Costumes and Halloween festivities

 Kayden and Carter are always having the mac vs. pc. arguement at our house. Mostly because Carter is having a love affair with his ipod touch and Kayden just likes to get his goat by saying he likes a pc better. Carter takes the bait everytime. I figured we might as well make something from it all for Halloween. 

 Brendan went as Hawkeye from the Avengers. The bow was lost once before we even made it into costume, but luckily reappeared. 

 Hailey as Spider Girl. 

 And miss Emery as a fairy, and the only picture she would put up with was this one I snuck of her walking away.

  And me as a "bad yearbook picture". It won first place at our 

 ward Halloween party, but looking at this picture is a little horrifying. (no the zits are not real). I am usually a Halloween scrooge, but decided to break out of it this year and have a little fun. Embarrassing my kids kinda made it worth it though. 

 

We started the celebrations last week at Hailey and Brendan's school carnival/ trunk-or-treat. Good times were had by all. Then we had our ward Halloween party /chili cook-off. Fun was had there too. And of course, we end it all tonight with a little trick of treating. And I am sure fun will be had there too. Then I am sure we will all be ready for Halloween to be done until next year.

Flippin' good time

Since the kids were out of school on Friday, we decided we better do something with them. Corey got a great deal on Groupon for Flippin' Out so we figured that would be a great way to spend the afternoon. 

We have never been there, but heard it was lots of fun... we weren't disappointed. The only thing I was disappointed about was how fast my kids were moving around because I couldn't get any decent pictures.

Emery started out at the slide. She wouldn't step foot into the trampoline area for quite awhile. She must have gone down that slide 25 times.  Hailey was right behind her each time.

 The boys spent most of the time on the trampolines. There was an employee doing some pretty cool tricks and they were pretty amazed.

 Emery and Hailey did eventually make it on the trampolines too. They loved it and Emery has asked to go back everyday since.

 The boys tried out the slide too. This picture cracks me up because Brendan was actually terrified to go down at first.

 He quickly changed his mind though.

Such a fun afternoon and we will definitely be going back. It's always great to find something that entertains both the older and younger kids. It's great to get all their energy out too. Although they were pretty worn out at our ward Trunk-or-Treat that night though so next time we will do it on a day that we can come home and take a nap!

Expression

I snapped these pictures of Emery while she was coloring last night. This girl still just cracks me up. With so much improvement in her speech we are able to have some pretty funny conversations too. She has quite the personality in that little body of hers.

More of the everyday

We celebrated Corey's birthday over the weekend.

 Doesn't he look thrilled. Actually that's is about as excited as Corey gets...ever. He likes to keep things low key and doesn't even like me to get him presents. I usually at least try to make him a banana cream pie for the occasion. 

 Emery playing outside in her pj's. It was a rare day that we didn't have to be anywhere and she wandered out after breakfast. I was house cleaning and she stayed out there for over and hour. I wasn't about disturb her and worry about getting her dressed at that point.

 Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. Everyone needs a little reminder every once in awhile especially a certain teenage boy. Now I just need a laminated reminder for the shower to remind a littler boy about actually using shampoo and soap while he is in there. Boys!!! That's all I can say about that.

One of Emery's favorite things to do right now. However cleaning them up is not.

Homework. I kinda don't like it, maybe even more than my kids. Emery always wants to work on some too. It usually consists of me drawing something and her cutting it all up.

Costume Selection

This week I have been trying to narrow down my kids Halloween costume selections so I can start getting everything together. My dainty little girly girls again are making some interesting choices. Hailey is bound and determined to be Spider man. (I had these boys then I get these darling little girls who don't want much to do with all this girl stuff at all... doesn't really seem that fair) I think I have her convinced to be spider girl at least. Emery was wanting to be Buzz Lightyear. She saw the costume at Target on a trip to pick up stuff for Brendan's costume and fell in love with it.  The funny thing is that I had these costumes for my boys already, they wore them out, and it just seems a little ridiculous to buy them again for the girls. I let Emery look through the bin of costumes hoping to find something else to spark her interest. I think she decided on something else. 

Some kind of cowgirl/fairy?! At least we are in the girl category with this selection. And it's progress over last year since she wouldn't get near, let alone put on a costume.

The everyday

Corey giving Carter a cookie making lesson on a Sunday afternoon. They did a good job too because they were some pretty good cookies. 

I think garbage pick-up day is still one of Emery's favorite days. She knows what day it is and listens so closely to hear the sound of the beloved garbage truck pull into our neighborhood. We usually walk out and watch from the driveway, not too close though, she loves that truck but from a safe distance. The garbage man usually waves and honks his horn for her. It is the highlight of the her day. 

This morning he caught us off guard and he came early. We had to rush to the front window and watch from there.

 Just a couple of pictures of Hailey at gymnastics. I finally remembered the camera, but I had Emery with me so I didn't get too many pictures. Instead I spent most of the time trying to keep Emery from joining the class.

School picture day. A rare day when it's a free dress day. It always stresses me out and it shouldn't, I don't even buy the school pictures! But I still can't let them not look decent in a picture I don't even hardly see. Since they started wearing uniforms too, their everyday wardrobe is quite limited.

Throw a couple things up and call it Halloween

Halloween is just not my favorite Holiday. It kinda stresses me out coming up with costumes and such. But I always try to decorate a little around here for the sake of the kids. I definitely took a lazy approach around here this year though. 

 

I bought a bunch of fuzzy spiders and made some garbage bag snowflakes spider webs and called it done.

 

I am just waiting for them to blow away. They actually have lasted a lot longer than I thought they would.

 I was too lazy to actually take anything down so covering things up is a much easier solution.

 I did put a few things out on the entry table. I am not in love with the display, but once again I don't really care enough to change it.

 Spiders and bats everywhere definitely makes it spooky around here.

Yep, I am calling it done.

On the run

We have definitely left the lazy days of summer behind us. I feel like we spend our life running again. I knew it would be that way and tried to prepare myself, but I still wish we could slow down a little. 

I feel like I have to look at my lovely calendar several times a day just to make sure we aren't forgetting anything. 

My kids aren't even doing that much, but even if they each only do one thing, it makes us busy.

Carter and Brendan have been doing swimming. Brendan wanted to sign up first for swim camp, that teaches and prepares kids for swim team, and then Carter decided he wanted to also. Poor Brendan though after the first day, it was evident he needed a few more lessons before he was ready, he was a little devastated. I was a little disappointed too because that meant they would swim at different times. Now Brendan is done with lessons and not sure he even wants to keep going, but Carter is enjoying it. It's Tuesday and Thursdays nights. Scouts and Young Mens is also on Tuesdays, it's always a juggling act to get everybody back and forth that night.  We had to switch buildings too so it's no longer a 5 minute drive. That night is just a little crazy. 

Kayden stays after school Thursdays, to practice for his upcoming House of Cards competition. He usually has to take the late bus home which arrived 30 minutes after I had pick up Brendan and 30 minutes before I take Carter. I don't think the timing could be any worse. Thank goodness Brendan finished to save one trip for now.

Hailey and Emery are taking gymnastics. Emery goes one morning a week and Hailey goes one afternoon. Not the same afternoon as the boys though to keep things a little easier.

They both love it. Although I only have pictures of Emery as proof. Hailey and I are always running out the door so fast I never remember the camera.

 She doesn't stop smiling the whole class.

Emery is also doing speech therapy two mornings a week. She has just come along so well, it's really amazing. With speech and gymnastics, she seems to keep boredom to a minimum with everybody gone.

 

 Of course there are always appointments and other things that have to be worked in too. 3 church callings, volunteering at the kids school, house cleaning and that darn laundry that never goes away take a lot of time. So when I am at home, I feel like I am running around preparing for the afternoon and making sure things are done for the next day. Once the kids get home it's running, homework, more running, dinner, finish homework, and then bedtime. 

I love giving them opportunities to try and experience different things though so I guess we will just have to continue to put up with the busy schedule and hope the house cleans itself.