Traditions!

Every year since Mackenzie and Brooklyn were little we would make homemade sugar cookies in the shape of pumpkins and ghosts just before Halloween. Those who have made sugar cookies before know the hours involved in making these cookies. I decided we weren't going to make them this year. My excuse was that we had too much going on. But my girls asked me earlier this week when we would be making them and so...here they are! Traditions! You gotta love family traditions!
Brooklyn frosting the pumpkins!

Yum Yum Yum...want to come over for some cookies and milk? Happy Halloween!

Trip to the Seattle Temple

Last night Steve's Young Single Adult ward had a trip to the Seattle temple to do baptisms. We decided to bring Mackenzie and Brooklyn along with us so they could do the baptisms for some family names. Grandma & Grandpa Smith and Grandpa LeBaron have been busy doing genealogy and have found some of our relatives who needed their work to be completed. It was so nice to be in the temple with Mackenzie and Brooklyn. Life is so busy and it's always such a calm, peaceful feeling to walk into the temple and slow down for a couple of hours and think about the things that are the most important in life. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Grandpa LeBaron for all your work to find these relatives. We Love You!

Puget Sound Festival of Bands

On Saturday Cascade High School hosted the Puget Sound Festival of Bands competition at the Everett Memorial Stadium. It was an all day and evening event with 27 High School bands from all over Washington and two from Oregon competing. Cascade Sound did two performances but they only performed as exhibition. They couldn't compete because they were hosting the event. It was fun to watch Mackenzie perform again. And she was excited that Grandma and Grandpa were here to see their show. Steve and I volunteered for 4 hours in the morning as security. We basically walked around the stadium with our badges and walkie talkie's on and made sure no one got out of hand! Fortunately for us no one caused any trouble!
Grandma and Grandpa came over to the stadium around 11:00 and stayed with us until 11:00 that night. We had fun watching all the bands compete. It was a gorgeous day but when the sun went down it got really cold.

That evening before the 12 bands competed in the finals competition Brooklyn's middle schools 7th & 8th grade band performed the National Anthem. It was so fun to see Brooklyn march onto the football field and perform. They did a great job. Way to go Brooklyn!

Here is a picture of Brooklyn with some of her friends after their performance. They stayed to watch the final bands compete.

Here we are all bundled up in our blankets to watch the evening performances. It was really cold that night so the blankets and hot chocolate saved us!

Ward Halloween Party

Friday night I was in charge of our Ward's Halloween party. We had carnival games, trick or treating to the classrooms, carved jack-o-lantern contest and yummy treats. It was well attended I think everyone there had a great time. My parents were here visiting so we put them to work and it was nice to have them on my committee!! Thanks Mom and Dad for all your help to make this party such a success!
Brooklyn's Beehive class helped with the cupcake walk. Brooklyn dressed up for the party as a witch!

For dessert we had a caramel apple bar. Steph and I made 6 batches of homemade caramel and kept it warm in a crock pot. It was a hit! Everyone loved it. Steph is on my Activities committee. I couldn't do these parties without her help. She is awesome! Thanks Steph! And no...our matching argyle sweaters aren't part of the Activity committees uniform...we just happened to be wearing them at the same time! Too funny!

We rented a cotton candy machine and Steve...aka...Napoleon Dynamite and Grandma and Grandpa served cotton candy to all the kids. The cotton candy was a huge hit too!

Here is Napoleon and Grandpa making cotton candy for the kids! Yum...we wish we still had the cotton candy machine so we could make us a treat right now!

Pumpkin Carving

Thursday night we carved one of our pumpkins for our ward Halloween party that was on Friday. Grandma and Grandpa Smith were here visiting so they got to get in on the action of carving pumpkins the LeBaron way!!
Brooklyn and Steve cleaning out the pumpkin!

Here we are trying to figure out what face to give our pumpkin. Brooklyn and Grandpa had fun flicking pumpkin seeds at each other. Because they were all slimy and wet the seeds went flying everywhere around the house. I am still finding seeds stuck to the carpet and on the window seals!

This is the method we use for carving our pumpkins...a jig saw! Our girls draw the faces on their pumpkins and then Steve uses the jig saw to cut them out. It's way easier, faster and much safer then using a sharp kitchen knife!

And...here he is...our goofy pumpkin!

Cascade Sound Marching Band Performance

This afternoon after marching band practice the band performed their show at the Everett Memorial Stadium for all the band families and their friends. It was so fun to go see the show and watch Mackenzie march. She has really enjoyed this experience of being in the band and has made a lot of new friends.
Here is a picture of Mackenzie after the show all decked out in her uniform.

Howard William Barben - September 25, 1912 - October 16, 2008

Thursday morning Steve's grandfather passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was 96 years old. Even though it was sad to hear of his passing we know that there must have been a marvelous reunion for him with his loved ones on the other side. We have so many wonderful memories and joyful times with Grandpa Barben and we will miss him greatly. He was and will always be a great example for us of living life to the fullest.

There are many things that each of the grandkids and great grandkids will treasure about Grandpa - yes, too many to number. But in the spirit of Grandpa's great sense of humor Steve has put together a Top Ten list of things that the grandkids will miss now that grandpa has left us physically, but have become a part of us and will pass on because of our wonderful grandpa.

1. Grandpa's jovial and fun laugh - that communicated his love for life and love for having fun.

2. His big strong hugs that communicated that he loved us more than anyone else - and yet knowing that he loved all his fellow grandkids just as much.

3. His amazing memory to remember my name - no matter how many grandkids he had.

4. His creative inventions - from the tennis ball thrower to his creative camping cars - Oh, how I wish I could have seen the look on grandma's face when he sawed off the back end and roof of a perfectly good car - she must have wondered how it would turn out and yet how impressed she must have been when he completed it.

5. His funny stories of his childhood and mission - like the story of how he was the littlest kid in Jr. High and so he would be sent up a straight ladder (not an A-frame) to change the light bulbs in the gym straight up the ladder while some bigger school mates held the ladder. He said he would climb up the ladder and once looked down to see the school mates, with in whom he was trusting his life scuffling down below and he decided this was not a smart idea. :-)

6. His example of his love for the gospel and love for the Lord .

7. A birthday check from grandpa - an acknowledgement that he remembered me - with a signature in handwriting that was uniquely his and required a urim and thummin to read.

8. His example of giving and generosity.

9. His booming voice that communicated his tremendous enthusiasm and love for the gospel - especially when he was bearing his testimony at a family reunion or some other setting.

10. His telling with conviction, "I am what I am today because God had his way with my life more than I did." And knowing that that was not always easy.

Our 2008 Family Sacrecrow

NEWS FLASH! The LeBaron family scarecrow for this year is up! Here are a few pictures. Who is it you ask? Drum roll please. It is... NACHO LIBRE!!!

We've lived in Washington for 11 years and this is our 11th scarecrow! Each year we start brainstorming for ideas early in the year so that we are ready to build him in the fall. This year it was difficult to come up with an idea. The vote for Nacho Libre was 3-1 so I guess you could say I lost! I am the only one in the family who hasn't seen the movie so I guess I better get a copy of the DVD and watch it! So here he is! Happy Halloween & Happy Fall!

Nacho's first date last Saturday night prior to getting set up in the front yard!

Here is Steve brining Nacho to life!

Stake Youth Dance

Last night Mackenzie went to a Stake Youth dance. It was a costume dance so before the dance Mackenzie invited her friend Heidi over so that they could get ready for the dance together. They had a great time painting nails, doing make-up and curling up their hair for the big dance! After the dance she had a bunch of kids over to the house for hot fudge sundaes and a little guitar hero.
Check out Mackenzie as a hippy girl! She would have made a cute hippy in the late 60's!

Band Competition in Eastern Washington

Steve, Brooklyn and I decided to make it a fun weekend trip while we were in the Tri-Cities area of Washington (a 4 hour drive East from us) to watch Mackenzie march in a band competition. On Saturday morning we went and visited the Columbia River Temple.
Performance during the preliminary competition!

Here is a fun picture of their performance. Mackenzie is the one with the white feather plume... :-)

This is a picture of the band marching off the field after their performance. Mackenzie is right by the cart carrying her mellophone looking very professional and serious! Cascade took 3rd place within their division in preliminaries competition in the morning and then they took 2nd place in the overall finals competition. There were 24 bands there with 12 bands making it to the finals competition. Congratulations Cascade Band!