Holloween, costumes and such

This year was complicated with Halloween being on Sunday or so I thought it would be. We felt the need to set our rules about trick-or-treating on Sundays with the kids, as they are getting older and understand things more.

Sundays for us, have always been: Church, then Sabbath Day appropriate activities like: Family activities, visiting Friends, going for walks, serving others etc. We do not got to stores (if at all possible) we don't got to parties or do sporting events (like if the kids were in soccer and had a game on Sunday) or we don't trick or treat etc.

E got invited to a couple of parties on Sunday and we had to tell her "No, we don't do those type of things on Sunday." Which eventually she was fine with not going, she hardly put up a fight, which was a relief for me. Well, we very well could not say "no" to a party and then allow them to trick-or-treat on Sunday, that seemed silly to me. So we set the rule that we would not go trick-or-treating on Sunday but do our Ward/Church party and that was it.

So this year that is just what we just did our church's Trunk-or-treat on Saturday and called it good. And, to tell you the truth, it was nice only having to dress them up once! AND it means less candy to hide and fight over and throw out :) The best part was the kids did not even care that they only did one festivity. I think I'm going to go with this every year, it makes my life easier.

At the trunk-or-treat
E was the Tooth Fairy and J boy was the Transformer OPTIMUS PRIME! (said in a very transformer-y way)

So Lou lou's costume was supposed to be a tooth, because E was the tooth fairy, cuuute! It was a very simple idea....I just wanted to make a tooth shaped pillow and strap it on top of her, easy as pie.

Well I made it two hours before the trunk-or-treat because I like to save thing to the last minute. I did not turn out exactly as I envisioned it to be. Mostly it was too big for her. When I made it she was asleep so I didn't measure it on her. Well, as we were hurrying out the door we forgot to bring her tooth pillow and so she was nothing at the trunk-or-treat. But the good thing was that she slept in the car most of the time so no one really saw her any way.

Here's our little tooth, poking her head out barely.

The other two had to join in and lay next to the tooth.

Silly/hyper/sugar filled kids after the trunk-or-treat.

It fits J boy better :)

This one was taken a week ago. She's so cute in her shirt that says "Little pumpkin"

Playing dress up on Halloween, two Cowgirls.

Yay for Halloween being over, only because that means Christmas is FAST approaching!

pumpkin patch

Pumpkins feel like fall to me :)

Although I'm not a huge Halloween fan, I don't get "into" it as much as some people do, one thing I do love about this season/holiday is the pumpkin patches. Pumpkin patches feel so Fall to me and I think it's a fun way to go out and get your pumpkins for Halloween.

This year we opted for the "cheaper" pumpkin patch. And it worked out splendidly! They had a bounce house thing(that the kids love), pumpkins in a patch (kind of), a wagon to pull your pumpkins in(and kids), a pony to ride on and piles of hay to play in and that's all the kids could ask for.

This girl thinks she's a cowgirl. She loves riding on a horse/ponies.

Rolling in the hay (not in the way it used to mean ;)

Kids posing on a large pumpkin

heading back with the goods in the wagon.

showing off their pumpkins

All four pumpkins on the scale

Even Lou lou got to ride in the wagon.

Fall is fun. I love the colors and the fun activities you can do outdoors.

Nieghborhood fun

Since the kids learned to ride their bikes they have been loving riding around with neighborhood friends.

One lovely evening we had some friends ride down to our part of the neighborhood and they joined in for a bike race. These two little boys are so cute and fun and their Dad is just like a kid himself and my kids LOVE playing with him and his boys. He started the bike race with just the four of them and before you new it the whole neighborhood had joined in.

They must have done race after race for a good half hour or more! It was fun to watch all the kids enjoying racing each other in a fun way (It helped that an adult was supervising/helping every one feel like a "winner")

Lining up at the starting line...

At the finish line getting their "placements".

J boy was happy enough being last every time as long as he was pointed to and his "number" was called out, funny kid!

E got pretty into it and wanted to win and would try hard every time. AND she DID! Twice actually. The first time she won a race the look on her face was priceless! She was ecstatic to say the least.

Another fun neighborhood past time (especially on Sunday's) we play by the "trees". There are two trees across the street from our house in a "common" area and all the neighborhood kids like to gather there, mostly in the evenings.

What do they do by the "trees", you ask?

*climb them
*dig in the dirt by them
*collect "berries", twigs, leaves etc. from the tree
*play games (hide and seek etc.)
*make pies (mud pies)

And they build miniature huts/tepees, for bugs I guess. This one is complete with a fenced in camping area, a fire pit and a flag.

We love our neighborhood! My kids walk out the door and 90% of the time they instantly have a friend out to play with. I think we will miss this the most when we leave! But I think we are more excited to have a house some day, with a garage and a basement and a play room and......soon, very soon :)

Fall Break

C and E's Fall Break did not really match up on dates but on Monday E had school off because of parent/teacher conferences, since Monday/Tuesday was C's break we took the rest of Monday as a Family and headed out to a State park to hike around and look at the pretty leaves.

It was so pretty there with all the leaves on the ground and some still on the trees with all their colors! I love fall!
The kids had fun just piling up the leaves and jumping in them and throwing them in the air.

Happy Baby!
She was happy to be outside.

Eating the leaves, because everything must go straight in the mouth!

Where we went had hikes all around this creek. It was low because of how little rain we got all summer/fall. We took a hike that went along and through the creek bed, the kids loved it. The best part was there were all these rocks with Fossils in them. Most of them were just plant fossils or a few shell fossils. The kids thought it was SO fun to look for fossils in the rocks and they found quite a few.

Here she is pointing to one of the fossils in a big rock, it's hard to see in this picture.

Ha! I love that in this picture it looks like J boy really wants to whack E in the head with his stick. She is completely oblivious to it too!

I liked the shape of that tree. And the look of all the leaves on the creek bed.

A So tired Baby! I don't know why she was tired, she got carried the whole way :)

It was a fun one day Fall break together as a family. I'm glad we got out to this park while the weather was still nice.

Our attempt at Family pictrues

Oops I forgot to put J boys pictures from the "Family pictures" on his post.

This is the best we got of him. Silly kid!

And a couple more of Lou lou

When I say our "attempt" at Family pictures it means we attempted to go to a park ourselves and take some pictures in hopes we would get something, anything.....Well they didn't turn out great but I'm glad we have some just to have some. Right now, for us is not the best time to be spending tons of money on going to a place to get them done or even hiring a photographer so we'll have to do with what we got here.

The kids:
E and J boy are cute, Lou lou looks not so happy in this one.

J boy and Lou lou look pretty cute but E's patience has worn out and she is now bored as you can see in the picture.

We have another one like this but with Lou lou crying because I bashed her head on the cement above her (on accident of course).
We only have like two that are half way decent ones of the family.

I think it should have been me up on the fence and not the tallest person in our family :)

eh, it's okay I guess.

Me and the kids, this one is actually okay. But Lou lou's shirt is drenched in her saliva!

This one makes me laugh! E must have said something to make the other two look at her.

awww cute! When did we get so old?! ;)

Well, that's all we got. We tried.

E girl update

There is a lot to update with this girl, so bare with me.....
Parent teacher conference went great. She is doing very well in school. She's got her daddy's brains, that is for sure. She is "exceeding expectations" in all areas. I'm so proud of her, and even if she wasn't "exceeding expectations" I'd still be proud because she is such a good student.

She LOVES reading, and writing time. Her favorite "fun" subject is Art (like her daddy) and she is such a smarty pants in Math (again like her daddy).

here is one of my favorite "journal" stories she wrote at school:
(click on the picture to make it bigger, to read it.)

Translation: A long time ago I went to my Grandma's and Grandpa's house. It snowed, it was 5 feet long (or tall I think she meant). I went outside in the snow. My Grandpa hammered off the snow. It was fun. I went with my Family.

I love the picture of my Dad "hammering off" the snow. He really did have to shovel it off the roof. And it really did snow 5 feet that Christmas we visited. I think she remembered it because it was SO fun to play in that much snow.

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I asked E what her favorite thing to do at recess is and her reply "I like to chase 5 boys!"
I ask "At the same time?!" "YEP!"

Okay, then.

That was SO not me at that age, I was the one getting chased :)

Later she said to me "Mom, I have a secret..." I asked "what is it?" she replied with a giggle and a grin "I really just like to chase the cute boys at recess and Landon is my favorite."

Wow, are we in trouble or what?!

She is such a good friend I am proud of her in that she befriends every one in her class, even the little girl who is quite the handful and is always in trouble (which some times gets E in trouble because of her).

She said to me one day at the beginning of the year "Mommy, there is a new girl in our class. She came from another school. I think I'm going to tell her she can be my friend."

That melted my heart! She has such a sweet personality and a good heart.

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I get to go in every week and help out in her 1st grade class. I'm lucky enough to be able to do it while J boy is in preschool and I have a wonderful friend to trade babysitting with me for Lou lou so I can do this every week. It has been SO fun! I've helped them in group settings, learning how to play games: to play fair, to lead, to follow and all that a game takes with out the help of an adult and with out fighting, arguing, pouting etc. That sounds simple but with 4-6 six year olds it can be tough. It's something they are still working on. I also got to help them do small skits during poetry time. They picked out a poem they had learned and had to all come up with a way to "act" it out, and then they got to preform them in front of the class. They LOVED it and I have to admit so did I.

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E also learned to ride her bike with out her training wheels. She learned to ride her bike just a week before J boy decided he wanted to so he could be like his sissy. We tried to get her to try it this last spring as the weather turned nice but she was stubborn and held her ground. I knew there was no sense in forcing her and I knew it would have to be on her own terms, she'd have to decide she wanted to do it. So one day she borrowed her friends bike, got up on it by herself and started teaching her self how to do it. I knew there was no way I could help, not even encourage because as soon as I do, she shuts down and gives up. So I ignored her, and off she went. It took about two days for her to be good at it on her own bike. I knew she could do it, but apparently I could not help her learn, she wanted to do that her self, what a funny girl.**********************

This girl and her baby sister are going to be best friends. Little Lou lou puts up with E doing the strangest things to her, dressing her up, poking her, wiggling her, jiggling her.......you name it she's had it done to her by her sister, all out of love of course. I even caught her doing the superman with Lou lou. You know... you lay on your back and put your feet up and you hold the persons hands and put your feet on their tummy and lift them up like superman? Yea she was doing that to her five month old baby sister, not a good thing to do to a wiggly baby.

The day they played "babies" and they all got bows on their heads. Silly kids.

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Some days I miss my E girl during the day, while she's at school. But most days I'm glad she's at school.....for many reasons. I just love having conversations with her, it is so fun these days. She's so....so grown up sounding, less of the little kid she once was. I mean she still is a kid, she just sounds so much more mature. I love it even though it does brings tears to my eyes.

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Right now E and I are reading The Chronicles of Narnia together. Mostly I read at night to her but she'll help me out every once in a while. She LOVES the story, which I don't blame her. There are seven books and she wants to read them all, we've finished the first two so far. I have to admit it's one of my favorite times of my evenings, when we sit down and read together.