Trick-or-Treat

Happy Halloween!!  I hope you all have a fun and spooky day and eat lots and lots of candy!!

Halloween Parties

After the pumpkin patch on Saturday we picked up Jordan from school and rushed home to get the kids ready for the parties that night.  We only had about 15 min to get them dressed, and somehow I fit in 5 min to make Calin a trick-or-treat bag (which I love!  I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it.  I'll make sure to take one on Halloween).

So here are the costumes.  I'm so glad they were both so easy.

Our ward party was awesome!!  They had tons of games that the Yong Women and Young Men were in charge of.  They had a chili cookoff and a BBQ going.  And fun Halloween music playing of course.  We all had a great time. 

Definitely Capri's favorite game

We stayed for an hour then headed down the street to a Halloween party with some friends.

Their party was SO cute!! I wish I brought my camera in.  Michelle made some soup, and lots of cupcakes for the kids to decorate.  She had all kinds of treats for the kids to put on top with cute names for them all (like "frog lips" for those mini sour watermelons and ogre eyes for peach rings)  It was darling!!  I was hoping she would post a picture on fb or her blog that I could steal, but none yet.  Maybe later.

Sadly we only stayed about 20 min so we could get back to the ward party for the trunk-or-treat.  I wish we could have stayed longer, but Jordan said he wasn't sure he would be able to go trick-or-treating with the kids on Halloween, so we wanted to make sure we got some of that in while we could.  And the trunk-or-treat was awesome!  SO many people participated!  And one family even did cotton candy :)  Even Capri had fun.  She loved putting the candy in her own bucket.  But she didn't like going in order and pretty much just wandered around wherever she wanted.  And she definitely played favorites, heading back to the same trunks over and over.

Sunday Jordan and I spoke in church.  We were actually asked to speak last month, but they forgot and asked someone else.  I thought we were off the hook, oh well.  But have a mentioned how BIG our ward is??  Huge!  The chapel is filled at least 10 min before church starts.  And by the time church starts the overflow is already almost full.  And eventually it fills up.  All the way to the very back. Anyway, standing in front of that many people felt like Stake Conference or something, scary!  But I love our ward here.  Everyone is so sweet and friendly.  Almost everyone we passed that day at church talked to us about our talk.  It was so nice.  Even our sweet babysitter sent a text that afternoon letting us know we did a great job on our talks.  I don't say any of this to make it sounds like we gave some Amazing talks or anything, because that wasn't the case.  But our ward is just so kind and thoughtful I love it!  

So that was our weekend. Summed up in two posts.  Yesterday I tried taking pictures of the kids in their costumes and it was a nightmare!  Capri was screaming, Calin peed his pants (his Jake pants) and peed on the floor (I think he was just trying to make me mad because he never does this), kids wouldn't stop fighting and throwing the pumpkins, it was terrible.  After 45 min of setting up the backdrop and getting the kids ready I called it quits before snapping a single picture.  I tried again this morning while Jordan was here, and thank goodness they were more cooperative this time!  I'll post those tomorrow for Halloween :)

Ball Games and Pumpkin Patch

We had another fun busy weekend. 

Friday morning we had breakfast with my brother in Tempe (posted here).  Then we came back home for afternoon naps then headed back out to Tempe for one of his games that evening.  Jordan was able to join us for the game so that was nice!

The kids had SO much fun at the baseball game!  And Dominic played great!

tried to get a group pic, this was the best we could do :)

playing catch with uncle Dom

Playing with Bryce - my sister-in-law Jenna's cousin's son.

Then Saturday we headed to another game of his, but that game went fast, and we had battle after battle at home while trying to get out of the house, and ended up only catching the bottom of the 9th.  But at least we got to see him a bit more before he headed home that afternoon.  It was tons of fun seeing Dom.  And I think this was the first time Calin has been to a baseball game. My family is BIG into baseball in case you didn't know.  So this was good for him.  He liked baseball before, but now he LOVES it!

After the game I took the kids to a pumpkin patch.  I wish Jordan could have been there with us though.  It was tough managing the kids on my own there.  But it was still fun.  They had hay rides, a bounce house, a little tractor train, hay maze, some games for the kids to play, a petting zoo, and even horseback riding for the kids.

Calin was SO excited to ride the "Pumpkin Express"

And Capri was SO upset that she couldn't ride it.

Best I could do with this one while flying solo :)

Capri hated the hay on her legs.  I don't blame her.

Cheese :D

After the pumpkin patch we went to some Halloween parties, but there are too many pics so I'll post it separately.

Calin's Lesson

Tonight for Family Home Evening we didn't have much planned, so after we sang a hymn and said a prayer I just asked Jordan if he maybe wanted to share a spiritual thought.  Then Calin spoke up and said "I have a dawt . . ."

Calin: "Our house be like Jesus temple"

Jordan: "We should make our house like the Temple?  Like Jesus' house?"

Calin: "Ya!!"

Me:  "What are some things we can do to make our home more like the temple?"

Calin: "Hmm . . . let me dink . . . Oh, I know! . . . Capri be like Jesus, Momma be like Jesus, Daddy be like Jesus, Calin be like Jesus!" 

Us: "Awe, that is such a great thought.  We can all be more like Jesus!"

Calin: "Yeah!"

And before I could ask, what type of things can we do to be more like Jesus? He started going in a circle, starting with Capri, and gave us all a big hug and kiss, then said "Jesus loves; Calin loves!"

I love Calin's little lessons.  He's taken over FHE a few times, and he always come up with the sweetest concepts that bring us closer together and inspire us to love each other more, and love our Heavenly Father and our Savior more too.

Uncle Dom

My brother is playing in a baseball tournament in the Phoenix area this weekend.  We met up with him this morning for breakfast in Tempe.  It was a blast.  The kids LOVED him!  It's been about a year since we've seen him, and it was no surprise to me that Calin would like him, but usually Capri has to be around someone for a while before she warms up to them.  Not Dom!  She loved her Uncle Dom from the moment she saw him.  It was so sweet!  When it was time to leave she tackled him with the biggest hug!  It was one of the cutest things ever.  We're planning on heading out to one of his games this evening for some more Dom time.

Caricature

I love chick-fil-a family nights.  We went last night and they had a guy doing caricature drawings.  

I don't think the pics looks anything like the kids, but it was fun, and free!

Weekend Fun

This past weekend was packed with FUN!  

Thursday evening we got together with some friends from Jordan's class to watch the Arizona vs Oregon game.  There were 6 of us wives, and 9 kids there.  As far as we know this is all the kids in their PT class except one more who couldn't make it.  We took a picture of all of them so we can see how much they change and how the number grows through the years.

We double booked ourselves Friday, but made it work.

First we went to the Founder's Day Fair on campus.  It was SO much fun!  They had all kinds of bouncy things, and a BBQ, cotton candy, sno-cones, popcorn (also a beer garden and wine tasting which we did not participate in haha).  We had a blast there!  Capri kept asking to go down the big slide with us :)

We only stayed an hour, but it was still enough time to have lots and lots of fun.  Then we headed over to Brinnley's birthday party.  She's one of our summer friends.  The party was at Peter Piper Pizza where they have lots of games and a play area for kids.  It's crazy there and the kids LOVE it!  

I don't know what went wrong here, but this is what we got

Saturday we got a sitter and went out to dinner and ice cream with Jess and Jared (their daughter was the one who had the birthday the night before, the ones we know from our summers).  It was wonderful!  We went to Rancho de Tia Rosa which I guess is the go-to mexican restaurant here.  It was delicious, and so fun getting out and visiting with them!  Then we went to Nielsen's Frozen Custard for dessert. 

And I adore our sitter!  She is the cutest girl.  We've used her twice, and the kids love her!  Plus she always picks up around the house.  This last time she swept the whole downstairs (it's all tile except the play room), picked up the toy room (it had been a disaster for days), put capri down for bed, and Calin got his underwear a little bit wet so she rinsed it in the tub and hung it to dry.  Really?  I just bag it or put it in the laundry room for the next load.  She definitely makes me look bad, and I can't help but love her and pay her a little extra for going above and beyond.  

Yesterday I started and finished Calin's costume!  I'm glad he decided on something easy!  And Capri's is super easy also, and I started it today, but ran out of tulle so I'll finish hers later.  

Later this week my brother Dominic comes to town for a baseball tournament.  I haven't seen him in a year, so I'm stoked.   

And Saturday we have a ward Halloween party and also a Halloween party with some friends from PT school.   And at some point this weekend we have to go to the pumpkin patch too.  Should be Lots of Fun!

Coloring

This is how Calin colors.  He draws a shape, fills it in, then lines up the crayons he's used until he's used every crayon in the box. 

And when I asked him to smile for a picture, this is what I got.  Silly kid.

He was really posing like this.

Here's his smolder.

And finally!  I love that smile!