A Spooky good time

Okay I hope I can get this out before it's Monday in the Philippines so Lillie will get this.
Halloween was a much anticipated event for Addy and a better than can be expected event for Liam. He actually wore his costume, no tears involved!!! We've lived in 3 parts of town the last 3 Halloweens and we've perfected our trick or treating experience. First off we go to a very popular neighborhood. We use to live a road over from here and we've gotten our family pics taken on this road. Roberts Ranch is a street where there is big beautiful tree's not sure if they're maple, oak, or what but the produce huge leaves and line the entire street making it very attractive. There is no parking on the street and on Halloween night they even set up cones so people don't drive down the street. This is nice because the kids can walk from house to house and across the road without traffic. There are a lot of big beautiful homes right next to each other and the best part is that this neighborhood does the holidays right. Most decorate for Halloween and Christmas time it's so fun to drive down the street and see the fantastic lights. LOVE it.
So it's an obvious choice, and pretty much all we go to (but so does everyone else), what we've perfected is the timing. We get there early but not too early and get out right when the big crowds come in.

Okay so here is a few pics of some of my favorite decorated houses:

there was another one of these smoked filled hooded giants on the other side of the walk.

this hand looked so REAL...

Daniel had to touch it

 And to prove how dedicated these people were...it was their kid hiding in the trunk!!!!

We went with the Steele's

I was pretty proud of Tippy's peacock costume because I made it and did her make-up

Also a couple from our ward met us there. I wish I would have got a group photo of them because the mom was Cruella, the dad was one of the robbers/henchmen, and the sweet little girl was this cute little Dalmatian puppy

We also met up with my sister LaRae and her three boys and my brothers Tarek and Vaughn were visiting. Here's all the kiddo's

homeless Gage and frankenstein Tyson

Linky as BATMAN...

The cute little ducky Jason

Again Gage makes a good homeless man

Oh my sweet little Peter Pan

Tinkerbell's face says it all.

I love how my sweet Addy has been pretty protective of Liam and trying to mother him

I would find her trying to hold his hand lots of times.

The street was pretty long and Addy was tired of walking and Dad had Liam. I attempted to carry my sweet fairy but she was killing me. Luckily strong Uncle Vaughn was visiting and fresh from his military tour he not only had the strength to carry her the rest of the way, but also let her FLY from house to house. She would sing the song "you can fly, you can fly, you can fly" the entire time. Thanks Vaughn!!

 of course then Peter pan wanted to go flying too...

And to finish off my favorite part! The headless horseman who rides up and down the street!!!

LOVE it!!!

The kids had so much fun that we went to a few more houses in our neighborhood when we got done, between that and family and Roberts Ranch they sure brought in a haul but more importantly they had a magical night!

Here's a few pics of the night!!!

Neverland

Come with me where dreams are born & time is never planned.

Just think of happy things & your heart will fly on wings forever

in Never Never Land.

we went to do a pre-halloween shoot. Peter Pan was grumpy but still adorable. And Tink... well Tinkerbell was something else. My own beautiful girl makes me believe in Fairies. 

(enjoy the beautiful peter pan quotes:)

When a new baby laughs for the first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there are always new fairies.

I'll teach you to jump on the wind's back, and away we go.

When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.

"Pan, who and what art thou?" he [Hook] cried huskily.
"I'm youth, I'm joy," Peter answered at a venture, "I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg."

(ok I love this next series...grumpy peter bawling and sweet motherly tink comes to comfort)

You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you

Halloween Fun

So I was going to call this post trip to the pumpkin patch, but we never actually made it to the patch because we were having so much fun doing the activities. Staheli Farms is the place to go down here for your Halloween Festivities. We went with Caleb and Steph , it was really fun. The kids loved it and I just loved having Daniel there because he is the biggest help!

 
We actually had to bundle up, though our days have been quite warm it's gotten cool enough at night to need coats/jackets.

First stop farmer slide into the corn!!

duck races

this awesome homemade carousel, where someone pulls the rope around and they actually go pretty fast, I was a little nervous Addy would fall off or get scared by the speed....but I should have known better, she has no fear, and was one handing it most the time.

I love this sweet boy!!!

 Petting zoo with very tame animals, mini pony, pot belly pigs, goats, sheep, llama, etc. 

Daniel was nice enough to ride with Liam in the little train, the kids loved it! Liam looks pretty sober but was crying when he had to get off.

the biggest, way cool tramp/bounce thingy. So many kids. Addy was in heaven.

Farmer swing onto matresses

Hot cocoa, BBQ sandwich, and popcorn...yum

Liam was drawn immediately to the small John Deere Gator. Grandpa has a real one and Liam was enthralled that this one was just his size he spent a good 45 minutes playing with it.

After it was all over we kinda decided it was a hyped up, organized version of the Flat (grandpa's house) where the animals were nicer, and there were safer places to play :) They loved it just like they love the Flat. It was a good family night and Addy said her favorite part was dancing with her daddy to the live music at the end!!! Thanks Steele's for inviting us to come!

Fare thee Well

So this weekend we said goodbye to Uncle Jared. The youngest of sixteen kids is going on his mission on Wednesday and he was going to be out of town until then. He is going to Apia, Somoa mission. We are super excited for him but are sure going to miss him. My kids LOVE Jared.

I also got a taste of what my life will be like in a few months, I  was babysitting my nephew Jason who is about 6 months old and he spent the night and everything. I can only hope my newest little guy will be as happy and easy going as Jason, I think he cried like a total of 5 minutes the whole time I had him. It was still a challenge in the car getting 3 kids buckled and stopping at a store..hahahaha I guess I'll get use to it, and keep encouraging Addy to learn to buckle herself because I swear that's the thing that wears me out the most hauling kids in and out of a car.

we give Jared all our kisses before he leaves

(I think Daniel was secretly excited Jared was leaving since we inherited the XBOX 360 kinect...me not so much)

The reason I am not so excited is my husband is very easily distracted, and XBOX kills me when trying to communicate with him, I may have to be like my mom was and hide controllers. Just to prove this as I was writing this post Daniel was suppose to be giving the kids a bath, he went to write an email and completely forgot about the water, he quickly called me in saying uhhhh sorry honey that was a close one... (he'd even already let the plug out by this time) The kids were having the time of their lives in the "swimming pool"