Amy, a missionary now!

The other day Amy, Kevin, Laura Barrett, and I went to the Phoenix Children's Museum. As the kids were playing on a tall climbing structure, one of the workers suggested they climb into the boat and sing "Row Row Row Your Boat..." Amy climbed into the boat and said, "Let's sing, 'I am a child of God.'" Then she began singing a solo. The worker was very impressed and told us how sweet that was and how she felt privildged to have heard the song. We continued playing for a few minutes and I suggested to Amy that she could give the woman a pass-along card picture of Jesus. Amy took the card and ran and handed it happily to the woman. What a sweet little missionary I have.

Scuba Diver

 Meet the newest addition to the Woodbury family, Scuba Diver!

We are excited to meet him in person in a week when the Woodburys (the only members of the extended Wilson family with technology from this decade : ) come to visit!

You can see more information about Scuba Diver here (including all of his sommersaults and twists).
Or you can buy it or gift it through itunes.  Just search for Adam Woodbury.

Danielle posted this on facebook:
If you have any questions or issues with our new app (see link below for more information), don’t hesitate to contact our support team. They're working overtime tonight.

Nice work, Adam and Danielle!

Richard's delicious final

Rich and Josh Palkki were over the other night.  I asked Rich how his final went, and he said, "It was good."  And Josh said, "It was delicious!" 
Who has ever had so cool a final as getting to make an omelette, steamed fish, and more!
Now I'm trying to figure out how to become Rich's head taste tester this Cmas break!  And possibly apprentice as well.

Suzy's Famous!

Yay Suz! 

I thought it was so funny when I found this video on the desktop on my birthday. They surprised me!

Three Mad Scientists

Becca and Mom were CHAMPS to help me carry out my optimistic "Fun Day Friday" at Sage's class where we did Halloween science projects.

We started out by teaching the class about dry ice--and showed them how it made bubbling witch's brew, and you can make quarters "scream" by holding it down on a block of dry ice.  (It would have been super cool if I had remembered that all the quarters I brought were in my pocket.)  Luckily one of the teachers had some in her desk.  And bringing gloves would have been a nice measure as well.  What can I say--we were MAD scientists.  Gloves are a luxury item to them.  As are conditioner and detangler spray.

Mom taught about fingerprints, and helped the kids identify their own fingerprint patterns, and make Halloween fingerprint cards.  (Also she had the best hair of the three of us.)

Becca redefined multi-tasking at her station.  With Brooke and Micah as her "helpers," she taught 60 third graders about static electricity, and then they helped her make Halloween tissue figures "dance" using a balloon.  Then she made slime with them and let them all feel it.  Then she wrote and illustrated a children's book, and invented a cure for cancer in the few minutes left over before we switched groups.  (And she really did change a blowout diaper in the middle of this all.)  

Meanwhile I sat back and clipped my fingernails while Mom and Becca rocked the house. : )
My station was the lamest--we made invisible ink that sort of worked.  And we drank witches brew (dry ice).  

So now that it's almost Christmas, I figured it would be a good time to post about our Halloween adventures.  Punctuality is a luxury item to MAD scientists.
 And thanks to Mark for outfitting the scientists with their white "coats." 

Fun at Hogle Zoo

Hogle Zoo has lots of fun for the whole family.  We took a trip there on Friday, and the kids all loved it.

Micah found a snake!  

It wasn't an anaconda, but it was still pretty cool.

The kids got up close and personal with a polar bear.

A hollow log made a great play place.

Can you find the tiger in this picture?

 Okay, I'll help you out.

Christian had fun with Auntie Kim!

 Sage and Eliza tried their hands at elephant riding.

(The nostrils at the end of the trunk shot out water periodically)

We saw a whole family of elephants.

Everyone had lots of fun on the carousel

What cute smiles, you three!

Grandma was proud to pose by the bald eagles, since she used the "bald eagle" card to win a round of Apples to Apples the night before.

(Brooke just wanted to feed the eagles a raisin.)

Hang on tight, Micah!

Thanks, Janel and Mom for treating us all to such a fun day at the zoo!

Becca's Halloween Party

Becca surprised us all by throwing the Halloween party of the decade this year.  

Here's some proof.

Behold, the eats.

Some close ups.

Pumpkin veggie/cheese plate.

Ghost tortilla chips, spider crackers, carrot/ranch/olive eyeballs

Micah was SOOOO excited to have a doughnut off the cat tail.  Even though it's only a one-eyed cat now.

Witch's brew (my meager contribution to Becca's spread)

Mom made super cute ghosts in green bean casserole.

Becca and Micah

After the incredible dinner, the adults convened downstairs to man Becca's spook alley.  Not pictured are strobe lights, dark corners, tunnels for kids to climb through, plastic spiders sprinkled across the carpet, and something that jumped out of a garbage can...but I'm getting ahead of myself. 

First, the kids went down the stairs and climbed under a sheet, where they met this creepy Keeper of the Gate, amidst flickering strobe lights.  He directed them to the dark bathroom where they met...

 This crazy mad scientist lady and all her experiments. 

 

Some of her creations were edible (brains, rat something-or-others, and eyeballs), and others were not.  Namely, the experiment that began moaning and rattling around in the bathtub.  Otherwise known as FrankenJordan (Hill).  

 

Then the Keeper of the Gate directed the kids to the strobe-lit section where Jordan T had suffered a tragic accident at the hands of Micah's toolset--a severed foot.  (You know the one, Wilsons--the one that likes to peek out from Dad's office door, or the back door of the van.)

 The two panty-hosed Jordans (who were way scarier in the dark)

 The kids had to reach past Jordan's severed foot to pick a piece of candy from a bowl.  Then they were directed to throw away their wrapper in the outdoor garbage can that happened to be sitting in Becca's family room.  You know, that gigantic one?  The one that can hold....wait for it....a full-size raptor?!?   No, wait, it was just Grandpa wearing the raptor head.  But it did freak some kids out.  Eliza charged straight into the screen door upstairs after she escaped the raptor. 

Thankfully, there were less scary games upstairs.  And much less scary costumes.  Suzy, the cowgirl, and Grandma, the fortune teller, for example.  And Kim and Spencer tied fun balloons for the kids.

And Mom had prepared a bowling game, with pumpkins for bowling balls. 

 

Rich was the best bowler.

 

Talk about an awesome party!  

It may even be worth driving up for next year, Nielsens and Woodburys : )

Thanks for all your work, Becca.

"Trick or Treat?  Want some candy?"

Birthday Time

I believe some pics of the other recent birthdays are in order.  You know who you are--Danielle, Suzy, Amy.  And who can forget Lloyd? : )

Heather's news

Just wanted to make sure that we're all on the same page here :) In case you haven't heard, I'm just clarifying a few things: Let's just take this step by step.

Nov. 7th this happened:
 












On that paper it said that I'll be going here--Cape Verde, Praia--in 2 months (Jan 9).



It seems like the island is a little bipolar...Both from the same very small island... (ps random fact--Praia means "beach" in Portuguese)
and


In the next 2 months, I'm looking forward to these things:
falando português (i.e. speaking Portuguese!)
going here:
 
in AZ with Krista
AND:
Christmas with the fam!

 And, at last, living here in LESS THAN 2 MONTHS! oh man.