Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween night, and I think the kids are all asleep (finally!). I think that is my least favorite part of the day -- trying to get the kids to settle down and get in bed after all the excitement of trick-or-treating and all that sugar in their systems.

We had quite the cast of charcters this evening. Let me introduce you...

Princess Hayley...

"Bat Princess" Courtney...

A scary skeleton...

Otherwise known as Hannah...

Baseball player McKay...

And Mom even got dressed up at the very last minute for the Ward Fall Festival. Hannah kept telling everyone I was a "graduation."

(That is my high school cap & gown, by the way. I didn't have time to dig out my tassle for the cap.)

First, we went to the Ward Fall Festival at the church. The YM/YW put together little carnival-type booths for the kids and give out candy and prizes. Hannah ran straight for eating-doughnuts-off-a-string and did it twice before I had to lay down the law about no more doughnuts.

They had a picture-taking area set up. This one would have turned out cute except for the fact that Hannah is too distracted by some of the other games going on all around!

(And right after I snapped this one, I was going to have someone take one of the whole family, but I turned around the girls had disappeared -- I think Hannah was already eating her second doughnut off the string!)

They had fun stuff like face painting...

Lots of different games (this one is like Plinko)...

Cake Walks...

And seeing lots of friends! (This is Christine, one of the girls in Hayley's preschool group.)

After we got home from the church, Brian took the kids out trick or treating around the street. Earlier in the afternoon, the girls had been watching the Halloween episode of the show "Little Einsteins" where they sing a little trick-or-treat song. The kids decided they would sing that at the doors instead of just saying "Trick or Treat." (Brian said they did at a few houses, but not every house.) I tried video taping the girls singing it after they got back home:

And of course, the minute they got home, the pumpkins were dumped out and the eating began! Hayley was so excited about her pumpkin full of loot:

I had to pry her pumpkin out of her fingers and put it on top of the refrigerator to get her up to bed tonight! That is another thing I don't like about Halloween is all that candy for such a little person! It's all the kids want to eat all the time and it's hard to enforce how much or how little they can have each day. (So I have been known in the past to "weed out" their candy stashes and get rid of some of it.)

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Preschool Party

Yesterday, I got to go in to Courtney's preschool class at the end of the day for their Fall Party. The kids wore their costumes for a "Storybook Parade" that morning and they got to go trick-or-treating to the other classrooms. I always enjoy being able to visit the kid's classrooms at least once during the year, just to get a feel for where they spend their day!

I also like to take a picture of the kids with their teachers. So here is Courtney with her teacher Miss Jennifer:

And this is Ms. Lisa, the assistant teacher:

While I was there for the party, Miss Jennifer came up to me and told me me that during their chapel time each week, they have a microphone and the kids can put in requests for the prayer roll (her preschool is at one of the local Methodist churches). She said that Courtney recently prayed for "mom and the new baby.” Miss Jennifer asked Courtney if she was sure about the baby and Courtney said she was. So Miss Jennifer was verifying with me and I told her that was all news to me! When I asked Courtney about it, she just giggled like she knew she was making it up, and when I questioned further, she tried to cover for herself by telling me that “Hayley is the baby.” What a silly girl -- she can really tell some stories sometimes!

Meet Mr. Pumpkin

Last night was our traditional Halloween FHE where we carve our family jack-o-lantern. The kids each like to have their own special assignment or job.

McKay said at first he would be the "scooper" to get out the pumpkin insides, but after a couple of attempts with a spoon resulting in only one or two seeds, he deferred that job to Hannah and Courtney who were willing to stick their hands in and pull out a handful.

Hannah designed the eyes for the pumpkin and she made sure that Brian knew he was supposed to keep the solid black part (the pupils). I don't know how many times she told him as he was carving, "Daddy, remember not to cut out the black part."

Courtney designed the nose. She drew several versions on paper but ended up going with your basic triangle.

Hayley wanted to do the mouth. McKay had started drawing some mouth ideas on paper, so Hayley just took one of those and added a couple more lines.

McKay then took everyone's paper drawings and copied them onto the pumpkin itself.

Finally, Daddy got the job of the actual carving. (McKay did a very small piece, but it was a little hard still -- and dangerous -- for him.) The kids did help pull/pop out the cut pieces.

We took a family picture with the pumpkin as we do every year. It didn't turn out that great (I'm not sure where the haziness in the corner came from), but it's a fun tradition!

Mr. Pumpkin has made his new home on our front porch, where he is sure to quickly grow old and moldy. :-) (That's why we wait until just before Halloween to carve him!)

Fall Fun

Oh, what do you do in the autumn time, when the weather is finally cool?

Do you like the climb trees?

Or ride bikes in the breeze?

Or go dig for worms outside?

Is that what you do? So do I!

(Well, okay, I don't exactly, but the kids do and admit it, you were singing right along, weren't you?)

A couple of other fun fall pictures to share. Yesterday and today we made and frosted Halloween sugar cookies (mmm!). Hannah & Courtney helped me frost today. (And seriously, they would have sat there and eaten ALL the leftover frosting -- of which there was a lot -- from the bowls if I had let them.)

Last night was the Fall piano recital for McKay & Hannah. Some of the kids were going to be in costume (from the other ward's Trunk-R-Treat which was held right before the recital), so I dressed the girls in their black Halloween outfits:

Hannah & McKay did great at the recital (Courtney and Hayley, not so much! It's hard to sit so still and quiet when you're little.). Hannah played a little piece from her lesson book called "Air" (she memorizes all of her songs after playing them only once or twice). McKay played the first part of "Fur Elise" (there was a little misunderstanding about what he would be doing so he hadn't practiced the whole song and we didn't even bring the second page).

Here they are with their teacher, Trina Belbin, after the recital. She is from New Zealand and is a wonderful pianist and singer as well.

The "New" McKay

Here he is... our almost-9-year-old with new glasses and a new haircut to boot! (Sorry about the off-center picture -- Brian was making McKay laugh when I took it and he moved at the last minute. The second one I took turned out blurry...)

We got his glasses yesterday. He had a hard time picking out the frames -- the lady kept asking him what shape or color he liked and he really didn't know. Hopefully they will last him a while without getting broken or lost.

Since he's had them, he's made several comments about what a difference they make and how he is really glad he got them. I think he's excited to try them out at school tomorrow!

Feels Like Fall

We finally had a cold front come through earlier this week, bringing a fair amount of rain and quite cooler temperatures! The cooler temps have stuck around this week, so it is finally feeling like fall. The mornings are cool enough that the kids want to bundle all up for school, but by the time they come home, the sun is shining and the jackets have been shed. It is a great time of year here in Texas!

One sure sign of fall around our house is the dropping of the pine needles. They COVER our yard, driveway, etc. We get some fallen leaves too, but it seems to be mostly pine needles. The kids raked them up on the patio and made themselves a big nest.

They had fun being little birds in their huge nest (and of course getting pine needles everywhere!)

Brian was able to put up the horse tire swing we just got (free from someone who had outgrown it). We replaced our baby swing on the swingset and the kids have had fun with it, although McKay says it twists around more than it swings back and forth.

(And speaking of getting rid of baby things, we also just sold our crib through the on-line classifieds. Hayley has been enjoying her "big kid" toddler bed for awhile now. Kind of sad to see all the baby things go!)

I have one more picture to share this morning -- our future Cougars! The school had Red Ribbon Week this week where each day is a different dress-up day (pajama day, mismatched clothes day, wear red day, etc.). Yesterday was "Back to the Future" day where they were supposed to wear a college T-shirt. I found an old one from McKay that Hannah could wear and then McKay wore one of my shirts! It is a little small for me, and it fit him better than I expected! The boy is growing up too fast...

Go Cougars!

Mom's Time Out

Last weekend I had a great time visiting my mom and sisters in Colorado. It was so nice to get away for the weekend all by myself! I left early Friday morning and flew to Denver and got to stay until Sunday. Brian did great holding down the fort at home and getting kids to baseball games, church, etc.

One of the reasons we all went to Colorado was to go to the "Time Out for Women" event put on by Deseret Book. My sister Amy and I had gone to one here in Texas last March and really enjoyed it. Plus, we got to see Amy's new baby and just have a fun girl's weekend together. At the Time Out event, we got to hear Jenny Oaks Baker play her violin on Friday evening. She was SO amazing! Such beautiful music. I bought one of her CDs and was able to get her to sign it for me - fun!

Saturday was spent mostly at Time Out -- we heard lots of great speakers and more wonderful music from Kenneth Cope. Here are some pics from the weekend.

First, let me introduce the girls:

This is my older sister Sandra, who came from Utah.

Here is yours truly, traveling from Texas.

Just after me in age is Malinda, who also came from Utah.

Next in line is my brother Tim, but he wasn't invited (sorry Tim), but his great wife Sarah was. She lives in California and just announced she is expecting #4 (congrats!).

Then is my youngest sister Amy and her new baby Emma, who were our fabulous hostesses!

Here is my cute mom, who also came from California.

(And there is one more younger brother Tyler, who got to stay home with my dad.)

Here we all are at Time Out on Friday night:

Back again on Saturday, this pic shows the stage behind me:

The group again on Saturday:

Lunch time! (It was very chilly in there, by the way -- we were all cold!)

They had a raffle drawing for some prizes and Amy won the very first one! A $50 gift certificate for MollyMe clothing (they had a booth at the back). We were all so excited!

Grandma with newest grandbaby Emma (who was a super good baby!):

Another picture of all the girls back at Amy's house:

Playing cards late at night. (We made Amy's husband Greg go to the store about 10:30 at night -- in very chilly, windy weather -- to get us ice cream and syrup for our brownies!)

We woke up Sunday morning to rain which turned to snow. All of us were leaving that day. I think all of our flights were delayed because of the weather. I took a picture out the window of the airplane as the wings were getting de-iced.

And I thought this was a cool picture of the clouds as we were getting close to land in Houston.

P.S. We found out later that after my mom and Sarah arrived back in CA Sunday, they had to evacuate due to the major wildfires in southern CA right now. They all went to stay with Sarah's sister. As far as we now, their house is still okay. This is a picture Sarah took from their driveway as they were leaving Sunday night:

Very scary! For now, they think their homes are safe, but they don't know when they will be able to return home. We are all praying for them right now.