Pumpkins and Parties

The week before Halloween was filled with fun parties and Halloween activities. Our friends, The Knights, put on a great party with a festive scary dinner and activities for the kids-- musical chairs, cookie decorating, a donut eating contest, a pinata, digging for prizes in slimy spaghetti and a fun Halloween story! The kids loved it!

All the kids (Sarah, Elle, Easton, Annie, Rachel, Christian and Taylor)

Our little ladybug



Dinner served inside a stuffed man

A little cookie with Elle's candy

Donut eating contest (It was supposed to be hands free but Easton just wanted to eat it)

Digging for prizes in slimy spaghetti

Elle hitting the black cat pinata

Gathering the spoils of the pinata

Elle was so excited that she won musical chairs

Another fun party for the kids at Somer's new house ...

Elle with her friends Ellie, Aurora, Brooke and Ava

Ethan, Cooper and Easton

I got to help with Easton's Preschool Halloween Party. I love being in his class with him. It is so cute to see him interacting with other kids and his teachers.

Making Halloween Necklaces

Me and Easton at his party

Halloween Parades and programs

I love Halloween! Our kids get so excited to dress up and make it so fun. We loved going to Elle's school parade. She was the cutest little Barbie Thumbelina and was so happy to see Grandma and Grandpa with us when she walked by. She even got to show Grandma Diane her classroom and her desk. We went straight from Elle's parade to Easton's preschool program. He was so cute walking in his parade as the Transformer, "Bumblebee" and sang the cutest Halloween songs. (His favorite is "I'm a mean old witch with a hat..." He sings it all the time with the actions! It is adorable! ) He loved watching the funny show that his teachers put on too.

Elle as "Thumbelina" in her school parade

Easton and Jayne at Elle's school parade

Angie and me with our cute little ladybugs, Jayne and Izzie

Easton before his program

Waving to us

Singing his Halloween songs

Watching the teachers' show

Surprise

Last week Elle and Easton did the cutest thing. Jayne hasn't been napping very well and I had finally gotten her to sleep. I asked them to play quietly so she wouldn't wake up but a few minutes later they were really loud and she woke up. I sent them to their rooms for a few minutes and later when I went down to talk to them the lights were off and they yelled, "Surprise!" They said they wanted to throw a surprise party for me because they felt bad for waking up Jayne. They had decorated Elle's room with ribbons, set out a tea party with play food and even wrapped up pictures they colored. So cute!

Elle colored a picture of she and I watering plants together

Easton colored a picture of our family

My sweet kids

Jayne is Waving!

I can't believe Jayne is already 10 months old! She is such a little thing but has the cutest personality! I love it when she smiles and laughs. She has started waving and it is so cute! We get so excited over even the littlest thing! Hopefully we can get her to crawl soon...

Sweet Jayne

It is so cute to see her wave! She looks at her hand to see it moving and is so fascinated.

Jayne loves to swing!

Sisters

Feeling the grass (It doesn't seem to bother her.)

Fall Soccer and Tee Ball

We had a busy couple of months with Elle playing soccer and Easton playing tee ball this fall. It seems like we had either practice or a game every night. They both had so much fun and loved it though! It will be nice to have dinner at a normal time again...

Easton loved playing tee ball. His team was the Blue Jays. He looked so cute in his shirt that fit like a dress and his extra large baseball cap. He loves to give us the thumbs up!

Easton was great at hitting the ball off the tee! He would look over at us to see if we saw and then put his arms up in the air and cheer for himself. It was so cute and hilarious!

After he hit the ball, it took him a while to really get that he was supposed to run to 1st base. He would pick up a stick, walk or run slowly the wrong way. We told him to try to run faster so then he would just move his arms back and forth fast so it looked like he was running faster even though he wasn't. Such a funny little guy! We laughed and laughed!

Easton with his friend, Cooper, waiting on the bench to bat. Cooper's dad was actually the coach for both tee ball and soccer.


Easton was so excited to get a trophy!

Elle loved playing soccer! Her team was the Sharks. It was so fun to see her play.

Her team was pretty good! It was a big difference from two years ago when she played and all the girls ran around the field holding hands and singing songs. She is growing up!

Elle with one of her best friends, Ellie, who is Cooper's sister. We will miss hanging out with Hansens every night watching our kids play soccer and tee ball.

Jayne was exhausted after a tee ball game and soccer practice in the cold.

Fun at Fitch's Cabin

Heather and Todd and their cute kids came to Utah last week to go to his family's cabin in Timberlakes. They invited us to come up and hang out with them for a couple of days while the kids didn't have school. Elle and Easton were so excited to play with their cousins and I always love being with my sister! I'm so glad that Todd's family lives in Utah too because then I get to see them more. We had so much fun! We loved being in the mountains. We rode the 4-wheelers around in the snow, went to the outlets in Park City, played old school video games (I'm definitely not as good at Contra as I used to be), and stayed up late talking and laughing!

Elle, Mason, Easton and Memphis were so excited to play in the snow

Jayne

Jayne with her cute cousin, Lilah

Heather and I on the 4-wheelers

It was so fun to be with my sister!

Easton loved riding on the 4-wheeler with Don

Easton was so excited to go to Dairy Keen for dinner one night. He calls it the "Train Place."

Mason and Elle on the train

There were so many deer just right by the porch. I scared them away when I tried to take a picture.

Howdy Day

Easton had "Howdy Day" at his preschool last week. They did the cutest things with the kids and even brought real ponies and horses for the kids to take a ride on. Easton was so excited! They asked for a couple of dads to come to help lift the kids on to the horses so Don went and of course, Jayne and I had to come too. I couldn't miss a chance to be with him in his preschool class and see what he does. It was so fun! He is so cute and absolutely loves preschool!

Cowboy Bingo with Fruit loops (I'm suprised the kids played and didn't eat their game pieces)

Roasting marshmallows by the fire (After, they pretended to sleep by the fire. So cute!)

Easton and his yummy marshmallow

Easton loved riding his horse, Cricket

We loved being with Easton at preschool! He is getting too big!

Park City overnighter

Don and I got to stay overnight in Park City with some friends and have some adult time. Our cute niece, Natalie, stayed with Elle and Easton but Jayne came with us. We had so much fun! We had dinner on Main Street, played games, got in the hot tub, and stayed up late talking and eating treats! It was so nice not to worry about getting kids to bed or getting back to a babysitter. The next morning we had the best brunch at Stein Erikson before heading home.

We drove up Guardsman's Pass to get to Park City and it was so beautiful!

Dinner in Park City (Jeremy & Lindsay, Don and me, Spencer & Christy and Judd & Heather)

Jeremy, Spencer, and Don

All the girls (Sum, Heather, Christy and Lindsay)