Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  The kids have been so excited for this day to come and it's finally here!  We made a batch of homemade root beer and they thought the dry ice smoke was awesome.

 The kids were all super heroes this year.  Fun for them and easy for mom!

 And Mr. Beck was the cutest turtle of all.  So cute in his little cape!

 It was a perfect night for trick-or-treating.  The weather was great and warm enough to wear just a jacket.  The big kids said they wanted to go on their own and run to every house in the neighborhood.  Our neighborhood is safe and not too big so we decided that would be great.  They took off in a flash and Josh and I took the boys around.  We went down our street and up one other one then headed back home.  It was the perfect amount of time and they boys were happy with the candy they got.  

I love this picture of them at the doorstep of the Liddle's house.  Our big turtle boys!

Rease school artwork

I love this picture Rease made at school.  Creative and just in time for Halloween!

Garth Brooks

Josh, Andy and I went to the concert of a lifetime this week.  We were lucky enough to get tickets to see Garth Brooks!  I have wanted to see him in concert since I was a teenager and I finally got the chance.  And to make it even better, we had great seats.  The day tickets went on sale, I went online to get tickets and while I was waiting to get them for the Friday night show, new shows opened up and I grabbed our tickets for Thursday night as quick as I could.  We ended up with 4th row just to the side of the stage.  It was awesome!

I always knew he would put on a great concert but I don't think any of us knew how great it would be.  He is an amazing entertainer and had so much energy all night!  Plus he played all the good old stuff which is the best!  My teenage years were filled with Garth Brooks music so I have loved his music for a long time!  So great to hear it live and be entertained!  He was amazing!

Halloween Activities

There's always so many fun activities going on at Halloween time!  One of our favorites is the pumpkin patch and finding that perfect pumpkin to carve.  The boys thought it was so awesome to have their own wheelbarrows.  

 We joined mom and dad for their ward trunk or treat this year.  So fun and such cute costumes from everyone!  Plus the kids got to trunk or treat and they thought that was pretty cool!

 And the school did a Halloween parade so we could all see everyone's costumes.  It was a perfect day so they had the kids parade around outside while all the parents watched.  It was really cute to see all the costumes.  Then I was able to help at each of the girls Halloween parties and each lunch with them.  It was a great day filled with Halloween fun!

And of course Halloween isn't complete until pumpkins are carved.  Josh is the master at carving so he always takes this project on.  The kids love drawing their own face on their pumpkins and then watching dad carve it out.  So fun!

Beck

Beck is the best.  He's at such a fun, curious age and I can't get enough of his cute face!  These are three of his favorite things to do right now: get into the food in the pantry, climb into the cup drawer and put shoes on his hands.  So funny!  I love this boy!

BYU Football

We love having season tickets to the BYU Football games.  The kids have tons of fun and nothing beats a night at the stadium!  This year has been fun because the boys are old enough to come with us now.  As long as we keep them full of cougar tails and hot dogs, they are good!  I have such good memories of the games when I was a kid and I'm so glad we can keep up the tradition with our kids!  Go Cougs!

Funny Keen

Keen is such a funny boy.  I love that he's eating lunch with his bike helmet on.  That pretty much sums up how some of our days go.  Just hanging on and going with whatever happens!

Playing in the Sand

Having three boys in a row, I've realized that we need a sandbox in our backyard.  Josh told me that a couple years ago and I didn't really think it would be that important.  But all the boys want to do is play in the dirt or sand.  I took the kids to the park and Beck sat her for an hour just playing and throwing the sand.  I see now that Josh was right.  That will be our project next year.  

Gardner Village

This weekend we had Izzy and JT at our house and I wanted to take all the kids out and do something fun.  Hayley had Ranger and Paisley with her and was thinking the same thing, so we decided to take them to Gardner Village to see all the Halloween decorations and the witches.  It's a super cute place during Halloween cause of all the darling decorations.   I'm not sure what we were thinking though.  It turned out it was "Wee Witches Weekend" the day we went so parking was horrendous and the place was packed.  Not to mention that we had 14 kids under age 8 in our care.  We snapped these two pictures, got a carameled apple to share and that was about the extent of our trip.  It was just not the place to be on that particular day.  We'll probably think twice and do a little research next time we do something crazy with all those kids, but at least we got some cute pictures out of it!  Happy Halloween?

Play time at Barnes and Noble

I had to stop at Barnes and Noble for a couple things and was a little nervous about having the boys with me.  I hate going into stores when I know they're going to tear the place apart.  But we found this little block table for them to play at and they were happy as clams to play while I shopped.  It was awesome!  

Hangin with Uncle Greg

I love this cute pic of Liev and Keen on the trampline with Uncle Greg and Jax.  He is so fun to have around and the kids all love him so much!

Boys and their trucks

My boys LOVE to push trucks around.  They play all day long putting things in the back of their trucks, pushing them back and forth and just being boys with their trucks.  Beck has learned from his brothers and joins in just like the big kids.  This is what I find them doing most of the time when I pick them up from the daycare at the gym.  Such cuties!

Canning

I was a big slacker this year and didn't do much canning.  It was a combination of not having a lot of time this year and still having quite a bit left from last year.  So I decided to do just what I needed and use any produce that I got for free.  I needed pickles and jam for sure and am so glad to have a stock of those in my storage room again.  Then Aunt Caroline called and said she had 2 bushels of tomatoes if I wanted them.  I can always use whole tomatoes so I took her offer and canned those.  Then Jeanie's old neighbors in Roy called me and said they had a bunch of grapes going to waste if I wanted to come pick them.  So I drove up one night and picked those too.  We all love grape juice and I was so happy to have a few more bottles of that!  So that was the extent of my canning this year.  Just 4 little projects the whole season.  But I feel good about it and it was nice to have a little break this year!

Disneyland Day 5

Our last day in California we didn't have tickets to the parks, but we did end up at Downtown Disney one last time.  We had lunch with our friends Tanner and Heidi Ainge and their cute kids, ate carameled apples with Uncle Greg, shopped, visited the Harley shop and just enjoyed our last day in the sunshine.  It was a fun, relaxing way to spend our last day.  We left for home late that night and once again Josh was a champ and drove all night to get us home Sunday afternoon.  What a great trip!

Disneyland Day 4

We got to sleep in a little bit this morning since we didn't have tickets to the park.  It was nice!  We did have a character breakfast to go to and went over to the Paradise Pier hotel for that.  Greg met up with us for the last part of our trip and came to breakfast with us.  It was really fun to be able to see all the characters up close!

 We saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Stitch and Daisy Duck.  The breakfast was really good too on top of it all so it made it all worth it!  The kids had a blast.

 After breakfast we decided to take the kids to the beach and hang out for a few hours.  We went to Huntington Beach and sat down in the shade of the pier while the kids played.  They had a ball and loved playing in the waves and collecting shells.  It was a perfectly relaxing morning and a fun break from Disneyland.

 Once again we went home to take naps before going back to the Park for the evening.  We had tickets to Mickey's Halloween Party and were able to get into the park at 4:00.  We dressed up and got there in time to party.  I love Disneyland at Halloween time because it's all decorated so cute.

 We split up a little bit and Josh and dad took the big kids to the big rides and mom and I took the little ones on Astro Blasters and the carousel again.  

 Later on when it gets dark, they start trick-or-treating in the park.  It's really fun for the kids to go to each of the stations and gather bagfuls of candy.  And everything is decorated and all spooky like.  It's great!  The river is covered in smoke and the kids thought that was pretty cool.

 The girls saw Princess Jasmine and Cinderella and were excited to get pictures with them.

 After we spent time with the big kids on the big rides, we went to Fantasy Land before the park closed so Liev could get his favorite rides in one more time.  Dumbo and Peter Pan were our very last rides of the week and they were a perfect way to end the trip.

 I love this shot of Greg and the girls.  The castle looks amazing and it's a perfect picture as we were walking out of the park.  We had the best time and have so many great memories of our trip with cousins, aunts, uncles, grammie, papa and all who came.  Can't wait for next time!

 Oh and in case you read Rease's journal entry - YES!  We're pregnant!  Perfect place to find out we're welcoming one more into the family!

Disneyland Day 3

We started out today at California Adventure.  We had a plan to go right to the Cars ride and get fast passes for the group.  It was worth it because we were able to go on the ride 2 times within an hour and it was super fun!  What a cute ride and Cars Land is magical.

 The kids had a great time doing tricks in front of this cute Radiator Springs wall.

 Mom, dad and Caleb met us at the park today and mom promptly rented a motorized scooter.  We made fun of her the rest of the week but everyone always wanted to crowd on and ride with her!

 We made shirts for the park today and everyone had a different character.  Chad thought it was cheesy but it was actually a great way to find our group.  

 We spent all morning at California adventure and did Midway Mania, Screamin, the ferris wheel, the bugs land ride, Tower of Terror and Soarin over California.  

 Josh and I took our kids home for lunch and naptime after a fun morning.  As we were walking home we were so hot and sweaty and kept saying how glad we were to be going home during the hottest part of the day.  We had great naps and slept soundly for 3 hours.  Got up and headed back to the park a little bit before 5.  Went back to California Adventure and spent more time in Cars Land.  Liev was in heaven here and loved seeing all the characters.

 Soarin over California is one of my favorite rides and I insisted we go again before we left the park.

 We got some dinner and ate it while waiting to see the World of Color show over the pier.  It was a fantastic show and totally worth the wait!  I love this picture of dad and the grandkids all lined up and laying on each other.

 After California Adventure closed we went back to Disneyland for the last couple hours before it closed.  It was pretty crowded as the fireworks were just ending, but we made it to Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones before it closed.  Another great day at the park and we were exhausted and happy!