It's Halloween night and I am at home all by myself for a few minutes while Brian takes the kids around the neighborhood. It is so quiet! Except for the occasional trick or treater, it seems nice to be alone. Did I admit that outloud?
I know. I'm really behind on blogging. I love to do it, but time just goes by so quickly. I'll try to summarize the month with some photos of our highlights. We had a great month, mostly because of our new twelve-year-old deacon. He had a great birthday, complete with a football/pizza party in our backyard with 13 friends and a field trip to the Chabot Science Center. He was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood and was surprised by a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Carling who drove all the way to be there for that special day. That made the birthday weekend truly fantastic. This is Brandon blowing out his twelve candles (can you believe we are old enough to have a twelve-year-old?), Brandon as quarterback of his team at the party, and Brandon and Josh discussing the race for space between the Americans and Russians at the space museum. We even got to see a tube of borsch that the Russian astronauts took into space. Yummm!
This is our family home evening activity--making Halloween treats. The gluten-free sugar cookies were awesome. Of course, Brandon and I haven't had the real thing for a long time, so maybe they were terrible. Everyone had a great time, though.
The kids got to visit Dad at work yesterday and do a little trick-or-treating around the office. Afterward they had lunch with Dad. Everybody at work has been hearing about these kids for about six years, so they were thrilled to meet them finally. They were a huge hit and got smothered with candy. The kids had a ball.
More Halloween pictures to come...
Can you believe that just 7 hours before this picture was taken, our delightful little toddler, who is almost two, had our whole family turned upside down? Seven hours before this picture was taken was 4 am when Mom's arms finally gave out and Daddy firmly put our little angel to bed--and he finally went to sleep. Just 24 hours before this picture was taken, our almost two year decided to throw a major tantrum just as we were walking out of church. I guess he didn't want to leave the nursery where they have Thomas trains. He was holding Brian's hand at the time and jerked his wrist or thumb (we are not sure which) when he threw himself down and twisted 360 degrees. All that day he refused to use his left arm and whimpered and cried. He could not even take a nap, you see, because he needs two fingers from his left hand to suck on while he falls asleep. So, our dear little one was not a happy boy all day and well into the night. We took him to the Elder's Quorum President's house (his wife has medical training) and got a blessing, then took him to the emergency room afterward. That did not last long because the scary looking people, who looked very much like they might have contagious diseases, at the end of the line told us that we could expect hours of waiting. Considering there was no blood and at the time he seemed pretty content, we thought it could wait until Monday morning. So, we called the Primary President to ask about pediatricians and she volunteered to watch kids first thing Monday morning. Zach actually was tired by then and went to bed happily, favoring his left arm, too tired to care that his fingers were missing from his mouth. At one in the morning we were all awakened by screaming which did not stop until we turned on Barney at 2 am. Then we watched Sesame Street. He happily watched until about 3:30 when I tried to put him down again. The screaming commenced and continued until, as I mentioned before, Mom's arms gave out and Daddy was called into action. He must have convinced Zach that his right hand fingers were just as good as his left because he made the switch and we were able to sleep for a few hours. 
Zach finally woke up at 11 am and miraculously was able to use both hands. He didn't even remember all the commotion from that worrisome night. In fact, it was soon after breakfast that he asked to go outside. 
I know the calendar says that it's Conference weekend, but it sure doesn't seem like it here. It was 90 degrees yesterday and Katelyn is working on her swim team tan in an outdoor pool. The swim season lasts until the second week in December! Isn't that strange? All of the usual things that remind me fall is coming have not seemed to come this year.
Yesterday we went with about eight other moms and their kids on a field trip to Muir Woods. School was out for the day, so the "ward family" went out together. Somebody asked if we were from a school, there were so many kids. 
We had a good time and enjoyed some beautiful surroundings and great company. The LDS families here seem to be so strong. The youth are so kind to each other and seem to cling to the other LDS youth in the ward. 
