Halloween

We had fun doing our traditional pumpkin carving.  It is nice that the kids are getting older and are able to do more of the carving themselves.  The pumpkins left to right our Halle, Hayden, Addy, Mckenna, and Parker.  

We had a fun dinner and trunk or treat at the church on the Monday before Halloween.

We decorated our trunk with our Jack-o-lanterns, cobwebs, and the giant spider from our front porch.  Kev even dressed up again this year.  He wore his lab coat from work that said "Kevin" on it.  He also had his safety goggles and a flashlight.  Which he kept shining in other peoples eyes that night.

I dressed up as a flapper this year.  My friend Jan let me borrow her dress.  I already had some fish net tights, gloves, and a feather headdress to go with it.  I love dressing up!

Parker was Napoleon Dynamite this year.  I filmed this fun clip of him busting a move.

Halle had a Halloween party at dance over the weekend.  She decided to wear Mckenna's Jellyfish costume that she made years ago.  Halle looked great and even won an award for best costume.

I laughed every time I saw Parker dressed up as Napoleon.  He was invited to three different parties.  He rode his bike to one with this giant bag of popcorn. "Lucky, it's got shocks, pegs, and everything!"

I went to the kids school Halloween parade. It was Halle's last parade since she is in sixth grade this year.  Her cute friend Maddi was dressed up as a Llama behind her. Halle's costume was great for staying warm.  She needed it because it was a cold Halloween this year. 

I went and helped out with Hayden's class party.  I was in charge of the game.  Hayden wanted a picture taken with his friend who was dressed up as Dr. Strange.  His teacher told me a cute story about Hayden while I was there.  Her husband came to visit the class recently and she told them he was a superhero since his last name is Webb.  Hayden told her husband that he was dressing up as Spiderman for Halloween and wanted to be superhero just like him. 

Addy dressed up as Anna this year.  She wore the cute cape that Aunt Amy made for Halle one year.  I attempted to give her an Anna hairdo.  I almost lost my mind trying to do her hair before school that morning.  We also gave her freckles and they were adorable.

I took a picture of Parker and Ryker before they left trick or treating.  Ryker was a character from Dukes of Hazard.

Hayden did some tricks on the tramp for me.

He really loved his Spiderman morph suit.  He really looked good in it too.

We took pictures of all the kids dressed up in their costumes.

Mckenna was a hippie this year.

Kenna worked hard making their costumes.  They got pants from D.I. and then put slits in them, then sewed in fabric.  

They looked awesome and I had fun taking pictures of them.

Halle showed up to trick or treat at our door with her friends Madi U and Rachel.  I enjoyed handing out candy that night.  I loved seeing my primary kids come by.  I also had a fun surprise when my old neighbor Brenda showed up at my door.  We had fun catching up. The best part of the night for me was when Halle showed up with a cup of homemade hot chocolate that she brought me.

The kids had fun counting and sorting their candy.  Brody even joined us this year.

Parker showed up with a record breaking amount of candy this year.  He brought home 29 pounds of candy!!  His pillowcase was literally bursting at the seams.

Birthday Carnival

Addy had her friends birthday party on Saturday October 27th.  We had a carnival in our backyard.  We couldn't have asked for better Fall weather.

The first event was jumping through a ring of fire aka tissue paper around a hula hoop.  I put on the music "The greatest show" while they took turns jumping through the hoop.  They also earned tickets for each carnival event they participated in.

The next even was tricks on the trapeze bar.  Addy loves to hang upside down like this and then flip over and down.

Then we had a donut eating contest where they couldn't use their hands.

It was hilarious to watch!  We finally told them that they could kneel down under the donut to make it easier to eat. 

We had a duck pond where they could find the matching ducks to win tickets.

We played competition pie face.  It is always fun and gets everyone laughing.

I asked Halle and Maddi if they would help with the face painting. 

I knew there was no way I could paint all the girls faces in time.  I was really grateful to have their help and they did a great job.

I painted a unicorn on Addy's face.  She was happy with how it turned out and didn't want to wash it off her face later that night.

We sang to Addy and had her blow out candles on a donut.

My neighbor let me borrow her prize wheel that she uses in primary.  The kids had fun spinning it to win some more tickets.  Then Hadyen drew out tickets with the girls names on them.  They redeemed their tickets for prizes.  We had cotton candy, sunglasses, little notebooks and erasers.  They also were their party favors.

Addy got some fun presents from her friends.  Her favorites were a unicorn lamp for her room and a journal.  She carries her journal around the house all the time.  She writes messages and draws cute pictures in it.

Addy is seven!

Our little Addy turned seven years old on Wednesday October 24th!  We took some pictures of her up in our tree.  The Fall leaves are beautiful right now and remind me of the day she was born.

We went to get her birthday waffle.  They even put some gold sprinkles on it for her.  I enjoyed the time with just the two of us. It was her first birthday where she was at school all day and I missed her.

She chose out some fun birthday balloons.  She loved this giant unicorn one.  As you can see it was bigger than her.

Halle was sweet and played with Addy until her party started.

Addy loved all the attention and love she got from everyone.

She was excited about these twin dolls she received from Grandpa and Grandma.  The toy she was most excited about was the LOL dolls.  She got two of them.

I made her a purse cake this year.  I loved the big hug she gave me while we were taking pictures.

Addy blowing out her candles and making a wish.

I put her name on the back of the cake with skittles.

We were happy her Great Grandma and Grandpa Grant were at her party.

Grandpa, Grandma, and Kayley also came.

She had fun spending time with her Grandma Sue.

I got to help out in Addy's class later that week.  We did a fun pumpkin activity.  The kids weighed, measured, and put the pumpkin in water to see if it would float.  They chose out a design and I carved the pumpkin for them.  It was fun to meet some of Addy's new friends.  We love our Addy!  She loves to give hugs, draw, and be silly.  She can also be quite sassy at times. She keeps us all entertained with her singing and dancing.  She continues to bring happiness to our family!

Fall Break

We drove to Moab on Saturday October 20th and stayed through Monday the 22nd.  It had been a few years since we had last been to Arches.  The first hike we did was to Landscape Arch.  We hiked there fairly quickly and decided to keep going further to Double O Arch.

There were some steep parts coming up out of the wash.

We hiked along rock fins some of the way.  There were drops on both sides and it made this Mom nervous.

We did make it to the Double O Arch.  Kev took this picture of me taking a picture of the kids in the lower arch.

We camped in the Devils Garden campground. It is one of our favorite places to stay and has flushing toilets!  We always enjoy hanging around the fire and cooking some smores.

The next morning it was pouring rain.  Kev was good to cook us all breakfast while it was freezing cold.  We were grateful to have our canopy up to keep dry under.

Once the rain had let up we went on hike to Delicate Arch.  Most of the kids remembered it from last time.

It is nice they have these steps carved out of the slick rock.

It was also nice that it wasn't as hot and crowded.  Kev and the kids climbed up to this Lookout Arch right before we came to Delicate.

We stopped and had some snacks while enjoying the view.

We waited in a long line so I could take a picture of Kev and the kids under the arch.  It was humorous watching everyone pose for their pictures.  Many took pictures jumping in the air, doing the splits, etc.

Kev took this picture of the older kids and I. If you zoom in on the picture there is a woman who was dancing under the arch.  It made us all laugh!

We hiked to the North and South Windows.  Mckenna recreated this pose from when she was five and was waiting for all of us to catch up.

Kev took the kids up high into one of the arches.  Mckenna was taking a selfie.

Halle, Hayden, and Addy got a little hyper after awhile.  They picked up some sticks and were shouting, "Expeliarmus" as they ran around.

I took this picture of Parker just hanging out by one the Arches.

I helped boost Addy and Hayden up to Kev.  They didn't want to be left out.

We went to see the Double Arch. Mckenna and I decided to enjoy it from a distance.  She got some funny looks from people walking by.

The last stop of the day was to Sand Dune Arch. It is always a favorite with the kids.

We went back to camp to get dinner cooking.  We really liked are campsite.  Kev had stayed there once before when he was a scout.

There were all these cool rock fins surrounding us.  The kids loved to climb on them.  I saw this view as I was walking back to camp.  Halle was high up there on the rock just having a peaceful moment to herself.

It got cold that night.  When I checked on Hayden I found him all snuggled up with his Pluto.

The next morning Halle and Addy stayed entertained making their own rock gardens.

On Monday morning we went to the Fiery Furnace.  

Kev had been looking forward to this day for a long time.  We had to get a special permit to hike there.  We also had been waiting for Addy to be old enough.  The big rock fins were impressive.

There was a lot of rock scrambling and climbing involved.

At one point we got lost.  Kev took off like a mountain goat climbing up and out of the rocks.  We finally found a way back out.  Kev was enthusiastic about "the adventure" we just had. The rest of us were just tired and glad to be back to the car.