Life is Busy.... by Wade

Deirdre's folks arrived last night from their mission in Uganda, and they looked really good - healthy as ever and Rand shed a few tears, the old softy. We're happy to see them home and look forward to the holidays with them.  Wade missed Rand's scrambled eggs on Christmas morning last year.

RK our pet tortoise we were afraid was lost to us - the gate was propped open one Saturday a month ago, and we hadn't seen him since.  But it was very exciting to see RK walking up the driveway one day when the kids were playing out front.  We missed our favorite reptile and are glad to have him back.  Guess we'll have to start buying more romaine lettuce again. 

Halloween was great fun.  Since last year all the kids were dressed up as superheroes, this year they dress up as heroes - Jack was a fighter pilot, Jasper was an army ranger, Gavin was a navy sailor, Garth was on the SWAT team, and Oakley was a firefighter.  Deirdre piece the costumes together from Costco and hitting the army surplus store, and then made the sailor outfit for Gavin.  We had a church party on Saturday, then on Halloween night we headed to Chipotle for $3 burritos, went to Eric's to take pics and say high, then back to our neighborhood to pass out candy and go trick or treat.  Wade really enjoys the holiday and getting to visit and say hi to our neighbors and friends.  There is a lot of bussing of kids into our neighborhood which is a little lame - we need to start having 2 candy buckets on halloween evening.  We love Halloween - it's a great holiday to be with neighbors, family & friends.

Oakley, Oak, Oaker, Oakey or as Deirdre likes to call him, Dammit, has been loving life and loves to ride his bike into the street whenever we're not looking.  He loves playing with Owen or with the Udall kids, Porter & Peyton.  He had fun learning how to ride an escalator last night as we were waiting for Grandma & Grandpa Brown at the airport.  Preschool is going well.  No potty training yet.  He is non-stop into Halloween candy and we can't figure out where it's all coming from.

Garth loves his soccer games and practice, and asks about them all week.  Garth scored 2 goals last week and 1 this pastSaturday, so Wade buys him a donut for every goal to "sweeten" the deal.  Garth likes that.  K is going well.  His reading is coming along.  Garth has also loved his steady diet of sugar these past few days.

Gavin did awesome in football.  He finally figured out how to be a bit more aggressive and started "tackling" or pulling the flag off the guy with the ball.  His team played in the championship game (won 2 playoff games), but lost 13-0.  He was so aggressive on his tackling that he also managed to hit his knee and bruise it pretty good, so his little bony knee is all puffed up and swollen, poor guy.  Gavin got selected as an All-Star and he got to play in the All Star game.  Gavin's soccer team continues to do really well as well, and is undefeated through 8 games.  The competition is pretty tight so we're excited to see how they do in the playoffs.  School is going well and he continues to work on his reading.  Gavin also loves to rollerblade!  I'll try to send a video out some time - he loves to jump, race down the street in front of our house, and is learning to skate backwards.  It's fun to watch.  He loves to play tag and fight Jasper while they're on blades in the driveway.

Jack celebrated his 12 birthday this month, and received the Priesthood and became a Deacon on his birthday.  After all the years with Wade in young mens, it will be fun to be there with our own kid a bit more.  Jack finished up on his school soccer team, and continues work with his club team.  He's got almost-straight A's, and has 1 B in LA, which is funny considering how much he loves to read.  He talked Wade into reading Ender's Game with him in anticipation of the movie, and for his birthday we took him and 4 of his friends to the drive-in to see the film - lawn chairs, pizza, and hot chocolate..

Jasper is doing good in school and is also doing his chores quite a bit better, although there's still lots of room for improvement.  Wade finally took him into a PT to check out his achilles trouble, and we think it's just because he's been shooting up so fast - his bones have outgrown his muscles so all that stress on his achilles is what's the problem.  Basically just growing pains.  Anyways the PT is a friend of Wade's, and showed  him how to do some massage and stretching to keep him loose.  So Wade will do that for the boys (Jack has some similiar pain) a few nights a week - part of the massaging is right on the inflamed portion of the ankle, so Wade chuckles a little bit that he gets to inflict pain on his children.  Ha ha ha, it's payback time!  Anyways, he's back to practicing & playing, and wants to play basketball again this winter.

Deirdre stays busy with running the house, more sewing projects, and finished up the craft day for her relief society this past month.  She is running and hiking Squaw Peak a couple times a week to stay in shape.

Wade is doing same old same old, work, coaching, prop mangement, young mens, and trying to stay in shape - more like grasping.  Wade signed up for hockey again this winter, and has been skating to get polished up.  He about had a heart attack his 1st game - very winded.