The boys are trying to figure out just how Santa gets up and down the chimney. They decorated sugar cookies to leave for Santa with some milk.
We decorated a gingerbread train earlier in december. Each night I would pull it down and let them attack it. They didn't mess with their hands....mouths are more efficient.
We went to the Festival of Trees to see the Plummers tree that they do in honor of their daughter, Lucy. Our Young Women had made one too. The boys loved it.
The first day it snowed the boys were so excited. They squeezed into boots and snow suits from last year and had a blast. Why don't they make gloves for little kids? I have only found mittens. Their little hands freeze.
Sam's preschool was cancelled this morning because his preschool teacher's grandfather died and she was attending his funeral. Sam has never thought about death or funerals. This is the first person he has had to think about in those terms. He knows he gets in trouble if he says "I am going to kill you."... Darn those superhero cartoons. But I don't think he really knows what death is. All day he has been asking me why people die? why do people get old?It is a lot to process for a 4 year old. I have told him we will all die eventunally and get to go back and live as families with Heavenly Father. He then said "will Molly die?" This Katherine and Ryan's dog who he bonded with on our treat to Ouray. Boy, those wheels are turning.
Enjoying the fall leaves while mom and dad are out raking them up. 
We stopped by to see Sierra and Savannah on Halloween 
Grandpa Chief and Eeler stopped by to check out the Jedi's before we went trick-or-treating
On Halloween afternoon we went up to James' work for trick-or-treating. They had icecream "monster mush" sundaes to assemble at the end. Nothing like a pile of candy to go on icecream. This went well with the candy the boys had been shoveling in all day.
My fun purchase of the summer was a bike trailer. These are the best. The boys love it and mom gets a good workout. With all these nice fall days we have gotten some good bike rides in.
We had a family night with three other families in our ward the monday before Halloween. We decorated sugar cookies and carved pumpkins. This is Sam's buddy Josh.
We decided to try out the trick-or-treating at Hogle Zoo this year (along with 24,000 others). It was a madhouse. The kids had fun with their cousins Ike and kaitlyn, but we will not be adding this to our "things we must do again next fall"list.
One of our favorite Halloween time activities is visiting the Garden after Dark at Red Butte Gardens. They even had light sabers that actually glowed. Those are spider hats on their heads if you are wondering. 
I was so proud of him (even though I had not idea what he was saying). He was so poised and confident. He was so worried about the questions they might ask and being able to answer them. I told him to use the Sarah Palin strategy, it seemed to work for her. But he was able to answer all their questions. The picture in the middle is him talking physics geek talk with some guys after. I asked his former professor if the average 3rd and 4th year physics major would have been able to follow this presentation and he said no way. Each time I have Matt explain his research to me on a dumbed down scale I understand a little bit more. maybe by the time he graduates (in a year hopefully) I will be able to say "my brother is graduating with a degree in atomic physics from Rice University. He did he his studies on ......" So what does a guy with a PhD in atomic physics do for a living you ask? They can get a job in the industry working for an oil company doing research on alternative energy---that is so cool. I am so proud of you Matt.
We decided it was time to potty train Mo. Once Mo learned he could poop for candy he was on board. After he got the hang of things he looked up at me while on the toilet and said "Mom, can you give me some privacy?" He is doing so well and in true Mo style-insisting he do it all himself. This has been his outfit of choice for the last month-underwear and his superman cape. It has been nice to leave the house without a diaper bag. I may go buy myself a smaller purse.
We spent all day saturday hiking in Arches. The weather was beautiful and the boys are awesome hikers. We probably went about 4 miles by the time the day was done. They loved scaling the walls up to the arches and finding caves to play in. 
They even let us take another hike sunday morning before we left Moab. We caught lizards, threw rocks in the stream, and of course found sticks for weapons.
Heidi took this picture of my boys on Temple Square when they were visiting. I love this picute and am amazed they were still long enough for her to get some cute poses. I think its because they watched her well-trained picture posing family do it first. Thanks for the picture Heidi. We had so much fun with Reed and Heidi's family when they came up. Sam loved having sleep overs with cousins in his room. He was devastated when they had to go home.
