Happy Halloween

It is Halloween!  Here are some of our pre trick-or-treating activities.  First off, trunk-or-treating!  Daxton saw the candy go into the car, his candy bag go into the car, was excited to wear his Jack Jack costume, and was incredibly disappointed that we had to eat and play games before we could go outside and get some candy!  When it was finally time to go outside, and I rounded up the kids who had been roaming the church, he made it to two cars before he called it a night.  Apparently it was way too scary!  

We went with the Incredible family theme this year.  Because we have an extra family member we added Edna Mode to the mix. 

McKenzie was super pumped to be Edna Mode, because she is Jack Jack's little buddy.  

Cambrie put on her Violet costume for our family pictures, but her heart was set on her Vin costume with her mistcloak and she wore that for all of the parties and festivities. 

The other kids though had a blast like always.  They played with their friends, went out together, and did the traditional candy exchange before calling it a night.  

 Even though we went to the pumpkin patch weeks ago, it was only the night before Halloween that we finally carved those things.  The pumpkins were pretty slime-free so cleaning them out was a breeze and I didn't have a single slimy complaint this year! 

 The kids all chose their own designs, and while the younger three needed help implementing their visions, Cambrie did hers all by herself.  She didn't even have a pattern, just a great imagination.  

Kelton did the ghost.  Daxton did Frankenstein.  McKenzie found an adorable witch.

 Cambrie did the owl.  

And by the time I got around to mine I was out of steam and ended up making a rather funky face.  

Kelton's preschool put on a costume parade on Halloween morning.  The weather was clear and not too cold so the kids walked around the courtyard.  The teachers had decorated the ground with chalk and the kids all had a blast.  

Even Daxton tried jumping in the parade.  

The girls helped me make jack-o'-lantern pancakes before heading off to their more normal days at school.  

Before going trick-or-treating, we went up to the Werner's house for a fabulous Halloween feast with some friends.  Luckily there were plenty of adults available to get a picture of our crew!  We can't be the Incredibles family without proof!  

Cambrie really wanted an action shot of her mistcloak so she could see the movement of the tassels.  It looks like she's levitating here!  

Finally it was dark enough that the kids could go claim their candy.  I stayed home passing out candy while my fam was out an about.  More than once I received a comment about my Elastigirl costume and that they had seen other Incredibles out there that night.  Yup, that's my fam!  

We gave the kids a deadline when they had to be back because we were hopping in the car as soon as they finished to drive out to Utah for the wedding.  They still managed to do some serious damage though and filled their bags to bursting.  

Daxton fell asleep somewhere along the way, and I can't say I blame him.  Happy Halloween folks!

Those middle schoolers

Even with middle school woes, these four girls are love going to school together this year.  For spirit week they dressed up for twin day-even it meant having two sets of twins.  

They played volleyball together again this season.  

And at church they always seem to gravitate towards one another.  What a fun, fun time for Cambrie.

Free Saturday!

This is what happens when soccer wraps up for the season-friends on Saturday!  McKenzie invited over her three besties after basketball and they played all day!  Cambrie even got in on the action.  Their favorite game was actually camping.  They took the play tent across the street, set it up, and totally told spooky stories and everything.  It was adorable.  

And the boys?  Well, Kelton and Max liked spying on them from nearby trees.  Oh wonderful freedom!

Little painters

Kelton doesn't like coloring, but for some reason he loves painting.  I must have only let him paint while Daxton was asleep for the last couple years (knowing the full destructive capabilities of Daxton), because as the boys sat down this afternoon to paint, Daxton had no idea what to do.  Kelton showed him how to dip his paintbrush in the paint before spreading it over his paper, how to wash it in the water, and how not to paint anything but the paper.  They painted for a solid half hour.  I kept running out of blank pictures for the two of them!  The only reason we stopped at all was because we were out of paint.  

Maybe I'll trust these boys enough to actually do this again.

Fall soccer wrap up

 This was Kelton's first year on a boys only team. I think he was surprised a bit by the speed of all the of boys, but he never complained.  He was always very anxious to get back on the field after being subbed out because, "his team needed him!"  He's pretty confident in his ability to score goals for his team.

He played on a team with his buddies, Max and Everett.  And even though I could barely get them to hold still long enough for a buddy shot, at least it happened. 

 

Kelton loves this game, and I love watching him, even if his crazy antics from last year are starting to fade away (sigh).  

The Cheetahs

Lotsa Leaves

One benefit to all of the leaves falling off the trees in one day, is that it made for one of the best leaf piles we've had here in our little front yard.  The boys loved it.  It was tall enough that instead of just jumping in, they climbed up the tree then would drop down into the center of the pile.  Perfect!

Then, when it is time to clean them up, into the bags they go!  Kelton saw some pumpkin bags on our neighbor's lawn and wanted to decorate some bags of his own!

Adulting hard core

My brain hurts from so much adulting.  With all of the chaos of summer, school, and Ironman racing I haven't had a lot of mental energy for a lot of the adult things I need to take care of: refinancing the house, building 401k's, financial planning, switching CPA's, establishing a will, budgeting, dealing with insurance agents, repairing my car, selling my car, and now buying a new car.  Jeremy and I have spent hours on the phone, uploading documents, meeting with agents...I am completely spent!  Once everything is all settle it will be really nice.  Getting it there though...I'll be glad when it is done!  In the meantime I have a smallish consolation prize for all of this adulting...a new car!

Let's back up a week and a half ago.  My car started making noise on Saturday after driving around to all of the kids sports games.  I didn't drive it the rest of the night because I was worried about what I was hearing.  The women's session of General Conference was that night and in order to get there I had to find a babysitter and a car.  It was worth it though because the girls and I had a great evening.  Sunday night we drove my car to the church but we couldn't hear anything.  Monday afternoon I was on my way to pick up Cambrie from math club after school when my car started making horrible noises.  It was jerking, grinding, whining, and I didn't like it one bit.  I immediately pulled over and needed to call not only a tow truck but I also needed to find a ride for Cambrie.  I had no idea who else was at math club with her so I didn't know who to call. I called about six friends who lived up in the neighborhood when Polly finally called saying that she had picked up Cambrie outside of the school.  She then came and met me on the side of the road and rescued my boys from having to stay and wait for the tow truck with me.  We towed it in and they told me that I'd need a new power transfer unit for my all wheel drive and that it would take about a week for them to get it back to me.  A week later they called telling me even worse news.  As they were repairing that unit they discovered that the real problem was rust and metal shavings in my transmission.  They were going to have to replace the entire transmission.  Suddenly this became a very different discussion than just a simple car repair. 

Jeremy and I have talked about getting a bigger car for our family, but didn't want to deal with the expense right now.  With this new information about our Mazda though we had to change our plans.  Since the car was in the dealer's shop we were able to work out a deal to trade it in as-is for a new/used car.  We were limited to the used car choices they had on site.  There were two that made sense and were the upgrade that our family was looking for.  One was a 2013 Tahoe that was a very basic model but honestly wouldn't have solved our storage, ease-of-access issues we have with my car.  The other was a 2016 Expedition that had all the bells and whistles.  If I could chose any used car, this would be it, except maybe the color.  But to have the exact car I wanted and to get a great deal with our trade in?  My car has been paid off for a couple of years and I really wasn't excited to have a car payment again, so it was really tough to say yes.  Ultimately though we think it is the best choice for our family long term, so we now have a new car.  When I went back to the dealer today to empty my car it was really tough.  I've loved my Mazda.  It has been an amazing car, and was so reliable for years.  So many memories, and I hated saying good-bye.

Chicken Tree

Our first snow came early and our tree chickened out.  It dropped all of its leaves in one day.  It was kind of crazy to look at that perfectly round pile of leaves underneath it.  It's also kind of crazy to look at that gorgeous young woman hanging out under that tree.  

Pumpkin Patch Time

It's pumpkin patch time!  Even though we currently only have one car (that only seats four), we knew we needed to make a trip to the pumpkin patch before the weather completely drops this weekend and the snow rolls in.  It was everything a pumpkin patch trip should be, including the walking for miles in the pumpkin fields waiting for the kids to find the absolutely perfect pumpkin.  

Daxton could care less about how perfect it was.  He couldn't understand why we weren't taking home every pumpkin he passed.  

It was tough this year finding pumpkins that fit the kids' visions because they were almost all exactly the same size and shape this year.  

Eventually we found a pumpkin that was perfect enough for each one of us.  

After the pumpkins we headed to the hay bale maze which is just as fun as pumpkin hunting.  Jeremy was playing tag with the kids and found that it is a lot harder now than in years past because they can leap across the gaps like he can.  Of course, they aren't nearly as sore as he is after all of that leaping.  

Daxton grew tired of the hay bale maze and wanted to hang out in the tractors.  

A good ol' traditional hay bale picture of my kids.

The only way to get our pumpkins and all of our kids home was to put McKenzie in the back of the car laying on top of the pumpkins.  Luckily we had all shed our coats by that time so we could lay them down as a bed for her.  Yea for small humans!