Gingerbread houses!

Last night we had our annual gingerbread decorating contest at Lisa's house.

Girls vs. Boys.

Here are the girls with their house. They made and decorated the North Pole complete with elves and presents inside! They even decorated one side of the roof with an 80's style pattern, hoping to appeal to the judges!

And here are the boys with their gingerbread "house." The boys declared before the contest began that they felt as though they have been "ripped off" in past years because the judging panel (the mom's) don't always appreciate their designs. Reminder: last year they decorated the death of Osama Bin Laden complete with army men and blood. They tried to explain that would mean world peace, but still lost to the Girls.



So this year, the boys went for full out judge manipulation! They made a decoration in honor of Seour Pearce, who is serving a mission in Paris France, and "sharing the Gospel, and spreading Good will and Peace!" heehee
Notice the church building (where Jordan attends church and the "Called to Serve" (in french) banner at the top.

(Anyone who has been a missionary mom knows that there is no way I wasn't voting for this "house" to win.)




Here are the highlights, you can see the Eiffel Tower, and I loved the missionary tag complete with Jordan behind it with her blond hair!


From the top view you can see the outline of France with the ocean (blue) and Spain, Germany & Italy (Purple) around the edges. Also the brown thing in the corner is a book of mormon.



And here are the boys celebrating their victory!



And here are the judges. We have told everyone we will start accepting bribes for next years contest, beginning....now!

Happy Halloween!

This year Brad, John & Matthew had to go to Las Vegas for a tennis tournment over Halloween! Brad has 4 seniors this year on his team, so he has been out recruiting almost constantly the last couple of months.

So, Josh, Halle & I were alone at home, Josh ended up sick for trick or treating, but we still managed to have a fun night!

After going to New York City this summer, Halle was inspired to be the Statue of Liberty!

Josh was a BYU football player (again). His inspiration is his cousin Tyler! Josh was actually a little bent out of shape that I made him wear his BYU #31 (Tyler's #) uniform again and wasn't willing to buy him an Oklahoma Sooners uniform. Tyler just started dental school @ Oklahoma. I told Josh I would get him a Sooner's t-shirt but if he wanted to dress up like Tyler again, he had to stick with the BYU uniform at least for this year. Maybe next year he can dress up like a dentist!

Brad, John, Keaton Cullimore, Matthew & Kirk Cullimore dressed up like a herd of cow's for Halloween! They showed up for their matches wearing these costumes at the tennis center in Las Vegas!


John & Brad



Here is John at the desk checking into play his semi-final doubles match!

Keaton warming up for doubles!

John warming up!

They took off the costumes for the match and won that match and then won the final match the next day!

My favorite Fall Tradition!

One of my favorite fall traditions is going to look at the leaves up at Sundance. We always drive up between conference sessions on Sunday. It is so pretty up there, I have to remind my kids that not every place in the world looks like a postcard!

Josh, Halle, Tara, John & Matthew

John & Halle

Brad went and put on this orange shirt to really "get into the spirit of the fall season!"

Matthew & Josh were on a bug hunt!

This is looking out as we are driving back down, you can see in the background where we ski all winter!

John & Keaton!

John & Keaton won their third doubles tournament in a row last week in Las Vegas! They won a national tournament in Carmel, California a few weeks ago. Then they won the BYU invitational, at that tournament they beat a BYU team as well as 2 University of Utah teams. And then last weekend they won the Agassi tournament in Vegas! It has been fun to see them doing so well!

Homecoming!

Last weekend was Homecoming @ Timpview! This was John's first school date dance. They started the day by going up the canyon to a cabin @ Sundance and having lunch and a bon-fire.

John went with Madeleine Pinegar.

After lunch they hiked to Stewart Falls!
Madeleine, John, Kelsey Matthews & Keaton Cullimore.

Here is John getting ready for the dance.

John's good friend and doubles partner, Keaton, came down to go to Homecoming with John and his friends. Here is Matthew helping Keaton tie his tie for the date! When I walked in the room and saw Matthew up on the couch behind Keaton (because he can only tie a tie from that direction) I laughed and laughed and then had to run get my camera.

Dallas Warner, John, Keaton & Jacob Jensen all decked out ready to go!

Here they are with their dates!

Madeleine & John

At dinner!

After dinner they went to the Jensen's and ate crepes and played games!

New York!

Brad and I had to go to NYC for USTA meetings. We took Josh & Halle with us and had a great time.

This is right outside of our hotel (the Grand Hyatt). You can see the Chrysler building in the back.

Josh & Halle in Times Square!

Inside Toy's-R-Us @ Times Square. This is in the lego section (that entire empire state building behind them is made out of legos).



Here they are in Grand Central Station, we had to go see the clock where Melman got his head stuck in the movie Madagascar!



We ran into Sponge Bob on the street!

Brad, Josh & Halle looking out from the top of the Empire State Building!

Another view from the top!

The total tourists!

We rented bikes and took a 6 mile bike ride around central park. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

And then rented remote control boats to drive around one of the ponds in the park.

Another highlight was meeting our niece Kimber for the afternoon. She took us to lunch at Max Brenner - Chocolate by the Bald Man. It was so tasty and a super cute restaurant.

Halle in front of the chocolate shop/restaurant!

We then walked with Kimber down to South Seaport and looked at the boats and ferries! This was a really fun area! It was so fun to see Kimber and also to get an "insiders" view of NYC!

Josh & Halle wanted to go on the "Beast." It is a speedboat that takes you on a 30 minute boat tour down the Hudson to the Statue of Liberty!

In front of the Statue of Liberty!

Brad, Josh & Halle at the US Open!

And for sure one of Halle's highlights (and mine too) was the American Girl Doll Store. We walked every inch of the 4 floors looking at the displays. Halle wanted to make sure she got the perfect outfit for her doll.

Inside the store, you can tell this is one happy girl!

Here they are about to get on a train. We spent plenty of time on planes, trains and automobiles. By the end of the week, I would start walking to the subway station and Josh would be hailing a cab for us because they had walked miles and miles!

One night Brad took Josh to a Yankee's game. Here they are on the subway riding out to the field.

Josh in front of the New Stadium!

They had great seats, look how close they were to Derek Jeter!

While the boys went to watch the Yankee's, Halle & I went and saw Wicked! She loved the play even though she isn't totally convinced that the wicked witch was just "misunderstood!"

With her program after the play!