Our Halloween Festivities

Surprising Daddy by Trick-or-Treating at his work Saturday night. He was so happy to see his little angel and his little devil. Aren't they cute?Our neighborhood ROCKS Halloween!! If you don't believe me, let me brag a bit... We do a pumpkin derby every year that is awesome! This year a pair of tires duct taped together took the prize. The derby was followed by a chili cook off with the entire neighborhood competing. It was a blast!

Then comes Halloween... on just my block we have houses that do scones, hot cider, cotton candy, smoke machines, popcorn, hot dogs, carnival games, chili, and root beer floats. We have a haunted hay ride that loops around our neighborhood all night picking people up and we have the absolute GREATEST neighbors!! It is awesome!



MY HANDSOME DEVIL.
The boys were devils as you can see and us gals were beautiful angels. Haley and her best friend, Anna, insist of being the same thing every year, so of course, Anna has to come with us trick-or-treating. It's tradition... and we have a ball!
MY LITTLE DEVIL.


Doesn't my little Haley make one adorable angel? She is so beautiful!
Then when they are tuckered out from trick-or-treating, they come back to our house, snuggle under a blankie and join me on our lawn chairs to hand out candy. We love love love where we live, our neighborhood, and how warm St. George is on Halloween.

As you can see, the kids had a fantastic time filled with treats, friends, and giggles.

Our Picasso Pumpkins

Haley's Big Birthday

Haley had her 4th birthday this week. We celebrated all week. On her actual birthday we had cupcakes and opened presents as a family. We had her favorite meal for dinner - shrimp and noodles. Yes, really... the girl LOVES shrimp!Carson's favorite was the cupcakes as you can see.Then on Friday we had a party here at our house with her neighborhood friends. She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake party. So everything was Strawberry Shortcake themed. It turned out really cute!
We had canvas bags for the kids with their names on them. When they arrived they got to decorate their own bag with fabric markers and stamps. It was a hit and the bags were adorable!


We had a strawberry cheesecake dessert that is one of our family's favorite recipes. It was so yummy and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. A big plus for me was that it was a super simple cake this year. Yay!

We repeated the ball pit game that we did last year at her party per her request. She LOVES to have the ball pit outside for her birthday party; she thinks that is super cool. The kids also have such a blast playing in the ball pit.
We played Red Light/Green Light, which was hilarious.
Standing in line for the piniata. We had a strawberry piniata at Haley's request, which was super fun. It was filled with all sorts of fun goodies like bouncy balls, silly bands, sticky hands, and whistles....plus, of course, tons of candy.
Then they got to use their canvas bags to carry their loot home, along with a Strawberry Shortcake book thanking them "Berry" much for coming. It was quite a success!

My Birthday

This is a sight I see often. When Carson wakes up and Haley hears him first, she'll go climb in his crib with him and read books. They both love to look at books and Haley will "read" to Carson and her baby doll. It is so dang sweet!
I turned the big 30 this month and we had a really fun celebration with close friends. We went to dinner with some of our favorite couples and then came back to our house for cake and ice cream and games.

JR ordered the cake and it said, "Still Hot and Purdy at 30!". He is cute.

Fun, Creative, Pretty, Messy - All in a Week

A visit from Grandma Tani made us so happy this week. We had a great time showing her all our new tricks. For Haley that meant taking her to her preschool and showing her that she now rides her bike without training wheels... yes, at the age of 3. We are pretty proud. And for Carson that means saying all his new funny words, riding his tricycle, and throwing balls.
Haley and her darling neighbor friend. We made snowmen treats. I know it's October, but we had fun building snowmen anyway. :)
Modeling her Halloween shirt and her darling matching bow from her talented Aunt Tif.
All pretty and sweet and ready for preschool. Her huge tulle bows are my favorite!
Carson eating an ice cream cone. Yes, he is partly eating the napkin as well.
No, he would not let me remove it from the cone.
Yes, I have bibs. No, he would not let me put one on him. Yes, that shirt ended up stained.

Oh, the joys of 2 year old independence.