Twas the night before Halloween

Here are the kids before we start cutting into the pumpkins. We had a lot of fun!Here is Libbie. All of the kids used their hands to clean out the "guts" this year, something that they would never do before.Owen wanted to do it on his own, but the little safety cutter just couldn't do it.Emma was really proud of her pumpkins guts. She got right in there and cleaned it out.Here is Noah putting some cinnamon in his pumpkin. We also used some all spice and cloves. When we lit them it smelled so good!Here they are all lit up.Matt has never been satisfied with a tea light in a pumpkin. . . he prefers butane :o)Here is the cake I made for our day before halloween party.

The kids had a lot of fun and so did Matt and I. They are growing up and doing so much more on their own. We love having them and it will be a sad day when they aren't carving pumpkins with us anymore.

Here is our little Hannah. She is so tiny we thought that she would fit in our pumpkins. We had to put her in one of the smaller ones. She is about 2.8 lbs now. She is half the size of the other puppies in her litter. She is going to be really small (even for a chihuahua)

A lot of stuff we've been up too!

Emma and Noah just got their school pictures. I think it is so fun to go back and see how much they have grown in the past year!Noah looked like a baby! Here are his pictures K-2nd grade.

The fire department came to our apartments and did a fire safety thing. The kids had fun.

Here is Noah going out the window!

Here is Emma in her flip flops, not the best shoe to have on when climbing out the window!

Here is Matt trying to get out but he was so affraid the kids had to help him :o)

The kitchen filling up with smoke. The little kids were a bit unsure of what we were doing.

Poor Noah, he had to have four teeth pulled because he has no room in his mouth for his grown up teeth. He did really well at the dentist. They love him and talk about him every time we go!

Here is Noah's Family Home Evening craft.

Here is Emma's.

And Libbie's too.

Here are the kids hard at work.

Here is owen and his bat.

Noah and his bat.

Owen and his cookie. He didn't finish frosting it before he was eating it!

Libbie did such a good job on her cookie.

Noah and his cookie.

Hard at work.

Libbie and Owen trying to cut out sugar cookies.

This summer in Washington Mom Walker took me out and showed me how to make earrings. It was so much fun. Since I am in the young womens program at church and young women in excellence is coming up I thought that my project could be jewelry making. I have been twisting and beading like crazy. I have more earrings and necklaces and bracelets than I know what to do with. I love it so much, and I am so happy to have something fun to do. So thanks Mom for starting me on something so fun! Here are a few things I've made.

Our first snow of the season. Here is Noah in mid-air!

Owen wanted to pick up the snow but it was so cold. He wouldn't put on gloves.

Noah did this on his own. We were inside eating breakfast and he was so excited to go and play so we let him. 10 minutes later he came in for a carrot. He is so grown up. This might be the best snowman ever!

The day before the snow came the kids and I made cinnamon rolls. We were hoping to wake up to snow and eat them with hot chocolate for breakfast. It worked out well and the kids had fun helping.

Here is Owen cleaning up. And yes he is in his underwear (we are working on the potty thing)

The kids putting on the brown sugar.

Even the dog got messy! It was a good day.

Matt got me some flowers after a long and hard week (ya I am so lucky) When the girls saw them they said "Dad got us flowers" They got to pick their favorit one and have it in their room



And there is nothing sweeter than a sleeping two year old to end it all :o)

Poor little Libbie

Our sweet little Libbie had to get some dental work done yesterday. This is Libbie before they took her back. It was so sad. She was crying so hard when they took her away from us. This is Libbie right after. It was nice that she got to wake up in our arms. She was a grump when she woke up and when we would ask her a question she would yell "STOP IT" by the time we left she was happy but sleepy.
And here she is resting at home. She wanted to eat some ice cream I gave it to her and went into the kitchen to put the ice cream in the freezer and when I looked back at her she was asleep. What a cute little girl. She is doing better today but her mouth hurts still. I told her that the dentist was going to make her teeth better, but now they hurt more, she is a little upset about that :o)

Happy Halloween!

We love holidays at our house. Every October and November and December each of our family home evenings always end with some kind of holiday craft and treat. Last night the kids had a blast making treats and doing crafts. It will be so sad one day when the kids don't think that it's fun to make things like this. But for now here are some pictures of the fun .
Here are the kids and their cupcakes. They did a really good job. It was amazing to see the difference from last years cupcake FHE. I think last year they started to decorate one cupcake and half way through gave up and ate it. They did 4 or 5 each before eating began. Oh, how they are growing up ;O) We made Halloween countdowns! The kids had a blast and Noah and Emma did it almost on their own (just a bit of help getting tape). Libbie and Owen enjoyed telling mom and dad what to do and what color should go next. It was fun!

Here is Noah showing off his countdown.
And here is Emma doing the same
Here is Libbie with a cupcake she made.
Owen hard at work. (He ate the first cupcake he decorated)

Family Out Evening

We went ice blocking for family home evening yesterday. It was so much fun! The kids had a blast and no one went to the ER!
I tried to stand on Matt's back as we went down the hill. I did really well until Daren let go of my hand then I fell right on Matt, but we did make it to the bottom!
Emma loved it. She did really well, but sometimes the block was faster that she was!

Noah had the most fun out of the kids. By the end he was so tired. This is one of his last tries to get the block back up the hill.

Look at this man. Oh how I wish we were snowboarding right now! He made it all the way down the hill... what a man:o) Here is my try at it, I did not do as well as Matt did but I did much better last night then when we went with the Young Women a week ago, I fell right on my rear about one second into my fun.
This was Noah's first run. I don't think he knew just how fast it was going to go. This kid loves to move fast, and had a lot of fun doing it.
This was Matt's idea. It went great right up until they all crashed and Libbie and Owen started crying. For anyone out there who wants to try this with their family, first make sure you have medical and then put someone in the front who can put their feet down to brake!