Sunday, November 9, 2014

October in a Nutshell

 We spent one Saturday morning at the park. It was beautiful weather!  They got some climbing and lots of sliding and swinging and then we played a family game of steal the flag.
 Natalie's pretty good at catching lizards, especially since they are much slower now that the weather is cooler.  :)  This was an adorable little baby that she wanted proof of catching.
 Jane was just looking too cute this day, so I had to snap a pic.
 Blake is our little artist.  He's always been really good at coloring in the lines and making the cutest pictures.
 Because Natalie was so broken-hearted about the passing of our first lizard, we got another one.  We told her to pick the fattest one this time.  :)  She calls her Sunspot.  She's such a sweet lizard, and, if we must have a pet, I'm glad it's this one.
 Another Saturday we went to the Natural History Museum.  Jane's looking mighty sweet in this photo, but don't be fooled.  She was a little monster there.  We love her, though.
 The kids love doing crafts.  I love to watch them creating.  They were pretty serious about it too.
 Jane is our little climber.  She's not afraid of anything, but I get a little tense watching her do things like this.
I was in charge of the ward Halloween party.  I was so grateful to have the help of my wonderful friend, Angel, whose idea it was to hang the cute witch hats.  It was very Harry Potter-ish.  We had a chili cookoff with rolls, a trunk-or-treat and games in the classrooms.  There was a huge turnout-probably almost 300 people.  But there was plenty of food and it was lots of fun.  It was definitely a load off my shoulders when it was done.

And then a week later I was in charge of Super Saturday for the ladies in Relief Society.
 An inexpensive decoration I came up with.  You have to get creative with just $75 for 300 people!
We snapped the next few pictures right before heading out the door to the ward party.



 Rob and I were superheros and the kids were Frozen characters...Elsa, Anna and Olaf.
 This was at our ward party right before the trunk-or-treat.  The kids had a great time with their friends.
 Grandpa and Grandma Bell sent a fun Halloween treat package in the mail.  Jane's hair is always in her face.  I promise I do it everyday, but the second I turn my back, she takes it out.  Ugh.
 We carved pumpkins a little differently this year.  Rob got an attachment that fits onto his power drill that cleans out the inside of the pumpkin.  It was amazing.  I hate pumpkin slime, so it was worth every penny.  And, we'll be using it every year from here on out.
 Blake and Natalie designed their own pumpkin faces.  Natalie carved her own (on the far left).  Rob helped Blake carve his, and Jane asked for "Rella", so I did that one for her.

 The kids showing off their pumpkins.  They were so proud.
 We had a great time trick-or-treating.  I took the kids around.  The weather was perfect...we didn't even need jackets.  There were a few slightly scary houses, one really scary stop with a haunted house in the garage, bloody handprints and a chopped off head on the driveway and two guys dressed up as clowns that got right up in your face and pounded a bat on the ground.  It was a little too scary for Jane and for me.  I don't get into the gory, extra creepy Halloween stuff.
We swap babysitting with some friends in the ward.  They have twin girls that are Jane's age.  We watched them last time and the sweet girls got sucked into Frozen.  They were mesmerized.  It was so cute.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Pumpkin Patch

 We always look forward to our annual trip to the pumpkin patch!  It's a full day of nonstop fun!
 Bouncing.

 Cow train riding.
 Spiderweb climbing
 Getting into a little trouble and landing themselves in jail.  I wish we had one of these at home.  Ha!



 Petting animals

 And of course going through the corn maze.


 Followed by a hay ride to pick out the very best pumpkins



Good times!  I love this family of mine.

Randoms

 Natalie has been losing teeth right and left!  While we were at Grandpa and Grandma Bell's house, she told grandpa that she had a very loose tooth and, because he's the expert on teeth (he's an oral surgeon), he pulled out his numbing cream and then popped that thing right out!  She said it didn't hurt a bit.  And then, because we were on vacation and things were crazy, that silly tooth fairy forgot to come.  But she made up for it by slipping double the going rate under Natalie's pillow when the kids were out playing that morning.  That tricky little lady.  :)
 I just love when the kids get along.  Here they are watching a show together being all sweet.
 Natalie has expressed an interest in learning to sew, so she made a few pillows for my Princess Spa Day party.  She is really good at it!  She says she wants to learn to make a dress or a shirt next.  Too bad her mother isn't a better seamstress.  I guess we'll learn together.
 We've had some good times at the park lately, just soaking up this beautiful, perfect fall weather!
 Rob went out of town the morning of the Sunday session of conference.  We kept busy with fun projects like baking and making a baby blanket for a gift.  Natalie enjoyed tying, and it was a good thing, because there was lots of it!
Jane is such a sweet little mommy to her dolls.  She grabbed the diapers and wipes one morning, took off the baby's clothes and proceeded to wipe its bum.  She kept saying, "Poop!"  Ha!
I've been throwing lots of parties lately for my blog and these kiddos have been loving it!

Sunday, October 12, 2014

After Disneyland

After Disneyland, we headed back to Rob's parents and visited for a few more days.
 It was still warm enough to swim!

 Jane is my brave little girl and just kept going down the slide by herself.  She loved it.  No fear.
 Grandpa and his sweet grand babies.
 Rob's parents flew in a world-class waterskiier, Wim, to coach us for a few days.  We were lucky enough to be there for it.  They do this at least once every year.
 The kids enjoyed some tubing.
 Jane was perfectly content to watch the ducks.
 Here I am on my best run.  I made the green ball course after two years of not waterskiing! Yay!  I guess I haven't totally lost my touch.  :)
And then I threw a Disney Infinity party for my blog while we were there too.  Tons of fun!