Happy Halloween!

We celebrated Halloween with so many activities that we forgot today was actually the real day.

A few weeks ago we had our annual party at my sister, Lori's house. I found an awesome costume!
Mitchell was a burger boy. He was not quite walking for this party, but was finally up for the real day.
The cousins on my side.
The princesses, Cindabella & Sleeping Cutie, along with Dracula.
Sarah changed her costume several times. I think she finally liked this one. She'd better use one of the others next year!
Pumpkin carving. We had too many pumpkins & did not carve them all, but that was fine with me. Now I'll still have something on my porch for Thanksgiving.
Todd's side cousins. We had a combined birthday party for Claire & Emma.
All dressed up. It was pouring rain until about 6:30 so we got a late start trick-or-treating. The kids still made a haul though.

Mathman

Mason is quite the little mathman. A few weeks ago he out of the blue he said something like, "if 2 + 2 is 4 then 20 + 20 is 40, right?" I think that's pretty good for a kindergartener.

Tonight at dinner out of the blue he said "7+7+7+7 is 28". I asked him how he got that & he told me "7+7+7 is 21 and since 7+1 is 8 then that's 28". That's quite the reasoning! I think he's going to master times tables right along with Sarah this year.

15 months almost

Mitchell will be 15 months tomorrow. I might as well blog about him tonight since I most likely will not get to it tomorrow. Here are a few pictures as to why I probably won't get around to blogging tomorrow.Mitchell has a fascination with our heat vents. It's a good thing he does not fit or I'd be pulling him out of the duct work.
Mitchell likes to empty my cupboards.
Yes, he is in the road. The other day our front door had blown open. He was in the process of crawling down our front steps when Mason arrived home in his carpool. It's a good thing he got home when he did or Mitchell might have been halfway around the block before I'd noticed he was gone.
Mitchell can't walk yet, but boy can he climb. He beelines for any open door to see what is on the other side.

He found a bunch of skittles. I think he likes them as much as Sarah does.
He's multitasking, pushing a stool around while drinking.
He loves the piano.

He's taken a few steps on his own, but is too fast on his knees to have any need to walk.

Sarah is 9!

Sarah turned 9 on Friday!

We've celebrated her birthday over the past week, so I think we are all partied out.

She got to have a little party with Todd's family while Jen & Jimmy were here.

Then she partied with my side of the family. We had just had a family photo done, that's why everyone is wearing brown. Sarah decided since it was her birthday she'd better change her shirt so she could stand out a bit.

The morning of her birthday. My kids want to open presents first thing. At least she got dressed first (in a new outfit from Justice of course).
Sarah had a friend party the night of her birthday. There were 9 girls doing 9 activities from 6-9.

We made lip gloss & body glitter as two of the activities. My floor is still sparkling!

We also made giant cookies & let everyone put in their own chips & M&M's. Sarah used to love to do this with Mary Jane & wanted to do this instead of a cake, which was fine with me.

Sarah is a very smart kid. She loves to read & has a huge stack of books next to her bed to prove it. She also likes to write stories. She's taking Jazz & Ballet this year & piano. She loves to play with friends & to watch Nick.

Happy Birthday Sarah! We love you lots & cannot believe we have a 9 year old!

Alaska trip & Jen's wedding

Todd & I went on our first trip ever without kids at the end of September. It was great! I got on the airplane & actually got to read my own book & go to sleep & not have to worry about entertaining anyone. We left our kids home with my sister Becky. Thanks again!!!! You are welcome to babysit for us anytime.

We went to Alaska with Todd's family for his sister, Jen's, wedding.

Brett, Jen, Todd, & Brady on Jen's porch.

We got to do some chilly sightseeing.
Jen & Jimmy after the ceremony. They got married at the top of the Alyeska tram.
Todd's family. No, my hair is not that poofy, the wind was blowing like crazy.
Riding the tram back down after the ceremony.
We did more sightseeing the day after the wedding.
Denali is off in the distance. We were lucky to see it since often clouds are coving the top.
Jen & Jimmy had a reception in Utah a week later. It was much warmer!

All the cousins had a great time getting all dressed up.
Jen seemed a bit nervous to let her brothers pick her up, hmm, past memories???


Emma & Mason enjoyed the wedding cake outside. Mason's ended up all over his suit coat.