Dear Daddy,

Thank you for working so hard for our family. I miss you during the day, but look forward to snuggling when you get home! Mom took lots of pictures of me today. I thought you might like to see some.

Love,

Afton

P.S. You may notice that I'm wearing three different outfits. That is not due to vanity. It's due to a few unladylike accidents.

For the Grandparents - others might not be interested

Our Weekend

We found out that Dan's brother and his family were driving down to Austin (where Dan's other brother lives) for a visit. We decided to head over there as well. We hadn't seen Matt and Amy and their kids in 3 years! It was a lot of fun to see them and spend time together.

Saturday we went to a nice park, had BBQ at Rudy's, played a game, and sang lots and lots and LOTS of karaoke. Dan can really reach those high notes. You should ask him to sing "How Do I Live?" for you. It's amazing.

 Cecilia and Noah.

 Ethan.

 Audrey. (Sam and Audrey would play with each other sometimes. It was cute.)

 Luke.

 Zev and Sam.

 Carmen.

Sunday we went to church, played a game, walked to the neighborhood park, had DELICIOUS steak, and drove home.

 Smiley girl.

 Matt, Dan, Adam, Yinelli, and Amy in front.

 Hunter.

 Mack. (Mac? I'm not sure. How sad is that?)

 Matt striking a pose.

 Most of the Durst grandkids. We're missing 4. I think Sam looks very similar to the twins. (Hunter in the front in green and Luke in the plaid.) They have cowlicks in the front of their hairlines, too. Noah was nice to hold screaming Afton.

 The brothers.

It was a great weekend!

Dan is cute. He likes to match whatever I'm wearing. Thanks to 6 years of marriage, we own quite a few of the same shirts. (Family reunions, Virginia shirts, etc.) This week I performed a mini-experiment. Everyday, before Dan came home from work, I would change into a shirt that I know he also owns. I took a picture of myself, and then sneakily would take a picture of Dan, too.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

As you can see, he really likes to match me!

In other news, Afton's belly button looks pretty much normal now. This isn't the best picture but it now looks like this:

Instead of this:

It's like someone stuck a pin in it and deflated it or something. I'm glad it didn't take 5 years like the doctor said it might.

I've been practicing applique, as I said before. I made this rocketship a few weeks ago. Dan thinks it's too feminine, but I made Sam model it anyway.

Sam likes it when Dan throws him up in the air. He's on his way down in this picture.

I really hate that Daylight Savings Time is over. Sam wakes up so early. That means I have to wake up earlier than HE does so that I can be ready before he wakes up. The other day, I just wanted to sleep, so I hit snooze on my alarm. 30 minutes later I hear, "Hiiiiiiiii." I open my eyes and there's Sam standing in the doorway. The past two days, he's come into the bathroom while I'm getting ready for the day (around 6:45). It's such a bummer that he's up that early!

Thanks to Halloween, Sam has had his first lollipop. He sucked the stick soggy, and once it started to sag, he didn't really want the lollipop anymore. But he liked it while it lasted.

 This is how Afton looked the other cold morning before we went to the park: homeless. My sister would be ashamed.

 But don't worry, Candice. We made up for it by putting her in this ADORABLE outfit made by my very talented friend. Isn't that so cute? (And check out her pretty blue eyes...)

Yo Gabba Gabba has a little segment in it where kids make funny faces. Sam's been into that lately and asking us to make funny faces. Here's his:

Happy Halloween

Saturday was a pretty busy day around the Durst house, but we managed to get our act together to attend our ward's Trunk-or-Treat. There were a ton of cars there and we had a lot of fun. We'd been practicing "Trick or treat" with Sam all week long, but he forgot those three little words and reverted back to his shy self when approaching a car for candy. He would stand really far back and just kind of stare. Then I'd coax him into holding out his pumpkin and saying "Thank you." I think he said "Trick or treat" only a handful of times. He was so cute, though.

(The pictures are in messed up order but I don't feel like trying to fix it.)

He LOVED holding his candy-filled pumpkin and wouldn't let go. Once it got heavier, it was harder for him to manage, but he didn't care. It sat on his lap on the ride home and he carried it around the kitchen for a while, too.

Afton just wore a Halloween sleeper. And (wouldn't you know it?) slept through the whole thing.

We ran out of candy on Saturday and didn't want to give out candy on Sunday so we turned off most of the lights and lived like zombies in our own house. It was annoying. We noticed this year, though, that way too many parents DRIVE their kids around. Are you kidding me? You can't walk from house to house? Part of the fun was running from house to house, going as fast as you can to get the most candy. Now the parents drive around slowly while their kids canvas the street, hop in the car, and drive to the next street. I couldn't believe it. People must be getting lazier.