October 2021 Roundup

The two standout moments of this October were Dave's new calling and Halloween, but there were still many other things to remember! Here are a few more highlights from the month:

First Friday craft at the Discovery Center was making these cute spiders with his favorite friend Rossi. Charlie made a yellow one that he named Mustard. 

 I took Sophie to The Sound of Music, her first ever theater production

Daddy doing an A+ job playing with Griffin

Charlie gathered a bouquet for me :)

The kids had no school for the Columbus Day holiday so we took a day trip to Lubbock to visit the Science Spectrum. There was a special Thomas the Tank Engine exhibit visiting that Charlie especially enjoyed!

The children never play better together than when they're supposed to be doing chores

Sitting in a fire truck

The temperature dropped into the 60s which felt chilly to these Texas kids

Still enjoying our friendly pet Toady

Griffin being a gremlin

Feeding the ducks at the pond across the street

School Open House night where the kids showed off their work and gave us a tour of their classrooms

Sophie caught a butterfly at the park!

My little lawncare helpers

2 more reasons why we love Davey - his excellent buttoning skills and his sweet Halloween art

Video: October 2021 Clips

Happy Halloween 2021

We got no troubles, life is the bubbles, under the sea! 

Sophie picked our theme this year and wanted "ocean" costumes. With that to guide us we ended up with a Charlie Shark, Griffin Octopus, Daddy Crab, Sophie Mermaid, Mommy Anemone, and Davey Pirate (above the ocean, but still counts). The shark and pirate were already in our costume closet, we bought the mermaid at Target, and I made the other three. Overall, not too stressful this year. 

We had beautiful weather for both our ward party and trick or treating on Halloween night so the costumes needed no modification. Griffin eventually did succeed in ripping off his octopus eyeballs, but everything else held up fine. After the weirdness of the covid Halloween, it was nice to have everything go nice and easy this year!

Making our costume debut at the ward Trunk or Treat

Pumpkin carving crew - Sophie did her own pumpkin this year!

Sophie - Sea Turtle

Davey - Jurassic Park

Charlie - Blippi

Griffin had already gone to bed so I carved a page from his favorite Halloween book.  The chickens always make him laugh real big!

Pumpkins aglow and ready for the big night

Love these salty sea kids

Ready to hit up the neighborhood!

Sophie stayed out an extra hour with dad to bring home a big haul

Video: 2021 Halloween

Bishop Howe

A surprise came to the whole family when Dave was called as bishop of our ward near the end of October. He had been serving as the EQ President, and we figured his new calling would likely be a counselor, so bishop came as a bit of a shock. Our ward is small and everyone is needed, but this was still not on our radar! We know the ensuing years will be full of many challenges and blessings related to this new role, but as a family we are ready to answer the call. 

Reference photo so we can see how many grey hairs this gives him over the next 5 years

Dave's parents came down for the weekend to witness Dave get called and sustained as bishop. We were so grateful for their support! The night before our Big Sunday we went to the WT football game, which turned out to be extremely boring. It was 5-0 at the half, so we didn't feel bad leaving early. 

Sophie somehow snuck a paper doll kit into the game, which kept her very entertained