Halloween

This fall season has been a bit different with Owen busy with marching band and Willow busy with dance. Willow went with the youth group to Scaremare for the first, and possibly last, time! It was all smiles for the picture beforehand though!Willow's dance company has "bigs" and "littles" that are paired up to support each other through the competition season. Willow requested a little girl from church and was happy to see that they were matched together. The rest of us joined Willow before the "reveal" at the pumpkin patch for lunch (and funnel cake!) and picking out pumpkins. 

Emerson was just as excited as Willow!

 There were only "tricks" for me on Halloween as I had my first colonoscopy:

And this was the only pumpkin that was carved this year:

Here are the kids by our uncarved pumpkins. It's surely a different season that we're in these days! Willow was dressed up as a deer for the kids at work. We thought we'd be at an away football game Halloween night but the band didn't end up going due to a competition the next day. We had mummy dogs and jack-o-lantern and mummy quesadillas, watched a movie, and Willow answered the doorbell when it rang once with two kids. Seems like the neighborhood kids are growing up too. 

BANDtober

Owen has been loving marching band! He told me recently that he had a hard time deciding which he liked better: halftime, stand tunes, or competitions. What a good problem to have! They've had 4 competitions this season, which have been fun to watch. As they learned their show, they placed duct tape pieces in the parking lot where they practice. Each kid has a different color and it looks like confetti scattered through the parking lot. He was proud to show us his tape spots!Friday night lights!! Nana and Grandpa joined us for the away game in Christiansburg. Gramps and Gramma made the home games! They all made it to a couple competitions too!

I'm grateful for band parents who take pictures with their nice cameras, then share them!

I was thankful he was on the end during one of the away games so I could watch him have fun...and get a few videos!

At one competition you could buy a cupcake with your school's colors! What cute musical sprinkles!

 Here's the entire show and here's a video following Owen. 

In November he was able to be part of the combined county bands that marched in the Veterans Parade. Video here!

Family Pictures

We used a new photographer for family pictures this year and met at a location in the middle of all of us, which worked out great! One of these may be coming to you on a Christmas card soon!

Owen's not wearing his glasses in any of the pictures because he has transition lenses that were darkening in the sun. He also had to be persuaded to smile for this *one* picture to show his braces. He's so handsome!