Monday afternoon, we took the kids over to the Microsoft buildings to do some trick-or treating. Ella had no idea what she was in for, but she was excited.

We don’t have pictures from it, because you aren’t allowed to take pictures in the building we were in. The do all the game development and testing in that building, so the kids loved seeing life size action figures displayed for the different games. Ella was nervous at first, but as soon as she realized she got candy, we couldn’t stop her. She would take from a bowl, and go for seconds. I would have to tell her, “No, Ella. Just one.” As soon as she thought you weren’t looking, she would grab another piece. Sneaky girl. I brought an extra bag to empty their baskets (we learned from last year), but Ella would not give her’s up. She was not about to let that candy out of her sight. I think she came home with more candy than Jameson. We looked pretty funny, though. We had 8-10 adults in our group and 13 kids under 5 with us. Little crazy.

Once we got home, we fed the kids actual dinner, and then took them around the neighborhood. Here is their first actual door they got to knock on.

We ventured around in the freezing cold, going to most of the neighbors we knew, and then a few others down another street. We finally turned around when we were too cold to go anymore. The kids loved it, and got ridiculous amounts of candy. I actually hid most of it, and recently put most of it in boxes to send to the missionaries serving from our ward. Great way to get rid of candy.

Some how, I managed to nominate myself and a friend to be in charge of the Halloween party for the ward. Not sure why I thought this was a good idea, especially since I was out of town for 2 weeks of October, had company coming when we got back, and everything else that happens day to day, but we pulled it together. Last year, something was put together last minute, because no one else had planned anything. So, to make sure we had a good time this year, and our kids had somewhere to trick-or-treat, I nominated myself.

We decided that we would have a few contests: cup cake walk, costume contest, best chilli, best decorated trunk, and best carved pumpkin. We figured the pumpkins would serve as decoration around the room. Jameson had been bugging us to carve our pumpkin, and there was never a time we were all home to do it together that week. So, the day of the party, Jameson and I dug into our pumpkin during Ella’s nap. He wanted a mean face, so I tried. This was all I could come up with.

Jameson got ready, and came to the church with me to help finish decorating. We had set up most that morning, but can I tell you it takes twice as long when you have to decorate with your kids? Lauren and I tried, but every time we put something out, the kids would think it was so cool and move it. Not cool for us. We pretty much decorate the room twice.

Jameson wanted to be Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. I looked and looked for a costume, and apparently, no one wants to be Hiccup. So, I found some material, and finished sewing the night before. Procrastination on my part. I found a green baseball t at Old Navy, along with brown sweat pants. Then, I sewed his vest (patterned after one of his Sunday vests) and boot covers. I just safety pinned those bad boys to the loops on his boots. I found the sword, helmet, and shield in the Roman section at the party store. I did have to make a strap on the helmet, because it was adult size. I think he looked pretty good, though.

A few pictures of the gym. We had a coloring station for the kids in one corner. We found non-scary Halloween pictures on the internet, and then copied them. I remembered you can make free copies at the library, so that’s what we did. You can make 75 copies a week for free. Awesome, right?  We had a cup cake walk in the other, which was a total bust. Who wants to walk for cupcakes when they can go to the dessert table and get 5? Plus, the little boys had been sword fighting in that corner and torn up all our papers taped to the ground. I did paint some wooden balls and put them in the bingo roller. Then the who ever was standing on the coordinating color of the ball got to get a a cup cake. At least that’s how it was supposed to go.

For the tables, we made the pumpkin jars. We mod podged tissue paper to them, and then I cut out faces in vinyl. We placed a piece a scrap book paper underneath them with a few spider rings, and ta dah! Cute center pieces. 5 tables and pumpkins that glowed and 5 had stuffed pumpkins. The candy stuffed pumpkins were for the winners of the contest.

We ended up trick-or-treating from room to room, because it was raining outside. Surprise, surprise. Kevin and his brother, who was here for some training, did an awesome job decorating their room. They even tied candy to a string to trick all the little kids who tried to grab it. Cruel, but funny. We ended up with tons of food, and much more desserts. I thought the night was total chaos, but we got lots of praise for such a great party. It was nice to know others thought it went so well, because I had a different view of the night. But that’s how it is, right? The person in charge knows what didn’t go as planned.

At the pumpkin patch the week before, I picked up corn stalks and hay bales for decorations. Then I found out no hay in the church. So, they sat right when you walked in. I tried to have the kids take a picture. Here is Hiccup and his dragon.

We had a successful night!

As I was getting ready for our young women/ young men halloween party, Jameson found the wig I was going to wear. I was laughing so hard. He was trying to look at the jewel on his forehead, and instead, looked like he was a little slow. Made me laugh.

As soon as we got home, we got right back into it.Wednesday mornings we participate in a preschool group with 3 other boys. We each take a turn teaching once a month, and occasionally throw in a field trip.  Each of our boys miss the deadline for kindergarten so we have 2 years before they start public school. This week, (Oct. 26th) we took the kids to a pumpkin patch for a field trip. We got there in time to see them bottle feed the calves. Jameson loved it, Ella was not so sure. The calves kept trying to eat more, though, so Jameson was trying to be sneaky and feed them grass.

After the feeding, we headed over to the patch. They had really funny scarecrows set up, or should I say down. The kids thought the legs sticking out of the ground were hilarious.

Ella just loved to get in the dirt. She tried to pick out a pumpkin almost as big as her, but couldn’t carry it. So I finally coaxed her into picking some small pumpkins.

We tried to get some group shots of the kids on these hay bail pumpkins, but they were not quite so cooperative. Ella just wanted to be on top of them, but not smile.

These are his “classsmates.” There’s Jameson, Michael, and Evan.

Ella and Jaxson. This is Evan’s little brother.

See, they wanted to be on the pumpkin, but were in no mood to smile.

Evan and Jameson are about 6 weeks apart. Evan was in our previous ward, but we still get to see him lots. He’s the quiet but bossy one, and Jameson is rambunctious, but follows his orders usually.

Jameson couldn’t wait to help load the pumpkins. He was so excited to push the wheelbarrow. Unfortunately, once it was loaded, it was too heavy and uneven for him to push. So, Mom had to help out.

We got all our pumpkins, plus some decorations for the ward party. (Somehow I managed to get myself put in charge of the ward Halloween party this year. More on that to come.) It was a fun morning with our preschool friends, and feeding the cows was talked about the rest of the day.

A friend and I decided to start the decorating season by making some pumpkins. I got the idea from Not So Idle Hands. I always save jars, because, really, who knows when I’ll need a jar for something. Something just like this craft idea. So we put our kids to bed, and I joined her on a night her husband was in class to help fill time. We set to work, and made these cute pumpkins.

They look even better, all lit up. Which inspired a whole other idea.

Labor Day weekend was pretty low key for us. Saturday, we met some friends for breakfast, and then went with them to the sale at Old Navy. The mall it is in, has a lot of quarter rides, so I handed Jameson a handful of quarters. The dads took the kids and we were able to shop in some peace and quiet. Kevin worked the rest of the day on his truck with some guys he hired to help him replace his engine.

Sunday, Ella had her first official day of nursery. I dropped her off, and as soon as her back was turned, I snuck out. She did great! I had to teach our young women that day, and introduced our project for Young Women’s in Excellence (more on that later, unless you need an idea. Then I’ll tell you.) We stayed for the next ward’s sacrament meeting, because Kevin was able to participate in our friend’s baby blessing. It was a beautiful blessing for a very special baby.

Monday, we took a trip to Cabella’s. The kids loved the animals. It was like going to the zoo, except you can get much closer to the animals since none are alive and able to hurt you.

The token machine for the laser gun range was broken, so they were free. This was Jameson’s favorite. He shot everything he could for about an hour. Ella even liked to shoot.

Jameson learned his mom is not too shabby of a shooter by being able to make the bear appear from behind the fence.

We even had a little boy next to us start crying for his parents. So we took him to the front and explained that Jonah had lost his parents. It only took a minute after the page went out that his dad came running. That store is so big, that is my fear while there. There are so many places a kid could hide.

On the way home, we were talking about events that are happening in Reno over Labor Day that we were missing. I very much missed the rib cook-off. My mouth waters thinking about it. The other thing I don’t miss dealing with is Burning man. We joked about one car that was covered in dust that it was someone from Burning Man. I don’t think that car was, but not long after, we saw this one:

All the signs of Burning Man were there: VW, bikes, dust, symbol on back window, and driver with dreadlocks. You could say I’m stereotyping, but it’s totally true.

We arrived back home just in time to head over to a friends house for a bbq. We were able to enjoy lots of good friends and food. I am so thankful for such good friends here, or I would never make it through holidays without family. I really don’t have too many complaints about where we live. It’s beautiful, and summer days are perfect (when they finally decide to arrive), and the rain usually doesn’t really get you wet when you have to run out in it. But I hate living so far from family. It makes it hard on holidays, so I’m grateful we have lots of good friends to get us through it.

Our 4th of July was pretty low key this year. The kids played in the back yard while Kevin worked on his truck. Ella hasn’t figured out that you’re supposed to hold a Popsicle by the stick and not where it’s cold.

We went swimming, and then came home for dinner and bed. Fireworks here don’t start till after 10 pm when it gets dark. I was not about to keep the kids up that late. We heard fireworks all night long, though.

I am so grateful for this country and all those who serve to keep it the country it is supposed to be. I had a cousin come home from Afghanistan right before Father’s day. He had been there training their army.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/soldiers-return-to-las-vegas-a-great-father-s-day-gift-124142644.html

I have another cousin who’s husband is in the air force. I’m so grateful for them and other friends that are serving our country. I sometimes get wrapped up in my own bubble and forget what is going on, but I am always appreciative to these soldiers.

Even though it made us late for church, we had to take a quick picture before heading to church. Here we are Easter Sunday.

Trying to take a picture of Ella is impossible.

So Jameson woke up Sunday morning asking where his Easter basket went. I had taken them to fill them with candy then night before. I told him the Easter Bunny took it and hid it for him to find after church. He broke down, and started crying. He was so mad at the Easter Bunny for taking his basket. I had to have Kevin distract him so I could hide the basket for him to find before we left for church. It was kind of funny, but he was so sad. So he found his and Ella’s Easter baskets and then we headed to church. He got to bring a couple eggs with him, and then eat the others when we got home.

(April 23rd)

Since we were going to be out of town for pretty much all of May, we combined our Easter egg hunt with Kylie’s birthday. Her mom planned a “Tangeled” birthday party for her. So we had some little Rapunzel’s running around collecting eater eggs.

Jameson and his girls…

the Dad’s

I don’t know how many “engagement” type photos we are going to have of these two. If they ever do end up together, we are going to have so much fun at the reception displaying them all.

(Photos above taken by Brittany McCulloch)

Getting ready to find eggs.

And the hunt is on.

Then it was time to dye eggs. Surprisingly, the dye didn’t get any where else. Pretty good for 8 kids 5 and under.

After dying eggs, we had some birthday cake and presents. The guys took off to the gun range, and we soaked up the sun. The kids played outside all day, and we enjoyed every minute. It was a gorgeous day, and when those happen here, we soak up every minute of it.

For the Green Holiday, we had a little party with our playgroup. Some of our friends are moving out of the ward, so we thought we’d have one last party with them. They organized a little treasure hunt for the kids to find Lucky the Leprechaun, and then had a pot of gold at the end. The kids loved it. Ella and I sat at the table, and ate the yummy food available. Trying to get a picture of all of them was a joke.

We all had our green on to celebrate.

These days, Miss Ella can be found in the cupboards. There’s not really anything in the cupboards to make a mess with, so I don’t really care. Except the fact that my kitchen towels are now found all over the house. It does keep her busy while I’m cooking.