In October

Time is flying by faster and faster. I can't believe October is already over . . . SO much to document.

October started out perfect with Conference weekend. Always one of my favorite weekends of the entire year! I always love seeing my kids gear up for it with their journals, note pads, pens, pencils, and of course plates ready - for cinnamon rolls (which we made a double batch of this year)! 

Tierra Linda's dance-a-thon (my last one ever). Makes me happy and sad to see these cute pictures with Elle and her dear friends who will always hold a special place in my heart for their kindness and friendship to my sweet girl. 

Elle got into Cape at the first of November so now I get all nostalgic when I see pics from Tierra Linda. This corner is a special one with lots of memories. . . dropping off kids, waving from my van, yelling goodbyes out the window . . . 

Elle is thrilled about getting into CAPE though. She wasn't loving school this year and it was making me so sad to hear her lack of excitement (especially since last year was so amazing). 

Other news on Elle - she's become quite the gymnast this year. We signed her up for gymnastics in January and she's been loving it. The beginning of October I put her into a Twinkle Toes tumbling class which she's loving even more. So we did both this month but decided to quit gymnastics at the end of the month since it's double the price. She's gotten so strong! She's constantly doing handstands and flips on the couch.

As for Madi, she is very busy musically - playing the flute in band on Mondays, Piano lessons on Tuesday, Suzuki violin Wednesday morning before school and SOKM violin after school on Wednesday and Friday. It's quite the load of practicing everyday! 

But she sure makes sure to find time to fit fun in. Lucky girl who got to go for mani/pedis for her friends' birthday.

Our sweet Cal Pal gets excited over the little things like mail from Gram & Papa with a "fireworks" stamp.

When the dads head off to a football game, us moms meet at the park and then treat ourselves to McDonalds ice cream cones! Yup, that's how we party!

I got to take my girls on a last minute date night to see the BYU ballroom dancers. 

It was such a great show! SO glad we went!

We made a quick trip down to San Diego after church on Sunday, October 16th to hang out with Uncle Bobby, Aunt Amy, and Porter. I was glad we arrived first so my kids could get out their wild and crazy energy over being somewhere new! Just minutes before this pictures they were seriously bouncing off the walls!

We let Madi stay up a little late to play a round of Monopoly Deal with the big kids!! 

Our kids chose the San Diego Zoo as our entertainment on Monday. Totally kicked myself after though and wished we'd gone to Sea World. It would have been a much bigger hit!

The ZOO was fun, but all the walking without shows to sit and watch made for some very tired kids!

The Pnada bear was a favorite as well as the Polar Bear. 

Lots of eating out this month! We took the kids to Thai Peru the night before Spencer's birthday. It was fun trying new food with them. They did surprisingly well  - behaved themselves, used their manners, and actually liked the food. 

I fit in a pancake breakfast for the birthday boy before we all ran out the door for school at 7:50am. 

Elle had a half day and Cal didn't have school that day, so they joined us at Anaba for Spencer's birthday lunch!

Spence requested finger foods for his birthday dinner. He got new socks and shoes (that he bought himself) for presents. 

Boppi and Grandpa Al joined us for Texas sheet cake for dessert!

It was a fun day celebrating this dad we all love so much!! 

Halloween 2016

Halloween seemed to last forever this year. I'm actually not a huge fan of the holiday, but there were a few things that made it so much fun!

1) I love how excited my kids are to decorate! I don't have a ton of decorations - just a few things on my front table, a Halloween cookie jar (passed on from my mom) that I keep on the kitchen table, a string of ghosts that Madi sewed with Boppi (which I hang in front of our fireplace), but I usually just hang up the projects the kids make in school (cause it makes em so proud)!. I did let them go to town with the window cling art (which they loved - and I still need to get a picture of)!

2) Cal's preschool field trip to Underwood Farm was super fun and always a highlight of the month!

He and Marli are the cutest little buddies! I love that they get to be in the same preschool class - especially since Cal won't be at Tierra Linda with Mar next year. 

After the hay ride, we picked out our pumpkins . . . 

Had to do the traditional height measuring. I remembered that Cal stood on the pumpkin last year, so I made him stand on it again to duplicate the picture.

These brothers together are the cutest!! 

My baby is getting SO big!

Big tractors, and pumpkins pumpkins, pumpkins galore!!!

Macee and Zuri also go to Peep - 2 days a week in Ms. Robin's class. They all get to play together outside on the playground and go on field trips together!!

The famous pumpkin house!

It was a fabulous morning spent with my boys and a few friends! 

The boys got their pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, so we stopped by Trader Joes on Friday for the girls to pick one out for $2.99 a piece! They came home, washed them off with a hose, scrubbed them clean (totally their idea), and then took a picture of course!

Saturday afternoon we carved them (with dad's help)!

Our trunk-or-treat was Saturday evening. Madi and Spencer made the invitations for it. Their artistic talent amazes me!!

We teamed up - Daddy and James as cowboys, the girls as SUPER girls, me as Maleficent and Cal as my dragon! 

Totally not in my comfort zone to dress-up, but my friend had these two costumes laying around so I went with it!

This was the first Halloween that we didn't have tears over costumes and the kids didn't change their costume for all the different parties. 

I was exhausted Saturday night and totally cool with calling it a wrap for Halloween, but Monday morning the fun started all over again! I took the boys to go watch Elle in her school parade at Tierra Linda. 

Spencer went to CAPE to go see Madi and her class parade around. 

Madi was out of school at 11:30, Cal had school at noon, then we picked Elle up at 2 and headed over to Cal's school for his party (kind of a wasted day, and Madi was totally complaining that we didn't do anything special for her half day of school!! ARG!!!)

We got there early and I was dying over Cal's cuteness out there - riding bikes on the playground. 

Elle is such a sweetheart and ran out to join Cal and Marli.

We joined them for circle time and singing . . . 

 . . . and snack time!

This dragon totally melted my heart today! He was so excited about dressing up and proud of his costume!

This year we headed out to the Thunell's around 4:45 to join them for trick or treating in their little neighborhood. It was truly magical and my favorite part of the whole night. 

They only have a few neighbors - all who never get trick-or-treaters out in their area. It was awesome watching all these kids run from house to house down Blackberry Lane.

Calvin was always trying to catch up with his cute little dragon wings flapping. 

Finally caught up - love the line to get their piece of candy . . .

And then they were off again . . . Cal looking so proud!

This handsome little cowboy slept during the trick-or-tricking out in Somis.  

I made sure I got pictures later, cause he didn't get to wear this costume very long. 

Halloween night I changed Cal into a hand-me-down costume from his Terry cousins. So much warmer and cozier for him. 

We met at the Barlow's for dinner and then trick-or-treated in their neighborhood with this group of kids! 

Big groups stress my kids out though so we hung back and stuck together as a family with James facing forward in the Bjorn. I love watching my kids running around in costume, knocking on peoples door and hearing them say thank you after handed a piece of candy. 

They lasted less than an hour and were ready to come home. We went around and hit up our neighbors before calling it a night. 

Cal LOVES candy!!

He can handle eating a lot more than the girls can. 

Elle ended up hanging over the toilet before bed, complaining of a stomach ache, swearing that she was going to throw up. Thankfully she finally calmed down and went to bed. 

Another Halloween for the books!!