October fun

Thought I would share a few things from the month of October that we enjoyed as a family. These first few were taken when we went shopping together one evening and had some fun at Saver's thrift store.

He has hair!!

Jack thought it was fun at first but then ripped it off, lol.

Do you think these glasses are a little big for her?


Then one evening we went to Curtis's brother's house for some face painting, treats, games, pumpkin carving, and a little bit of movie.

Nikki did all of Garrett's face paint.

What do you think? If you can't tell, it's Spiderman stuff.

I did Nikki's face of bees and a flower.

All the cousins watching a movie while the grownups played Uno. This was after we were done playing the game obviously because Curtis is in the shot, lol.


Happy Halloween!!

Batman, a Chinese princess, and a prisoner are ready for trick or treating!

We first made him dress up in a lion costume for our trunk or treat at the church but there was no way he wanted to put it on again for trick or treating so we made him a prisoner instead and he liked it much better. I made this costume for Nikki the year Garrett was born. Nice to get some use out of it again.

This is right before the men took the kids out trick or treating while my sister and I stayed at her house to pass out candy and watch "How to Train Your Dragon". Unfortunately we did not get many trick or treaters because it was Saturday but we were able to enjoy our movie without constant kid interruptions. It was a great movie :)

Our living room is complete!

My hubby, my nephew, and my brother in law drove approximately 5 hrs this morning (leaving at 6:30 am) to get this for me:

Our very own piano! Nikki and I are both excited to learn how to play. Garrett might even want to when he's ready also. It's kind of neat because this piano used to belong to my mom and she is a very talented pianist. I hope I have some of her talent in me. When my parents got divorced the piano stayed with my dad and then ended up going to our family cabin. It was rarely being used up there so when I was talking to my grandma about how I'd like to get my daughter in piano lessons she offered for me to have this piano. It was now just a matter of making the trip to get it and waiting for my hubby to get home so he could make the trip. After double checking to make sure it was still okay to have the piano my hubby made the trip this morning to finally retrieve it. I am so excited to have it!!

Birthday celebrations and Pumpkin patch

Wednesday was Garrett's 4th birthday but we decided to have his party on Friday. I wanted to do something for him on his actual birthday so I woke him up to a waffle with a candle and his sister and I singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

He just woke up so he wasn't used to the bright lights from the camera.


The next day we went to the pumpkin patch where they also had several other activities for the kids.

The corn box (like a sand box).

The hayride to the pumpkin patch.

The pumpkins we picked.

The straw bale maze.

The tractor tire playground.

The barrel train ride. I also got to ride so that I could hold Jack since all of the seat belts were broken.

The rotating swings! Jack had a hard time figuring out if he liked this ride or not.

Nikki loved it!

Garrett too! The operator let Nikki and Garrett ride for about 15 min or so because it was a slow day and didn't have much customers. So glad we went when we did. Made it more worth it!

And at last, enjoying popcorn and mini donuts! I've been looking forward to those donuts all year. Actually, 2 years because we didn't get to go last year.


And now "Come inside for a Batman Birthday Party!"

He was trying to pose like Batman on the picture behind him.

Our first activity was coloring some Batman pictures.

Daddy helping Garrett "Batman" to fly.

Our next activity was the "Gone fishing" game. All of the kids there enjoyed fishing for toy prizes.

Our last game was "Pin the bat on Batman" and here they are waiting in line for their turn. We used the Batman sign on the front door for this game. We just brought it inside and lowered it so they could reach it.

And now time for the cake and singing! Thanks so much to my sister who practically made the whole cake. In fact, the only thing I did was fill in the yellow and black frosting. She did everything else and I think it turned out great!

He loved all the gifts he received which were: a homemade Buzz Lightyear pillow & matching cape, a folder with Toy Story coloring pages and a framed picture of Buzz from his grandparents. A Batman action figure from his aunt and uncle. An electronic Buzz Lightyear game from his other grandparents. A BSU football from his friend. And a Buzz rocket ship toy, Spiderman puzzle, Spiderman book, jeans and a Batman glow in the dark shirt from us.

I think he really enjoyed his birthday this year and I had fun doing everything for him. But I'm glad the stress of it is over now.

This and That

I knew I wasn't going to be as good about blog posting after Curtis returned home but there are several things that I wanted to post about this last month that I'm finally getting to. It's been a fun month!

My sister in law Jeanie came to visit last weekend and fixed Nikki's hair up pretty.

This is her princess hair. She did this Monday night during the BSU game at my in-law's home.

I had never done a braid like this so Jeanie had showed me how to do it but it wasn't until several days later (today) that I finally had time to try it out for Nikki to wear to school.

After starting over about 5 times or so I finally got it. It doesn't look exactly like how Jeanie did it but I think it turned out pretty good and I was getting frustrated too. Now all I need are some of those big cute flower clips/bows. I'm going to have to learn how to make some. I also need someone to teach me how to do some more cute hairstyles.

Labor Day weekend we spent up in the mountains again and Saturday night we enjoyed cooking tinfoil dinners and then roasting marshmallows for smores. Jack is enjoying his marshmallow.

Eating smores can make you act silly.

Curtis roasted some perfectly brown marshmallows and my cousin Alivia enjoyed every bite of it. We just had to get a picture of a perfect smore.

Curtis and Nikki had a little fun in the water Saturday afternoon. It was too cold for me or the boys.

Saturday morning we went on a beautiful hike up at Ponderosa State Park. This is the same hike we did last year except we went a lot further this time. We hiked about 1 1/2 to 2 miles and Garrett almost walked the entire distance. We're so proud of him!

These are the marsh lands. So beautiful!

Nikki and I started this art project at my mother in law's house over a month ago and we finally finished it last week. It's a dragonfly mobile. Now to hang it in her room.

Ready for church.

We finally did some thrift shopping and got the boys some proper church clothes. We actually already had this tie. Anyone recognize it? It's from Nikki's costume the year we did the "Harry Potter" theme for Halloween. Guess that means he's in Gryffindor!

And after a month of having a loose tooth it finally came out a couple of weeks ago! And now the other bottom one is loose too. This is Nikki's first lost tooth and yes, the tooth fairy came. The funny thing is that Nikki wanted the tooth to look very clean so she could get more money from the fairy. So we bleached it. It definitely looked a lot better after it was bleached. Whiter than my teeth, ha ha.

And August 18th was Nikki's first day of school and her first year going all day every day. She loves it. I love it too because now I drop her off at school and go straight to the Rec Center to workout with my sister. Nikki was too old for the playcenter so I had to wait to go back until after school started.