October in Arizona

I feel like being lazy so I didn't put the pictures in order, but oh well. We had several days of Halloween. Here is the whole family dressed up for the big party on campus. Jordann was Cinderella and James was a Ninja. Mark was the usual, only this year I found him a cool cape thing to wear at a yard sale. Along with his outfit I found my witch costume at the same yard sale. We were by far the scariest couple on campus!

So I got a text from somebody with a picture of Terena and Jake showing off their pumpkin pie she had for her birthday (not so nice)! I had to one up her and make fudge to go along with my pumpkin pie for my birthday! I hope you are all jealous! It was my best fudge yet, due to the new pan I found at a yard sale. It would make Becky and Jan proud! Here is night one of Halloween. I took the kids to a trunk or treat at James' school.

When I dressed Jordann up for one of the parties we went to, I put mascara and eyeshadow and all sorts of makeup on her. She was so cute after she was all dressed up, she reminded me of one of those pageant girls! (And yes I found her costume at a yard sale too!)

Jordann with her pumpkin I carved and she colored.

Other news: Mark has one more week of finals until his quarter break. He is still so stressed out. Sometimes studying till three in the morning and getting up at six. We expected school to be hard but not this intense. He gets two weeks off for break and we are counting down the days. Unfortunately, we were planning on going home for Thanksgiving but that is not going to happen since I have volleyball practices that week. Sadly enough we won't be able to come home for Christmas either because of volleyball. Mark's break for Christmas is quite a bit shorter and I have a volleyball tournament right in the middle of it. We were really quite heartbroken about it at first but have gotten over it and hope to find some fun things to do around here. Plus, I am sad that you guys won't get to see my awesome tan!

My triathlon training has been going really well. Only a few setbacks. My contacts hate me and I have been having problems ever since I started training. And my quads and calfs have become massively HUGE! I just stare at them in amazement. I can now swim the 400 meters, which I am really excited about because I have never been able to swim. It has been really good for me to have something to do and focus on. I hope to one day do the Olympic triathlon. Probably after school when we can afford a nice bike for me.

James and Jordann are so cute but they still talk about Utah and how they wish they can go back and live in the house with the stairs! They are always talking about going to see their grandmas and every time we are in the car for more than 20 minutes she asks if we are going to grandma's house. We really do like it here but still miss you guys! I hope everybody has a good holiday season! We are sorry to miss everybody and hope to see you guys sometime in 2011!