Boo!

Happy Halloween 2008!

Ian commented the other day, "I can't believe we have so many leaves,
but we haven't had one leaf pile." So we fixed that problem this afternoon.

We joined the Pfrender family for dinner and trick-or-treating.
The children enjoyed eating pizza, and the adults feasted on food from Tandoori Oven.

After dinner, the children were ready to go forage in the neighborhood. Erin changed to a "ballerina fairy" for the evening instead of a bat (one advantage of being a 3rd child and having access to multiple costumes from the dress-up box).

8-week-old Dallin slept through part of the night, then later woke up and shared his smiles with everyone. Grandma T gave him a Halloween bib, which worked great catching all his spit up.

Pre-Halloween Festivities

Family Home Evening

The Knorrs invited us over for Family Home Evening, and the children painted pumpkins as the activity. We also ate yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies as a treat. We love this season!

Recital & Carnival

Megan and Ian performed in a piano Halloween Recital, but due to a poopy diaper explosion right before leaving, the parents forgot the camera. Imagine Megan and Ian, dressed in their costumes, sitting at a grand piano.

After the recital, we rushed to help finish setting up for our annual Ward Halloween Carnival, sponsored by the Primary and Activities Committee. Our former Primary President, Heidi, volunteered to come and provide her games. The new games this year were Mummy Golf (a big hit with all ages of children) and a Prize Wheel. Ian spent 20 minutes at the cake walk before finally snagging some cupcakes to bring home. He was a persistent little hobbit.

Erin wouldn't allow us to take a good posed photo of her in her bat costume. Dad dressed up as black-eyed peas, and Dallin was Little Boy Blue (his horn was someplace...don't know exactly where).

North Logan Pumpkin Walk

Mom took the children to the Pumpkin Walk, where this year's theme was "Heroes." This is always a fun tradition for us and other Cache Valley residents, with creative displays made using pumpkins, gourds, and other squash. You may wish to click on the photos to view them in more detail.

Firefighter Heroes

Jacques Cousteau

(Ian recently did a report about him for a scout requirement. Ian commented, "I don't remember reading anything about him finding mermaids." Hmmm...)

Noah's Ark
One of our favorites this year

Larry Boy
(and other assorted Veggie Tale characters)

Ahhh...babies!
Our babe slept through the entire walk and we forgot to take a photo of Mom carrying him in the sling.

Brent, Logan's Local Hero
Everyone knows and loves Brent, who rides around on his bike waving at people.

Enjoying the snacks at the end

Tanya's Wedding

We're finally getting around to posting photos of our latest family wedding. On October 18, Kevin's cousin Tanya got married. Amazingly, we were able to get everyone ready to travel to the Bountiful Temple in time for the sealing.

It was a beautiful fall morning. The children were entertained by some of Tanya's friends in the waiting room while the adults attended the sealing.

Afterwards, everyone met outside for photos.
Here is the happy couple, Tanya and Rex.

With the parents

Our attempt at a new family photo.
Notice that Dallin is already in outfit #2 for the day.
We'll have to try again before we send out Christmas cards...

Later everyone met for a luncheon hosted by Rex's family.

Back at Grandma's house, we had another little birthday celebration for Miss Erin. She got spoiled with new clothes, pajamas, an umbrella, playdough, and some fun little animal toys. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa! Dallin spent some quality time with Grandpa too.

After a short rest, we ventured to Heritage Gardens for the reception. It was an elegant facility. Cousin Ashley greeted guests. A professional string quartet serenaded everyone with lovely music.

We ate a buffet dinner with croissant sandwiches, quiche, quesadillas, salads,
fruit, a variety of desserts, and sparkling cider.

The Cake

And a wedding cannot be complete without defacing the couple's car.

Megan, Ian, and Erin enjoyed participating in this activity.

We apologize for the lack of video this time. Nancy did have a professional videographer recording all the events, however, so you can contact her to get a copy.

First Stitches

Poor Erin!

For years we have been anticipating Ian crashing and cutting himself in one fashion or another, but today Erin became our first child to require stitches. She was kneeling on her little rocking chair, facing backwards and rocking too hard. She rocked the chair over, crashed into the edge of the short table in our living room, and got a deep gash right under her nostrils along the crease. One look and we knew she would need stitches. Fortunately, Kevin was home working on his dissertation in the basement today, and he and Megan took her to InstaCare. Megan read stories to Erin while Kevin filled out paperwork and was a great support for the entire time. April was home having anxiety, but was glad that she did not have to pack up Dallin and Ian and take care of everything on her own.

Erin was very brave throughout the ordeal. The doctor put some numbing cream on a cotton swab and Kevin pressed it against the laceration while Erin watched the first half hour of Finding Nemo. The cream takes longer than the Lidocaine, but does not require an injection. The doctor then used a small curved needle to carefully put in two small stitches. Even though it hurt a little Erin stayed perfectly still. She came home smiling, eating an otter pop, holding a little plastic sheep toy, and said, "Mom, it doesn't hurt anymore!" We'll see how she does once the anesthetic wears off. She will have the stitches removed in 5 days.

Say "Cheese!"

We finally caught some smiles on our camera from our smiling 6-week-old darling!

Erin is 4!

Erin has been soooo excited for her birthday this year. She's been watching the calendar almost every day this month and pointing to the day that had a balloon and her name on it--the 14th. When the much anticipated day finally arrived, she asked if she could eat her requested turtle cake. "We have to make it first, " answered Mom (why does everything take so long to do with a newborn???). Grandma Tsukamoto wanted to come up for the little party, so Erin got to play with her. Then Erin, Megan, and Ian watched the Underdog movie while Grandma held Dallin and Mom frosted a turtle cake. Later we ate cake and ice cream, and Erin received some fun presents from everyone: 2 birthday balloons, a stuffed bear, a bike helmet, a new Jan Brett book, a toy stable with ponies (influenced by an older sister), and a Fun Thinkers activity book.

Happy Birthday to our 4-Year-Old Sweety!

Logan City Neighborhood Enhancement Program

Logan City decided to remove all parking strip areas in neighborhoods in order to "beautify" the area. This has led to much controversy and a lot of unhappy apartment owners and dwellers who no longer have parking places. It started in August, and they have been moving from one neighborhood to another, first breaking up the concrete, adding a new curb, then later putting down dirt, and eventually planting sod--but it is the homeowner's responsibility to put in irrigation. This was not negotiable, so even though we do not have an apartment our parking areas (which were rather handy) got torn up.

While the crew was breaking up our concrete, they also busted one of our irrigation pipes (not a sprinkler pipe--a pipe for irrigating with canal water). Note the man kneeling and observing the damage. As a result, our lawn ended up looking rather dead the past couple of months. The irrigation pipe is still broken, so for the third month we have bare dirt in front of our house. And there you have it--beautification by bureaucracy!

A Man and His Garden

This sweet man, the amazing Dr. Malouf, shares his garden with us and several other neighbors. This year he grew lettuce, peas, beans, eggplant, summer squash, zucchini, and tomatoes. Guess his age...93 years old! (94 next month)

The pole beans--note the individual strings hand tied with great care

The Herb Garden--with parsley, lovage, basil, and others

The 12-foot tall cherry tomato plant (or rather tree?)

Even more amazing than his garden is his sharp mind. We don't know anyone else his age who can process information so fast and remember facts and details so well. It is always a treat to hear his life stories and to learn from his faith and example. His darling wife was his equal in every way and together the two of them are a shining example of what is possible in a marriage. Sadly, Sister Malouf passed away last January. We all still miss her radiant smile and sparkling eyes. We wondered whether Brother Malouf would continue with his gardening, but his faith sustains him and he carries on (though he admits each day is difficult without his sweetheart).

On this particular morning, just after the first frost, he called us up early and asked if we could help him pick his plums. His son and daughter-in-law recently left for a mission, and in parting they made him commit to not climbing any ladders while they were away! While picking we heard about his parents' immigration to America from Lebanon and their start in Richfield, Utah. He has great stories from his time in the military during WWII and his many years as a general practitioner. He told us he has his 300-page life history written and bound. We hope to be able to borrow a copy and read it sometime soon.

We love getting the early morning calls asking if we can use a cucumber or some fruit, we love being able to share some baked bread or other goodies in return, and we are grateful to associate with such a good man.

The Amazing Human Body

Body Worlds

We were anxiously awaiting the Body Worlds Exhibit coming to SLC this fall, so when Kevin received two free VIP passes through work, we ventured down south for an educational evening. Gunther von Hagens, a German anatomist, developed a plastination technique for preserving specimens which replaces tissues with plastics while still retaining the original form. There is no decay and no smell. (Interestingly enough, I found myself automatically breathing through my mouth several times--a defensive technique I developed in labs to avoid the nasty smell of formaldehyde.) He has created a traveling exhibit of the human body with individual organs and artistically arranged dissected bodies.

Some view it as educational, others as purely artistic, while still others view it as demented. We were fascinated and impressed and thought the displays were tastefully done. The dissections were truly incredible and revealed hidden anatomy (sometimes in odd ways, such as a man holding his internal organs in the air while balancing in a gymnastic pose). Our only complaint had to do with the facility itself--it was really hot and there were no benches--standing for 2 1/2 hours was quite tiring for a 2-week post-partum April. Would we recommend paying >$20 per person to go and see it? Well, yes--but then again we are both biologists and interested in anatomy.

Cameras are not allowed--the picture below was borrowed from a website.

Homeschool Anatomy Class

Kevin was asked to teach anatomy to our homeschool group during the month of September. They met twice a week for classes and were enlightened about their amazing bodies. Basically he presented a different body system each lesson, and focused on the "wow, cool" sorts of information rather than trying to get the kids to memorize pages of anatomical structures (his regular students would have preferred this class for sure!). The kids came up with great questions, most of which were answered during the lessons. The children were particularly fascinated with pictures of "anatomy gone wrong," so Kevin had a series of gross pictures at the end of each lesson (with the caveat that anyone who wanted to leave could do so).

The final day they got to dissect a sheep heart and lungs, which was a highlight for some of the students. Kevin arranged for the sheep parts from the USU meat laboratory and picked them up just before class. Some students chose to stay as far away as possible from this activity (note Megan in distance in photo on right). Most of them enjoyed it for a while then left to jump on the trampoline, and a few stayed and made cuts until the organs were no longer recognizable! Ah, the beauty of homeschooling ;)

One Month Already!

Dallin is one month old! He already weighs around 10 pounds.
Look at his cute little hand:

He got somewhat upset with us when we tried to take some one-month photos. He eventually calmed down, but we still didn't get a super great glamour shot.

Here he is with his loving siblings:

This is his birthday Dutch apple pie made by Mom and Dad. Everyone needs a good excuse to eat a pie, right? We forgot to take a photo before devouring it, however.

After engaging in a photo session, playing with everyone, and watching the family eat pie, Dallin was pretty tired.

We love having Dallin in our family.