Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Halloween-it lasted the entire month of October!

I know, it is after Thanksgiving and I am just now posting about Halloween. No need to read if you are simply not up for reading about this holiday of the past...
We had such an exciting month of Halloween festivities. Yes, an entire month full of Witch's Nights Out, Witches Retreat, Breakfast with the Witches, Ward Trunk-or-treat, the annual Morris Family Halloween Party, Cornbelly's, a couple's costume party, and of course, trick-or-treating. It was fabulous but maybe a bit much?!
The girls in the neighborhood love to party. Hence, two Witch parties. Nothing better than the ladies getting together to eat and chat while dressed to the nines, witches style.
Cheri, my mom and I about to head out-I just love that we do these things together!
These are some of my favorite girls in my ward-Annelise, Katie and Jenn...I think you can see why...We have had this other Witches Night Out party for three years now...It's HUGE!
Love that my high school girls make an effort to hang out with our kids. Jessica found a fun event at Gardner Village called Breakfast with the Witches. I was excited to spend some time with the twins and so I left Karoline with Grandma and off we went. We met up with the group and sat down for breakfast. Roman and Capri seemed a tad nervous at first, but soon warmed up to the crazy, loud witches. Capri even wanted to go on stage to play with the rubber rats...gross. There favorite part of the morning was being able to run around and finding all of the fake witches. It was such a perfect morning-we all soaked in the wonderful fall weather and each other's company.
Capri with Witch Brazilla-seriously couldn't believe she wanted a picture with the stranger witch!
Finding the funny witches all over the Village:Our best attempt at a group shot of the 2nd generation:Here are my darling girlfriends with their kids-we have a great bunch!Every Halloween, the Young Men and Young Women put together a trunk-or-treat for the ward. My Beehives were in charge of a trunk and a few games. It went off without a hitch and all of us, organizers and participants, had a great time. This was the first time the kids got to wear their costumes and I must say that as much as I loved our cohesive themed costumes last year, Capri was dying to be Rapunzel and I wasn't about to make Roman be Flynn Ryder. He wanted to be Batman and he thought it was about as cool as it gets. Karoline was a fairy and her and London matched-it was insanely cute...My Batman, Rapunzel and fairy:
Tucker took the kids around while I manned the trunk and then we switched-I didn't want to miss out on the faces of my kids getting candy at each trunk. They were pretty happy about that! When it was getting cold, they huddled up in our trunk and checked out all of their goodies.
We had never been to Cornbelly's before, but I think we need to make it a tradition from here on out. The kids had an absolute blast with the trampolines, bouncy houses, life-size lincoln logs, train rides, and the many play sets. Karoline was old enough to really get a kick out of it. I was just so happy to see my kids with permanent smiles all day.
Capri in one of the wooden trucks as happy as can be!
Roman on the inflatable trampoline-this was fun for all of the kids.
All the kids loved climbing to the top of the hay bales and were pretty proud of themselves as they reached the top:
The kids loved the farm animal band that sang songs and danced. My little niece Isla was totally dancing by swaying her shoulders. You would die if you saw such a cuteness explosion.
Drew and I with the babes on the wagon ride that was quite bumpy and fun!
Cheri and Cody put on an awesome party for our friends. It was a Famous Couples theme but Tucker and I were lame and went as a cat and mouse. Yeah, we are that creative and willing to dress up. ;) What's funny, however, is this was the same costume I wore the first night Tucker and I met. He totally doesn't remember me from that night, but I remembered him dressed up as Yasser Arafat. Hmmm...
We played some great games including the traditional doughnut eating contest, Funny Bones and Just Dance 3 on the wii. Good times. Really good times.
The devil and the cat-pretty much $10 costume kits with a shirt and fake leather pants...that's how we roll.Our sweet action pic!
Roman and Capri had a Halloween parade at their preschool and they were happy to show off their costumes. Roman was not comfortable in his, unfortunately, so he stuck with the black clothes and then Batman gloves and belt. Close enough.
Trick-or-treating couldn't have been better this year. Not only were Roman and Capri thrilled to be making the rounds, Karoline was totally into it. She wouldn't even leave the house without us putting a piece of candy in her bucket to start. She would say "Happy Halloween" and "Trick-or-treat" to earn her candy and we were just dying from all the cuteness. It was unseasonably warm which made it that much nicer of a night. To top it off, we had both sets of grandparents, Cheri and Cody with London, Rob and jesse with the boys, and tons of fabulous neighbors to trick-or-treat with. Huge success. Check out the video below to see the kids in action!
One of my favorite parts of the night, however, was when Capri, Roman, and even Karoline for a moment, decided they were going to pass out candy at home. Capri had the little chairs set up and would sit anxiously waiting for more kids to come along. When they did come, she would comment on their costumes, smile, and give them some candy. It was the sweetest thing.
We had dinner at my house with everyone which has become an annual event. It's so nice to have everyone come celebrate with my kids and it's so fun for me to host. The perfect way to close up Halloween.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Pumpkins, aka "pumpies"

Karoline loved seeing the many pumpkins put out on porches, at the pumpkin patch, or in the new pumpkin book we read. She points, smiles, and says, "pumpy!" We definitely got our fill of pumpkins this year and it started with our traditional trip to our neighborhood Peterson Family Farm...
All of the kids were SO excited to find the perfect pumpkin so off they went...
Karoline became quite attached to her pumpkin and was not about to let go. We took a picture but I realized Karoline was turned around...
...so when I started to turn her around for a picture, she thought I was going to take it away and this is how she reacted:
Tucker and Roman being the manly men they are in lifting up they great big pumpkin!
Then Roman found his favorite:
And Capri found a green one:
Once they decided which they liked best, we tried to get a picture, "tried" being the key word:
Once we were home, however, and Karoline realized this pumpkin was hers to keep, she was all smiles!
PUMPKIN CARVING
You can't have a plain pumpkin! We got the kiddos in their jammies and Daddy started to dig out the guts. The kids loved that they were called guts. Are we already to that age?! When deciding what to carve, Capri saw the spider stencil and knew immediately that was what she wanted. She is kind of obsessed with bugs these days so it was very appropriate. Roman was all in with the spider as well and thought it would be cool. Again, are they that old to even know to be cool?
Getting started on the carving:
Checking it out:
And the final product!
Way to go sweetheart!

Apple Day

I know I have said it before, probably several times, but I just love South Jordan Montessori. Last month my kids had Apple Day at school and I got to tag along as a helper. I was in awe. First, the kids got to head out to the orchard (right in the backyard!) and pick a bag full of apples. Capri didn't love climbing up the ladder, but she did it to get those delicious apples!
Roman loved being able to pick an apple right off the tree-so fun and new. Then, we hurried back in to start up the stations. There was a tasting station where they decided which apple they liked best and made a graph, a peeling station where the apples where peeled, sliced and cored, a cutting station where the kids took their peeled apple and cut it into smaller pieces, and a juicing station where they used a juicer to make fresh apple juice. As you can imagine, these students were in heaven! We all got a snack at the end of homemade applesauce and that put me in heaven. YUMMY. The kids had plenty of time to play as well and since I had Karoline with me, I had to take some fun pictures...
A perfect fall activity!

First Primary Program

The twin's first primary program, not a huge success, but I will take what I can get. I knew Capri would have a hard time getting up in front of the entire congregation and speak into that loud microphone, but I had hope. She knew her line, "My favorite scripture story was when Baby Jesus was born," and she was prepared with the few practices they held prior. Unfortunately, the time came and neither would end up speaking. It started with Roman telling us he had to use the bathroom JUST as they called the Primary up to the stand. Bad timing? I think so. Tucker took Capri up and she was not about to sit with her class without Roman and without her teacher (there was a substitute that she didn't know at all) so she sat with Tucker and his class. I rushed Roman to the bathroom and then took him straight up soon after the program started. He wouldn't sit with his class either and Tucker had already sent Capri down so there I am. Karoline in my arms, sitting on my knees on the floor, trying to persuade the two to sit with their class. Not going to happen. I then took them out and tried talking them into walking up to say their parts. They said they would so we go back up only for them to get scared and so we go back down. I was almost in tears as I brought them all back to our seats. Why I thought it was so important I don't know, but I was so upset about it. Fortunately, my mom came to help and talked them into going up to sit with Grandpa and his class to sing the rest of the songs. They actually sang! Maybe next year will be better, but having them up there doing their best was good enough for me. :)
Here we are right before heading to church...
Yeah, they may not have said their parts, but they were looking mighty cute that day! :)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Conference Weekend in St. George

We have started a new tradition, going to the St. George condo for General Conference weekend. I love General Conference, our family always hangs out in our pajamas while eating scones and listening to the incredible talks. What made it even better was being down in the warm sun and spending the entire weekend together.
Cheri and I headed down early on Friday and Rob met up with us shortly after. We all headed to the pool for some much needed fun in the sun.
Rob and the boys, Spencer, Eli and Kaleb
London and Karoline floating about-someone had the brilliant idea of putting water in the tube so they could splash til their hearts content!
Capri-could she be an cuter? I think not!
I love it when my Roman boy practices his floats even when his isn't in a lesson!
Me and my Koko having a good time.
The next day we opted for the Main Street splash park instead and everyone was thrilled to be there again. I guess the water never gets old for my kids!
I love this picture because it shows how Roman is 110% boy and Capri 110% girl. :)
Kaleb and his Daddy
London and her Mommy
Karoline would have stayed here all day if we let her. She even made a friend while playing.

Roman was pretty excited, especially because he was there with his cousins. His face says it all!
In between watching conference, scones, and naps, we headed out in the back to play some tennis. You probably couldn't call it actual tennis, but we did have rackets, balls and were on a court-does that count?
She is ready to go!
My dad's face says it all-not so good!
Now this guy knows a thing or two about the sport and was very patient with the rest of us.
Happy tennis players
Tucker had to work out of town the following week so I hung out with my parents and spent a few extra days down south. Thank you Mom and Dad for being such a huge help and having this great place to visit!