Halloween 2012

Our friends the Ashcraft's threw an amazing Halloween party.  The
entire downstairs of her house was transformed into a dungeon.  Pictures
just don't do it justice.  Amazing food too, and it was a murder mystery.
Ben ended up being the killer :)

We all dressed up in character.  You can see Candace in a blue
arabian outfit, and her husband Scott is wearing the flashy blue turbin.

Time to carve pumpkins and eat a pumpkin pizza!

The finished product.  

Riley's school parade.  He is just so cute!

Riley and his teacher, Ms. McAllister.  I love tomato soup.

Malia's hair was the best!  She was a great Ariel.  Riley
was a great, beefy Hulk.

The first house!  Check out the fullness of that hair.  And
she loves her Ariel highheels but they aren't very practical for walking.

Even mermaids have to go potty sometimes.  Although
I've always wondered how real mermaids do that.

It was really warm this evening, until the sun went down.  I miss green grass.

I hope to get a picture of these two every year.  They are
just so cute!  They used to be the exact same size, but
Malia is now outgrowing Sydni.  

Riley is all business about getting candy.  I love his six pack.

We had my family over, and had dinner in a pumpkin.  It wasn't
too bad.  Probably do it again next year.

Post trick-or-treating hang out.  My dad stayed home to pass out
 candy while we were out.  We had a BIG bag of candy, and thought
that would be plenty because we usually don't get a ton of trick-or-treaters.
Well, my Dad ended up making TWO emergency runs to the story to get more
candy!  We kept running out.  He told a funny story about one little 3 or 4 year old
 boy who, after being told there was no candy, turned around while walking away
and glared at my dad and said "NO CANDY!"  That scared him and he ran
to the story right away :)

Random Fall Stuff

I cut open a pepper from our garden and found it smiling at me!

My garden must be a good place to live.

These bunnies.....!  Their cage was on Riley's dresser, and they 

got a wild hair one night and decided to run around like maniacs

until the cage rolled off the dresser.  I know they get bored, but geez!

I'm "sad" to say that shortly after Christmas, the bunnies went to live

with Kelsey and Ryan.  We had a good 5 months with them.  Now it's

time for a turtle!

Malia loves dance class.  She is on the right, next to Sydnee.

So graceful....

sooooooo graceful!  Trying hard to learn to skip.

Awwwwww :)

Wednesday's at McD'S!!

Oh what I wouldn't give for a bowl of these right now!

My garden is covered in snow now.  Blah!

We went with some friends up the canyon in October.

Cute little gals!

Cute little guys, doing guy stuff with pocket knives.

Up the Nebo Loop with my family.  It was COLD but

we enjoyed our sandwhiches anyways.

This derby was actually an Elders activity!  Riley and 

Ben brought "Mater" and he did surprisingly well.

She has so many different smiles!  I love this one.

Our dear furry friend Charlotte.  

Going to the pumpkin patch brings out the wierd in my

mom and Ben.  I like making fun of my mom's wierd neck.

The kids got some good pumpkins this year.

This is Gardner's Village.  Very cute little place.  

It was also very crowded.

St George and Lagoon

I have a lot of posts to catch up on, and not a lot of time!  

I had the fun opportunity of going with some friends to St. George in October.

We stayed in a really nice townhome, owned by my friend Candace's parents. 

Thank you Candace's parents!!!

We stopped for drinks at a gas station in Beaver.  Who named

that town???  They had a huge chair out front that we had some fun on.

Left to Right: Julie, Geniel, Alyssa, Marie (front), Candace, Katie, Me

Once again, the name of the town is sooo wierd.  Notice the car

wash behind them.  Ha!

Of course there was a lot of eating!!!!

We went to see Hairspray.  It was a pretty good production.

I'm not much of a play/musical person.  But this was fun.

Someone saw me trying to take an arm length shot of all

of us, and I KNOW I looked really dumb, so they

took this pic for us.

The steps say Hairspray.  We are such posers.

Some friends and I go to McDonald's about once a week.

This picture documents the good times.  Yes, it was wierd

that I pulled out my camera at McD's.  But when I am old 

I will like to remember that I did have friends, once.

Also in October, we went to Lagoon.  Poor Malia wasn't 

invited.  We wanted to be able to go on everything, and Malia

just isn't old enough yet.  Don't worry we didn't tell her what

she missed.  The above pic is my mom and I doing gangster

signs, because we are really cool.

The four of us had a great time!  I love Riley's long head

and short little body, in the picture.

A little maze.  I look like I'm running.  I don't remember

running through it. 

Aaaannnnd once again we have two strangely similar 

bodies and hair lines and pretty much everything! Clones!

I love this picture!  Very colorful.

Outside the Mousetrap ride.  There were a few new rides that 

were really cool!  The Colossus is always fun, but I got in trouble

for wearing a fanny pack on it.  The ride operator made me unbuckle

and get off the coaster just before take off.  Dumb!

September

September was a great month!  I love how it starts to cool down.  We got some rain, and some nice rainbows.  My sister Kelsey got married on September 8th, and we had her bridal shower at my house in late August.  Poor Ben got tricked into coming downstairs, and once he was down there we didn't let him leave and he, along with a little girl, became contestants in a toilet paper wedding dress competition!  He makes a nice bride, I think.....



My sister, obviously, is georgeous.  She looks good at all times...it's disgusting!  No but she is a really nice person as well.  Don't you hate that, when someone is beautiful AND genuinely nice?!!  So annoying :)  Her fiance (now husband) is a perfect match for her.  He is a really great guy.  Can't wait till they have kids!

Ben took the kids up Fairview Canyon where his parents were camping.  It seems like we don't have

too many pictures of both the kids with Roger and Marianne, so this one is special :)

Riley had his first day of SECOND grade.  This really feels like the beginning of the end.  While I love that he is in school, I hate thinking of him growing up!  Blah!  This is the principal, who had a microphone and welcomed each child as they walked up the red carpet.  So cute!

Below is a picture of Riley and Malia at home before school.  Malia felt it was her special day too :)   Also below is a picture of Riley and Bailey.  Bailey is in third grade this year and is in LOVE with Justin Bieber.  Riley just rolls his eyes :)  Don't you think Riley looks JUST like Ben?????  The way he stands, the shape of his head, the way his clothes fit.  I love it!
















Below is Riley waving at a friend.... and "BYE!" to annoying mom!  Ms. McAllister is his    
teacher.  She makes me feel old.

.  

Malia started dance class!  Watching her try to be graceful is so hilarious.  But her and Sydni are so cute.  I love watching them flounce around in their little outfits.  I put a lot of dance class pictures in this post because they are all so cute.

Best friends, chatting about who know's what!  I would love to hear their conversations.

The little girl in blue is so cute. She will look through the window and smile huge at whatever Mom is looking at here, and then she'll realize it's not her mom and then frantically look for her mom!

Learning how to chill.....very important in dance. Miss Stephanie is a great teacher.  Malia calls her "Miss Snefanie."

Who needs a dog to hang out the window when you have a child who gets the same pure joy out of this activity!

Malia also enjoying the wind.  We were on our way to the reservoir that is near Spanish Fork Canyon.

Eight feet, 40 toenails, and some beautiful blue eyes :)

Daddy-daughter!

Mommy-son!

One of the gorgeous rainbows we enjoyed in september.  Many times there were double rainbows.  My camera just doesn't do this view justice.

Second week of dance class, and these two are posing like it's prom!

Just being crazy!

Onion Days!  Love Onion Days.  I was able to trade around at work and go to the fireworks.  I LOVE going to fireworks, especially when they are so close.  We were on the football field waiting for them to start, and we thought we were so smart because our chairs were facing south (duh! everyone LOCAL knows the fireworks display is south) while all the "out of towners" were facing their chairs north.  Ben and I even snickered to eachother that we could tell who the locals were.  Well, you can probably guess how this story ends.  The fireworks start

and I just don't get why they are determined to confuse us by switching the location!  Jerks!  There are no words to describe the way our kids look in the above picture, particularly Malia.  She was eating licorice, but there's more going on than just that.  That is definately not a pic you'd use for a dating site!

I love how all three and looking up at the fireworks....they look like they are being brainwashed.

Two cuties, and cute booty's!  This is at the Onion Days parade.....I love the behind shot, and how cute their legs are.

You can't beat those precious faces!

Rode in the monster truck with Riley.  Hot and dirty!  And Malia is starting to be ever more aware that she is not included in all activities.  It's hard to explain to here that she's too little.  She definately felt jipped at not going on the Monster truck!  Onion days, and all of September was great.  Now it is October.  More to come.........love this time of year, but NOT excited for bleak, frigid January and Feb.  Hate those months!  Oh well, I am grateful for a nice warm home, a wonderful family, and faith. What more could I want :)