October randoms

One of those magical beautiful fall days at the park...

Erik thought the slide was so much fun!

pretty balanced

NOW who is heaviest? :)

 Lucy was the star student Oct 20-24.  She made the poster (I love that she loves to create this kind of stuff by herself :) and I went in on Friday to tell a bit about her.  The students asked questions and Lucy passed out cinnamon rolls.  (New school rule this year... nothing can be homemade.  Kinda cramps my style, but sometimes its nice! :)

choke hold

 And while we were there, I snapped a pic of Lucy's tombstone soap carving.

this pic was taken after the primary program.
Not sure why we didn't get a nice church clothes picture,
but the kids did do a great job with their parts and songs!

Grandpa Tom sends a box of Halloween randoms
(plastic roaches, body parts, skeletons, snakes, etc)
and the kids love it.  Most of it goes toward Halloween
themed bathtime (that goes all month long).  Erik escaped
and found this headband to streak around in.

Santa!

General Conference fun-
LOVE this weekend for so many reasons!

found several pics of Rapunzel's hair-do on
my phone

coveting this car!

We took the oldest 3 to Meet the Mormons
movie.  It happened to be YM/YW night.  The
theater was PACKED so we sat on the front
row.  It was really touching.  Everyone had
a different "favorite Mormon."  :)

sunday art

santa 2

volunteering to help read with Elise's class.
I do this once a month - fun to see her!

Morp dates of blue sweats and black shirts.
After this many years of marriage, we
don't even have to plan it!

Elise REALLY wanted to make green eggs,
but changed to purple at the last minute.
nasty.

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Elise:  So, one bad thing about getting old is that your bathrooms smell...you know... kinda bad.  Of course, if you are a boy, you smell bad too.  You know... Austin has really stinky toots, Cole poops his pants sometimes and Erik poops his diaper.

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On Saturday night, I fed the kids ice cream sundaes for dinner.  On Sunday, they got apple crisp for dinner.  Trying to decide if that makes me a good mom or a bad mom?  And wondering if going 3 for 3 tips the scales one way or the other?
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Austin:  Hey!  I think summer is coming!  Look!  "all the world is green!" Just like the primary song says!
(too bad he can't see red, but it must still look beautiful)

fall has been gorgeous up here!

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Austin:  Hey!  Erik has a dishwasher tablet in his hands!  And that is EXACTLY what they warned us about in red ribbon week. (glad he was actually paying attention)

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Cole:  "I just... I just... I just... LOVE you mommy!"  (while knocking my elbow or rubbing my neck)  He does this several times a day.  Melts my heart.

Trick or Treat 2014

This year, we had a...

catwoman - who was kind of annoyed that anyone would
just think she was a cat

peacock

dragon - "since I was sick last year, I just want to be the same thing"

another dragon - with wings
(and flooders)

and a monster dragon!

The clinic ladies made everyone skeleton costumes

 We had a great time trick-or-treating!  We went into Morgan and joined in on "trick or treat street" at the local businesses.  Our favorites were the slurpees from 7-11.  I took the kids out for about an hour at home.  Cade Erickson picked Cole and I up in his golf cart (I think I need one of those!!!) and George and I switched places.  Cade would drive them to a street and then the kids would run down and get picked up at the end.  George said he wasn't sure whether they liked the golf cart ride or the candy better.  :)  I had a great time with Erik.  I read him stories and when the doorbell rang, he'd jump down (with an "ooh,ooh,ooh") and run to the door.  It was pretty cute.  The kids pulled in quite the haul.  The weather was beautiful and that made it extra nice!

Halloween Party Time!

It seems like Halloween has as many parties as Christmas lately!  It was a busy, but fun week!

Oct 23

 We headed to Pack's Pumpkin Patch with some preschool age friends from the neighborhood.  This was on a Thursday afternoon so it ended up just being Cole and I!  It was a lot of fun to have a date with my little snuggly buddy.  He thought it was great fun picking out a pumpkin!

Oct 25

We love the Halloween party at the Hammonds!  I wish I would have taken pics of all the fun costumes... smore's family (Heath's), a fish and fisherman (Cass and Lisa), Dora and Diego (Kristy and Craig), etc.  I was a fruit bat and George was a ding bat (hard to see his bell in the pic).  Heidi has such festive dishes and the kids loved the games (Lucy made it to the final two in the pop the balloon on the foot game... the actual winner is debatable since a little brother stepped in to "help" pop :).

Oct 29

 The Tripp's came up for pumpkin carving again this year.  Each child has their own personal helper and they think it's great.  Elise was my favorite.  She designed a horse which she and Natalie carved together.  Then she wanted to add clouds.  And then carved herself.  She is one independent girl and was so proud of her work!

Oct 30
Ward trunk or treat

 This was a pot-luck soup party (yum!) and trunk-or-treat craziness.  Lots of great costumes!  It was also the first time Lucy has asked to go around with her friends.  :(  My girl is growing up!

 And finally... it's Halloween!

Halloween breakfast of Boo-berry crunch and Count Choc-ula

I was in charge of Lucy's class party this year.  There were so many mom's willing to help that it was just a matter of choosing my own center idea and organizing everything else.  We decided to make slime and it was a big hit!  It cracked me up how there were some that LOVED getting their hands all gross and some who HATED it.  We also had cookie decorating, Halloween bingo, and wrap-a-mummy game.  Fun, fun!

Lucy and Tess

Then it was time to head straight over to help with Elise's party.  I was only in charge of a center on this one.  Originally I was going to do the same thing, but I'm glad I similified things a bit because I only had about 5-6 min.  I dressed up as a witch and read The Humbug Witch and sang "Looking for Dracula."  Elise's class made sucker spiders, fall paper bag trees, bean bag toss, musical Halloween chairs, and something else I forgot.  Lots of fun for her too!

1st grade class!

The only party I missed was Austin's.  It was held at the same time as Elise's.  Next holiday, buddy!

 My mom's orange party was technically after Halloween (Nov 2) but I thought this was a great place to put it.  We ate and ate lots of orange food and played "2 truths and a lie".  Always great to get together with the Cole clan!

Whew!  What a week!!!  It's no wonder we look round as pumpkins with all that good food!