Tartan Trunk-or-Treat...2013

Today Jantzen and Jaedyn got to do some more trunk-or-treating at Jantzen's school.   They were both really excited to get more candy and to wear their costumes again.  They started out in a costume parade through the halls before they went outside to get the candy.  Along the way Jaedyn found a familiar friend, Haley (Jaedyn absolutely loves her), and then she saw a girl that was wearing the same costume as her.  She got excited to see another Dorothy again.

    This is the cheesy behavior I get when it's time to take Jantzen's picture with some of his friends...       His friends all LOVED his costume!  That could be because they're all into Minecraft too.
The kids finally made it outside to start their trunk-or-treating...       I got a few more quick pictures of the kids before they made it to the first car...I'm the yearbook staff, so they have to cooperate with me even if they don't want too.      Jaedyn was happy to take another picture with Haley, and Cadence joined in too...       Then they were off on their candy collecting adventure...           After they were all done getting their candy, I got one last picture of Jantzen's class being silly before they had to go back to class...      Jantzen and his best friend are in different classes this year, so they don't get to do many of the school activities together, which makes them sad, but I was able to get a picture of the two of them together after school.  And, of course, Jantzen has those fingers up again...     The kids still have trick-or-treating tonight, so we're going to have way too much candy at our house.  Maybe I'll give some of it away to the other trick-or-treaters like I did last year...while my kids aren't looking, of course!

Ward Trunk-or-Treat

Last night we took the kids to our ward's annual trunk-or-treat.  When we first got there I decorated the car.  I had big plans for it this year, but it just didn't happen...maybe next year.  Anyway, this is what our car looked like this year with the pumpkins all lit up...

       Jaedyn quickly found some friends to run around with until it was time to eat dinner...      Jaron and Jantzen goofed around a bit together before they found their own friends...      As you can see, Jaron and Jantzen decided this year to be different "skins" of "Steve" for Halloween and Jaedyn decided to be "Dorothy" or "Dorky" as she calls her because she has a hard time pronouncing it correctly.  I think it's cute how she says it.  What sold her on this particular costume was the sparkly red shoes and "Toto".  Jaedyn has been so excited to wear her new red sparkly shoes.  I can't say I'd disagree with her on that, I get excited to wear new shoes too!
I love how she posed for this picture...she had to position her shoe just right to make sure I could see it.     For dinner we got to choose between different kinds of chili, cornbread, and nachos...it was all good!   After we were all done eating dinner, the kids all lined up for a costume parade/contest.  Here's the kiddos walking the parade route...     None of them won the costume contest in their age groups, although I think Jaedyn should have won in hers.  Instead some baby, not even in her age group and not even in the ward won.  Oh well, I think she was the cutest little girl out there.
Jaedyn met a new friend at the party, her name is Hope and her family just moved into our ward.  Jaedyn was pretty excited to meet her.      One of the guys in our ward made this video game arcade as his costume this year.  It was pretty cool because you could actually play Super Mario Bros on it and that's exactly what the kids did for a good portion of the night.     It was finally time to do some trunk-or-treating.  I had Josh stay back at our car and hand out the candy to the kids while I walked around with Jaedyn and Jantzen.  Jaron is apparently "too cool" to hang out with his family in public now, so he took off with some of his friends.      Along the way Jaedyn found another Dorothy and got excited about it, they both looked so cute!     Then, we came across Sis. Stevens (she teaches the primary kids music every week) who Jaedyn didn't recognize at first, but then realized who it was.  She was a little freaked out by her make up, but got over it enough to get a picture with her.      When we got to our own car, Jaedyn was so excited to see her daddy.  She was the only kid that got a handful of candy from him...just look at that smile!      Since Jaron took off with his friends, this is the only picture I was able to get of him...as he quickly walked past me!      The bishop did a little trunk-or-treating with the kids.  He was a giant pinata this year, so he had to get some candy for the "birthday girl" aka his wife to enjoy.  If you look closely, you can see Jantzen throwing candy (red one) while the bishop tries to catch it in his costume.  Jantzen really enjoyed this game!     Candy collecting was finally over and the kids were exhausted from having such a busy day.  This was reflected in the pictures I tried to get of them together...no cooperation!!!  I do love how Jaedyn's "chillin' it " on the back of the car though...so cute!          I was able to get everyone to smile for a family picture before we packed everything up, that doesn't happen very often!      During the clean up process a particular someone disappeared...     ...I found him trying to squeeze in some more video game time before we left.   The kids all had a good time, as usual.  Josh and I are exhausted, as usual, but it was a fun night.  The kids still have more trick-or-treating before Halloween is over...Yay, more candy!!

Pumpkin Carving...

It's that time of year again...time to carve Halloween pumpkins! This year Jaedyn chose a "Ninja Turtle" pattern, Jantzen chose a "Creeper", and Jaron chose a "Castle Crasher" design... 

  Josh helped Jaedyn trace her pattern on her pumpkin, I helped Jantzen, and Jaron decided he was old enough to do his own this year...         That's fine with Josh and I because that's one less pumpkin we have to do.   Next up was the kids' favorite part...gutting the pumpkin!  I'm being sarcastic here...the kids HATE this part!  They think it's disgusting!  Josh helped Jaedyn out a little bit, but then we made her and the boys do it on their own.                  I loved the facial expressions of disgust my kids gave me as they were doing this...it was funny!  You'd think I was making them gut a real animal.
After the kids took all the innards out of the pumpkins, we got them all carved up so we could take them to our ward trunk or treat.   I think they all turned out awesome!                 The kids were all happy with how their pumpkins turned out, now we're headed off to do some "trunk or treating"!!

Staheli Farm Fun

Since the kids had no school today, we decided to head up to St. George and go to Staheli Farm with my friend Harmony and her family and some of their friends. We've never been there before, but I've been wanting to bring the kids for a while and I'm glad we did...they had a lot of fun! 

When we first got there, the kids played on the little "farm" playground.  It's amazing how much kids can entertain themselves on such simple toys. 

  We did a little measuring...         I think Jantzen has the longest arms.    Jaron loved this swing!  It was just a rope that you had to use to swing over an old mattress and some hay bales...the kids had a blast on it trying to get to the other side.      Then, the kids moved on to this wagon wheeled see-saw...     These were some HUGE tires!     The kids did a little duck racing and loved every minute of it...      Then, they goofed off a bit more!      Jaron and Jantzen then found a wheel of activities that they spun to help them decide what to do next...      ...and this is where it told them to go, to the little petting zoo..          Jaedyn was a little hesitant at first to pet the goats, but eventually she did...barely.  The boys, on the other hand, were all over it.
Jaron admired this sleeping pig, he was getting hungry for some bacon.  Run little piggie, run!!!     The farm had this fun bubble that the kids got to jump on like a trampoline.  They had so much fun on it!!          Next, the kids went to another little playground area and I had to laugh at Jaron and Jantzen because of this...     ...the two of them squeezed onto this little teeter-totter and, surprisingly, they had fun.  I had fun laughing at them! 
While her brothers were being silly, Jaedyn played a little pumpkin tether ball...     There was a fun little maze for the kids to walk through with this fun pirate ship.  The kids actually played on this for quite a while.      I think Jantzen is a little too tall for this maze.  It's too easy for him to see where he's going.     After playing for a while, and eating some yummy country style lunch, we all decided that we wanted to head over to the big corm maze and try to make our way through it.  We got to ride over to the corn maze on this fun trailer that was being pulled by a tractor...the kids were so excited!      We got a picture of all the kids together before we headed in to the maze...and hoped that we'd all make it out together.         This year the corn maze was a pirate theme.  It was actually called "Pirates of the Corn Maize" and if you saw it from above, it was shaped like a pirate ship with an octopus.  It was pretty cool!     We let Jaron, Jantzen, and Parker go off together to find their own way out.  I was okay with this because Jaron has a phone in case they needed help and I think they loved being in there on their own.     We all made it out, eventually, it did take a while.  I forgot how confusing these things are.  It's been so long since I've been in one.   Jaedyn found some corn on our walk through the maze and she insisted that she take it home...it got lost on our ride back on the trailer...oops!!  They did have a "mini" corn maze that was a story for the younger kids.  This year it was based off the book "Spookley the Square Pumpkin".  We've actually seen this movie on Disney channel, so we knew the story.  It was fun.  You got to stop at different stations to read the story as you make your way through the maze...and, it was a lot easier than the big maze!     I got a quick picture of all the kids before we played some more...     Jaron did a little archery.  I made a bet with him that if he made it through the middle hole that I would buy him an X-Box.  He's been wanting one for a long time and so he was really determined to make me have to follow through on my bet.  The whole time I was really hoping that he wouldn't make it.  Luckily for me he didn't, but he came REALLY close every time!  He was really bummed, but I wasn't. Whew, my wallet is safe!      One of the last things we did at Staheli Farm was head up to the pumpkin patch.  I wasn't planning on buying any pumpkins there because they are over-priced, but I let the kids pretend to pick some out anyway.      Here's Jaedyn with her friends that came with us...      Before we left the pumpkin patch, the kids checked out this witches cottage, luckily she wasn't home!          The kids tried to sell the pumpkins they picked out with no takers...      We couldn't leave without a little more playing.  Jaron said he was "too old" to get on the swings, so he pulled Jantzen and Jaedyn around instead.  I thought these swings were cute because they were made out of old tires and were shaped like horses.      It was getting late, so we decided it was time to go.  We got one last picture with all of us, minus Jantzen.  He was being a little stinker and refused to get in the picture.     After we left, we all went to Cracker Barrel for dinner, then headed home.   We all had so much fun today, I'm so glad we went, especially with good friends.  Next year we're going to come up here with Josh and stay later so we can go through the "Field of Screams".  The kids aren't really liking that idea, but I think it'll be fun!