Happy Halloween!

Here are our girls in their costumes getting ready to trick our treat tonight. Happy Halloween!

Halloween Parades

Both Autumn and Ashlyn had Halloween parades at their school. Each had a party and came home with lots and lots of goodies.
Here is Autumn walking in her class parade, taking a class, and teacher Halloween photo. With spooky Halloween music Ashlyn walked with her class around the school for her Halloween parade. Autumn walked with her and I pushed Aubrey in the stroller.

The Carving of the Pumpkins

It's always fun and exciting for our family to carve our pumpkins. First we have to make a decision on what we want our pumpkins faces to look like. Then cut the top off scooping out the insides and creating each of our own master pieces. Then we can line them up, lite them up, and see how our creations turned out.

Our Annual Halloween Dinner

Every year for the past 8 years now we have been having a Halloween Dinner the Monday night before Halloween. We invite another family to come and enjoy a fun and spooky night with us. Last night we had our friends the Oliver's as our special guests. We watched Halloween cartoons and ate our spooky dinner. On the menu was skeleton brain dip, brain cell jello salad, mini mummy warps, kitty litter casserole, Halloween shaped jello jigglers, and ghoul aid(with dry ice). We asked our guests to bring a ghoulish dessert(it is so much fun to see the different creations our guests bring). They did awesome job and they were yummy. The kids got to make and take home a witch hand filled with popcorn, m&m's, and peanuts. We had a great and spooky evening.

Celebrate!

Saturday we went to Cameron Park for our nephew Davis's 7th birthday.
We played games and had yummy cupcakes. Then the kids got to hit a football shaped pinata. They were really excited about that. And we had fun with the remaining pieces still in tacked.The Birthday boy even had fun with the leftover pinata.After the party we went to the movies to see High School Musical 3, Senior Year. The girls loved it. After the movie Noah's family took pictures of my girls posed all cute in front of the cut out and for me they hid. Can you find them?

Halloween Costumes!

So this week was the week for my girls to decide what they wanted to be for Halloween. Ashlyn wanted to be Dracula, then Hannah Montana, then a Runaway Diva(whatever that is?) and so on. We went down all the costume isles at the store to find the right one. She finally decided on being a cheerleader, but I always have one rule it has to be modest(most big girl costumes are trashy). We found one that fit both requirements, a High School Musical EHS red and white cheerleader costume. Autumn wants to be a pirate, a witch, or a princess. Well she is in luck we have all three costumes already. She couldn't make up her mind so I told her to be all three at all the various party's we have coming up. Aubrey will be a Pumpkin Pooh Bear(her sisters were the same thing at 2yrs its become a tradition)but she did say a witch too(we have one her size). So with costumes picked out we can let the party's begin.

Tonight we went to Ashlyn's school for a Halloween Party and this is what they decided to dress up as.

Harvest Party

We had our Ward Harvest Party on Saturday. For the past few years our ward has had a Harvest Party at one of the members home who has several acres of farm land. We bring sides or desserts while Elders Quorum provides the hot dogs and chili beans. We eat, play, visit, and before the sun sets they let all the children run through their pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin of their choice. This year they grew 200 pumpkins. We all came home with a pumpkin and then some. We had a wonderful time enjoying the party and being with friends.

Smith Family Farms

Autumn's Pre-School class took a field trip to Smith Family Farms. It has many fun harvest colors, scarecrows and of course pumpkins. They have a country style "Hoe Down" in the barn. The girls loved clapping and singing to the music. Autumn and some of her friends participated in playing in the band. Then we took a Hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where each of us picked our own pumpkin. We then headed back to run through the corn maze, see the barnyard animals, and see the Miwok Indian Village. We all sat in the picnic area and ate our lunches. Autumn and even little Aubrey had a great time with her classmates. We had so much fun. We just love the Fall.

Had a Bad Day

We all have had bad days, but two bad days? On Monday Aubrey was closing the shower door and slipped falling on her right side on the door jam. I wasn't to worried about it until I noticed how swollen, bruised, and red it was even after a couple of hours. I called the doctor and they suggested I bring her in just to be on the safe side. As I was getting her sisters shoes on in the other room I heard some screaming. It was Aubrey again I ran over to her, but didn't see anything immediately. Then I noticed her hand on her nose. There was something stuck in her nose. She put a bead up her nose and it got stuck. I tried to get it out myself, but couldn't get it. So when I showed up to the doctors office with my original problem I then had to explain the new problem with her. They looked at her side and said she would be fine and removed the bead from her nose. She had a bleeding sore nose for the rest of the evening.Then on Tuesday as I was running through my kitchen I slipped on some water and went crashing to the tile floor. I landed on my right side with my right hand taking the brunt of the fall(I haven't had a fall like this in a very long time). I was in so much pain every joint and muscles seemed to ache on that right side. My palm of my had bruised up immediately. My body hurt and I started bruising up in various spots. I took some Motrin and called it a day. I hope the next few days are better.

Enjoying Grandma

While Noah and I were in Las Vegas the girls stayed at his mothers house. They had a great time with Grandma,their cousins, and their aunt and uncle. They went "Booing" for FHE on Monday night. Booing is where you take a plate of goodies to someones home, knock and then run and hide. Then you watch the people receive the goodies with a note that says "You Have Been BOOed! The kids all had a blast.
They all went to the movies on Tuesday to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. They must have enjoyed it, because they can't stop talking about it. They also went to the park a few times. They really enjoyed spending one on one time with Grandma and Noah and I really appreciated Grandma watching them so that we could have one on one time.

Last Day in Vegas

Tuesday was our last full day in Las Vegas and we started our morning by going to a breakfast buffet. We then walked down the strip and walked through Planet Hollywood and Paris. We did a little shopping for the girls and ourselves. We decided to catch the 1 pm comedy show called the Mac King Comedy Magic Show. Mac King was very funny, kid friendly, and did some cool magic tricks. We received a free magic book that Noah was rally excited to get(he wants to try them out on the girls). We even had a chance to meet Mac King himself and have him sign our book. We walked back to Planet Hollywood to eat at Pampas Brazilian Grille this is a traditional Brazilian grill with meat on a skewer fresh and still sizzling as it hits your table. It was really yummy. After catching the water show outside the Beligio we headed back to our room to rest before our most anticipated show KÀ by Cirque du Soleil. We were excited to watch a Cirque show and heard that KÀ was one of the best. KÀ, is a gravity-defying production. Which takes you on a heroic journey of love and conflict, set within an amazing theatrical landscape, as an entire empire appears on KÀ's colossal moving stage and a captivating display of acrobatics around the audience.We ate some dessert at a little cafe inside the MGM right next to the KÀ theater. At 9:15 we were seated for KÀ by ushers in lavish costumes and had some acrobats performing while we waited for the show to begin. It was Amazing!We loved every moment. It was a perfect way to end our last night in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Day 2

We woke up pretty early and got ourselves ready for our day in Vegas. The first thing we did was head to the lobby to speak with the concierge service so we could buy tickets for the 9:30pm showing of KA by Cirque Du Soleil. Then we walked the strip to the Tix 4 Tonight booth. This is where they sell discounted tickets for most all of the shows in Vegas and some restaurants. Noah and I bought Carrot Top tickets for 50% off and restaurant discount coupons for a Brazilian Buffet.
We then headed over to the Luxor to turn in our receipt for actual tickets for the 8pm Carrot Top comedy show. We were able to get really good seats right in the middle. We grabbed some brunch and wondered around the inside the Luxor to check it out. We found the Criss Angle's store and a lot of his motorcycles on display. We then walked through New York New York. We sat and did a little people watching. It was fun to see how much it really is like downtown Manhattan(we spent a week in Manhattan about 4 years ago). Noah and I proceeded to walk on the strip and walk through almost all of the themed Casinos. After much walking we rode the monorail back to our hotel and rest before our show.
Carrot Top has been a comedian for some time and uses props in his shows. He was very funny and our seats were excellent. He did bring up some very inapporiate topics since as he stated "this is Vegas what do you expect". Overall we laughed a lot and would enjoy seeing him again.After the show I thought we were headed back to our room but Noah wanted to take me to the Venetian for a romantic glide down the Grand Canal in an authentic Venetian gondola. We floated beneath bridges, beside cafes, under balconies and through the vibrant Venetian streetscape as your singing gondolier took us on a relaxing romantic ride. He told us to kiss under every bridge and even recited a Love poem for us. It was the perfect way to end our day.

Viva Las Vegas

As it gets closer to our 10 Year Anniversary Noah and I decided we wanted to do an early celebration with all the holidays coming. As we looked online at places to go and thought about what to do we realized we have gone to a lot of places this year. Where else is there for us to go(that fits the budget)? About 10 years ago as Noah and I were heading from San Diego to Provo we stopped in Las Vegas for the day to walk the strip, eat at a buffet, and do a little shopping. We always thought it would be fun to go back some day and spend a couple of days in Vegas. We looked up air fare on this new smaller airline called Allegiant Air and found some great deals to Vegas. So we booked three nights and four days stay at the MGM Grand.
We flew out on Sunday evening and got into Las Vegas around 9:15. We took a free shuttle to the MGM Grand and checked in. The room was pretty nice. It was decorated with old black and white photos of movie stars and had a cool shaped couch. It was also close to the elevators(which we found to be convenient). It was almost 11pm when we went back out to eat dinner at the Rainforest Cafe located inside the MGM. After dinner we walked around the MGM and quickly discovered how big it is. There is so much to do at the MGM that we never had to leave if we didn't want to.

Apple Hill

The annual Apple Hill trip that Anissa usually does with my mom, sisters, and all the kids was on Saturday so that we could make it a family activity. Despite the rain we went to all of the normal stops that they do when they come up for the day. The first stop was to Plubell's Family Orchard to see the farm animals and walk around. We took pictures in the rain of the kids and us in the pumpkin patch and on the tractors.Then we headed to Honey Bear Ranch to eat lunch. They have a couple of lunch specials. Anissa and I split her favorite lunch special of chicken apple strudel, with apple salad, and a slice of apple pie and tried the pulled pork sandwich with potato salad and a slice of apple pie. It stopped raining a little so we took the kids out to the pond to see the fish, to play in the pumpkin maze, and to see the pig roasting. We all had a great time.Our last stop was High Hill Ranch. This is where they buy apple donuts and fudge. It was really crowded and raining here so we did not stay to long. Anissa and my mom wanted to stop at a few other places on the way home. They bought apple fritters, pumpkins, and 80 pounds of apples. I think 60 pounds are for us to take home. I really enjoyed going up to Apple Hill and spending the day with my family.