Carving Pumpkins

Grant really, really wanted to get to carve the pumpkin he got while on his school field trip.

So one day while the other kids were at school I helped him fulfill that dream :)

And since Silvio had never carved a pumpkin before we thought he needed to experience it as well.

Especially since the painting of the pumpkins had been a flop.

Silvio was surprised how thick the pumpkins were to cut through.  Grant loved all the guts inside of them.

We decided no patterns this year!  Just carve a simple face and be happy!

That theory proved to be a good one.  There weren't any tears and everyone enjoyed carving their pumpkins.  So really they kids got to paint and then carve pumpkins this year!  Double the fun I guess?

Good job Kiersten!

Grant ended up getting to carve pumpkins twice.  He didn't mind one bit.

We sat the pumpkins out for Halloween night to decorate the porch and invite the trick-or-treates to our door.

Grant did a much better job on this huge pumpkin than he did on the tiny one he got on his school field trip.

Halloween Night

We had such a fun Halloween night!  This was Silvio's first time trick or treating. I wasn't sure if he'd care to participate with the kids or not. 

But like always he joined right in!!  It was fun to see him enjoy going up to houses and getting candy with all the other kids!!  

I love his good nature!

We first went to the nursing home to trick or treat there. We really could have stopped with that because the kids had enough candy after that. 

But I love the traditional walking down the neighborhood streets ringing doorbells saying "trick or treat."  And of course we have our tradition of always going by Sandra Smiths house. She always has an extra special treat for our kids and they look forward to seeing her, and the treat! 

I love that as soon as the kids get home they want to sort their candy and start the bartering!  Silvio was right in the middle trading his least favorite candy for is most favorite ones! I will treasure this picture and Me. Grants cute underwear bum :)

It was a fun filled evening as a family! 

New Trick

Little Miss Ella has a new trick!

She is a royal mess these days!  She is obsessed with these leafs and it drives her mom CRAZY!!!!  Just add picking up leaves to my daily to do list cause I usually have to pick them up a gazillion times each day!

Dress Up Days

The week of Halloween is always Spirit Week and the kids get to dress up every day.

The different schools have different themes selected for each day.

Hunter's was 50's

Logan's was Dress Like a Community helper.....he borrowed Hunter's idea from last year and dressed up like an inmate.  Cause they help pick up garbage on the side of the road :)

What a stud.... he took a comb to school with him and everything.

Pretty cool tattoos!

Hunter dressed as Captain Underpants one of the days.  And then Kirsten was just wearing her Dorothy costume.

Logan LOVED Mix Match Day!

Grant was anything but a cowardly lion!

Silvio even got in on the action and dressed up like a lollipop kid on one of the dress up days!  He is such a good sport and is always willing to participate in all our crazy American ideas!

Mr. Grant's Preschool Field Trip

Brighter Day Preschool is amazing!

The kids get to go on so many field trips.  I was able to join them for their field trip to the farm and pumpkin patch.

They got to play games...

This is Grant with his best buddy Lexi!

These two are something else when they are together.  And Grant does whatever Lexi tells him too!!  Honestly I need to ask her how she does it :)  I could use some tips from her.

We got to go on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch!  Grant loved that!!

They liked finding their pumpkins in the field.

Each kid got to ride on the horse!  Looks like Grant is one happy cowboy in this picture!!

Lexi was very hesitant to ride the horse but we finally talked her into it!

They got to pet this special donkey.  He is the donkey in the live nativity that goes on at the Gila Valley Temple at Christmas time.

Grant thought that was pretty cool!

They kids got to see a lama, chickens, goats and so much more!  It was a fun field trip!

To finish off I took Grant and Lexi out for ice cream at the Taylor Freeze!

I sure love my Mr. Grant!

Phoenix Temple Open House

We just couldn't find a weekend that we didn't have prior commitments so we decided it was really important to us to give our kids the opportunity to see inside of another temple while they are young. Therefore we had a ditch day!!! Monday we took the kids out of school and drove to Phoenix to go to the Open House.

I LOVE this family of mine with all my heart!

It was a wonderful experience!

Since it was going to be a super fast trip we decided to leave Ella with Grandma and Grandpa Cluff for the day.  Kind of hard to leave her even just for a day but it made the trip so much easier!

What a beautiful temple the Phoenix Temple is!  Such gorgeous art work.  The oval baptismal font is breathtaking........I loved it!

I am so grateful for my eternal family!

I love that we've been blessed to take the kids through 3 open houses of Temples in Arizona.  It's been a great experience each time and memories that I will always cherish!

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am thankful to have the knowledge that I have a loving Heavenly Father.  I am grateful for the opportunity I have to become better and clean through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful and thank my Heavenly Father nightly for all that I have been blessed with.

After the Temple Open House we decide to let the kids have a couple of hours to get their energy out.  We took them to Extreme Air in Chandler.

They all had such a great time on the trampolines and especially on their new obstacle course

I kind of wish I had paid to play cause it looked like a fun time!

Logan kept doing the perfect belly flop onto the air pad.

It really is a cool obstacle course and there weren't many other kids there so that was nice.

The kids all had a blast and were thankful to get to play for a bit.

It was a great day!  It was filled with a beautiful spiritual side to it and then just enjoying being together as a family!  Perfect day in my book!

Fall Tradition with The Pryor's

For the past several years we have had the Pryor family over for a Halloween night of pumpkin carving.

This year we decided to try painting our pumpkins because last year it was super hard for the kids to carve the pumpkins the way they wanted.  So I thought this might be a good alternative.

The kids did enjoy painting but the paint didn't end up turning out as good as well had hoped.

So I don't think painting our pumpkins will be our new tradition.

The boys and I had spray painted the pumpkins first with glow in the dark paint.  It ended up not really glowing very well and kind of made the other paint not stick as well.

Mac was smart and they just did the traditional craving of the pumpkins. Of course if you don't have any kids that your going to have carving then it's pretty easy.

Justin and JP did great on baby duty!

The kids did enjoy getting messy with the paint!!

Mac and Jackie, JP's sister

I love Mac so very much!  She is one of my greatest friends!

So glad I have her so close!

After the pumpkin carving we went to the Pryor's house for s'mores and some football!

Everyone enjoyed JP's hammock.

Deke broke his right foot just a few days after I broke mine.  So him and I are twins!

Love these girls of mine!  Kiersten is a wonderful big sister.

These boys really like JP's hammock.  They helped him put it up months ago.

Grant really took to Jackie!

They became buddies right away.

We really enjoyed our evening of fun, friends and visiting!

Eating S'mores makes anything better!

It was fun to watch the kids play some football.

Jackie was a great coach!

It was a fun filled evening.  And it's a tradition we look forward to every year!