October Birthdays

Ethan turned seven on October 30th. He was very excited. At the end of his "Happy Birthday" song, he did a little dance and jumped back on the couch. Here he just opened his favorite gift, a remote control helicopter. He can fly it well.

Allison turned 13 on October 31st. She liked these boots and all her other gifts.

Halloween Costumes

These pictures were taken the night of the trunk or treat. Erica and Ethan also wore their costumes to school. Eli and Joshua wore theirs to storytime. Cherilyn as a princess.

Joshua as a parrot. Ethan a ninja. Eli as bumblebee and Erica as a hawaiian girl.


Another picture. Allison couldn't dress up for school so she didn't dress up. She handed out candy.

Pumpkin Carving

Our annual tradition of pumpkin carving took place on Saturday. We only got these small pumpkins from the garden this year. I bet they would make great pies, if they lasted that long.

Here is Erica with her pumpkin (carved by Dad). It has big eyes. Eli's pumpkin is a vampire bat (carved by Dad).

Ethan carved his own pumpkin.

Allison carved the star and moon pumpkin, but didn't want a picture taken.

The one in the middle is Dad's pumpkin.

Fall Break

The first thing we did for fall break was hike in Spanish Fork canyon.

This lovely group (Cherilyn, Allison, Kyle, Megan and Rochelle) took pictures and posed along the way. They, along with Marianne, made it up to the waterfall at the end of the hike. The rest of us turned around halfway there. Erica and Dad.

Charles, Erica, our boys and I got a head start while the older kids waited with Marianne for Sam's family. Joshua kept saying "This is cool." and "These rocks are dangerous." The "dangerous" rocks were in the path. I don't know where he got it from.


The hike was along diamondfork creek. It was pretty the whole way.



Ben, Ty, Eli and Ethan hiking together. They also collected leaves.

We have no other pictures from fall break. We ate out some, went bowling and had Sam and Erin's family and Marianne and Curtis over for dinner and games. It was a good break.

Labor Day

Labor Day we spent working. First Charles cleaned the fish tank while I did dishes and laundry and the kids did homework (Cherilyn and Allison slept until ten and then did homework:)). Then Erica asked, again, when we would paint her dresser. She has been wanting to paint her dresser since Joshua moved out of her room into the boys room. The dresser was blue and the paint was chipped in several places. Erica recently got this quilt that her aunt Anslin made for her and she wanted her dresser to match it. Charles decided that was a fine time to get paint. They brought home three cans of berry pink spray paint. After our other projects were under way (more below) and Erica cleared and emptied her dresser, they took the dresser out on the grass and painted it. Here it is all put back together. It does match the quilt well.

While Charles was buying paint for the dresser he also bought paint for touching up the main walls throughout the house. He also bought paint for the wall in our living room. Quite awhile ago my visiting teacher, who is an interior designer, suggested (when I asked her for design tips) that I paint this wall as an accent wall. I brought home handfuls of paint swatches a few times and at one point we decided on a color called cinnamon. Soon after we decided that we might prefer the tan as it was. Nevertheless at the store yesterday Charles picked up this color. He came home and did the prep work, a good portion of the painting (everything that required the ladder) and most of the touch up too. Allison also spent the day helping to paint, even following Dad around while he did touch-up paint throught the house. Now that it is all done we all like it. It is a warm color and makes the room feel more calm. Maybe more paint projects are in the future? The boys are so eager for their room to be painted that they said we could paint it red because we had that paint yesterday. They think they really want blue or green.

Back to school already!

Cherilyn is in ninth grade (The first year of high school, but she still goes to the junior high.) She was planning on taking Perfect Harmony (choir) and orchestra along with seminary and some required classes. The music teachers scheduled Perfect Harmony and Advanced Orchestra at the same time so she decided to take Perfect Harmony and continue with violin lessons. She enjoys school and is glad that it isn't too hard yet. Her favorite class is seminary.

Allison is in seventh grade and now attends the junior high with Cherilyn. She likes it and is only disappointed that one of her best friends, Taylor, has no classes with her. She is taking band, where she plays the flute and art.

Erica is in Mr. Griffith's fourth grade class. Allison also had Mr. Griffith. Erica likes her class, but was not happy that her two good friends are in other classes. She gets to see Kinnely and Abby at lunch and recess. Erica got forearm crutches this summer. She likes them much better than her walker. The crutches are generally easier to use and get around with.

Ethan is in first grade. Miss Dooley is his teacher. His favorite part of all-day school is lunch. He has tried many school lunches and likes bringing home lunches, especially when we have cookies to go in them. Ethan is very interested in sea creatures right now and learns all he can about them and other animals.

Summer Birthdays

Five of our family members have birthdays in the summer.

We start out with Joshua. He turned two on June 11th. Sam, Erin and their boys were here to celebrate with us. When he opened his truck book he sat right down and started looking at it. He likes trucks. In the picture the book is open to our favorite page, "This truck is enourmous." Two year olds saying enormous has been cute with all our boys.

Joshua also received a lawnmower so he can "lawn the mow" with Dad.
Joshua was fascinated with the "fire" on the cake.

Some cute things about Joshua: He likes to go anywhere. He often says "I go with . . ." and "I ready."; He talks clearly in complete sentences with adorable pauses. "Mom..where is my blankie?"; When he needs a number it is always 48. I first noticed this when he went into the corner and started counting 8, 48. When Dad asked the time the other day, Joshua said "48."

Four days after Joshua's birthday, on June 15th, Cherilyn turned 14!

She is opening a camera which was her favorite gift.
She went to a dance the week after her birthday and was glad to be able to stay overnight at youth conference. (Allison and the other 12-13 year olds had to come home.)

Eli's birthday comes between Dad and Mom (Both of whom had nice birthdays, but no pictures are necessary here.)

Eli turned five. Here he is modeling his new sunglasses (which Joshua continously tries to take and claim as his own.) Eli got "the best present ever" from Dad, Super Smash Bros Brawl. Ethan and Eli were literally rolling on the floor with excitement. They have enjoyed playing with Charles because they can beat him at least half of the time.

The Summer

Cherilyn and Allison started out their summer at ward girl's camp. They enjoyed getting to know everyone better and all the fun activities. They went on an exciting river rafting trip where they stayed safely in the raft. Two weeks after girl's camp was ward youth conference. The highlight of that was rockclimbing and rappelling. Cherilyn wowed everyone by doing both. She loved it and looks forward to going again. Allison also went rockclimbing, but didn't rappel.

Again this summer, Ethan played T-ball and Eli played kickball. They are both improved and enjoyed playing. They are excited to move up next year to coach pitch and T-ball.

The weekend of the fourth of July all the kids but Joshua went to Grandkid Camp. Charles and I took them to Gartin Caber where we had smores and Charles lit our fireworks. The next day Grandpa and Gradma B drove them to Mesquite along with Emma and Matthew (the only Buchanan cousins old enough to attend Grandkid Camp). For two days they decorated visors, made ribbon weave pillows, swam and generally had fun. Grandma B drove them back home and now they are looking forward to next year's camp. (And Teen Camp for Cherilyn and Allison because they spend much of Grandkid Camp helping with the younger kids.)
While they were gone Charles, Joshua and I drove through Santaquin canyon to the Nebo loop and had a slip and slide. One day Joshua spent at Grandpa and Grandma Elder's house while Charles and I went golfing. I also made an apron. It didn't turn out as cute as I thought it would, but I made it in a day and a half and it works great.

We only did a few outings this summer. We played lots of games, read books, went to the library, watched movies and played with friends. We saw Toy Story 3 in the theater. We also went to Payson Lakes one day to swim and had our picnic lunch by the creek. One summer day Charles went and bought water guns and we all went out and got wet. We also got out the slip and slide and wore it out. Allison made a scavenger hunt for the younger kids (a suggestion from The Friend). She wrote cute clues and Ethan, Erica and Eli had a great time reading them and finding them.

Next summer we are planning on taking a trip to Seattle. We are all looking forward to that!

Memorial Day Weekend

On Saturday we went to Gartin caber (my parent's land in Fillmore). We played at Chalk Creek. The water was very high so we mostly threw in sticks and watched them float down.

Then we had lunch. Charles bought ice cream bars which we ate first. We also had Grandpa B's over the fire grilled sandwiches, chips, honeydew melon and hot dogs. Most of the grown-ups took naps. Then we went to the sand dunes. The kids loved running up and down the sand dunes, digging and getting sand everywhere. Joshua did not like walking in the sand. His legs shook as the sand shifted beneath his feet. Everyone came home and took baths and went to bed. It was a fun day.

On Monday we cleaned up the house -- Charles "lawned the mow" (as Joshua says), I washed windows, we cleaned the fish tank. Then we went to Marianne's and swam. It turned out to be warm enough. Some of us burned because we stayed out longer than we thought we would.

School's Out!!
Everyone is excited to be out of school for the summer. We like the relaxed schedule.

Cherilyn finished eighth grade. She enjoyed her orchestra and choir concerts at the end of the year. So much that we changed her ninth grade schedule so she can have orchestra, choir and seminary. She will have to take two required classes later. She received an award for turning in every orchestra practice chart and one for having a GPA over 3.75.

Allison graduated from sixth grade and will be at the junior high next year. She recieved an award for exercising at least 20 minutes 20 days a month. She did Wii Fit or the treadmill for her exercise. She just got her flute (for band next year) and was eager to learn so she has started flute lessons. She practices the flute and piano each day.

Erica finished 3rd grade. She typed up her Things to Do list the first day off. That way when she doesn't know what to do she can check her list for ideas. She wants to go camping this summer and go to Grandma's house.

Ethan graduated from kindergarten. He did a program on the last day of school, singing songs and he even had a speaking part. Here is Ethan in a cap and gown holding his graduation certificate.

Just Kids

We went to How to Train a Dragon in 3-D yesterday. Thankfully Rochelle watched Joshua for us so we could all see it. Joshua doesn't like movies yet. As we were putting on the glasses I said that Eli's head was too small. The glasses kept sliding off. Ethan said "I think I must look like Mr. Potato Head with these glasses on." They did manage to keep their glasses on most of the time. We all liked the show.

Joshua likes to answer "me" whenever he can. It must have started with "Who wants some ice cream?" Now he says it anytime there is an appropriate question. "Who spilled water on the floor?" "Me!" Yes, he is often right.
Some of our other favorite words of Joshua's are: don't (he rarely says no, just don't), noisy, Move!, backwards, counter, reach, gross, rock (meaning ice) and the kids names (Lele, alson, caca, than, and li).

Spring Break

The first day of spring break we went to the Bean Museum. The boys had never been. We printed a scavenger hunt before we went. The boys enjoyed finding the animals from the pictures. Eli's favorite animal was the big brown bear. Ethan liked all of them. We were able to see a live animal show. It was entertaining. Afterwards we all touched the turtle, snake and lizard. After eating lunch at Wendy's we drove home in a sporatic snowstorm, our second one in April.

On Wednesday we decided to get away from the snow and cold and headed for Mesquite. On the way down we went to Zion National Park. We saw a squirrel and several tiny waterfalls as we hiked.
Joshua liked climbing on this big rock.

We hiked to lower Emerald pool. This was the waterfall going into the pool. It was a little cold that day so the kids didn't like being by the waterfall.

On Thursday we played at the park, played games at Grandma's house, went in the hot tub and got ice cream cones.

Friday we went to the Clark County Fair. We saw many farm animals -- including piglets, small goats that they pet, ducks and chickens with crazy feathers, guinea pigs, and a turkey. The local zoo brought in a camel, an armadillo, a South American racoon and even a capuchin monkey. Ethan's favorite animal of the day was the monkey.

We also went to two shows -- a frisbee dog show and a lumberjack show. They were both good.

After that we were too hot so we went back to Grandma's and cooled off. Charles, Cherilyn and Allison went to the movie. Grandma took the rest of us to the Casablanca pool. All the kids went down the waterslide, Eli and Joshua with Mom.

Saturday morning before we headed home the boys, Erica, Grandma and I went for a walk. The purpose was to walk the dog, but also to find golf balls. (Grandpa and Grandma live by a golf course. Grandpa's record number of finds in a day is six.) Ethan and Eli each found one and Joshua found some trucks in the dirt. Grandma, Ethan and Eli went past the house for a longer walk. They were very glad to announce upon their return that they had beat Grandpa, finding seven golf balls.

When Joshua started breaking down on the drive home we stopped at Cove Fort. It was a wonderful diversion. We were all glad we stopped.

I am going to attempt to blog again. I like it, but it too often falls off my to-do list.

Thanksgiving was great. We went to Arizona and stayed at my brother's house. We also visited our good friends, the Niu's. It was warm there and we all had a good time with family. We drove it all in one day and it was not the torture that I anticipated. Though I packed and planned many activities, we got through it with a portable DVD player and snacks.
Christmas time was busy with many fun activities. We spent Christmas at home.

The next notable thing (that I remember) was Ethan lost his first tooth on March 2nd. It had been loose for a couple days. He was at a friend's house and it came out. Ten days later he lost his second tooth at school. He had an adorable grin for a couple of weeks (which was never photographed very well). Now he has two new teeth coming in.

Charles and I went to Hawaii in March. We stayed for ten days. It was very nice to get away and to enjoy the beach and nice (for the most part) weather in Hawaii. We hiked, saw waterfalls, kayaked, went to the Polynseian Cultural Center, saw the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, ate good food and spent time at the beach -- reading, swimming and snorkeling. The children enjoyed having both sets of grandparents and their cousin Rochelle watch them while we were gone.

We visited the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, Utah. One of the favorites was the sting rays which Allison and Eli touched. They also liked the sharks.