Halloween - A Lot Late

Yes, I know we've all moved on and are thinking about Thanksgiving, but here are our Halloween pictures.

During Emily's October break, I tried to have productive mornings for the kids. So we made crafts, all of which were my own design and creation. I'm only pointing that part out because I have ZERO artistic ability. Luckily my kids don't know that and think I'm a "great artist". First we did pumpkins. The kids did some of their cutting and all of the gluing and placement of the parts. Hopefully you can tell mine from theirs. :)

On this one I was particulary imressed with my creativity. :) We made ghosts out of coffee filters (we've used them for another craft). They come in packages of about 12 million, so this was a great way to use them up. We took one coffee filter and wadded it up into a ball for the head. Then we took a second filter and wrapped it around the ball and tied it off to make the rest. It was so easy the kids did everything but the tying. We made a bunch and hung them up around the apartment.
Then we did black cats. It turned out to be a lot of cutting on my part, but they loved them.

For a Family Home Evening we carved pumpkins.

Daddy and Dallin were partners for one.

Mommy and Emily were partners for the other one.

The finished product. Not really sure why Dallin looks medicated in this one!

We don't use patterns or don't do anything really fancy or cool. In fact, I think we do the same faces every year because, again, zero artistic ability.

But in spite of that, the kids always have a great time and love their jack-o-lanterns.

We celebrated Halloween on Saturday. That day was also our moving day and very remeniscent of last year when we moved from Alabama to Texas on Halloween.

Dallin was a pirate. My favorite part of his costume was the earring, which you can't really see.

Emily was a witch. She did NOT like wearing the hat and had issues with the sleeves, which is why she's making this face.

Meg was supposed to be a chicky. She didn't like it and cried when Danny put it on her. I took the costume to the ward party intending to put it on when we got there. Well, we ended up just lugging it around and never put it on her. Definitely the result of having three kids and being very pregnant. At least she was wearing Halloween jammies, right?

Here they all are outside for trunk-or-treating yelling, "Happy Halloween!"

The trunk-or-treat was awesome; tons of cars and tons of candy.

Megan looked so cute walking around, carrying her bag all by herself.

Emily was all business; very efficient and quick at every car.

The examining of their spoils. They made a good haul.

We've Moved!

Tonight I really ought be working to put our house together. But I'm tired of unpacking and sorting through boxes. And, quite frankly, I'm just plain tired. So instead I'm posting about our big, exciting moving day.

We closed on our house on the 21st and had some professionals come in to paint most of the downstairs a few days later. We opted months ago to keep our all of our belongings moved from Dallas in storage with the moving company, so in our apartment we'd been using the bare minimum generously loaned or donated by many family members. Literally the only thing we brought from Texas was two weeks' worth of clothes in suitcases since we thought we'd have a home to live in after a month or so. Anyway, the moving guys came and brought everything on the 29th. The real work for us began on the 30th and we had fantastic helpers in the form of all of Danny's siblings. We got so much done and unpacked that day, and we couldn't have done it without them. So thank you Stacy, Ben, Mike, and Emily!!

Here are some photos I took the day before the movers came.

My favorite part is this Nacho Libre chapel they put on. Yeah, we're hoping to get that changed (if the HOA okays it).

The entry way.

From the reverse position.

The hallway off the entry way to the garage, the laundry room, a bathroom, and a bedroom.
Part of the laundry room. I think I'll love my sink and cabinets in there.

We opted for an additional bedroom downstairs instead of having a den or extending the family room. For now, it will be a play room.

We also opted to make this downstairs bathroom a full bathroom instead of just a powder room.
The kitchen. I love it. The red is not as bright in real life. And someday I want to stain the cabinets a much darker brown.

Looking into the kitchen from the family room.

Looking into the family room from the kitchen.

Upstairs is the master bedroom and bathroom.

And the kids' rooms. I'm so thrilled for Megan to be in a crib and a real bedroom instead of the playpen and our stuffy, little, pitch-black closet she resided in for the past four months.

And happy for Emily and Dallin to have actual beds to sleep on instead of the air mattresses they've been using since we left Dallas the end of May.

A view of the backyard from the house. Soon we hope to have grass and a swing set for the kids. And later shade trees, citrus trees, flowering shrubs, and an edible garden. As for now, you'll just have to use your imagination.

There you have it. We feel so blessed to finally have this home. We are definitely hoping to share it with others, so come on down for a visit!

Girls' Get Away

Over the weekend I got to go on a Girls' Get Away in the Phoenix area. The girls included: my mom, my two sisters, my three sisters-in-law, and myself. It was SO FUN!



People got met up at various parts of the day to do lots of fun stuff. I arrived in time for dinner at Carrabba's, one of my faves. Let me just say Pollo Rosa Maria with garlic mashed potatoes and a Caesar salad. YUM!

We stayed for free at the Westin, thanks to my brother-in-law. We were all in one room; some in beds and some on the floor on air mattresses. I liked staying in one room. Some conked right out while some of us stayed up late talking and laughing.

One of the best parts of the weekend for me was a slow, leisurely Saturday morning. My sister, Jennifer, was SUPER nice and painted my toe nails for me since it's nigh unto impossible for me to get down there these days. She even massaged my legs and feet with lotion. She offered to do it. It was her idea. Talk about a thoughtful sister! I finally agreed and it felt so nice. I've been admiring my pretty toes ever since.

We shopped for most of the afternoon at some outlets. We would shop all day, every day if we could. We live for good sales and found tons of stuff. I like this picture of my sisters, my mom, and me. They are great! Often strangers ask if we are triplets. And they also think my sisters-in-law are actual sisters. I guess we all look pretty similar.

Here's all our loot that filled up the back of my mom's car. We did well to say the least. After shopping we went to eat at the White Chocolate Grill. Mmmmmm.

A big thanks goes to all the hubbies who stayed behind with kiddos. We had a great time being together and having a little time away from the daily grind. Besides Danny, of course, these are the people I love spending time with most. I can't wait till next year!

The Zoo

Danny had the day off, Emily's still on fall break, AND it's not 45,000 degrees anymore. So we went to one of our favorite spots this morning: the good ol' Reid Park Zoo.

It's a terrific zoo for several reasons. It's quite shady, the exhibits are close together, the animals are almost always in plain view, it only takes two hours max to see everything, and admission is relatively inexpensive. We love it. We were happy to go back after so long.

Always the highlight is feeding the giraffes, Denver and Texas.