Halloween: the week long adventure

Wow! Last week was crazy!! I called it Halloween Week because it seemed like I had to dress my kids in their costumes everyday, some days more than once. It made things so crazy, but it was fun. The kids especially had a great time, and the bonus part was that they all slept the extra daylight savings hour, because they were exhausted. We even wore Spencer out. So buckle up people, it is going to be a long post. Emma wanted to be an M&M. She is such a nut. I couldn't get one picture of her where she wasn't doing something crazy.
Ben was a penguin for the second year in a row. I certainly am not going to object if my children want to be penguins every year. Besides the costume is adorable, and even more adorable with Ben in it.

Lucy wanted to be a princess. I know that is a huge surprise to anyone that knows her. But she was thrilled when we told her she could be her favorite princess: Cinderella.

Spencer doesn't get to choose yet. So Ben chose for him. He wanted his little brother to match him. Once again, I am not going to argue with a penguin costume.

We started off the week with a party at Grandma Cham's and Papa Woody's. Here are all the cousins. They had such a fun time decorating cookies, and parading through the family room.
Next Ben had his Halloween party at school (Sorry no pictures) on Wednesday.

Then the big school Halloween parade on Thursday. (No School on Friday)

Lucy was so excited that one of her little friends Avery was Cinderella too. This is a cute picture of them comparing costumes right before the parade started.

Ben was hilarious! He wouldn't stop for a picture, or even look at me. He just marched straight ahead. He told me later that he didn't want to hold up the line.

Thursday night we celebrated with our annual tradition of Halloween pumpkin pizza. So gimicky, but hey it's a holiday. I'm a sucker.

Later we went to our friends Halloween party. They always do such a cute job. The kids love the games, the adults love to visit.

Friday since the kids were out of school, my mom invited us to go to Gardner village to see the witches. It was a little chilly, but a ton of fun. The kids got to do a fun scavenger hunt. The witches are so cute.

Then while I was feeding Spencer, Grandma took the kids on pony rides and to the Hay maze. Ben was too nervous to ride the pony. But my girls loved it After the witches we headed to Scot's work Halloween Party. They let the kids trick or treat through the office. They give out great candy and it is always lots of fun.

Later that night we had our neighborhood Harvest Party.

Saturday was another busy day....

We went to visit my sweet Grandma, who is recovering from surgery. The kids hadn't seen her in awhile and really wanted to show off their costumes.

Then it was home to carve pumpkins. We thought Emma was old enough to carve her own and she did a great job. The kids grew these pumpkins in the garden. Lucy colored the little ones. But we were so sad when we came home someone had smashed the big pumpkins. How rude!

Next we trick or treated to about 10 houses.

We made a quick, but fun stop at Grandma Pam's house. She was kind enough to let us eat and run so we could get to the football game.

We spent the rest of the evening cheering on the Utes. It was fun as always, and not too cold. Then we all went home and slept very very well after such a long, fun filled week.

Regional Conference

Yesterday we had Regional Conference, and our stake was invited to go to the conference center downtown. The meeting was wonderful! I am always inspired to be better after great meetings like that, and it was so close to General Conference that I am still feeling that inspiration. My kids were really good, until about half an hour left (of course right when the prophet was speaking). But hey it was a long meeting. The funniest part was that they told me there was a mother's room, but when I actually went to nurse Spencer it turns out that it was just a little room with chairs in it. You couldn't even hear the meeting, so that kind of stunk, and the security people kept coming in and out. The reason only my girls are in this picture is because been fell and got hurt and wouldn't cooperate, but my girls are cute too. As we walked up to the meeting, Lucy saw the temple and started singing I love to see the temple. It was so cute! It's moments like those that you think maybe you are teaching them something good after all.

My boys

These are my adorable little boys. (Thanks for the matching shirts Carolynn.) I absolutely love my sons! I always thought it would be way more fun to be a mom of little girls, but I never expected to love being a mom of little boys so much. Don't get my wrong I love my girls, but there is just something really special about my boys. Maybe it is because I have so many brothers that I just thought boys wouldn't be that much fun. But they are! They are so sweet! And actually they are a lot more calm than my girls. It is true that they aren't as much fun to dress, or to take shopping, but they light up my life. Both my boys are always so happy, and they have the greatest smiles. There is just something very special about these two little boys. They will become great men someday, but I can wait for that. Right now I just want to treasure these moments with my sons. They are already going way too fast. I can hardly believe Spencer is 7 months. Where does the time go?! I feel so blessed that these precious little men were sent to my family!

Too hilarious not to share...

Lucy is learning to dress herself. (She has been undressing herself for quite some time.) The other night I told her to go pick out her pajamas and I would be up in a minute to help her get dressed. This is what I found when I got up there.

This is the front view. Both legs are in the same hole.

This is the back. Now she did not have any underwear or pullups on. It was so funny. Scot and I laughed and laughed and that made her think she was pretty cute. But she is, so I couldn't really argue.

Emma's birthday

I can hardly believe it! My little girl is 9 years old! Wow, how time flies. After school she invited over some of her cute friends, Halle & Kyra. They had such a good time playing together. It is so fun to see Emma with her friends. She is growing up too fast, and she thinks she should be growing up even faster.

That night we had a family dinner at our house. She wanted to BBQ. She really wanted steak, (her favorite food) but I didn't think I could handle that much steak, so she decided that hamburgers and hotdogs were good. Then Scot thought it would be fun to make homemade corn dogs. So my brother, Joseph and our good friend Jason, were kind enough to be in charge of that project. They were a lot of work, but it was fun.

Scot of course was the bbqer.

This is a terrible picture of Emma, but she was not cooperating. So this is as good as it gets with her cake...(Which was actually brownies with a raspberry frosting because she doesn't actually like cake).

On Saturday we told her she could invite a friend to do a fun activity with our family to celebrate her birthday. She chose her best friend Sage. They are so cute together. Emma wanted to go minature golfing, so we went to Boondocks. It was such fun. Even though Emma swings her putter like she is driving the ball. Fortunatley there were no injuries. Although she got close a couple times.

Happy birthday Peanut! We love you!

First Days of School

The First first day

We are back in the grind of things. School has started. On the one hand I am so excited to have my schedule back. On the other, my life was already crazy and this doesn't help. But the kids love school, and I want them to learn, so that is the deal. Emma started last week. She had almost a perfect first week. Only one day caused trauma. THat is pretty good for her. She has a cute, young teacher that she really likes. The bad news is that 4th grade comes with a lot more homework. Which means more nagging from me. But she has actually been pretty good so far, we are trying an incentive program, and it seems to be working thus far.

After sending our kids off to school, the mom's decided that we needed to do something fun. We took the little kids to the park and had lunch. it was a great way to get out and celebrate the first day of school.

This is Lucy and her cute friend Bree. They had a great time together.

THe Second First Day

Yesterday was Ben's first day of Kindergarten. He was so excited! He didn't show any signs of being nervous at all. I on the other hand was kind of a mess. I was good and held it all together for him, but I was so nervous that he would get confused and go the wrong way or something. Plus, he wanted to ride the bus. I really wanted to take him, but he wanted to ride the bus with Emma. So Emma promised to help him. I can't believe how big he is and how fast he has grown.

With both Emma and Ben gone, Lucy was kind of at a loss. She spent the whole morning wearing her backpack and asking when she got to go to school. It was really cute, but kind of sad too. This is her watching a cartoon to try to take her mind off.

At the end of his day he made it off the bus, and home just fine. He said he had a great day! And that it was even better than he expected. Good job Buddy! His teacher is so great, and he loves her already. It will be a great year.

Enjoying the last little bit of summer...

I can't believe the lazy days of summer are over. Part of me is glad for the return of the schedule, but a big part of me misses the lazy mornings.
We were able to do some fun things the last week of summer... Our good friends invited us over for a backyard movie night. They set up a projector and we watched the Hannah Montana movie on blankets and mattresses in their back yard. They made popcorn and homemade rootbeer. It was so much fun. The kids loved it! We hadn't seen the movie before and Emma & Lucy absolutely loved it. Ben probably did too, but he didn't want to admit too much.

Since Scot's mom is a teacher we try to get together with her and the cousins and kids to scrapbook in the summer. I haven't made it out there too often. But I was able to go out for one last hurrah! Cham had all her grandkids there, and while it was a little crazy at times, we had a lot of fun. The kids love playing with their cousins. The trickiest part was trying to get all the nappers a place to nap.

My mom did a fun water party and sleepover right before school started. The kids had to be potty trained to attend, so Lucy worked really hard and she did it. She had so much fun! THey all did. And she is still doing great. She has one or two accidents a week, but that isn't too bad. My mom had all sorts of fun water activities, even a slip and slide. I was tempted to join it. Instead I ran lots of errands with only one kids. Yeah.

So goodbye summer!