Giddy for Halloween

One last picture from the night: Kimball's excitement coming through. He was about as excited that I finally let him have the light saber again as he was to go trick-or-treating!

Halloween ... on October 30th

On days when there are just too many great photos to fit into one post, I do an entry on our other blog too, so you'll just have to read on our other blog for the details of our Halloween adventures of 2010. They were pretty great. Mine even included a new car battery and Advil Sinus Advance Formula. How's that for fun?

Here's a few pictures of the spook alley that Jared made in the back part of our house. It was complete with spooky sounds and music, a moving/talking ghost, a tunnel of doom (which I dared to crawl through myself), and buckets of candy protected by moving skeleton hands. Awesome.

This is the best shot of the whole night. I think they could pass for the real thing. They were, by far, the best outfitted kids of the night.

Friday Morning

This is what I woke up to on Friday morning. Koria and Kimball don't have preschool on Fridays, so I told them the night before that we would have a special day to do all-things Halloween. I suggested that they find all of their books that were especially just for the holiday and that the next morning, we would start off the day by reading them to get into the spirit of things. Well, below is pictured the "special" books that they came up with to read. That was just when I caught them too. Who knows what Koria's bed would have turned into if I didn't get up when I did.

I also see this familiar face every morning, proceeded by an extra pungent smell. Luke usually is standing up in his crib though, bouncing around and having a good time banging on the blinds, with a pile of toys on the floor that he's thrown down in delight.

Pumpkin Heads

She's just cute.

Pumpkins

Luke and Layne dressed up as pumpkins this year too, with a witch in between.

Long As We're Going Back

I just ran on the this picture that was taken in '77, before I was born. Yeah, it's REALLY old. Here's the lineup of my older siblings, starting from left to right:

Shanell as a bunny (I think Mom was smart. Shanell looks like she could be ready for bed in no time. I'm considering trying to talk Koria and Kimball into this kind of outfit for Halloween.)

Becky as Gypsy #1

Lance as Cowboy

Wendy as Gypsy #2

I love the pumpkins too. Life doesn't get much better.

Cassy, Kendra, and Laneea

You'll have to refer to our other blog for details on Koria and Kimball's Halloween Party for Preschool today. I saved this pic for this blog though, as It's more about me than the party. This is a picture of a couple friends of mine and I, as proof that some things never change, like the fact that you can still fit a two-by-four through my gaping mouth. Isn't it awesome? That thing can stretch about a mile, I tell ya.

Sisters

I started a game a while ago that I named, "Big Chief PowWow," which is the equivelant of the game "Simon Says." I basically sit on the floor, legs folded indian-style, and speak with a deep, gutteral voice, proceeding commands such as, "Big Chief Pow-Wow say get in your pajamas. Big Chief Pow-Wow say brush your teeth. Make teeth shine." And so on.

The reason I mention this is that Koria being the eldest girl of the bunch, likes the title I've given her for the game, "Little Chief Redhead." It's very fitting, other than the fact that there's nothing little about her abilities to take charge. She's a natural mom too, as seen here in these two pictures I took on Wednesday. She's already better at it than I am. I looked at my two beautiful girls, sitting there next to each other on the couch, and I couldn't help but think of how quickly time is going by, of how much better I hope they turn out than their ol' mom.

They will too. I can already see it. There's hope for the future. All I have to do is look to my children and I see it. Just hope they know how much I love them.

Halloween Outfits #2

On Tuesday ... I think ... Koria and Kimball were invited to their friend Cassidy's Halloween Dance Class Party, which was right before school. You'll have to refer to our other blog for more details, but as you will notice, this is Koria's second official costume for this season.

Halloween ... Last Year

I've been rather busy the last few days, as it usually seems when Jared's not here. SOOoooooooo ..... these are not new pictures, but I did some digging around and found some pics from last year around this time. Hope you enjoy them.

Skype from Our Perspective

If you've seen Becky's blog from yesterday, you've seen us through Skype as we talked with her. Jared took off for a business conference in St. George right after church was over, so it was just the kids and I here. Skpye makes for a great way to visit the family and a great way to entertain the kids on Sunday. This is what WE got to see from our perspective.

I also ended up teaching my first Gospel Doctrine lesson yesterday (in this ward) which was on Isaiah 50-53, the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Yeah, there's not too much I felt was appropriate that I could do to make the lesson material more entertaining, so we stuck to the scriptures and some good experiences. I let them all know that although I knew the sisters could handle a wig, I wasn't so sure about the brethren. Maybe next lesson.

Saturday night at about 10:30, Jared's sister Jana called up and asked us if we were getting to do anything fun with our Saturday night. He replied, "Kendra's preparing a gospel doctrine lesson ... on Isaiah ... (brief pause) .... (lots of laughter -- from both ends)."

I didn't think it was funny.

Kinex are Kool

Jared found this Kinex Rollercoaster set at the D.I. a couple years ago and decided to give it a try this last Saturday. It took a few hours to set up, but it was well worth the screams (literally) of excitement that it produced from the kids. I think Jared enjoyed setting it up as much as the kids like playing with it, to tell you the truth.

Spanish Group Halloween Party 2

On Friday, we all headed over to our Stake Center for the Spanish Group (not big enough to be a branch yet) Halloween Party. The kids were very excited to be able to dress up for the event, eat some food, and enjoy some fun games. Jared and I put on a fishing pond. Koria and Kimball kept asking me questions around the "pond" and while Jared had to hold Luke to keep him from bursting through the barrier, Layne found a little piece of heaven in licking the wooden floor board, wagging her dragon tail in the air. I obviously could not she her doing this until we were done, so I guess she got a little extra fiber in her diet this weekend. Luke was appropriately dressed as a skunk, and when I went to dish up my plate of food, I looked back across the hall to see a puff of white fur and a big ball of black crawling and bawling in a desperate attempt to catch up with me. His face was a nice shade of red when all was said and done. Kimball made a stunning Darth Vader, and Koria chose to be a pirate (she had multiple outfits lined up this year). Here's a look at the kids.

Darth Kimball, minus the light saber. It proved to dangerous within a matter of minutes or being brought down off of the closet shelf. We'll save it for the big night itself.

Koria RedBeard Black (this is her reaction when I told her to look scurvy. Isn't it awesome that my four-year-old daughter knows what that means?)

Spanish Group Halloween Party

Layne The Ferocious

Licking the cultural hall floor with her tail in the air

Bringing out his true nature

"Make Me a Mummy" Contest

And my personal favorite, this is an example of how photo shoots go at our house.

Autumn Leaves

I just stepped outside the door and took a few pictures of some of the leaves on our trees. This is one, the other is the gigantic pictures that's now our blog head. Like I said yesterday, nature is just magical.

The Saga Continues

I had Kimball lay down on the porch so that you could see the enormous size and yield of our pumpkin crop this year. Here it is, in it's entirety. It's almost intimidating, isn't it? Oh well, one for each kid.

Along with several other Halloween decorations around the yard, this is Pumpkin Man, hanging out on the front porch on the kids' chair.

Last of all, this is "the bad guy" and "Princess Leia" as they put it. I found K&K outside, Kimball driving his prisoner around on a tricycle. It's the latest installment in their Star Wars reinactments. Believe it or not, Koria was laughing too, so I didn't worry. They had found a container outside earlier that had filled up with a massive amount of water from the two previous days of rain, and proceeded to use their baseball mitts to scoop out and throw water on each other, which they also found hilarious. Hence, the wet clothes.

Foggy Morning

I messed up. I posted all the pics on our other blog, so check it out for the info on this pic.

Dinner All Over the Place

I decided to make homemade "Arizona Chicken Chili" tonight for dinner. Chili's good when it's been raining all day and night, when a bag of concrete mix is left out on the driveway the night before and shreds to pieces as you are trying to move into the garage and out of the wet, on a day when your twin babies decide they'd rather play with the blinds instead of take a nap .... It was good too. I love that recipe. Thanks to whoever made it up. That is to say, thanks to whoever created it but NO THANKS to whoever didn't provide a disclaimer on it stating the effects such food would have on hair, clothing, or highchairs. Should have known that the babies would love it too, that they love it so much that they'd decided to try it on for size -- literally. We were in the middle of Family Home Evening at the table tonight (focusing on manners) when Jared and I both caught a glimpse of the girl we know as Layne behind me, slathering herself up in home-cooked goodness. Luke did a much better job -- maybe he payed attention to the lesson tonight and made more of an effort to not completely demolish his meal -- but Layne? Well, she could use another lecture. Here's a look at what chili looks like in your hair, just in case you were wondering. Needless to say, tonight ended up being a bath night.

Metal Siding

Just one more shot from our stay at the cabin.

Love Em

Strawberry Shortcake

No, the title is not referring to the popular kids' cartoon or her do-gooding ways. It's in reference to what we happened to enjoy for dessert on Friday night up in Sugar City. Here's a look at some of my favorite shots of just how much we (particularly Luke and Layne) enjoyed to goods.

Ahhh ... what am I going to do with those two? I'm not including Layne in that either.

Day at the Cabin

On Thursday morning, Becky, the kids, and I headed up to the cabin to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and scenery. We had a great time. Here's just a couple of pics from the day ... with more to come when I get a chance to do a little editing, but this is just proof in picture as to why Beej is the best and most-loved aunt of all time.

Nielson's Construction

Wednesday morning, right before we headed up north, K&K had their third field trip of the week with preschool and this time, I was privileged to be able to come along for the adventure. Sure I had to drive six four-year-olds and two adults to a construction site, but it was worth it. Here's a few pictures from the outing. This first one is of Koria getting to blow the horn on a big rig. Kimball's next, with the perma-grin.

The preschoolers got to see a giant bulldozer run over two junk cars, after they had been lifted up in the air by a giant crane and set back on the ground again. It was every Tonka-loving little boy's dream come true. Kimball was kind enough to point out all of the cool stuff for the other kids.

They each received the lovely orange vests and hardhats that they are seen wearing too, which definitely were outstanding. I wish they would have given the adults some too.

Painting the Holidays

Last Tuesday, the day before we headed up to Idaho for our Fall Break, I whipped out a set of wooden month-by-month cut-outs that I'd found in a giant package, unpainted, at the D.I. about six months ago. When I saw it, I thought to myself, "For 75 cents and some paint, I'll bet I would have a fun project for the kids to do." Let me tell ya, it's worth more than the cents I paid for it -- at least two bucks worth. Koria and Kimball had a great time painting to their hearts' content. Most of those are covered in at least five layers of paint. They'd paint one, then let it dry, then decide that the previous color scheme just wasn't right. My favorite is the "flying angel" a.k.a. Cupid that is all green. A lot of them started out with a green base coat, per Koria's instuctions. Guess she likes green.

By the way, can you guess which ones I did?