Halloween Two Thousand Thirteen!

Halloween was a scream this year.

 

After much debating, and a $5 baby sale at Old Navy, we had two Hogwart's students

and one pirate to go trick-or-treating.

This little guy really didn't know what was going on.  But he loved that candy was involved.

 

We told the kids we would wait until other trick-or-treaters started

venturing out and then we would begin.

 

We waited and waited.  As it turned dark, we looked down the street and there was only one street light on.  Every other house stayed dark.  Spooky!

 

Our normally active Halloween neighborhood was a ghost town.

 

Grandma Judy was with us so we considered going to her neighborhood but we didn't want to drive (the whole five minutes).  So I called our friend Ann and she said things were hopping in her neighborhood across the street.  So across the street we went!

 

And boy was she right!  We met up with our friends the Van DenBerghe's and enjoyed an hours worth of fun, bustling trick-or-treating!  It was great! Grant was content to sit back in his stroller while the girls ran from door to door.  I think he was just happy to watch all the action.  Next year, I'm sure, will be a different story.

 

 

The Friday before, our church had a darling Fall Festival.  There was a chili cook-off and booths with tons of exciting games for the kids.  Our girls LOVED the haunted house.

 

For that event, the girls were a "queen bride" (Hallie) and "Cinderella bride" (Claire).  Thank heavens for our dress-up box!

 

Daddy stayed home with Grant - the boy who refused to sleep all day long.  We knew it would be a frightening scene if we took him along.

 

But it turned out to be a great girl's night!

 

Next year Halloween will be totally different

(lots of exciting changes and surprises coming up for our family). 

More to come later!

Sunshine and Seven!

 

Our little sunshine girl turned 7!

 

 

And she started the day with her favorite birthday tradition - donuts for breakfast.

 

 

Grant appreciates this tradition too.

 

All but the crumbs were devoured.

 

 

In the morning, my mom surprised Hallie on the phone with the news that she would be going to Build-a-Bear and could make whatever she wanted for her gift!  Hours later, Hallie came home with Twilight Sparkle and Spike (her My Little Pony friends).

 

At 5 pm that night Chris' mom joined us and we had Hallie's annual birthday spaghetti feast.

 

Followed by presents!

And more presents!

This little sister even had a few presents since she was such a good birthday helper. 

 

Her chalkboard message this year

The kids enjoyed the present glory while Daddy had the task

of assembling a Sophia the First castle from Grandma Judy.

Grandma Judy and Grant

Grandma and Hallie

 

Daddy and Mommy with our birthday girl.

(Why do we always take the pictures at the end of the night when we're utterly exhausted?)

 

Claire helped me make Hallie's birthday cake.

Hallie selected chocolate with blue frosting.

So, we made a devil's food cake from scratch -

that even with a cup full of sour cream in the batter, to my dismay, was not moist.

 

 

 

That birthday night, Hallie slept in her new pajamas and the next morning she was up early to enjoy those presents!

 

And that unwraps Hallie's 7th birthday!

 

We sure love our Hallie.  She'll always be our sunshine girl.

Salt Lake

 

The quickest weekend getaway to Utah for my darling niece's baptism

afforded us our first time to take the kids to the Salt Lake temple. 

 We didn't tell the kids until we woke them up at 4:15 am to start the drive. 

They were awestruck. 

 And that adrenaline made for an awesome 10 hour drive there. 

The ride back?  Not as much.

 

 

The girls were so excited to visit a place they had seen in pictures for so long.

We showed them where Daddy asked Mommy to marry him.

They LOVED that.

They ran around exuberantly and posed enthusiastically.

Grant was just along for the stroller ride.

 

 

I wept like a baby while in the visitor's center.

They have a beautiful display that shows every room

 in the temple and explains what we learn there.

I LOVED IT.

I highly recommend it to everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

Right before heading to the temple, we had picked up Grandma from the airport.

We had so much fun eating lunch and spending the day with her.

  

 

First day of first grade!

 

 

It's the first day of first grade!

Both our little girls were begging to have curlers in their hair last night.

Much like their mommy, the love curly-haired first days.

 

We can hardly believe our oldest is in first grade.

Hallie loves to imagine me crying while she is away.

And I keep telling Claire and Grant how grateful I am to still have them with me.

 

We packed up her lunch last night with some of her very favorites.

Packing her lunch squeezes at my heart.

I can't believe I only get her at lunch time on weekends from now on!

We had fresh banana chocolate chip muffins for breakfast

because I totally have my act together and bake in the morning.

Gotcha! Truth: I forgot we were out of cereal.

 

This little guy is running a fever for undetermined reasons. New teeth?

Our other curly haired cutie.

She is so gracious that most of the attention is on big sister.

I am looking forward to the more focused time with her.

She already begged to paint this morning.

I don't ask for these poses, she just hands them out like that.

Love her!

Next year, Claire will be in a matching uniform.

Boy will my bottom lip quiver then.

Hallie chose her first day outfit this year.

It is much like last year's except she elected for a light blue shirt this time.

Here are things that are different than last year's first day of school . . .

She is missing two teeth now.

She is without both her tonsils and adenoids.

She knows how to read!

 

We love our sweet girl. 

Have a great day, Hallie!

Still can't believe I won't see her for six more hours.

Sniff-sniff.