HALLOWEEN!

We had an eventful Halloween this year. Nate's mom always throws a Halloween party right before Halloween, but with it being on a Saturday this year we had it on the actual day! She always goes all out! We had stories, games, songs, a pinata, and of course, lots of treats. I was a little disappointed in the photos because my camera started dying this day. Luckily you can actually see what the picture is of. You can tell that some of them are starting to go a little psychedelic. The next week I tried to take pictures and you couldn't see anything. After the party we went up to my parents' in Draper and went trick-or-treating. This was a posh place to get the goods. My kids EACH came back with, not exaggerating, 10 regular size candy bars, 2 cans of soda, and 4 huge pixie sticks. And of course lots of fun size stuff!
Here is our track star. Isaiah always has these amazing, original ideas for costumes. He always wants to make them. This year his dream was to be a centaur. For those of you who don't know that is a half-horse, half-man. He was planning on having Nate help him make the costume. It just became too complicated and he decided he would "just be a track star." His primary reason for this, he said, was so that he could run faster than everyone and get the most candy.
Grace was going to be Hermione from Harry Potter this year, but she ended up finding this hand-me-down Little Bo Peep costume instead. She looked really cute in it. The only thing I had to buy were the tights!
Here is Miles in his pirate costume. Don't you just love the beard? He had a great time being able to go trick-or-treating with just him and Isaiah. They ran from house to house and came back with a lot of loot!
Here's our Moses. I tried and tried to get him to be some cute little hand-me-down costume this year. I knew this was the last year that he would fit into any of them! I had a dog, a lion, a horse, and a really cool Power Ranger costume, but Qui-Gon-Jin from Star Wars won out. He calls him "the mustache guy." I think that is why he wouldn't relent because he wanted a beard and a mustache on his costume!
Here is our sweet little Monkey. If you only knew Ella's obsession with animals, monkeys being one of her favs. She played the perfect part with sound effects and everything. I loved the costume because it kept her so warm.

Moses' Halloween Program

Moses had a short Halloween program at preschool this year. I had a great time going to watch all of these sweet children get so excited to perform.
Here's Moses waving enthusiastically during the costume parade. I LOVE this picture because he has a genuinely excited smile.
The kids stood against this wall and sang a variety of Halloween songs. It was so fun watching Moses because he gets distracted so easily by the simplest things. His light saber was a little distracting at first. He finally put it down, only to see that his shoe covers weren't on his shoes all of the way. He spent the next song bent over trying to fix that. He did a great job of learning and performing all of the songs.
Here he is singing a song about a fat pumpkin. Notice how dramatic he is compared to the rest!

Ward Fall Carnival

For the last few years our ward has had a fall carnival instead of a trunk-or-treat. The youth run all of these fabulous games for the kids and we have a chili and pie cook off for dinner. This year they had ward members show off their homemade goods as well. It was a really fun and successful night!
One of the stations was a picture taking station. We couldn't find Isaiah for this one, but thought the other kids looked pretty good. I think that Ella was trying to escape. She ended up being in the picture with the bishopric as well because she wouldn't get off of the oxen!
A ward member gave me this picture that she took of Grace at the doughnut eating contest. Look at that tongue!
I got the award for the "Beaniest Chili" at the ward fall carnival this year. I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not. At least I got a Halloween towel and a box of candy out of it. I did like that I had snuck in several veggie purees and nobody knew about that. It had sweet potatoes and cauliflower in it. I love being sneaky with my vegetables!

Black Island Farms

Moses' preschool had a field trip to Black Island farms lined up for the end of September. It got rescheduled to another date in October because of snow! Haven't had much since, but snow the last week of September depressed me. Anyway, the field trip got rescheduled to a day that my other kids didn't have school. They were so excited to be able to go because we never do anything like this because it costs so much. I was practically free on this day.
Here is the gang with their pumpkins straight out of the patch. Isaiah had to search and search for an original. He finally found one!
"Mom, why are you taking a picture of me holding an onion? I hate onions! When I see one tiny onion in my dinner I won't eat any of it!"
"I love carrots, can we take these home?"
I love when Moses winks. Here is a good one on the ride back from the pumpkin patch.
Here's a photo op at the entrance to the play area. My kids were really sick of taking pictures at this point.
Kids on the teeter totters. Ella tried a few times, but kept slipping off.
They have this barrel ride with a tractor pulling the train. Just a casual ride!
Here are the girls attempting the big slide together. Thanks to Grace, Miles, and Isaiah for helping Ella with all of the slides.
Do we dare go down? They boys could have gone down these slides for hours. I was really nervous to go somewhere with all of the kids by myself. I don't really attempt that much anymore because of how difficult it can get. The three older kids were really big helpers this time making it much easier. We also endured the huge corn mazes that they had. They were Edward and Jacob mazes. Isaiah and Miles went off on their own through the big maze and I took the other kids on the little one. I started having visions of losing my boys in the corn maze when it took Isaiah and Miles so long to get back, but it all worked out. We actually had a great time.

Fall Family Pictures

It has been a long time since I took individual pictures of the kids. It has been well over a year! With little Ella that seems to change over night, I was feeling really guilty that I hadn't taken pictures of her in a while. Since we were at my parents and they had this fantastic brick wall in their backyard, we opted for a more "urban" look.
Here is the family picture of choice. I thought that everyone looked pretty good in it! I was wishing Grace was more down on Nate's level and Miles down a little too, but you can't be took picky when taking your own pictures. We probably needed the height anyway to make the picture the right size. Thanks to Kelli for taking our family picture. She did a great job!
Isaiah claims now-a-days that he doesn't know how to smile. We had to say a few of our choicest potty jokes to get this laugh/smile out of him. I think he looks great!
Grace is anxious for her new picture because she didn't like last years. It is amazing how things change after over a year. She had all baby teeth in her last picture, now she looks so grown up with her big ones.
Miles is our photogenic one. He is really easy to get to smile and just enjoys getting pictures taken.This is such an awesome picture. I love the little mischievous glint in his eyes. He's a funny kid.
And last but not least... Ella. She did pretty good for a 20-month-old. We had to snap fast and had to keep distracting her so that she wouldn't pull out the flower in her hair.

UEA Break

For the UEA break, Nate took a few days off of work and we just played as a family. One of the places that we have frequented a lot this year is the This is the Place State Park. We have gone there a lot recently because Nate's parents have a grandparents pass and we can all get in for free. We brought a picnic lunch and ate right when we got there. I almost gave up on the day because I was FREEZING. I really don't have any love for the cold weather and this was one of the first of the LONG cold season. Nate's dad gave me his jacket and I survived!
Here is Moses on a pony ride. All of the kids went on one. I think Isaiah needs to graduate to a horse ride. He is getting really big! Actually I don't think he went on a horse this year, but everyone else did.
One of our favorite parts of the park is a little area where they have all of these baby animals roaming around freely. Ella especially loves this part because the animals are not so scary since they are more her size. She loves to chase around the goats and the lambs. I think they get quite annoyed by her after a while.
The ponies were a little on the big side for Ella. Actually she was excited to get onto a pony at first. While she was waiting first in line a horse started heading her direction and "neighed" at her really loud. The horse was probably only inches from her. That set her off and she didn't want to have anything to do with the horses after that.
Grace had the special touch. All of the animals would eat out of her hand. All of the other kids kept trying without any luck.
I kept thinking "some one's going down." But somehow they managed to play on and around this stream without getting wet.
My happy kids on the handcart. I'm sure under real circumstances they wouldn't look like this. They kept singing, "Pioneer, children sang as they walked and walked and walked and...." well, you get the idea. Nate taught them how to sing it like the people in England. Now they sing it with a little English accent.
This was at the end of the day, but I thought it was a cute one of all of them. Ella was definitely ready for her nap. We had a great time and are so grateful for grandparent passes that allows us to go to fun places together for free!

School Pictures

Here are the kids school pictures for his year. When I got them back the first thing that I noticed was how big they are getting. I really notice this in picture form for some reason. Maybe it's because I am remembering what their last year pictures looked like. I can't believe my oldest in in 5th grade! That is so crazy!
Here is Isaiah! He is in Mrs. Carlson's class this year. He is making a lot of friends and is loving Social Studies, which is his favorite subject. They have to memorize all of the states and capitals, the presidents in order, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. He is right on this because he LOVES this stuff!
Here is our sweet Gracious! She is the one that has changed the very most since last year. Look at her! She's huge! Grace is in Mrs. Reidford's class and enjoys many friends in her class. She always makes friends so easily. Mrs. Reidford has mentioned to me how she constantly has to think of things to challenge Grace. One of her comments about Grace was that she can read absolutely everything!
Here is our Miles! He is enjoying life in Mrs. Velez's class. He was disappointed when none of his friends were in his class this year, but of course he has made new friends almost instantly. The 2nd week of school his teacher sent this email to me: "I can't wait to get to know Miles more. He had a great week. He's very confident, friendly and eager to make great choices. I see him as a quiet leader of out class! Thank you for sharing him with me." I think that says it all!