Trick-Or-Treating to Grandparents

It's become an annual tradition for us to take the kids early to visit with their great-grandparents. This way we are able to have the kids show off all their fancy costumes. It's funny because each year Jake switches things up and shows off a different costume than his actual Halloween costume. Oh, well. We always have a great time. Our kids are ALWAYS spoiled. This year Grandma Denny and Aunt Janet made cookies, hand gift bags and treats all ready for them. Hands down our kids favorite goodie was a can of soup. They could hardly wait for the next day to come to enjoy their Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup that had toy story, cars, and Disney princess shaped noodles. They LOVED it!!! (Ben was miserable. He's been sick all week and the last thing he wanted to do was wear a BEE costume)

Happy kids to visit other great-grandparents who love them so much!

Pumpkin Carving 2012

Monday night was reserved for pumpkin carving at our house. We had a great time. I mean honestly what is better than digging out slime and sticky seeds all night long. It's a great tradition and we just had a blast. In fact I've been thinking about FHE and how we can make it more enjoyable. So I totally branched out and turned on some festive Halloween music (thanks to Pandora). Well once the night was over Alayna expressed how much fun this FHE was. Once again, I'm realizing to loosen up and Enjoy the Journey!

I love this picture because this was BEFORE Caleb learned what was required of carving pumpkins....

Jake enjoyed every minute of it.

Seriously, what a dramatic kid! He was MISERABLE. He kept saying, "I won't put my hand in there! I won't!!!"

 

And then he helped himself to his favorite utensil lately...Butter Knifes...Yes, this child has something for them. I can't tell you how many times in a day I have to say, "Caleb, take the (butter) knives out of your pants, pockets...go put them back in the drawer!" AHHH Seriously this kid is unbelievable. Anyways, once he was using those knives he was back to having an enjoyable time.

Happy Halloween Pumpkin Carver

The knives...or "My Swords!" As he calls them.

 

The slime...

More slime...

Jared doing some awesome faces for the kids.

Caleb is rocking out to some Family Halloween Pandora...

 

Finished products...Calebs pumpkin. He insisted his pumpkin had a smile on it...He said that way he won't have bad dreams anymore.

 

It was pretty fun taking some ghost looking pictures with the kids.

Caleb 2012 - funny thing is that Caleb kept whacking at his pumpkin with the butter knives on the outside. I kept telling him to stop because it would ruin his pumpkin...well, note to self it made for the greatest overall glowing pumpkin ever. It really was super cool. I mean look at the difference of his pumpkin and the other kids. It was awesome! (The above picture shows it the very best)

Jacob

Alayna
Happy Halloween...we are ready for some treats!

Gardener Village

I can't get enough of his smile...Happy Fall...This is a standard family tradition. It's a MUST in the month of October. My kids look forward to this for days. So we decided to go before it starts getting to chilly! It was beautiful weather. Awesome.

Here is our happy child. Seriously, smile little buddy! But it was a great shot to show our avid readers out there that he got a hair cut. This morning, I looked over at him in his pajamas and realized what a MOP that kid had on his face. So I decided to do the dangerous thing of trimming a 11 month old baby head of hair.

Thankfully he did ok. The crazy thing is that I cut nearly an inch off everywhere. His hair is still super long, but at least it's NOT on his eyes, ears and neck anymore.

This is a genuine smile of complete delight that he heard the Monster Mash song playing. He's adorable.

He of course started dancing. I hope this child doesn't ever loose his love for life. He inspires me everyday to seize the moment and live!

Our cute kiddos enjoying finding all the witches.

Who knew my kids were so into crafts. They kept pointing out these crafty pumpkins all over and asking if I would buy them...um no. But they were really cute.

The hot dog witch.

The bike riding witch.

I was SO glad that Jared left work early to join the fun. For 20 minutes I braved the village alone with the four kids and it...was...intense. Considering Caleb loves to run and dance and see and touch everything! So Jared quickly became GLUED to Caleb. Thankfully, we all made it home safely.

The happy family.

We love October!

Really we LOVE the month of October. If there is any excuse to make sugar cookies for a holiday we are all over it. The kids LOVE these sugar cookies, and so do the neighbors! So we love to make a huge double batch, load up the stroller and go out and deliver. Yum.

The cute kids working together.

 

Seriously, who doesn't love sugar cookies. To be honest, I NEVER have liked them until my darling friend shared a great recipe with me. Since then, sadly I could devour too many to mention. But a few times a year doesn't hurt anyone!

The kids of course picked the largest cookie to frost and eat...the giant haunted house.

My cute little princess.

She LOVES to bake. It's been really fun because lately she's been really hands on in the kitchen. It's been fun to see her actually being capable of cooking and understanding cooking concepts.

So we had a quick visit from our favorite sister-in-law Ashley from Texas. The kids were THRILLED all day looking forward for our visit with her.

Lovely picture of Jake's photography skills.

Costumes...well, this isn't what Alayna is this year, but she had a Halloween dress-up birthday party. I was out of town and this is what Jared came up with. What a good dad to figure something out!

I love this picture of Jake. Lately, my kids have become more and more responsible for themselves. I attempted to make him breakfast one morning and he said, "That's okay mom but I'd like to make my own healthy breakfast!" Well, okay then! So off he went and this is what he came up with. Cereal with strawberries and bananas. I realized my kids can live with out me!

Now, on to our chubby shag haired baby.

I told you he's a chubster!

This is his newest hobby or trick. He has DUCKY lips NON-STOP. It's hilarious. He's forming all sorts of sounds and mumblings and it's so cute to watch him because he keeps pursing his little lips.

My posing boys. They wanted me to take a picture of the beanbags bottom...funny kids.

Our crawling baby.

My favorite boys to hang with all morning long.

These two play so well together. From the moment Alayna leaves on the bus to school till its kindergarten time for Jake they play, play play!

See the ducky lips...

A mother of any boy will appreciate this picture. So I found my kids on the counter rocking out to Pandora toddler music...and then I over hear them saying, "You stink...No you do...It's totally you...I don't stink...You do!" Yeah, so pretty much boys are stinky and they never want to admit that it was them. I was just cracking up at how silly they are together!