welcome home sister breinholt.

^^^watching all those airplanes.^^^

^^^practicing their sign holding skills for when sister breinholt makes her appearance.^^^

^^^always gaming.^^^

^^^getting close to her arrival.^^^

^^^welcome home sister breinholt!^^^

about two weeks ago, my niece returned home from her 18 month mission in chicago.  all the cousins were so very excited to see her.  it was a crazy breinholt bunch in that airport and i think we overwhelmed her a bit with all of our cheers and hugs.  it has been such a blessing having her on her mission and she has set such a great example of service for my kids and we greatly appreciate her and her sacrifice to serve.  my kids would pray for her in their prayers everyday and i am so happy that they could see the importance of serving a mission and the blessings that come with it.

pumpkins and apples.

***

two days before halloween we had a little pumpkin carving party that started on the back porch and ended in the kitchen.  the kids (mostly ava) had fun digging out the pumpkin seeds and pumpkin guts.  they each took turns designing a part of the face... one did the eyes, one did the nose, one did the mouth and one played on the ipad.  after pumpkin carving, we made some yummy carmel apples.  jonah preferred his with no carmel and eden had already met her sugar quota for the day so they basically ate apples on a stick.  after this night, i think we were officially in the halloween spirit.

an afternoon at the fair.

a few weekends back we checked out one of those local fairs that are only in town for a few days.  they are always a little sketchy and i swear it must be a requirement to have a sleeve of tattoos and cigarette hanging out of our mouth to work there.  however, it's still a good time and whole lot cheaper than heading over to the state fair where it's sketchier times ten.

we rode some rides including the flying pink elephants and the space shuttle that ava midway through the ride asked the guy to stop because she was getting scared even though she said it was eden who really wanted to get off.  we played some games and won a few whoopee cushions and finished off our fair experience with some cotton candy.  it was everything i hoped a sketchy fair would be.