Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!!

I think the kids are happy that this is the last time they have to wear their costumes! They've been in them 4 or 5 times the past week.

We went out to Lisa & Todd's house to go trick or treating with the cousins. We had an added bonus this year with Jeff's family back & Mike & his family drove in today from Washington. We had quite the group going door to door. After we had gone around half of the neighborhood Carter tells me that his legs are tired & he is done getting candy. I told him just to finish the rest of the block & then we could go back to Lisa's. Once we got back I stayed with Carter & Claire & most of the other kids continued on. After a few minutes Carter said he wanted to go back out. We caught up with the kids & he tells me that he doesn't want anymore candy. Then why are we out here? I took him back to Lisa's where he played. The kids had so much fun playing together & we enjoyed a delicious dessert prepared by Kristen. 'Til next year!

Hard to get a group picture of everyone looking with so many kids!

The witches-Claire & Aunt Courtney

Claire with her good stuff!

Carter checking out his bag of goodies!

I'll take one of those, thank you!

Rossmoor Ward Harvest Festival

This evening we attended the Rossmoor Ward Harvest Festival. Carter was so excited to see his old friends again. The activities committee did such a great job! The decorations were amazing & the game booths were really fun! We enjoyed a delicious chili dinner (and hot dogs!) and then they gave awards out for the costumes. Claire won an award for the children's division. I couldn't believe it!! She got to go up on the stage & she was such a performer. She was up there waving & smiling at everyone! After the awards I took the kids around to do the games. One of the games was set up in the Nursery room & the minute we walked inside Claire started screaming! She thought she was going to have to stay for Nursery!! She would not calm down & my Mom was about to leave anyway, so I sent her back to Grandma's. It was so nice to be able to take Carter around & do the games that he wanted to do. He said he was feeling brave & wanted to try out the Haunted House. I had heard it was pretty scary, but he said he would try. We were in there for about 2 seconds & someone crawled out from underneath something & freaked him out, so out we went!! He was not happy! He decided to try doing the dunk tank. He waited in line patiently & when it was his turn he knocked the boy down with the second ball. Way to go Carter!! He had a fun time running around with his pals Grayson, Owen & Kaylee.

At the end of the night we went trunk or treating & he got some good candy. He passed all of his Snicker bars off to Grandpa since they have nuts, and he doesn't like those!

One more night of dressing up & then we are done for this year!!

Edward & Bella

I just had to steal this picture off my sister-in-laws blog! Jeff & Kristen went to a Halloween party last week & they dressed up as Edward & Bella (from Twilight-if you're that out of the loop!!!) Kristen did such a good job on Jeff's wig & make-up. I think he totally looks like him. Way to go guys!!

This morning we went to Carter's pre-school Harvest Festival. It was cold & windy, so it wasn't very fun to be outside. Carter had fun going around to the different booths & playing games. Claire had fun running around everywhere & driving me crazy!! She didn't understand that she couldn't just go to the front of the line to play a game when there was a long line of kids waiting to play! Her favorite place to hang out was the cake walk. I worked that booth for the first 20 minutes that we were there so I think she was just used to being in that area. She kept going around & around in the circle.

There were LOTS of people there. They combined the party with the other 3 classes, so there were around 80 kids there with parents & siblings!

Blurb Book

I received my Blurb book in the mail about one & a half weeks ago & I am so happy with it! All 172 pages of it! It's so fun to go through and look back on the last year for our family.

One of our favorite days last year: Apple Hill!

It will be fun to have all of these blog books up on my bookshelf for the years to come.
Look at the size difference from 2007 to 2008!

Tell Me About Your Day

My Mom gave us this chart a few years ago & I just got it out last night to work on it with Carter today. It's such a cute little activity for him to do each day. He can change the month, day, year, day of the week, season & weather. He's really excited about changing it each day. So for today he out windy for the weather; and that it is!! I just watched Claire's little ride along car go zooming across the back patio, with no child in it!

A perfect day to stay indoors!!

Soaking It In

I think we're coming to an end to our 80 degree weather for a bit, so we played outside this afternoon soaking in as much sun as we could get. The kids had fun riding around in the backyard,

and pushing lawnmowers around.
Up above was a beautiful blue sky with wispy white clouds.

I tried to get in a couple of pages of Harry Potter 4. (didn't get too far, kids needed to be pushed around!)

Claire can almost reach the peddles!

We decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood. It was fun to crunch through all of the leaves!

We ended a great day with a trip to Big Spoon to celebrate Carter doing so well in the Primary Program. A little bribery never hurts!!

Claire Bear!

Oh Claire Bear! You're such a cutie!

You make me laugh all day! (except when you're making me upset!)

You love to go into the cupboard & get into the cereal boxes. Your favorite right now is Cocoa Puffs. You pull the bag out of the box & carry it around the house munching away!

A Big Primary Day

Today was our Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting. We are so proud of Carter for memorizing his part & doing such a good job speaking loudly & clearly into the microphone. This is what he said:

"Remembering Jesus helps me choose the right."

Then he had to give a talk in Primary. Normally I would have had him memorize what he was going to say but I didn't want to confuse him with what he had to say in the program. This was his talk on The Proclamation.

"The Family: A Proclamation to the world" is modern-day revelation. The proclamation teaches us what Heavenly Father wants us to know about families. It teaches us how we can strengthen our families & how to prepare to live in an eternal family. The proclamation teaches my family how to be happy & teaches the importance of work.

He did really well with his talk too!

And that's not all....I was called to be a Primary teacher today! I will be teaching the CTR 5 & 6 year old class. It will be fun to be back in Primary. I think it's been 6 years.

Accenture Halloween

Today was Cory's work Halloween party. Next week they are going to be really busy so they decided to hold it early. I brought the kids in this morning to go trick or treating. Claire was a witch & Carter was a magician.

Claire was so cute! I found her costume at Joann's after Halloween last year for $2.50. SCORE!!

Carter had wanted to be a fire fighter but they were out of the costumes at Costco so he said he would be a magician. He got the outfit for Christmas last year.

Poor kid, his ears are the only thing holding his hat up!
Where did Carter go?

Such a sweet picture! And their costumes even match, purple & black!!

Trick or treating! Claire was so cute, saying thank you after each piece of candy she got!

Claire, Daddy & Carter. Cory's department theme was camping, so he was dressed in his Boy Scout Uniform. He couldn't forget his head lamp!

Most of the departments go all out with their decorating. Cory's department was really cool this year. The picture below is his cubicle area. There are about 6 desks behind the mountains & trees & they are completely enclosed in their "cave!!" The only light inside are their computer monitors. Cory took pictures of all of the different departments so I will have to get those from him.

Claire is loving the candy!

We ended up with all of this candy & we still have 3 Harvest Festivals to attend & Halloween night!

I'm thinking of copying this idea that I read about. The mom lets her kids eat whatever they want on Halloween night & if they leave their basket of candy on the table on Halloween night the Halloween fairy takes the candy & leaves a toy for them!

So clever! And my kids don't have to eat all of this candy & neither do I!!

2 Little Monkeys....

2 little monkeys jumping on the couch........

luckily neither of them broke their heads!

Beauty!

So here is a picture of the beautiful orange tree that I have been driving by everyday. This picture doesn't do it justice. You really need to see it with your own eyes. It makes me so happy!

Confession!

Should I even admit this?

I picked up our Christmas cards from Costco this morning & have them addressed already! I know...it's not even Halloween, but I already had the picture that I wanted to use, so why not?

Oh, and I'm just about done with Christmas shopping!

Flu Shot

This morning I took Claire to the pediatricians office to get her flu shot. She did so well! She was laying on the exam table & the nurse gave her the shot & she had such a sad look on her face. But right away I had a package of fruit snacks for her & she didn't make one peep! Hopefully next visit goes as well. I guess the first time they get the flu shot they need 2 doses. So she goes back the day before Thanksgiving. Better remember those fruit snacks!

Carter is still on the waiting list for his shot, along with 1200 other children! Oh my!

ACORNS!!!

This evening all of the kids were picking up acorns from Grandma & Grandpa's lawn. They ended up with a huge pile. Little did they know they were helping Grandpa by picking them all up!! They thought they were just having fun!!

Oh My, What A Cutie!

Claire looked so cute for church today! She loves wearing her little boots.

She even did pretty good in Nursery today. I only stayed about 5 minutes & she was crying when I left. But I never went back in & she seemed to do ok. Here's hoping next week is the same!

Fall

I love fall. One of the biggest reasons is the beautiful colors of the trees. This morning I took pictures of some of the trees in the parking lot at Carter's pre-school. They are so pretty. This evening I saw some bright orange ones on Gold Country Blvd so I am going to try & pull to the side of the road tomorrow & get some pictures.

I can't believe that October is already half over. I feel like we have been on the go so much & I haven't really been able to enjoy it yet. Time to slow down & take some time to look around at the beauty out there!

Road Block

My friend Kathy & I go walking on the mornings that Carter has pre-school. We walk the trails through Gold River. This morning we happened upon a road block. A huge tree was laying right across the path. The storm we had on Tuesday really did a number on so many trees. It's still hard to believe how many trees I have seen down. Needless to say, we had to turn around & find a different way to go.