Halloween

Our mischievous Captain Hook and cute little Tinker Bell

Pin the nose on the pumpkin

Wrapping the mummy's

The evil witch and Tinker Bell

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My sister in law had a Halloween party on Saturday evening for all the kids. She did such a great job. The decorations were so cute, the food was delicious and the kids had a blast with the games. It was such an enjoyable night.

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On Halloween we got all dressed up and headed over to Spencer's work for trick or treating. It took about 15 minutes for Clay to warm up to the idea of walking around asking for candy. Finally we got him to go and once he went to a few places he loved it. He isn't a fan of candy, but he does love suckers, so most of his basket was full of suckers. We had a great time this Halloween season. It was fun watching Clay and listen to him talk about spooky things and playing ghost in the house. I loved it.

Pumpkin Patch

Relaxing in the giant pumpkin chair after the long maze

Exploring the tunnels

This was the best shot I could get with both of us.

On Saturday I wanted to go to a pumpkin patch before they all closed for the season. Unfortunately, Spencer was sick so I took Clay. So it turned into a Mother Son date, which was great. We just went to a little nursery down the street. Clay got us through the corn maze safely, he played on the playground and played in the tunnels. They had a few blow up slides and jumping gyms that he liked and a light up alley which for some reason he loved (it was pretty lame). Afterward we went out and grabbed some lunch. It was a great date with my son.

Spooky Dinner

Jorrel and his newborn baby, Tait. (yeah thats right I said Tait)

Dressed as a mummy, I love it!

The spread

Owl cupcakes, all though I forgot the nose.

Veggies

Bat kabobs w/ fruit dip

Mummy bbq chicken braid

Our spooky dinner table.

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This year I thought it would be great to start the spooky dinner tradition since Clay is at a fun age. He talked about Halloween, trick or treating and spooky things all week. I was so so excited to do this dinner. I work almost all day on it. We had spooky music on, a strobe light and we dressed up in our costumes. Around 4:30 I went to check on Clay who was laying down on the couch watching a movie. He was beet red and had a fever of 102.9. He eventually fell asleep around 5:30 and didn't wake up until 8:30 the next morning. So I was so disappointed that he wasn't apart of our dinner, it was for him...and me. Jorrel and Crista came over and we still had a great time together.

Super Hero Day

It was Red Ribbon Week last week and on the day Clay went to school, it was super hero day. Clay always wants to be Superman and I have to tie a pillow case around his neck so he can fly around. I was going to make him a cape our of left over material I have, but I found this cheap cape and mask at Walmart (shh, don't tell Spencer it was from Walmart) and bought it instead. Less work right?

When his bus came, he put on his new cape and mask and walked outside, shoulders back, head held high and super excited. The bus driver was so great and played along with it. Instead of calling him Clay she called him Superman. He thought it was awesome.

(We all know that Superman doesn't have a mask, but Clay wanted to wear it and still be Superman.)

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I have been a little nervous about this coming winter. With a almost 4 year old and a soon to be crawling 8 month old, what am I going to do with them all day indoors. You can only go to the tree house at the mall and Thanksgiving Point so many times. So I have researched some fun activities you can do indoors with your kids and came up with some fun ones. The first one I tried is glow sticks in the bathtub. Boy, did Clay love that. He was in there for a good 30-40 minutes (of course there wasn't a lot of water and I checked on him often). Good thing I bought a whole pipe full of them because we will be doing this quite often. I hope the rest of the ideas work as well as this one did.

The Happiest Place on Earth

We love Disneyland! We go almost every year but this trip was different. For one, Clay was at a super fun age and two, we went for three days instead of the usual one day. We flew down there and were so excited once we got off the plane and into the warm weather. Clay was so excited for Disneyland. He kept asking everyday we were there if we were going.Our first day there I think he didn't know how to react because it seemed like he was mad the first few hours we were there, trying not to have fun. But then Spencer's cousin, Ashley came and he perked up, than Rylin, Jordyn and Paytin came and he really loved it than. I was worried there for a second thinking that we have this three day passes and he hates it here. Anyways, the rides that he loved the most were Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Light Year, everything in Toon Town including the roller coaster that he went on 5 times, Jungle Cruise, loved loved Star Tours and of course he loved the parade seeing his favorite character, Captain Hook. So we did two all days in Disneyland and one all day California Adventure. When we weren't at Disneyland we were enjoying our family, eating out and just relaxing. We had such a great time. It was hard to leave.

Clay was so mesmerized by the real like characters.

In line at Peter Pan ride

Jordyn and Rylin posing at the miniature gold course

On our way to Disneyland with the whole family

Cuddle time on the couch

the Dumbo ride

Ashley and Ansley

Having fun on the Winnie the Pooh Ride

Excited to go to Disneyland

Clay practically rode on poor Spencer's shoulders all three days. He didn't like the sit and stand stroller I guess.

On the Train ride looking for Dinosaurs

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We had other activities planned but had an unfortunate event happen that took priority. Before we went down to Cali, we had news that Spencer's Uncle Danny was in the hospital and in a lot of pain for his cancer. Uncle Danny had liver cancer for around three years and started taking a turn for the worse. They moved him to a hospice and was waiting for the inevitable. He died on Sunday the 9th while we were at church. We all went outside and had a emotional moment. I had only met Danny once a couple of years ago and I like him from the very moment we met. He took one look at me and than looked at Spencer and asked him how he got so lucky to get a beauty like me, that he was a blessed man. How could you not like a guy who says that to your husband? The family came home for and sat in the living room and just talked about Uncle Danny and how wonderful he was and the great memories they had with him. Danny lived in Ohio so growing up they didn't see him much during there school year, but in the summers they travel and did see him for a good amount of time. Spencer felt like he had a great relationship with his Uncle and felt deeply saddened. So the funeral was going to be on Friday and we called the airlines to see if the could help us in anyway to move our flights. Unfortunately they couldn't because it wasn't a intermediate family member. We looked at other options to get Spencer out there, but he couldn't take 2 weeks off from work. Sad to say that he wasn't able to go out there for the funeral, although he wanted to, but his sister and brother were there to represent the family. Although it is a sad loss, it has made me so grateful for the gospel and for the comfort the Plan of Salvation brings us. I have a testimony of the Plan and know that because Spencer and I choose to be sealed in the temple that we will always be together in this life and after, into the eternities. What a great promise that is if we choose to follow Him.