Winter Wonderland

We had our first snow fall last night. When Kaitlyn woke up this morning she said that she couldn't see the grass and she didn't know why, we told her it was snow. They loved seeing it and even did great bundling up warm to go to school in it. We are LOVING having a nice home and a garage with this freezing weather but truthfully this is my favorite way to enjoy the snow, just looking through the window at it!


We "prepared" for this winter wonderland experience by going to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis yesterday. They had a fun winter exhibit with even Santa to visit (Kaitlyn wouldn't sit on his lap but just wanted to wave from the distance). She did enjoy playing in the castle, ice fishing, and going down the slide.





We also enjoyed getting in the mood by going to Purdue on Monday and watching them put up the Christmas tree. It is quite the tradition - it is gigantic! It was fun to watch and fun to even see the kids' little friends there: Collin, Katherine, and Benjamin.

Super Stamp Man

I am helping with the nativity exhibit at our church this weekend. I was responsible to mail out 570 postcard invitations. Bryson amazed me by putting the stamps on ALL 570. I can't wait to use him again with Christmas cards! Thanks Bryson!!!

Homemade Butter

For family night last night we named our blessings while shaking a container of cream and we made homemade butter. The kids were surprised that we could make it ourselves.


They loved spreading it on bread and it tasted DELICIOUS!!!

Purdue Football

Kevin got us free tickets to the Purdue/Michigan State football game. They were on the 50 yard line just 30 rows up. It wasn't a great game for Purdue but it was fun to be there. The weather had even warmed up so it was nice and enjoyable.

I have to admit I did not miss the Stanford band. It was so fun to see an actual band - very impressive.

Happy Halloween

After over 300 trick or treaters, we still thought it was great having halloween in a home. Bryson said it was funner trick or treating at actual houses rather than people's backyard patios like we did at Stanford. People had warned us how many people come to this neighborhood trick or treating so we had lots of candy on hand but that is still a lot of doorbell rings between 6pm and 8:30. Alyssa did try to steal the show with thinking this was a party even though she didn't know why. She would grin and kick her legs like crazy when helping to answer the door. The kids got quite a bit of candy themselves but thank goodness the witch fairy will be visiting tonight!




Bryson's school had a costume carnival on Friday. Instead of doing all the crazy Halloween stuff and costumes at school, they did nothing today but had the big carnival with lots of little kid games and little prizes - not candy :) The kids were excited when they learned what a cake walk was. It was one of the first things we tried and then we tried it once more as we were leaving and Bryson won a cake. Kaitlyn was pretty disappointed when Bryson picked cinnamon rolls instead of a cake but I was impressed with him because he doesn't even like cake so cinnamon rolls was definetely the best choice. He was quite proud of himself. I do worry what their expectations will be at the next carnival!!!

Family

We love family and since we are the only ones in the midwest, we do feel a bit lonely. While in California we had lots of visitors who were coming through San Francisco or in California for other reasons. Unfortunetly it won't happen as much in Indiana but we were excited when Thayne called on Saturday morning and said he was just 2 hours away for work and that we would get to see him for a bit. He came late Saturday night and stayed the night and then we got to play with him a bit Sunday morning before he had to catch his plane. The kids were ECSTATIC to have him here. Thanks for visiting Thayne!

While we are on the topic of family, we just got the CD of photos we took this summer with Kevin's family. I had to share!


Grandma and Grandpa Mumford with their grandkids!

This is Alyssa with her cousins, Josh and Jackson. They were all born within a month of each other.

Man of his word

We had recently bought a bunch of bulbs to plant in our yard. Last week at dinner Kevin asked us if for family night we wanted to plant bulbs. We thought it sounded fun. Well when he got home, it was raining. It was just sprinkling at the time and he asked the kids if they still wanted to do it. YES! was their reply. He thoughtfully said I could stay inside and "take care of Alyssa". Kevin and the kids headed outside, by that time it was raining quite hard. It is hard to tell in the photos but in all of them, the rain is pouring down. I don't think Kevin thought it was the funnest experience he has ever had but the kids were singing and dancing in the rain and thought it was a party! Thanks Kevin for being a great dad!