More Halloween

This morning I woke up to hear the kids sorting their loot from Trunk or Treat. They were checking out the goods and offering swaps. It was so cute I just lay there and listened a while. It went on all day until they finally dumped it all out together to create "the candy store." They had more fun swapping than they did eating it.

 All dudded up for Trick-or-Treat tonight.  Miss Merida............

 Queen Elsa. I don't braid. Don't judge. ;)

 Princess Anna.

 This is Drewbs as Spiderman. He LOVED his costume!

 Parker had a really cool Iron Man costume that he wore to Trunk-or-Treat last night, but at the last minute he decided to be a pirate tonight. Good thing we always have a stash of pirate gear around! He was having lots of fun, just decided to give the camera his scallywag face.

 It was enough work to get these five together, so I didn't bother trying to get Noah in with them. That and Dad was anxious to get out on the Trick-or-Treat trail.

 How much is that doggy in the window? No he's not for sale. ;) He hated his costume just as much tonight as he did last night. But I still thought it was adorable. He tugged and tugged and said, "I don't wanna!" for a while and eventually I let him out of it to run up and down the drive and greet trick-or-treaters as they came for candy. 

Hope your Halloween was a happy one!

Halloween Fun

We've had a really fun October this year! Brandon's brother and family recently moved to Texas and we've gotten to spend lots of time with them and Brandon also was able to take some much needed time off work to spend with us. One thing we did while he was off was hit the pumpkin patch. Although there are several in San Antonio, we made the hour long drive to this particular one on recommendation. As far as pumpkin patches go, I think I've left my heart at our favorite one in Kansas.  There were some cool things about this one. The kids got to dress a scarecrow, run through a haymaze, take a hayride and see some farm animals. By far the best part was the tour of the apple orchard. We got to learn all about the growing process, and the cider making. We really really wanted to bring some cider home, but when we found out it cost $12 a gallon I told Brandon that if it didn't contain any gold flecks or come from the actual fountain of youth we weren't buying. Many of the other activities and treats were similarly priced, so overall I think next year we'll be trying somewhere else.

 The kids were so much fun carving pumpkins this year. Other than carving off the top, Parker did his whole pumpkin himself this year and then went on to help with the others too. He was so proud! They turned out great.

 Drew didn't think much of cleaning out the insides. Lucky for him, (and me!) big brother was so willing to help.

 Paige and Claire were a "team" so that we didn't have to stay up all night carving pumpkins for each individual kid. They didn't mind a bit.

 Emma and Noah were supposed to be a team as well, but this is as close as Noah got to the action.

 Emma sure enjoyed herself though!

 The finished pumpkins. The first night we light them, we like to keep them indoors until bedtime since the kids really don't get to see them outside much afterwards.

 Tonight was our ward Trunk or Treat. I managed to keep Noah's doggy hood on just long enough to snap this picture. I can't even get the boy to wear a tie to church and the one Sunday I put a sweater on him he had a fit trying to get it off and only gave up out of sheer exhuastion, so I'm impressed that the costume went over even this well. Maybe tomorrow night we'll manage a better picture?

 At the party there was a DJ and all the kids loved dancing, but our little Emma was the best to watch. She got right out there and was moving and grooving. She was our beautiful princess Merida.

 Andrew was super excited that his primary teacher gave him an extra special treat! It was sweet of her to think of that!

Our years of satisfying the kids with the trunk or treat only are over. The kids are old enough to know about real trick or treating now and there is no getting out of it. ;) They're so excited to do it all over again tomorrow! I'll post better costume pics then!

My Love Bugs

For Valentine's day this year the kids finally talked me into making sugar cookies. I know, I know, I'm the sugar cookie grinch, but here's the thing; while they're all sorts of fun to decorate and make, none of us actually like to eat them! At our house there is really only one kind of cookie worth eating, and that is the almighty chocolate chip. But we do have this collection of about a hundred cookie cutters, (usually used for play-dough) and we thought this would be a fun way to party.

Of course all of Paige's cookies had to be pink, with pink sparkles. Funny enough, I think the girl only actually ate one cookie? She does not have a sweet tooth. She loves to do these sorts of things, but not actually eat the treat.

 Drew did his usual thing of doing every single one exactly the same way. The boy does not like variation!

 Claire favored the purple frosting, and was happy to let Parker embellish her cookies so she could spend time licking more purple frosting off the scoop.

 And Parker had to try out a little bit of everything. He is very serious about these sorts of things.

 Emma napped through most of the fun, and when she woke up was happy to nod her head and smile while the other kids decorated her cookies for her. She just wanted to EAT one!

 And some slobber free ones.

 We had intended to have a party with some friends, but at the last minute they got sick and couldn't come. We enjoyed our party favors anyway, (the lips made a fantastic whistling noise!) and made a craft not pictured because I was too busy making sure that every surface of the house wasn't covered with glittery stickers.

Then the kids got leftovers for dinner early, and when Brandon got home from work, we got to spend some time together cooking a nice meal for ourselves. Steak and marsala mushrooms, garlic mashed potatoes and green beans! And chocolate lava cake for dessert! Since the opportunity to go out sans kids is rare for us these days, we've found cooking together to be a fun way to have a date night at home.

Christmas 2013

I suppose I ought to feature Christmas on the blog before it rolls around again and I lose the chance! We had a blast this year with our cute little family. It was a quiet cozy Christmas at home with just us and it was SO relaxing. I don't even think we got around to opening presents until the afternoon, but no one really minded. We had a big breakfast and lots of yummy food to snack on all day. We read A Christmas Carol as a family, and in general just enjoyed being together. Here are all of our little ones decked out in their Christmas pajamas.

 A few days before Christmas the kids' great Grandma Judy sent a package for us. We got excited and opened the package early. It was a fun way to break up the wait.

 It was the year of Legos for these kids and they all loved it! The boys also got a couple of other sets from their Grandpa and Grandma Morgan. (I didn't snap pictures of either of the grandparents gifts, because we opened them all via video chat. It was so fun for the kids to do that and I think really helped them understand whom the gifts were from.)

One of the favorite gifts given for me this year was for all of our school-aged kids. They each got their own fountain pen. Fancy schmancy! They got right to work giving them a go.

 This baby was too adorable for words. He watched the big kids well enough to get the hang of this present opening thing down quickly! Being baby #6, his first Christmas wasn't anything fancy, (sippy cups and bathtub toys) but as we were expecting it didn't matter. The boxes and wrapping paper were more fun anyway!

 Miss Claire was over the top excited about her Snow White dress. Each of our girls have a favorite princess. Hers has always been Snow White. She has the pajamas, and a bedtime doll of her. Emma loves Cinderella, and Paige who is slightly less loyal to her favorites, is currently on an Ariel kick. She won't watch the movie however because Ursula is too scary. We even have to skip her song when listening to the soundtrack!

 I could not resist posting this picture! Don't you want to smooch that face?!! The big girls were in dire need of new coats this year, and mostly so Emma could benefit from their hand-me-downs. We did have the slightest skiff of snow to try them out with. The adorable knit owl hats you see poking out of the coats were a labor of love from my niece Lexi, in each child's favorite color. Still working on trying to get a decent shot of all of the kids wearing them at once, but they LOVE them and insist on wearing them when we get a chance to go out. Heck, they wear them around the house!

These were just my most favorite shots from my camera. Soon I hope to post some pics from the kids' point of view! Those will feature more of the fun grandparent gifts.