13 Days of Halloween 2013

 Warning- lots of pictures :)

When we set up our Halloween decorations this year Eli asked, "Can we get out the Christmas decorations too?!" I'd have to admit that setting up for Halloween actually gets me excited to decorate for Christmas too, knowing it's right around the corner. In fact, tomorrow is Halloween and we just got our Christmas toy books in the mail today! The market must feel the same as me :)

 Although Brian would prefer to skip over the Halloween Holiday and head straight into Thanksgiving, this is what we did this year to celebrate the season I love with the kids:

#1: Halloween decorations-- Rarely does anything stay put where I like it too, Thanks to this cute little guy. oh well. I strategically plan to put non breakable things at his level, so I'm totally OK with it :)

#2: Monster game-- roll the dice to create your monster, very fun combinations!!

 #3: Ghosts-- one version of this or another seems to come back each year!

 #4: Decorate Halloween cookies-- a seasonal favorite. Of course more gets eaten then decorated! This year we enjoyed making them in St. George!

 #5: Movie Night-- We watched Disney's Monsters Inc. and ate popcorn

 #6: Pumpkin faces and Dress-up witch: Fun paper and sticker craft with the kids

#7: Neighborhood Boo-- neighborhood fun, leave treats with cute poem secretly on a doorstep. My kids love to doorbell ditch!

#8: Dress-up day-- The kids got out the box of Halloween costumes and had fun playing with them. Why not?! I love to let them use their costumes while they can instead of just the one night..

 #9: Haunted house-- Jackson and Zoey came up with this all on their own! Decorations, music and confetti to top it all off!

#10: Playing in the leaves-- we've had some beautiful fall weather, hope it sticks!

#11: Dress like a bug day at school! "I'd rather eat bugs than do drugs" is the theme at school, we made this bug costume for Jackson which he was proud of! The wings were painted blue like his bug eyes..

#12: Pumpkin Carving--

#12 1/2: Gray Halloween Party- we had the traditional Halloween dinner, went to Monsters University with all the cousins, went for a treat bag hunt in the woods, and costume parade (Grandpa and Grandma passed out stuffed monster characters from the movie). It was a fun-filled day!

#13: Trick-or-treating! The best way to top off the season. The kids want to get as much candy as possible this year. If the weather cooperates, we'll try to accommodate their wishes! It all goes to the dentist the next day in exchange for cash so they can get a toy with all their hard earned money :) The day is usually so busy I don't have time to snag a picture of them, but we got plenty of them in costumes already. But here are the kids at their school programs...

Happy Halloween!  

Update: 11.1.13

So Halloween was a blast! Grandma Gray came over in the afternoon and stayed with the kids so I could go to Jackson's Halloween parade. Afterwords we took teh kids to PG park for a trunk or treat. I made chili in a pumpkin and cornbread for dinner. once we had a good meal, we headed out for neighborhood trick-or-treating! After fininshing our neighborhood, Jackson wanted to keep going, so I dropped off the kids at home with Grandpa and Brian while the two of us set out again for the neighborhood behind our house. He loaded up with candy- which will be turned into money from the dentist! he kept saying "I love spending time with you mom! Thanks for taking me!" That was worth the extra effort! he was cute all by himself saying trick-or-treat and Happy Halloween at each door! Our little boy is growing up fast though! 

Pregnancy Pictures with the Sisters!

My sisters and I are all pregnant at the same time! We're due within months of each other: me pregnant with my 5th (due in 6 weeks) down to my youngest sister, Whitney, pregnant with her 1st (due in May).

Thanks to a willing husband to take on the challenge of making 4 pregnant women happy by taking our pictures, Carissa and Claire in town so we could be together, and a quick break between meetings at church, we were able to snag some photos of us sharing the experience together! Who knows if it'll happen again?!?

Love my sisters! I liked capturing the memory. So, although I am soo done with being pregnant, here is to future nostalgia! I'm excited to have cousins close together. Claire and I are having boys, Carissa is waiting to keep it a surprise, and Whitney hasn't found out yet (although bets are they'll both be girls :)

A Few of our Favorite Things...

 Fall break was this weekend for the kids. We decided (the day before we left) to take a last minute trip to St. George and enjoy some sunny weather. I found a place to stay that offered an enticing last-minute deal, so we booked it and headed out of town the next morning!

We have "favorite things" we do when we go to St. George: visit cottonwood park, go on picnics, play in the red sand, hike snow canyon, go swimming, eat ice cream, and visit the temple. It's starting to become our family tradition when we visit!

We play hard and try to enjoy as much of the outdoors as possible. The mornings were cool enough for a jacket or pants, but warmed up nicely by noon that we were dressed completely differently for the afternoon heat! October was a great time for St. George! Still warm enough to swim, but not super hot! The kids received swim-suit tans like it was mid-summer all over again. The Lindon pool has been closed for 2 months, so swimming again was a treat.

After hiking our favorite petrified dunes trail in snow canyon, we visited Jenny's Canyon, a short hike to a fun slot canyon with climbing walls for the kids. It was really cool and a big hit. The inside was like natures playground! They had a fun time exploring.

The kids liked this spot because they could climb through a small crevice from the bottom whole on the lower right and wiggle through to the top whole... and then it sloped down like a slide on the other side.

On Sunday, we took a drive to explore the Pine Valley Mountains. We drove through some quaint old towns from Mormon heritage. This Pine Valley was very scenic. Trees were taken from here to make the pipes for the tabernacle organ.

 It had a steak house which would be fun to try someday (since it was Sunday and closed, we'll have to go back). It was positioned right in front of it's cattle field!

 This is one of the oldest LDS chapels still being used as a meeting house. The parking lot was grass. It was so cute and tiny! Very well maintained and would make for a fun place to meet on Sundays for church.

We took the road less traveled on the way home and found a dirt road up through the mountains. Our mini van made the trip! We got to see some "wild cows" and some fun back country southern Utah granite formations. Brian took the kids on a mini hike. This is a picture of them "whoop-whooping" at the top. The mountains, although 30 minutes from sunny St. George, were quite cold! It reminded me of why we left Utah County :)

This will probably be our last family vacation for a while, since baby and winter are coming. I'm glad it all worked out and we were able to get away... even if it was only for 4 days.

P.S. Only 8 weeks left!

Countdown is on!!

I only have 9 weeks left of pregnancy! 8 if I'm lucky...10 if I'm not! I can't believe it's that close! Not only to the new baby, but to the Christmas holiday as well! Apparently it's the size of a large cabbage and weighs about 3 lbs. I feel like it's a pumpkin that weighs 9 pounds! I'm ready to be done! I'm just praying he doesn't come with colic or reflux! That was SO SO hard last time.

It's our fifth, so we're pretty prepared for this, but here's a short list of what I need to get do in the next few weeks:

1) pick a name!
2) register at the hospital
3) pack hospital bag for me and new baby
4) take pics with the sisters! We're all prego!
5) get Vaseline and sterile gauze for circumcision care
6) study up on labor so I'm prepared (goin' al natural again!)
7) have Christmas taken care of!

Not much to do but let the baby grow and enjoy the holidays with the kids. These cute pictures get me excited for a Christmas baby. I'm a little scared thinking about the night job that will be mine for a while, dealing with kids and colds and a newborn during the winter, and managing 5 little ones! Somedays it's overwhelming to think about. I hope I can manage!

Dancing Queen

Zoey is taking her first dance class. Every Thursday for 45 minutes at our local rec center.  She loves the music and often parades around the house showing off her moves. I think she likes to play dress up in her dance clothes more, however.

 She was really shy the first week and begged me to stay and watch, which I did. She loomed around the back, kept her arms folded, and didn't know what to do. I could tell she felt really awkward. She moved as stiff as Brain (not what we see of her at home)! I wondered if she would even enjoy an organized dance class like I thought she would. But today, after a month of going, she bounded out of the car and said "At least I have lots of friends here!" She's slowly breaking out of her shell and allowing herself to have fun in the class and do moves without worrying if other people were watching her.

I hope she enjoys it enough to stick with it, but maybe she'll want to try soccer or tumbling next...who knows! We'll try to support her with whatever she decides! I love having a little dancer though!