Halloween Costumes

I usually like the practical, make your own type costumes for my kids... but I had a 40% off coupon at Old Navy that was burning a hole in my pocket, and I am nearing the end of my degree which means I'm stressed for time (and out of my mind) effry. day. This year, I could justify buying costumes and not making one dang thing.

Macey was an ice cream cone. She was the cutest ice cream cone I ever did see. The sauciest one, too.

Collin was a hamburger, or "krabby patty" (from Spongebob), as he called himself. "I'n a KRABBY PATTY, mama!" He was so excited, he wouldn't hold still for nothin'. But that's normal.

The pair.

Randy and I followed our usual Halloween protocol, I stay home and hand out candy while he takes the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.  Don't mind the picture of the Idaho Falls temple in the background. I realize that's not the most appropriate picture ever. Hindsight.

Randy said next year he wants to get a new costume. Heartbreak. There's something just so appealing with a man in a gnarly mullet, cut off flannel shirt, sweats.... no? Yeah, me either.

Walking out to go trick-or-treat. 

I was worried about Collin not understanding and getting frustrated, but Randy said he was so cute. He would run right up to the houses and say "Trick an Treat!" and then "Happy Hoween!" as he was leaving. Awww.

After they were done.

I love this picture. Collin, relaxing, airing his feet out after a long night. Skittles in hand.

After we're all settled back and it's mostly the older kids still out, Randy usually likes to dress up in his gorilla costume and go terrorize the neighborhood. This year he took a different approach. 

That's a Bob Dole mask. 

Random pictures that don't have a place: 

I went and helped at Macey's class Halloween Party. It was fun and she was adorable! She had to take off her hat though because she was so shweaty. Here she is with her BFF, Bre.

For dinner we got a Papa Murphy's pizza and made spoooky root beer.

The end.

Halloween Decoraysh

We had lots of fun this year and *loved* our new addition, the witch in the front yard with her cats. We found the templates off of Martha Stewart of course, and made them out of plywood and stuck them in the ground with conduit.

We'll start off with my pride and joy. This took me probably 3 hours or more trying to figure out what looks best. The lighting is bright so you can see the detail of all the decoraysh, but this looks rad at night.

I downsized the spider web from last year with a smaller, pre-made version from Tai Pan for $3.

My bookshelf in the front room and witch pillow in the rocker.

This was a pain in the butt, I got up on a huge ladder and was shaking I was so scared while I hung up those lanterns. It was worth it, but of course they decide to turn their faces away while I have the camera out.

My pumpkin tree.

Moving on into the kitchen. 

This was a new addition this year, I found some awesome old bottles from the D.I. and made an apothecary.  They are sitting on a ledge by my kitchen sink, so little hands cannot get to them.

And finally, outside:

 What you can't really tell from the pictures is that all the flood lights are orange, and all the lamp lights are green. The lights look white in a lot of pictures, but in fact, they are amber.

 We were mad to find that our fogger gave up the ghost this year, but we found an ok replacement: this witches cauldron, it changes colors and steams over the top. Spooooky.

 I'm laughing because Randy took these pictures for me... in his white trash costume. Just imagine the poses he was in to get these shots. HAHA. Also, in the next couple shots you see a red streak on our bay window, we had a flying bat with red eyes. It was awesome, but we couldn't get any good pictures... too dark and he was too fast!

Oh. My. Gosh. I just enlarged this picture. What is flying over the top of my roof? Is that a bat? Or a ghost!!

 One of my favorite decorations to put up every year. :0) To make it more real, Macey went and picked up a piece of old dog poop, and put it in front of the sign on Halloween day. Ha!

I'm always a little disappointed when I load all of the pictures... it's SO much better in person!

Halloween in my neighborhood is SO. MUCH. FUN. Lots of us get into it. My neighbor across the street actually GOT UP ON HIS ROOF, had a big fake bat on a wire and would scare the crap out of the older kids. It was so funny to watch.

Yay for Halloween decoraysh! Macey told me Halloween is her favorite season. :) Pretty true at our house since I start decorating in early September. It just takes that long!

Funny kids.

Macey: "It smells like fart, even though I just farted."

Macey in the bath with Collin: "Mommy I don't want to wash Collin. I'll wash his hair and THAT'S IT, because his front bum is really weird." For the record I never ask her to wash Collin, this is something she thinks about on her own time.

Collin, after me telling him that he won't like what I'm eating, a trick that never works on him: "Yeah, mama, I WIKE it! I want MORE, mama!"

Collin, after us telling him to practice saying trick-or-treat: "Trick an treat! I luff to eat!"


I'm going to be really sad when they grow up. I get such a kick out of the funny things they say that they don't know is funny or inappropriate.

Siblings.

A child's prayer.

I had one of those days yesterday where I was kicking myself as a parent. Macey was asked to give the opening prayer in Primary on Sunday. Macey is her mother's daughter, we both get very nervous about stuff like that. I knew she would be nervous, so I thought I would practice her prayer with her. I asked her what she was going to say and she'd blurt out things like "please bless that Jesus will love the babies" and "please bless that everyone's teacher will be nice to them", etc. That is her nervous talking (also like me, I say stuff I shouldn't when I'm nervous). I laughed and told her no, probably shouldn't say any of those things... here are some things you *can* say.

In the past I've just gone up with her and whispered in her ear what to say, but she has been saying her own prayers for a long time and I knew she'd be ok... as long as she didn't get nervous and start saying silly things. Before I brought her into primary she confided in me "I'm so nervous that I'm going to bless the food." Oh my goodness, she is so sweet. I told her it would be ok, just stick to the list I gave her and everything will be fine.

I knew, watching her sit in the front row, nervously fidgeting, that I should have never said anything to her. Her prayers are always so sweet and heartfelt, even though some things she says she maybe shouldn't- she means them from the bottom of her heart. :) One night after a lonnnng day, Macey asked in her prayer to "please bless Collin that he will sleep all night long so Mommy can sleep, too".

When it was her turn to get up, she was shaking and was white as a ghost. She tried to remember the "list" I gave her, but couldn't, and in the middle of her prayer panicked, and motioned for me to come help her. I felt so awful afterward. She would have been fine if I hadn't meddled.

I love hearing children pray, they say the best things. After she was done I was talking to some ladies in the back and one friend told me that her daughter gave the prayer last week and ended it with "and with liberty and justice for all. Amen." Is that not the cutest thing you've ever heard? They also told me that a few weeks back a boy prayed and asked to bless that all the teachers will be prepared for them this week. :0) Oh my goodness, hearing those things makes me want to be in Primary again! I love children and the things they say!

Boys.

What is it about boys? Those smiles -even the mischievous ones- make the crazy you have to deal with on a daily basis so, so worth it.

Kindergarten.

Holy smokes, I'm behind! Life has been crazy, to say the least.

Macey's first day of Kindergarten was August 30th. In a way, I have been dreaming of and dreading this day... all at the same time. The closer it got, dreading was more like it. We had a back-to-school night before school started, and I teared up walking her in the hall. I wondered how in the world I was ever going to handle the first day of school! She was so excited, it made it pretty hard to be sad.

She has afternoon kindergarten, so the morning of was the longest morning ever. :0) She was up at 6:30 am asking me if it was time to go to school yet! Collin could sense something was going on and didn't like it! He was very clingy to Macey. He's her little shadow.

Before we left I shot this picture, which I love so much. Probably one of my favorite pictures of her.

 What you can't see in the picture above, is just how clingy Collin was that day. He wasn't even ok with me taking her picture without him being right by her! Loved it, but it made me nervous for what was to come. ;)

After I took pictures, we drove to the school. Pulling into the parking lot and seeing all the kids there made me cry. I promised myself I WOULD NOT CRY, I didn't want to freak out Macey. So I pulled it together and walked her to her class. She saw her 2 best friends from our neighborhood and was like k, see ya mom! I hung around, though, like a helicopter parent would. ;0) I adore this picture, notice they are holding hands.

I watched her get in line to go into class and just stared. I was on the verge of tears all day but didn't cry again.

She came home SO EXCITED! She has been in school now for over a month and loves her teacher and kindergarten. Her favorite is library and computer day. :0) So fun! It is a little overwhelming now that she is official, I am going to be stuck to a schedule now for the rest of my life.

Before she started kindergarten I did some one-on-one things with her. We went to a movie, she got her cute hair cut at Cookie Cutters, she came school shopping with me and we picked out her outfits for the whole first week of school. She is very into the details. She felt so special, and I loved spending the time with my sweet sweet girl!

After her first day I had made her chocolate chip whoopie pies and had them set out on a cute plate with a glass of milk for when she got home. She was beside herself with excitement and asked why I was being so nice. Ha! I said it's because I MISSED YOU SO MUCH! She now says that she loves coming home everyday from school because I always have snacks for her and I'm so nice. :0)

Collin's experience with kindergarten, has not been so good. The first day he was so clingy and could sense something was going on- when we got back in the car after dropping Macey off he looked over to her empty booster seat and whimpered "Oh, no. Macey's inthegarden." Awww, broke my heart and made me laugh so hard at the same time! He still bawls everyday when she leaves, the worst is when I drive them all and he has to sit and watch them run into school together. Poor guy. I have to be sure and have his favorite books out to read to get him to calm down. He naps while Macey is at school, so without fail, every time he wakes up the first thing he says to me is "let's go get Macey at inthegarden!" Haha. His sister is his best buddy. Luckily, she looooves that he misses her so much and is ready to play with him when she gets back!

Judy Reunion.

The next weekend after we got home from Aspen Grove we packed up all our stuff again and headed up to Idaho! Lance was in charge this year and did a great job! We went to our family property up by Lava Hot Springs. I was so excited, I hadn't been there since I was probably in middle school. The scenery is gorgeous, the land is in the mountains and away from everything! Since I was nervous about Collin being able to relax and sleep in a tent, we decided to borrow Randy's parents' 5th wheel. It was so nice to have a bathroom!! True to my past, I forgot to take any pictures. I don't even think I took my camera out of the truck! I hate when I do that! I'm just so busy and having fun that I don't think about it! So... I've been waiting patiently for pictures to trickle in from my family and got enough to make a post out of it! I'm sure I will add more pictures later.

It was such a blast. We went and floated the river over and over again, some of us even have the bruises and gashes to show for it! Then we went on a pony and wagon ride up to a bbq joint. It was fun! The next day was spent at Lava Hot Springs. My sisters talked me into going on one of the bigger slides... I can't believe how nervous I was! I was totally shaking. Man, having kids has made me a wimp.

By the end of the weekend we were all completely exhausted. It was such a fun time! I love my family!

Casslyn and Ashley going down the waterfall... what you can't see is that is actually a double tube. Yeah, OUCH.

 Love the faces! Joel and Caden. They totally biffed it.

 Best face ever, Randy! I don't know how they didn't totally konk heads.

 I liked the big tubes, and riding them with my kids because that meant no tipping and no huge waterfalls!

 My poor Dad got bucked off his tube one too many times and had a nasty gash on his leg. He learned his lesson and stayed on the big tubes later.

 Can't you see the look of fear? Love it!

 One of the wagons, our family filled up 2 of their 3 wagons!

 Me trying to hold onto Collin in the corner, Randy and Macey in the front behind the drivers.

 Cute Moo. She is pretty terrified of water, but did a good job!

 Under the water shot! Cute Kayla!

 Caden on the high dive. He is crazy.

 Traegan coming off the high dive.

 Collin is the opposite of Macey and LOVES the water. He thinks he can swim, and that can be a problem. Here he is with a mouth full of water. I couldn't stop him from drinking it up and spitting it out! So gross!

Thanks for the pictures, Heather!

Aspen Grove.

We started the tradition of going to Aspen Grove with the Slades every other year, starting in 2007. This was our 3rd time, but my first time of NOT having a baby with me to tote around everywhere! I can't tell you how excited this made me! Turns out, Collin didn't like his class so much and was really clingy to me, but I was lucky and had lots of help from family so I could go and do the things I wanted! Mostly, swimming, shuffle board, and badminton! Macey went to her class with cousin Sawyer and had a BLAST! She had a crush on one of her teachers, and cried when it was time to say goodbye. So cute. All in all it was a nice relaxing week! Aspen Grove is so beautiful, it was so refreshing to be in nature, but not have to sleep in nature. :)

Technically Aspen Grove is considered a Family Camp... but as you can see here... I wouldn't call this "camping". This is where we stayed- the Beckham Lodge. It is gorgeous!

 Whenever Collin would come up missing... this is usually where we'd find him, runnin' on the bridge.

 Macey and Libby, getting ready for family pictures.

Collin trying to get away, of course. 

 Collin eating a brownie, he really didn't want to get his hands dirty!

 His face... he obviously didn't care if it got dirty.

 This is just a glimpse... I try to sneak a cute picture of my husband, and the second he sees me (pic #1), he turns into pic #2.

 Macey and her class performing.

 Her leader crush: Chris

 Her other leader Makelle.

 Awww, presh. Of course Mariah found like 15 boys she liked, but the cutest one won her over. Riah's face is painted for her performance with her class. They did the Haka dance.

 Badminton! Randy can't take it easy, even when playing with kids. :)

 Grandma and Grandpa with Macey, watching the excitement. That's Joelle and cute baby Johnnie in the background!