Just had to share.....

My husband made this today.....I had to giggle!

**for any non-BYU followers, that's Max "Mr. SIX turnovers against the U" Hall sitting over there....the outcast!

Poinsettia Festival

Nicole's dance studio had a performance at the "Poinsettia Festival" yesterday. She was very excited to wear her new costume and get all made up like a ballerina, albeit a fluffy-haired ballerina! She did well, and it was evident she enjoyed herself with her never-ending smile while performing. It made her very excited for next months performance in the "Nutcracker"!

Happy Birthday Nicole!

I can't believe it's been seven years....

Thank you....

Casper Conrad Nicoll

Don Carlos Nicoll Jr.

Guy Alma Nicoll

One mother's sacrifice: three sons sent to serve in WWII.
One army, two navy, later one served with the marines as a medical corpsman.
(And although not pictured, one son-in-law as well: J.T. Hunter)


Kenneth Naegle Nicoll

Later, after his mother's death, another son (my handsome father) served in the Air Force during the Korean War.

The ultimate sacrifice, as her second son was killed in action on Iwo Jima.



Thank you
to all our veterans who have served us and our country.
May the Lord bless you and your families.

B&W Challenge

Hope and Believe is having another fun photo challenge I thought I'd participate in. It is to take a photo(new or old) and make it B&W....I can do that! So here you go:


Funny bit of trivia with this shot: it's another self-timer deal!

Goodbye Autumn

This is almost pretty enough to not mind that this is what it looked like around here today...almost.

**photo stolen from my husbands iPhone!**

Check THIS out!

Recognize these kids?!

He, he, he, he! The kids had a blast! Thanks, Nicole, and Rubberball, for letting us come play!

Go to THIS POST on THIS BLOG for more smashy face fun.

And thanks to onehm for the heads up that it was posted! ;)

Month of Gratitude

I was just over at my cousin's blog, and she had a great idea that I'm borrowing, but tweaking a bit so I'll actually do it! She pointed out that November is the month that we celebrate Thanksgiving and remember the things we are grateful for. So this month, I'm adding a list to my side bar where I will list one thing a day for the 30 days of November that I am grateful for. Absolutely feel free to join in if you'd like to, leave me a comment so I can come visit your list too!

Family picture out-take...

Since the leaves are great right now, and this is possibly the last day of warmish weather to get a new family picture with an "Autumn" look, we fit it in! Here is one of many out-takes. It is near (if not totally) impossible to get all six of us looking good in a picture. (This is pretty close, except for J!) It doesn't help that I am doing this with the self-timer!

The rest of Halloween...

Pumpkins all lit and kids ready to go. (Off-topic, what is with the 5 year old and his forced smiles?! Ugh!) Riley and some friends stayed home and handed out candy while Ron and I took the kids around. They were die-hards and went farther than ever! Therefore, they now have so much candy it is sickening. Add into that all our leftovers, and I think we're set for a few months of treats....not kidding...we have a 5 lb. bag we never even opened! We thought we'd have more kids due to the good weather and it being Friday night, but we over calculated...oops! We did have a little bit of rain, as the sunrise predicted, but it was just on and off sprinkles, not enough to stop our little goblins.

Nicole kept trying to take off and leave us behind....she had candy to collect! But Jared was pretty good about being the "helper" big brother that I'd asked him to be and stuck with Ellie. Here he's making sure she doesn't walk in front of the car pulling into the driveway. Ahhhh, sweet!

Here's the "trick" Jared received. One of the homes was giving the kids potatoes as their treat, but then telling them they could trade it for a real treat. Most of the kids traded their spud back in. Not Jared! He thought it was very cool to have a potato. Of course two houses later he decided it was too heavy to haul around in his bag, so I got to carry it the rest of the night. ( I kept trying to let him carry some of his candy but he didn't fall for that!) I asked him what he wants to do with his tater, and he told me he wants to make soup.