Official Halloween Night

Finally the real night has come and now I'm "halloweened-out"!! We have done halloween so many times this month, Jon and I are pooped! After delivering a meal to friends because they had a new baby (Phoebe Olivia Buchner) we headed out for the CANDY!! We met at the Rubow's house for some chili, cornbread and treats and then started on their neighborhood. Then we headed back to our neighborhood and perused around. We came upon homemade root beer at a friends house who has been doing it for over 25 years. They are well known in the neighborhood as the "root beer house on halloween". We took a little breather there before we headed home to sleep. Jon decided to be the candy man and offer up money for their candy. Apparently the kids prefer money over candy and Jon and I got to pick through their goodies!

Kindergarten Halloween Party

Seriously it feels like this whole month was taken up with some type of Halloween celebration. I am almost sick and tired of eating or throwing away all the candy in the house!! Sounds weird, I know. Today was Rylee's Halloween party at school. The kindergarten had a great time! It was carnival style with games and crafts that they parents helped out with. No learning today!! Jon decided to work in her classroom today and take Brody with him. After the carnival in kindergarten they had a parade around the school with all the older kids and then back to the classroom for a halloween movie. Brody had a blast feeling all grown up with Rylee's class!!!

More Halloween Fun!

Today is gymnastics during Halloween week and they were to dress up in their costumes. It's scary when they wear masks and you can't see their faces. He never ceases to make me laugh!Afterwards we headed over to the SMFD Trunk-or-Treating at Station 32. We had a great time and Rylee won one of the prizes for the best costume! Yeah Belle!

Haunted Gingerbread House

For Family Home Evening we decided to decorate as a family the haunted version of the traditional gingerbread house. Rylee and Brody did such a good job! And Taylee did a good job eating most of the candy!

Oakridge Ward Halloween Carnival

This was such a fun event - crafts, carnival games, food, contests and a bounce house! There was a chili and cornbread cook-off, treats, homemade Root Beer, and a scare crow contest! There was so much stuff to vote on! Sadly we didn't win anything, but it was so much fun making our scare crow out of Jon's clothes. After I had finished putting it together Taylee pointed to it and said, "Daddy!". We all dressed up - Jon and I were Olive Oyl and Popeye, Rylee was Belle, Brody was the BumbleBee Transformer and Taylee was a pink fairy. Oh yes, and I can't forget Trunk-or-Treating out of the back of decorated car trunks!! Fun and safe, just they way we like it!

Happy Anniversary & Apple Hill

Today is our Anniversary. We had nothing planned. On a whim my mom contacted us about going up to Apple Hill this morning because Renee and Lily were in town for a little while. It was the Skubals, Rudnickis, Mom and Montes' minus Sammy. We had a great time. Brody couldn't get enough of the free apple cider, which is very very tasty!...can you see his little bum crack hanging out? HA HA!All the grandkids went horseback riding in a circle. Poor horses, but the kids loved it!

Bow & Arrow Fun

Lately Brody has been wanting to watch Robin Hood or The Swan Princess. Both have lots of shooting scenes using a bow and arrow and he begged me to make him one. So I made him one out of some branches we found in the backyard and some string and he starting practicing. He actually could hit targets I made for him. So today Jon decided to get these for Rylee and Brody! Watch out Taylee! (Look closely and you can see the other arrow coming out of the bottom of his shirt. He likes to house them on his back just like the characters in the movies.)

Preschool Field Trip

In preschool Brody has been learning about his body and how special it is. Today we went to the zoo to use our special bodies to explore the world around us. The kids made "view finders" (a decorated empty toilet paper roll). This allows the kids to see one thing at a time.

Little Helpers

In August we moved into our second home and just love it. We couldn't be happier with a huge backyard, pool, garden, and mini grove of fruit trees. Brody has been such a big helper keeping the dirt in the 4 raised beds turned over to keep the weeds from getting out of control. Here Jon has put ear muffs on the two of them while he mows the backyard. Cracks me up!This is the lizard Brody found. Gross!