BROCCOLI!!!

She licked it. She liked it!

Grandma Matthews and Kensington

Now who is cuter, Grandma Matthews or Kensington? It's a close race.

A Date with Daddy

A couple of weeks ago Dallas took Madeline and Raleigh to a BYU football game. They left our house at about 6:00 pm and got in to the game at about 8:00 pm. They got to try hot dogs from the stadium and enjoy the game until about the third quarter when it was time for little girls to get to bed.

Strike a Pose!

Stop #2 on Halloween

Our 2nd Stop on Halloween was at Chris and Amanda's for our 2nd Annual Halloween Party with our good old friends from Provo. Here Chef Chris holds Kensington. In the second picture our family poses with Dylan and Abigail, who dressed up as Captain Hook and Snow White. Amanda made the cute flower hat for Kensington (which she was not happy about wearing at the time), and the last picture shows Kensington wiped out after the night was over. We got to take all the kids trick-or-treating while Amanda and Amanda relaxed with the younger kids. The neighborhood was alive and HAPPENIN'! It was almost LOUD- there were so many people out there freezing their buns off trying to get candy. Raleigh and Dylan were the fastest and kept about a full house-length ahead of the rest of us. Dallas and Dionne traded off holding Chooby. Madeline was in the middle, and Abigail trailed behind. Rikki and Kevin helped us with any stragglers, and it went really well! We only had a couple of near-fatalities when we tripped over cords holding up puffy Halloween decorations in people's yards. (Guess we should've stayed on the sidewalks, but we were trying to keep up with the kiddies.) They all got the hang of saying "Thank You" audibly, and we had a really good time. After about an hour of Trick-or-Treating, we went back to the Lewis' to defrost, eat some pumpkin cake, sneak some of the kids' GOOD candy, and catch up with our buddies. Then we packed our kids in the car and drove our long drive home with super-tired, sugar-overloaded kids. But we had a lot of fun, and we'll do it again next year!

Our 1st Stop on Halloween

Our first stop on Halloween was at Grandma & Grandpa's house for some pizza and trick-or-treating with the family. Kensington was a squishy bear, and she was so fun to hold! Phoenix was a squishy pumpkin, but there was more squash than squish on him. Bart & Meridith eventually took him out of the costume so that he could enjoy himself! And Paige was the cutest little fairy ever! Thinking that Raleigh and Madeline remembered how to trick-or-treat from last year, we let 'em loose in the neighborhood and watched from the sidewalk. Unfortunately, they forgot the part where you say, "Trick or Treat," and just stood there on the doorsteps with their pumpkins waiting pathetically for the candy to drop in. After a few rounds they got the hang of it and were really warmed up for our 2nd Stop . . .

Halloween Pictures

Raleigh-Belle poses with our cuter-than-cute upstairs-neighbor friends, Noah and Jensen. Noah is a gorilla and Jensen is Captain Moroni.

Jensen says that he is going to marry Madeline in the Salt Lake Temple. Madeline's response? "But I'm going to marry Daddy."

Well, look how dashing our footman is! Dallas strikes a pose wearing his blue Polo button-down and tie, Dionne's green pea coat, his BYU sweatpants, long church socks and shoes. For those of you wondering what that giant papier mached balloon was, it was going to be part of a carriage for the princesses. Unfortunately, the combination of warm glue and cold weather shriveled that carriage back down to a pumpkin just about at the stroke of midnight. But we still say, "That would've been so cool!" And "Maybe next year!"

Dionne's "Better-Late-Than-Never" Spooky TRUE Scary Halloween Stories

"A Spooky Saturday Morning"

It was early one Saturday morning when I was about twelve or thirteen living at our old house in Georgia. The light came shining through the windows, but no one was awake yet; everyone was sleeping in. I had awoken to a feeling like someone was playing with my hair. I opened my eyes, but nobody was in the room. I looked over at Rikki (about 3 or 4 years old, sharing my room), and she still slept. The rustling on my head continued! I could feel someone playing with my hair. I thought, "Maybe there is a ghost in here!!" I was too scared to sit up, too scared to roll over, too scared to move. After several minutes, I finally got up the courage to look behind me, and Jess' hamster was crawling on my head! We never figured out how it climbed out of its cage, off of Jess' dresser, down the hall, up onto my bed and then onto my HEAD! I about had a heart attack.

"Tapping at Twilight"

One Friday night in Georgia, Jenny and I decided that we wanted to sleep outside on our family's boat parked on the basketball court behind our house. We thought it would be fun to climb underneath the cover on the boat and sleep in it like it was a tent! We put on our pajamas, brought our stereo and popcorn, and towed along our pillows and blankets and flashlight. We were giggling as usual, talking and laughing and telling all kinds of shocking teenage stories when we heard a "tap-tap-tap" coming from outside in the dark. We paused in our conversation for a minute and asked, "Did you hear that?" Continuing our talking and laughter, we paused again when we heard a little louder, "Tap-Tap-Tap," this time more audible than before. This time we nervously laughed and simultaneously whispered, "DiONNE! JENny!" We sat there silently for a few minutes and then continued our whispering. Neither of us had the courage to get outside of the boat to see what was making the noise. The tapping stopped, but after a minute, it started again. I was designated to climb out of the boat cover to find out where the sound was coming from. I took out my flashlight and peered out into the night, but the flashlight was too bright to see any surrounding areas. I had to turn it off! The sound came louder and more rhythmically than before! "TAP-TAP-TAP!" I climbed back inside the boat and made Jenny come out into to the night with me. The night was dark except for the moon and stars in the sky and the light shining off the corner of the house. Crickets chirped endlessly surrounding us, and we could feel the humidity envelope us as we leaped down to the warm pavement below. We clung to each other, laughing nervously and about to pee our pants!! "TAP! TAP! TAP!" We couldn't see where the noise was coming from. It wasn't the wind- there was no wind. It was coming from the front side of the boat. We tiptoed closer, squinting in the dark, when the tapping stopped, and from underneath the boat in deathly silence rang out, "BOO!" In a quiet moment of sheer terror, Jess almost lost his life to two screaming, dancing, laughing, crying teenage girls.

More Family Quotes

Madeline said, "My hand hurts," and Raleigh responded, "Maybe you have a medical problem."

At dinner Madeline informed us, "I only like rotten carrots, not cooked ones."