurse offered her ginger ale and she replied, "Why would you try to get me to drink alcohol?  I am a good girl."
*She thought she had had a baby and said, "Please tell me it's not an animal... I just don't want to take care of an animal."
*She was sure the pot of yellow mums was her sister.
*When we told her she could have anything she wanted when we got home she said, "Oh, I am gonna milk this!  Did you buy me a Maserati?  Is it Blue?"
*She said her lacrosse coach should be named "Dipi Bad Word".  She didn't actually say a bad word and told us she was filtering herself.
*When the wheelchair came to take her to the car she cried and thought we were taking her to a retirement home.
*She tried to get out of the car and climb in the back on the way home.  Thankfully I could control her while Ed drove.
*Eventually even the nurse who chastised us for laughing at our daughter couldn't help but chuckle and said, "Is she normally this funny in her regular life?"

After a nap and some food she came back to us.  The weird thing is that she remembered saying most of those things.  She knew they didn't make sense, but couldn't stop herself from saying them.

We are glad she is healed and glad there are no more teeth needing to be removed!  Now, here is a lovely picture of me.

Halloween Party

Boo Hoo.

We had a terrible storm the day of our party and the whole farm closed down.  No party for us.  This is only the second time we have had to cancel in all these years.  We told the kids that we would buy tons of pizza and all their friends could come over and hang out in the basement.  They still had fun, but I missed our tradition... and the hayride... and the bonfire... and the s'mores... and sharing it with all our wonderful friends.

Boo Hoo some more.

Here are Cami's friends after Pizza at our house.

The Brown Apartment

We took the kids by the first place Ed and I lived together.  We were newly married, had almost no money, and absolutely no furniture of our own.  We lovingly referred to this apartment as "The Brown Apartment".  Everything was old and brown... and kind of dirty.  We fixed it up the best we could and Ed's dad came to visit.  After walking in and taking a look around he seemed a little upset.  When we asked him what he thought he replied, "My daughters will NEVER live in a place like this."  We laughed at his remark and let him know we were just fine and living in a dump temporarily didn't bother us a bit.

This is also the apartment where a famous story (well, famous in our family) happened...

Ed and I were watching a fascinating show about dinosaurs... yes, I said dinosaurs... when he remembered he needed to get something out of the car.  He went out and didn't return for about 20-30 minutes.  I was so involved in the show... about dinosaurs... that I didn't even notice.  He had stood up too fast after reaching into the car, hit his head really hard, and knocked himself out.  He had been laying in the gutter the entire time!  He finally came stumbling in the front door wondering why I hadn't come looking for him.  Needless to say, we headed off to the emergency room and after testing and monitoring they concluded it was a bad concussion, but nothing more.  Let's just say I felt terrible.

I decided we needed a picture of the apartment complex... and the gutter.  When you start off like this, life has to get better and better :)

General conference

We had tickets to the Sunday morning session at the Conference Center.  This was the first time Taylor was at a live session.  It is always a challenge to park and make it inside in time, but what an experience!  I love being there in person to hear the messages of the Prophet and Apostles.  It was a beautiful day and we thoroughly enjoyed our experience.

Dinner in Provo

We took Dallin, Hayley, Valerie, and Reid out to dinner.  We invited a few others from home, but they weren't able to come.  It was fun to catch up with everyone and see that they are doing well.

Utah Scenery

Visiting With Dallin

We were grateful to spend some time with Dallin in between his classes.  We have missed him so much, and I am grateful he is doing so well.  He has great roommates and a beautiful apartment.  He's doing well in his classes and making new friends in his ward.  It is really comforting to me to see how happy he is to be living on his own and making his own decisions.  A part of me always wants him to need me, but I know every boy keeps a place in his heart for his momma.  I am also very grateful for this semi-separation before his mission.  At least now we can text or call when we want to talk, but that won't be the case when he leaves for the Marshall Islands.  It has been a good transition for both of us.  He will be home for the last time over Thanksgiving and I'm going to soak up every moment.

Taylor at BYU

We were able to take Taylor on her official college visit to BYU.  She got the golf cart tour and we spent the whole day wandering around talking to different colleges and getting information about requirements.  She was pretty excited about the business/accounting program.  We told her stories about where Ed and I used to take classes and fun things we did while here at BYU.  She is our middle child and rarely gets one-on-one time with us.  We all loved having this special time together.  We were thrilled to see Dallin while there and miss Cami terribly, but are grateful for her willingness to be supportive of Taylor getting ready for college.