While Halloween is not my very favorite holiday, I love to watch the kids get excited about it. They have such a great time dressing up and anticipating trick-or-treating.  My mom made the cutest trick-or-treat bags for the kids! What a fun surprise to get in the mailbox! They all slept with them and carried various assortments of things around in them in the days leading up to Halloween. Thanks, Mom! This year our ward had a trunk-or-treat and chili dinner that we got to attend. We came really close to missing it because Leah had been sick, but she rallied just in time and we got to go. It was pretty much insane, as is any dinner time with four children. But the kids had a good time and got to do some fun activities and trick-or-treat. Leah was so full of sass as she rode her stick horse across the gym during the costume parade. She felt like a million bucks, and it showed. I was so proud of Addison for totally taking charge of his costume this year. He was a  b...

Leaf piles Addison's flying leap from trampoline to pile.  Hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Lucky for us, Kim had the same idea and saved us a spot at the front of the extraordinarily long line. It was hot and the pumpkins were unwieldy. But free is free, right? And fun, too, I'm sure. Toasty footie jammies and warm oatmeal Carving pumpkins Asa kept himself occupied by eating lots of junk food. Intent on their work!  Pikachu on the left and two faces on the right. Spooky! Spider treats. These were fun to make during naptime one day. Jack-o-lantern sugar cookies. Another one for during nap time. We have some dear friends who have somewhat recently gotten chickens, including a rooster, ducks, and turkeys. The kids and I like to peek at them through the fence when we go on walks. One day our friends happened to be out with the birds and invited us to the other side of the fence to s...

For our second fun fall activity of the year, we made button pumpkins. The idea is very simple. You get a small pumpkin and pin buttons in it to make designs. They turned out really cute. In the future, we'll make sure we have lots of pins with large balls on the ends. The buttons slide right off the little ones. And Leah needed help pushing the pins into hers. Bryn named her pumpkin Leah. It has a bow in its hair. Addison's did not have a name. He was very clear on that. It was a worker pumpkin - hence the glasses and tie. He played with it for quite a while, taking it to work and home again. And Leah's was Baby. It had a lot of bows and was exclusively pink and yellow.