Happy Halloween

We love Halloween at our house! Well most of it and most of the time. The boys were so excited to be pirates and helped pick out everything for their costumes, but somewhere down the line, Jordo changed his mind. What can you do to convince a two-year old that a silly hat matters? You can't and so most the time, Ty was "Captain Pirate" and Jordo was just tagging along.

Our Halloween started Friday night at the annual family pumpkin carving party. The boys took that very seriously and were both there for every second of the job. Thanks to Kev who did it all and most the time had a small pirate on his lap.

After the pumpkins are carved, someone does a silly judging and gives out prizes. Ty's pumpkin won the scariest pirate and Jordo's for the happiest smile. Ty was thrilled. Even though everyone wins, he kept saying, "I won, I won, I can't believe I won!" He felt very privileged to have a prize for 'his' great efforts.

Kev and I even tried to have some Halloween spirit. My 'costume' has worked for three pregnancies now and should there be any more to come, I suspect it will continue. Kev always tries to be creative. Don't you think he did a great job this year?

We had so much fun this Halloween, even with a few tears, and hope everyone else did too. Kev ended up getting the boys to cooperate and they both willingly took this cute picture. Hooray for fall and the holidays! Now we are ready and excited for Thanksgiving.

This Is It

Last night Kev and I went and saw the Michael Jackson movie, 'This Is It'. Those of you that know Kev, know he is a huge M.J. fan and we wouldn't of missed this. It was really good. It was much better than I expected and I was really glad I went. We got our tickets for free, with vouchers, but I would have gladly paid good money for them.

I think because of the icon that Michael Jackson was and his immense talent, this should be something that everyone should see. Definitely a piece of history.

Our Pumpkin Patch Tradition

Every year we go to a pumpkin patch at the end of Kev's parent's street. The lawn is loaded with pumpkins of every size and the kids love searching for the perfect one.

This year the boys rode over in the wheel barrow. They were afraid it would tip, so only Daddy was allowed to drive.

Ty was busy climbing through all the pumpkins. He had to try to get from one side to the other without getting stuck, which did happen a couple times.

Grandma tried to get a picture of Jordo in the pumpkins too, but he never could hold still long enough.

Riding back was a bit more crowded, but as you can tell, the boys were thrilled to ride with their prize pumpkins.

We love fall and all the fun things that come with it! More posts to come of jumping in piles of leaves (Ty checks the window every morning to see if enough leaves have fallen), Halloween and the upcoming holidays!

Count Your Many Blessings

Over the last few weeks we have had a lot of exciting things happen in our family and we can tell that the Lord and His Spirit are definitely present.

About two weeks ago, Kev got ordained to a High Priest because he was made Second Counselor in our bishopric! That was quite the shock to us but even in the short time, we have felt an increase in the Spirit. He has always served faithfully and with complete dedication and is such an example to me and our boys. We are so blessed to have him as a husband and father. It will take some adjusting though. The biggest being, I will sit through Sacrament Meeting alone. Now it isn't so bad, but when the baby comes, it could get tricky. The first week Kev was up on the stand, Ty looked up and said, "Hey, what's Daddy doing up there?" And that was only the first week of many.

(Sorry, most recent pic of Kev!)

Earlier in the month, my brother Todd called and announced that he will be getting married to his long time and wonderful girlfriend, Nikki. December 11th is the big day and we couldn't be happier for these two. They are great people and are lucky to have found eachother. We all just hope that joining our family isn't too much of a shock for such a quiet girl.

And then yesterday, my brother Steve announced that he had his mission call. He didn't really tell anyone that he was turning in his papers so that was surprising, but also very welcomed. We went over to watch him open it and all our guesses were WAY off. He is headed, on January 21st to the....

ZIMBABWE, HARARE MISSION!

He goes to the South Africa MTC too. It is English speaking, but Africa alone will be quite the adventure. Congrats Stevo!

Cabin Fun

Before Kev's birthday, I just haven't had time to post, we went up to a cabin with some friends of ours and had a really great time.

Ty, Jordo, Grace and Jill all settling in for a movie before bed.

Walking around and looking at ducks, geese, swans and of course...

throwing rocks in the water.

Jordo and Jill got creative with the stickers.

(They weren't smiling when we had to take them off a while later)

Ty was always good to be a gentleman and help Grace whenever she was uneasy.

All the kids were ready to go for a ride in the paddle boat.

Here's our family out for a ride.

Here's Ty's fish that he caught. He was really excited to cast and hold the pole, but when the fish got reeled in he had to be held down to go anywhere near it. We asked if he wanted to hold it for the picture and he said, "I do not want to touch that."

We had a great time with the Browns and enjoying nature. This is the kind of 'camping' I can do.