October fun for the Christisons

Our top story this week - okay, maybe it's hard to pick a top story. But one of our top stories is that Mattie got a new haircut. Unfortunately, she doesn't love having bangs.  I took these when we were waiting for some other photo session, so I could show her just how cute her hair is.  She is only semi-convinced - she thinks bangs on her forehead are "uncomfortable" and she doesn't like when they "poof out".  I forsee a lot of headbands and some bangs-growing out in our future.  That said, I think she looks beautiful!




I was trying to get her to keep a straight face, and she just couldn't quite do it. :)






Next child - Pierce turned 8 years old!  I have some fun pictures from his actual birthday, but these are the pictures we just took today, in his new suit, for a baptism invitation for his friends at school and some teachers.  Doesn't he look nice in his suit? :)  He was so sweet and happy.  And resigned to dressing nice at church now - luckily I've been warning him for a long time that this was coming.  Another great thing about Pierce is that we told him he needed to pray about being baptized so he could have his own testimony that it was the right thing to do.  With a little encouragement he did this and feels great about the ceremony this next Saturday.  I love it when he gets answers to his prayers.






He picked the scripture at the bottom.  I think I'll write a little bit about baptism on the back of the card (who am I kidding, I will obviously TYPE it, not write it) and he plans to give it to some teachers, friends, and his soccer team.  Then he will pray for torrential flooding so that his team can't play their game - which is at the same time as his baptism - and they will come to that instead. :)


And I will finish off with a lot of Balloon Fiesta pictures. Don't worry, I have more! The kids always want pictures of the special shaped balloons, so my collection leans heavily toward those.

We picked the PERFECT day to go this year - it was warm and we went with friends who had VIP passes.  I'll tell  you what, that nice hot catered breakfast was a big hit.  We ate where it was sort of warm, watched the balloons go overhead, and by the time we were done it had warmed up out and we walked down through the balloons (and bought our favorite small fresh donuts, yum).  The balloonists had "the box" going - it's where the wind goes south at lower altitudes and north when they go up higher.  So they go south over the field when they take off, then go up higher and go back over the field again going north.  You get to see them all twice and they like it because they get to land pretty close.  It was perfect.  We loved it!