Noah and the Ark!

I have to be perfectly honest. Halloween has never been my favorite holiday. This year however, the holiday was made fun - by watching my kids go through the season!

Ash and Logan are the monkey catchers - and they were able to keep their little monkey still for a cute family picture at their ward party.

How can you not be happy when you look at that sweet little monkey face!

Baby Ev, who is so easy to make smile, was finding joy in the season, at a totally awesome Pumpkin Patch near Half Moon Bay. Heather was enjoying the moment as well!

Our big boy Talmage, was taking it all in. We didn't get many smiles out of him on this trip, but it wasn't because he wasn't having fun. His little brown eyes, were wide open as he watched all that was going on around him.

Because of the kids, Scott and I decided that we would try to get a little more excited about Halloween. So on Saturday, we went to our own little local Pumpkin Patch.

There were a ton of pumpkins, all different sizes and colors. Maybe next year we will go out and buy a few different varieties and see the difference in the "jack o lanterns" that they become.

The place was a ton smaller than the one that we went to with Heather and the kids, but it did have it's own charm!

This scarecrow is a real live person, but when we came in I was so busy that I didn't notice, until he walked up on me and scared me! I got a good laugh, and of course we documented the scariness! ha ha

Scott is a master carver - a true artist at work! He always does the pumpkin's free hand - no patterns - and they always turn out great!

This year he put blue cellophane behind the eyes, and red cellophane behind the smile. It had a pretty cool effect.

My favorite part of the day was our ward party. I loved all the non-scary costumes. People were so creative in what they came up with. This is Amanda Fairchild as "Rosie the Riveter" I couldn't take my eyes off of her, she looked so authentic and so beautiful! Little Duncan is dressed up as a Saints fan, of course we thought that was great!

Gloria, Rachel and Krista are Charlie's Angels!

Eli Morgan - I love this kid! Not only does he dress up, but he gives you full facial expressions to make the costume that much more awesome!

And...even Scott and I got into the action. Scott is Noah. (he has animal crackers hanging from his belt so no one would confuse him with Moses - ha ha) And from the front side I represent the animals.

And I showed my absolute bravery by allowing a picture to be taken of my back side, which happened to be the ark!

Loved this Happy Halloween - Hope yours was great too!

Stanford Football & Family Fun!

Last Weekend, Scott and I went to Stanford and packed in as much family fun with the Wigginton's as we could.

While we were there we got to visit with some old family friends, and we went to a pumpkin patch at half moon bay. Fun, Fun, Fun!

But...we really got to top it off with our first ever Stanford Football Game.

The community is amazing, they really support their team. They have pre-game fun that is all free! Talmage was terrified to get his face painted, and so I was so brave and showed him that it doesn't hurt! He wasn't convinced! Look at the absolute worry on his face as a football is painted on my face!

One of the highlights of every game is the Stanford band. They march through the crowd and get everyone pumped up for the game. Talmage was too busy watching the band to pose for the picture!

Future Stanford Football Player!!

I tried to upload a video, but it didn't work. Heather and I actually were in a full dance when we heard the song brick house come on! It's a tradition - we couldn't help ourselves!

The Wigginton's in their full Stanford gear, look at those sweet boys!

The Stanford band's mascot is "the tree"! Here we have baby Ev supporting the band in his tree costume! He got lots of attention!

This sweet woman really made our game all the better! To make a very long story short, we were sitting in different parts of the stadium. When this woman heard the story, she said, "you tell them to come here, we will make room!" We all squished in, and it was wonderful. I kept thanking her for her kindness, she told me that she felt totally blessed because she will never have an opportunity to be a grandma and so she just couldn't get enough of baby Ev! It was really wonderful!

Little mister, was awesome. He's a great people watcher and so he was taking it all in. Another great asset to a football game is Cotton Candy!! We got one of those large bags with 4 different flavors of cotton candy. Let's just say he was well familiar with them all!

Final Score! Go Stanford!

We can't wait to do it again!

Look at that face!

Look at that face! I just love that picture, little furrowed brow! I was snapping pictures one after the other, and then I got this look. Translation is, "really me-ma, don't you think you have taken enough!"

It's All About Time...

Remember those old Mormon adds, that said, "family, it's about time..." They always made me cry as they showed family spending time together. Those adds really are the truth, family time is the best time!

Jordan came home from the weekend, and so we packed as much family time in as possible. On Friday we went to Palo Alto, and Jordan got to meet his newest little nephew, Everett. (side note, Heather had him all dolled up for the occasion - so cute!)

It took Talmage zero amount of time to warm up to his Uncle Jordan, and they were quickly at the park playing on all the equipment.

It was all fun and games until Uncle Jordan came up with a new game called "watch me grow" and you can see by Talmage's face, that game didn't go over so well! ha ha - He kept telling Uncle Jordan, "I no want to grow, Uncle Jordan!" It took awhile before he forgave his Uncle Jordan for the new game!

We toured the beautiful campus of Stanford, do you see that church in the back ground? It is breathtaking - and has such a beautiful story attached to it.

The boys all went to the law school, and got to see where James spends a good amount of his time. We had an awesome time at Heather's, wish I had taken more pictures - but for the rest of the story on our day with them - you can visit Heather's blog.

The main reason Jordan came down is that his mission companion Taylor married a hometown girl, Kelli! It was a privilege to be included in this special day - they are a darling couple!

Alas, our "time" came to an end all too quickly, and I found myself doing what I have to do so often with my kids - say good-bye!

The boys got in one last wrestle of fun before they settled down to pose for my picture!

Family. It's all about time.

We need to keep our old mini-van running so that we can spend as much of that time with our kids as possible.

Empty But Not Lonely!

28 Years Ago (July 30) I married my best friend. We were two young kids (18) ready to take on the role of husband and wife and live happily ever after!

Before you knew it we had 4 beautiful children, who added a measure of joy to our home that could not be compared. But even quicker than their arrival, came their departure. One by one, they left our little nest - for new adventures of their own!

The baby of that flock "flew the coop" in August, and we watched as he bravely drove away to the far away land of Utah!

This left our little nest empty ~ but as we soon discovered ~ not lonely!

We decided that we needed a little break and so we took a trip to Disneyland - we hopped back and forth between parks and played like two young kids! It was great!

We wore these buttons that said "happy anniversary" and so this group of barbershop singers had us come up and they helped Scott sing "Let me call you sweetheart" to me! I couldn't stop smiling!

Random picture I know, but when we were coming off of Indiana Jones there was this sign and the seminary teacher in me could not resist taking a picture!

Next we made a trip to Idaho and visited the Tataipu's. While there, we made a trip to Yellowstone and saw the wonders of this beautiful world!

The biggest treat however, was spending time with Ashleigh and Logan and that sweet little baby Kai!

We made a last minute decision and went across to Utah.

We never get tired of visiting the Salt Lake Temple.

Utah is now the home of our two boys and we surprised them with a SAMs club shopping spree. It's funny how once kids move out of the house, they are so appreciative of a full fridge! We also had the opportunity to take a group of kids from California, who now live in Utah, to frozen yogurt! We enjoyed having these good friends all together, Scott and I loved listening to all their stories.

Our month finished up with a visit from Heather, Talmage and Everett (Jim was traveling around the U.S. for law interviews).

Being a me-ma is so much fun!

Our nest is empty, but not lonely! We are at a very special time in our life, I am so grateful I married my best friend and that we get to send this special time together.