Halloween

We love our holidays around here and have been celebrating Halloween in one form or another for over a week now.  Here are some of our fun activities:

Barnyard Boo

Every year Thanksgiving Point turns their farm into a Halloween party, and since my mom has a grandparent's pass, we always go. 

Grandma's Halloween Party

My mom loves to throw a party for her grandkids.  For many years now, she invites us over for dinner and games.  This year the kids played ring toss, a shell game, a pin the tail game, and decorated sugar cookies.  We also made smores in my parents new fire pit.

My sisters were teasing me and said, "hurry get your camera.  We want to be on the blog."  There you go girls!

And look at these cute smores packages my mom made!

Carving Pumpkins

I actually really like carving pumpkins.  We use patterns from a book from Walmart, but there is something so awesome about cutting out all that negative space and then lighting them up and seeing your picture.  Nerdy, I know.

Tyler actually carved the headless horseman on his own.  It was his first time carving a pumpkin by himself, and he did great!

Costume Parade

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

There he is!  The werewolf who had to carry his mask.

And finally, trick-or-treating.

My sister, and especially her husband, set up quite the gig each Halloween.  They decorate, serve us dinner (soup, corn bread, veggies, chips and salsa), set up a movie in the garage, light a fire, and get ready for the trick-or-treaters.

My sister has four kids, three boys and one girl, and so combined with my boys, poor Rachel is the lone girl.

Brady and Carter were so fun this year.  They understood exactly what they were doing, and RAN from door to door.  And the best part was they were perfectly happy after just a few houses.

And Brady had to stop and take a swing break when he saw this swing set.  So cute.

10 months

I cannot believe that in just 2 months we will be celebrating Jackson's first birthday.

Some of my favorite things about Jackson at 10 months old:

• I love when he snuggles down into my shoulder.  When you hold him on your hip, he will just turn and love on you.
• He is army crawling all over, which is just slow enough that I haven't had to get out the baby gates yet.
• His personality is becoming more defined.  He is easy going, happy, and playful.
• He is always so happy, that I don't know what to do when he does get fussy.  In fact, even my mom noticed his fussiness one day, and was convinced it must be teething.  Sure enough,  #5 had popped through and #6 was right there. 
• He's just getting so big.  I love his chubby cheeks and thighs.  I will miss the baby pudginess as he grows.
• His hair.  It is growing in more and more, but all different crazy lengths and so wispy.  I love it, but we are going to have to cut it soon.

We tried a really quick photo shoot one morning, but didn't really get any photos.  It was like outtakes with out the good ones to go with them. 

I got one picture where he didn't mess with the 10 on his onesie.

Then all bets were off.

 And of course Brady and Carter needed to get in one.

After Pictures

When we moved in, exactly one year ago, I put up some pictures of our house and promised to put up some after pictures.  Well I have some.

First up, here was our house one year ago.

And today:

Well not literally today because we had snow on the ground when we got up this morning.  The thing that tipped the scale to this house was the lot.  We loved the size, the levelness, and that we had a blank slate to do what we wanted with it.  Granted it took some cash, but I can't say it took hard work.  Unless signing the check is hard work.

Our house faces west, which makes our backyard nice and shady in the evening.  Here is the south side with our planter boxes.  We grew tomatoes, zuchinni, and pumpkins. We have since picked all 9 pumpkins and put them on our porch for Halloween.

 This is the back corner.  We have the trampoline in the ground and the playscape.  That is the one thing we did.  Dan and my dad built it and then Dan and I shoveled all the rubber mulch around it.

The other corner.  You can see a bit of our patio, the fire pit and the basketball court.  You can also the start of the fence, which we will be finishing next spring.

We really do love our backyard. Next year will be even better when I can just send the twins outside to play after the fence is done.  We have spent a lot of time out there this summer and have enjoyed all of it.  After living with our house for a year now, there are still things I like, and a few things I would change, but my favorite thing is our yard.

Tyler's Disney Trip

My parents have a tradition of taking their grandkids on a special trip.  They plan on doing it as long as they are able.  Well, it was Tyler and cousin Logan's turn.  But for something different, they decided to surprise them.  We had Logan over for a sleepover, and the next morning Grandma and Grandpa show up at our house.  They just told Logan and Tyler to go get in the car because they were going to Disneyland.  It was so awesome to see their reaction.

Here are some pictures they took.  I think this is the first time blogging about something I wasn't there for, so here goes.

Day 1 they headed to California Adventures and Cars Land.  I am quite jealous.  When we sneaked in our spontaneous trip to Disneyland last June, we left the day before Cars Land opened.

Luigi's Flying Tires

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree

At Radiator Springs Racers, which apparently is awesome as it appears to be.

I gather they also went on more rides, watched the Pixar parade, ate churros, and saw World of Color.

Day 2 was at Disneyland for Mickey's Halloween Party.  Tyler's favorite ride was the Haunted mansion turned into The Nightmare before Christmas.  We've never been this time of year, so I had no idea they switched it up.  They got to go trick-or-treating and Tyler brought home so much candy, I've just set it aside to give out on Halloween.

Day 3 was another day at Disneyland.

Day 4 my dad was awesome.  My mom spent some time with her aunt, so Grandpa took the boys for the afternoon.  First stop: Chuck E. Cheese.  Second stop: Huntington Beach.

 

 Don't I have amazing parents!!