Halloweekend

Ben's Mom and his sister Nancy and her husband and kids came to visit us for halloween. They arrived thursday evening. On friday after the girls got out of school, we got started on making treats for a halloween tea party.
the girls set the table and made place cards for everyone.




Evie suddenly loves her animal train again now that her cousin Tommy came and likes playing with it.

Kara did really well at her soccer game saturday morning. It was really muddy and cold, so she and some of the other kids were upset by the end of the game. Later that afternoon, we went to a halloween party hosted by Ben's boss. It was really fun, and decorated super cute.

I made costumes for the first time this year. We were cavemen with a cave baby. You can't see the picture very well, but Evie had a cute little bone on top of her head. I loved her costume the most.

Vicky forgot to bring a costume, so luckily we have this cow costume she was able to wear. Here she is indulging in a little snack.


and...planking?...
my lovely princess peach and Halloween princess. I'll have better pictures of their costumes when they go trick or treating.

all the kids at the party. It was sure a lively group of kids, and hard to get a picture with all of them looking.

Evie fell asleep about 5 minutes into painting pumpkins.

Kara and Kiersten both worked really hard on their creations.

Nancy and I decorated a halloween gingerbread house with the girls. it was fun, though there were a few mishaps. We also made halloween suckers for the kiddos to take to their class party the next morning. It was a projecty day.Be on the lookout for cute trick-or-treating pics in the next day or two!

pumpkin palace

Evie and I got to chaperone the girls' field trip to the pumpkin palace in Orting, WA.
The big girls were so good, and stayed with their buddies the whole time. Evie was teething, and cried pretty much the whole time.

Kara is almost 4 pumpkins tall.



The kids were excited about lunch.

Mrs. Wright tried to get the kids lost in the corn maze, but Kara's sense of direction was right on, and being one of the stronger personalities, she kept getting them to the end, and Mrs. Wright would lead them back into the maze.

The kids love playing on this giant woodchip pile. Even Evie cheered up a little.

They had a few running races before we left. I though Kara would be exhasted for soccer practice that evening, but she was energized as ever.

Eagle Mountain visit!

My sisters Shelly and Angie had baby girls a week apart in september. So I had to run out there for a visit. I took Evie with me, but the other girls stayed home with Ben so they wouldn't miss school. We left on friday and came back yesterday. Angie and Clint came to pick me up from the airport. Makayla stayed at their house with us that night, and watched their kids while they picked us up.
Cute little Kyrie. She's a funny girl, and was happy to have us stay in her playroom. She kept asking me if she could jump on the bed. Angie and I accidentally stayed up talking til 7 am. So we slept in a bit on saturday, and Clint and Makayla were nice enough to take care of the little girls.

On saturday we all went to provo for a family birthday party for all the october birthdays and mine. All the kids had tons of fun playing in the leaves.



Nic was pretty excited about a new job he got at the state mental hospital.



Sweet little Brynnleigh. She is so tiny. At about 7 weeks, she's still smaller than Kiersten was at birth. Shelly and Angie made lots of baby stuff together, and their babies had the same blanket and headband on. Shelly's husband Troy came up to me right after this picture, and had to ask, "is that one mine?" I had a good laugh about that.

holding Brittleah and Brynnleigh. They both had such adorable outfits on!

my nice birthday gifts from my family.

Shelly opening her gifts.

Dad about to open his new blueray player. all of us girls went in on it for his birthday gift. He always lets the kids help him open gifts.

He seemed pretty happy with it. I was glad because he can be hard to shop for.

Evie cried a lot on the flight home. I was a little stressed out by the time we landed. But I was so happy to see Ben pulling up to pick us up, and thrilled to see Kara and Kiersten's smiling faces waiting in the car. Also waiting in the car, was a jewelry bag for me! I was surprised and happy to get this beautiful necklace from Ben. It might be my favorite one he's ever given me. I just love it. Isn't he the best. and I don't know if I can say even better, but almost as good, he cleaned out my car, had the house really clean, and dinner waiting for us at home. That was great to come home to.

10/21/11

I don't have many new pictures this week. I've been busy with getting our dishwasher replaced, getting ready for my trip to Utah with Evie, and getting things back in order from Ben being gone last week. Ben took this picture of the girls while I was at the gym. He didn't like me going at 5 am, because sometimes Evie would wake up, and he'd have to get up with her. So I've been going after dinner, and he has been great about getting the girls to bed without me.
I just got out our box of 18 month clothing and size 5 shoes for Evie. She loved going through the bin of shoes and picking out the ones she liked best. My little squirt is just growing up too fast!

The girls are doing great in school, and they are both learning new things. Kara is learning subtraction, and still hasn't gotten less than 100% on the weekly spelling tests. Kiersten is doing better writing her numbers and letters, and is very excited that she's been doing better at the running races they have. I think it helps that on thursdays I've been making sure she is wearing the right kind of shoes for it. Evie has gotten over her ear infection, and is a much happier girl this past week. She is still a little clingy to me, but starting to ease up a bit. Ben is still working hard as usual, and has been enjoying playing basketball. I've been busy making stuff for my 2 new nieces, Brynnleigh and Brittleah, who I'll be seeing when I go to utah. I also made halloween costumes for Ben and I, but I'll keep it a surprise what they are. It was actually quite easy to make them without a patten. I guess since they are just costumes I wasn't too obsessed with perfection. we already have a costume for Evie, but I'm thinking of making her a second costume to match with ours, to wear to a halloween party on saturday.

10/14/11

The girls were a little confused, and thought we were picking up daddy from the airport yesterday after school. When I bursted their bubbles, that we wouldn't be picking him up for several hours, I had a few sour-pusses on my hands.
He told me he was bringing me something I would really like, so I was pretty excited to find this box when we brought him home late last night/this morning. what could it be?

yummy and adorable marzipan! hooray! And they look like little fruits. so cute, I had to take a picture to remember them by, as they certainly wont be around very long. He had to walk an hour and a half around boston in his work shoes to find the store. He came home with huge sores on both his feet. :(

Evie was pretty excited to see both Ben, and the little teddy bear he brought back for her. She gave me the least trouble, being woken at midnight to go to the airport. The other two girls were SUPER cranky when I was getting them into the car.

The big girls liked their new boston t-shirts so much, the both wore them to school today. They are also excited to have daddy read the new book he got them when he comes home from work tonight. Their teacher let us send them to school a few hours late today, so they could sleep in to compensate for being woken up in the middle of the night. Kiersten was still up at 7 am, and was kind enough to get Evie out of bed too. So I didn't get to sleep in, but Kara and Ben both did, and then he took them to school on his way into work.

zoo and princess party!

On saturday, we decided to go to the zoo. We haven't been for several months, so it was pretty fun to let Evie run around, and see everything. She was impressed with the walruses. It brought me back to when Kara was a baby, and loved watching them.
Checking out the tiger. They have tiger cubs, but we didn't end up seeing them this time.

The kids had tons of fun running around in the shark room with their buddy, Zac.

Kids in the shark bite, looking scary!

and a smiling one too.

They always love the playground. We have to go there last, or the kids wouldn't want to go see any animals.

climbing Kara

Yesterday after school, Kara invited us to a princess party. She said we had to have it before Daddy came home so his feelings wouldn't be hurt that he was not invited. Kiersten insisted on being called, "Lady Kiersten". We also had to speak like princesses, and say things like, "this strawberry is simply divine".

Evie enjoying her hot chocolate and cheese.

After the tea party, we played a few board games until the girls started arguing and fighting. Every time someone had to fall down a chute, Kara and Kiersten would laugh wildly, and Evie joined in too, though she didn't really know why she was laughing.

Kara said she would like to plan a halloween tea party when Grandma comes at the end of the month. So I'll have to help her think of a few ideas for that.