Happy Halloween

Allie was a ballerina.  I was planning on having her be a cow (because I have that costume from when Tyler and Josh were little) but when we put it on her she wasn't happy.  She wanted to be a ballerina again like she was at grandma Kim's Halloween party.  So I pretty much just wanted her to be warm enough so her costume is a little silly.  Awe well.
She really liked trick-or-treating at first.  After about an hour someone jumped out from their door and said "boo" and it really scared her.  She cried a lot and wasn't stopping so Tony texted me and had me come and get her.  I just quickly turned out the light and shut my door and got in the car to get Allie.  It didn't take very long and I don't think I missed many, if any, trick-or-treaters.  Allie was much happier to be home.
Megan was a cute witch.  She had a cute broom to go with her costume but she didn't want to have to carry it all around the neighborhood.  Megan loved trick-or-treating and getting candy from everyone.  She did really good the whole time and didn't complain.
Josh was a very cute Harry Potter.  I couldn't get enough of his cute smile with those silly glasses on.  He loved taking out his wand and casting spells.  He did really good trick-or-treating too.  He had a good time being Harry.
Tyler was a karate kid.  We were given this outfit and it was a little tight on him, but it worked.  He liked it and it didn't cost me a thing.  He of course did really good trick-or-treating as well.  They all got lots of good treats and had a great time.
Another year of Halloween has come and gone.  We have way too much candy, but I'm sure we will live.  Halloween is always fun, but now we get to enjoy the thankful season of Thanksgiving!

Grandma Kim's Halloween Party

My mom decided to have a Halloween party this year for all the kids and grandkids.
We were all pretty excited to hang out with family and do fun Halloween activities at grandma's house.
Tyler was a karate kid.  Josh was Harry Potter.  Megan was a witch, complete with her own witch cackle, and Allie was a ballerina.  I even got Allie's hair to go back into a little bun, it was adorable.

Tony had to work late because he had an employee walk out and quit earlier in the week so that made Tony have to work the late shift that the other guy had.  So he met us there after work.

We were all assigned to bring a treat and an activity for the kids to do.  My parents got pizza and root beer (complete with dry ice) for the party.  After we all ate, the kids played a dancing game on the Wii.  It was pretty fun and Allie and Megan loved dancing around to the music with the kids.
For my activity I bought treats to make spiders.  We took an Oreo and put in licorice pieces for the legs of the spider.  We then took a mini Reeses and made it the spiders head and then put on chocolate pieces for the spiders eyes.  I thought it was super fun and it gave them a treat and an activity in one.  I'm so clever.
After that Julie had cookies for the kids to decorate.  They all liked that too.  We all had a good time eating, playing, and spending time with our family.  Good times were had by everyone!

Pumpkin Carving Time

Since we didn't go to the farm this year we decided to just pick up a pumpkin from the store.  We thought it would make a fun family home evening to carve the pumpkin and have the kids pull out the "guts."
Tyler and Josh really liked pulling out all the seeds and slim.  Megan liked it for a minute but then quickly got over it.  Allie didn't want anything to do with the pumpkin and was happy to just hangout.

Tyler was the most interested and stayed until the very end scooping out the goop.  I carved a face into the pumpkin and then we put it on the porch.  It was fun making a jack-o-lantern and letting the kids help.  Such a fun thing to do this time of year.

Playing in the Leaves

We are all suckers for a playing in the leaves.  The kids saw that Max had a lot of leaves fall from his tree and they all wanted to go play in them.
So they all got some rakes and headed across the street to start collecting leaves.
The kids did a good job raking up the leaves for the most part.  I did get in and help them so that they could have a really big pile to jump into.

Allie did not like going into the leaves.  She wouldn't jump into them so Tony just put her on top of the pile and she did not like it at all.  The other three loved it.  They loved running and jumping in the middle of the pile.
Josh really loved sitting in the pile and throwing the leaves all around him.
It is so nice to see that somethings are always the same in childhood.  Playing in the leaves is always good "clean" fun for everyone.

California Trip - Someone Lost 2 Teeth

Josh had two teeth that were very loose during our trip.  I tried to pull them a couple times before but they were hanging on tight.
While we were in California I pulled the bottom tooth and then while we were in St. George I got the top one.  That top one was hanging so funny in his mouth I was glad to finally get it out.  Josh didn't cry for either one and was happy to have them both out.  He was excited to have the tooth fairy come when we get home.

California Trip - Swimming in St. George

After waking up and eating breakfast we got the car all packed back up and started our drive to St. George.
The traffic was really good and we didn't hit any slow down getting out of the city.  The weather was nice and we didn't have any problems getting into St. George.
We first went to Nana's house and hung out their for a little while before going to the hotel.  Margie stayed at Nana's house while the rest of us stayed at the hotel.
After Tony checked us in we went to our room and got changed into our swimsuits.  We were all pretty excited to go swimming.  The pool was nice and we had it to ourselves for a while.  Allie tired out quickly so I took her up to the room to bathe and get on jammies.  The other kids wanted to stay and play so Tony stayed with the until they were done.

After the other three kids were done swimming they came back and all took a shower.  After everyone was clean and dressed Tony picked us up some dinner.  We all ate while watching a Disney show and then it was bedtime.

We thought maybe Tyler or Megan would go back to Nana's and spend the night there but they all wanted to sleep at the hotel so we made it work.  I put Tyler, Josh, and Megan in one bed and then Tony, Allie, and I in the other bed.  It was a little tight, but it worked for the night.  It was kind of nice seeing the three older kids sleeping together all nice.  They wont be able to do that for much longer.  They are getting way too big.

The next morning we ate some yummy breakfast at the hotel.  After eating we got all packed up and checked out.  We went over to Nana's and spent sometime there before getting back on the road to go home.
The drive home went pretty fast.  Allie took a good nap and everyone else did good.  We all had such a good time on our trip but we were glad to be home.  We are so thankful to Margie (and Lloyd) for taking us to California and we always enjoy the special time we get to spend with grandma. 

California Trip - Downtown Disney Fun

Margie got a deal on some gift certificates to The Rain Forest Cafe so we made reservations earlier in the week for Friday night.
After we parked we hustled to the restaurant.  We didn't have to wait very long before they called us to our seats.

The menu looked so good but Margie and I didn't want to order something too big because we were leaving the next day so she and I shared a yummy club sandwich (one of my favorites).
Tony and boys all enjoyed their meals and we had a great time enjoying the atmosphere.  It really is a fun place to eat and I hope we can go back sometime.

After we ate we needed to go back to the Disney store to pick out Megan and Allie's souvenirs.  So we walked around Downtown Disney for a while.
We let the kids play with the Lego's again outside the Lego store. Tyler really wanted to build a car and race it so we let him.  He won his race and had fun doing it.

After that we went to the Disney store.  It was madhouse.  So many people all over.  Allie was so tired that she feel asleep in the stroller before we even got into the store.  It was crazy fun to navigate the stroller through all the people in the store.

We found some super cute toys for Megan and Allie.  Megan picked a Ariel toy because that was her favorite ride and now she is her favorite princess and then we chose an Anna toy from Frozen.  Allie really likes that movie right now and loves Anna.  They are super cute toys.  I may like them better then the girls, they are that cute!

Tony found a shirt that he liked and I found a cute Mickey hat.  We also picked up a cute Mickey Halloween decoration for the Kunzler's for watching Koda.  We even picked up a Elsa toy to match the Anna toy to give the girls for Christmas.  So much fun.

After shopping we looked at getting a treat from the sweets store at Downtown Disney, but it was way too busy and we figured we would rather have Italian Ice/ice cream instead.  So we headed back to our car.
Tony dropped the girls and I off at the hotel and then picked us up some ice cream.  That place is so yummy.  After eating our treat I got us mostly packed and ready to leave for the next day.  It was bitter sweet to be leaving our fun vacation.

California Trip - Relaxing at the Pool

Friday was our day of relaxation.  We really needed to rest our achy feet and legs.  We slept in as long as we could before getting dressed for breakfast.  We wanted to go to breakfast a little later to avoid the busy breakfast time.
After eating we let the kids hang out in the room and have a little down time.  We wanted to go to the Walmart that is closest to Disneyland so that we could find some Disney shirts and things.

We found some cute shirts, hats, and other fun things.  We got Allie her own character signature book and even cute Disney pens to go with all the kids books.
After shopping we picked up some pizza for lunch.  After eating we all got changed into our swimsuits and went down to the pool.

The pool's water wasn't too cold so it felt really good getting in the water.  Funny thing was that the kiddy pool was colder then the main pool.  We thought that was super odd, but we still enjoyed the pools.  Allie liked going back and forth from both pools, drove me crazy with worry that she would slip.  Luckily she didn't.

We had the pool all to ourselves most of the time and we all had a wonderful time.  Allie got tired first so Tony took her up to the room to get showered and changed.
I stayed at the pool with the other three kids.  They were having so much fun that Tony was able to shower him and Allie and then get changed and then came back down to hangout with us.

We were not in any rush so we let them play as long as they wanted.  After they were finally tired out we took them upstairs and showered them and clothed them
After that we let the kids hangout some more and the boys got some homework done. It was nice not to be rushing anywhere.  We just had to get ready to go to dinner and then head to Downtown Disney.

California Trip - Disneyland: Goofy & Pluto

Josh, Tyler, and Megan getting their books signed by Pluto...on his nose...so funny!

Tyler, Josh, Megan, and Pluto.  Such cuties.

Tyler, Megan, Josh with Goofy.  Megan went right up to him and gave him a big hug.

Megan and Josh getting Goofy's autograph.

Tyler being silly with Goofy.  He loved getting his autograph.

Megan, Tyler, Goofy, and Josh

California Trip - Disnyland: More Awesome Rides!

Josh, Mom, Allie, Megan, and Tyler with our cool 3D glasses ready to go on the 

Toy Story ride.  So much fun.

Mom, Tyler, Dad, and Allie on the Jungle Cruise.

Josh and Dad on Thunder Mountain.

Mom and Dad on Thunder Mountain together by ourselves.  We had fast passes but someone had to stay off with Allie so Tony and I stayed off with Allie while Margie took the kids on the ride.  After they went then we got to go.  It's the one time the whole trip Tony and I were able to do something just us.

Tyler, Margie, Megan, and Josh on Thunder Mountain.  It was Megan's first time and she loved it.  Look at that smile.  Josh enjoyed the ride more this time too.  Josh did much better on all the rides this time.  It was so nice to see him enjoy the rides and not get so scared.