Happy Halloween!

First of all, I have to state the fact that I am a LAME MOM!!!!

This year~
1. no Halloween decorations up, inside or outside
2. no visit to the pumpkin patch
3. no carving pumpkins

Pfffft! What is WRONG with me??!?

Excuses are as follows:
1. Conference weekend I was busy enjoying my family, then I went into we're-leaving-on-vacay-in-one-week panic mode, so the LAST thing I wanted to do was drag out the box of Halloween decor! Then it got too close to waste my energy decorating to just take it all right back down.
2. I'm beginning to detest driving long distances, just to have a little bit of fun. Tuh.
3. I waited til the laaaaaaast minute and of course, there were no pumpkins to be found. *sigh*

Lets focus on the positive, here. I DID make Halloween-shaped sugar cookies, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed decorating and gobbling up. And I DID buy cutesie Halloween shirts for my kids (which I took no pictures of, what is wrong with me??!). And I DID buy costumes for 3/4 of my kids!!!!

We had a great time Friday night at the ward Trunk-or-Treat, seeing all the cute kids and brave adults in their costumes. :) Halloween night, I took Brooklyn to her dance studio for an hour or so for their Halloween festivities, then we took a quick trip trick-or-treating up and down the street perpendicular to ours. I wanted to get home to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters; my favorite part of Halloween now that we're homeowners!!! We started off with the cutest of all... ;)Brooklyn, our darling angel! She made sure EVERYone knew what she was dressed up as. As if, it's hard to tell.....

I'm jealous of her lashes! She got those from her Daddy!Blake's costume of choice -- WOLVERINE!

We had a *little* costume drama with this boy. First of all, he changed his mind, every day on what he wanted to be. So I just left it up to him to choose something out of our overflowing boy dress-up bin. When it came time to get dressed in Superman (his choice) for the Trunk-or-Treat, a huge tantrum ensued, in which resulted (30 minutes later) in him wearing LAST year's pirate costume over jeans and his glow-in-the-dark skelly shirt. Saturday morning, I prepped him early on for the evening events of dressing up, but we still had plenty of tears come time to dress up again. Somehow, we survived. Although, he immediately stripped down upon returning home.

I'm pretty sure this kid has sensory issues. Everything is either choking him or itchy or pant legs are touching his feet, blah, blah, blah. He mostly lives in his unders all day.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's......................SU-per Gavin!!!LOVE my cute Presty spider!!Momma witch and her little bugga
This is as close as he comes to tasting sweets ;)Blue IS his favorite color!

I can't believe October is over and Christmas is right around the corner!!

FALL pictures

I had this all planned out weeks before we went to Utah. I was bound and determined to get some PRETTY Fall pictures of my kids. I found and bought the outfits. I was soooooooo excited about this because I seriously stress out over finding the perfect, coordinating clothes. I'm not good at throwing things together, but these were perfect AND coordinating (from two different stores, mind you)!! The location was just what I had in mind and I think the pictures turned out GREAT, if I do say so myself!!! ;)

Gavin was tossing leaves in the airUnimpressed that he was buried with leaves by his siblings
Love, love LOVE this one of my three boys!!My blue-eyed boyWe snuck one in of Matt & I...My twins. Sometimes I'm still baffled that *I* have twins!!
No one (strangers) even realizes that they are twins anymore. :(Preston was beyond starving at this point and was done cooperating!
Quick dinner break and we were back in business!I love these four! ♥Happy baby now!Posing for the camera

Last leg ~ Provo and thereabouts ~ Part III

Friday night, we were able to get together with old friends from California for some good times. Joel & Tricia Underwood hosted at their beautiful new home. It was them, James & Carrie Rhodes, the Barneys and us. At one time, all of us families were living in the same apartment complex in Fullerton. I hardly recognized any of the kids, it had been so long and they'd grown so much!!

Playing "speed Uno." My head was reeling after this game!David AKA Chumby.

I seriously had to ask Carrie what his real name was because
all I ever hear him referred to on her blog and Facebook is Chumby!!!
Bee (Rebecca) & Brother (James)We take "be fruitful and multiply" very seriously. LOL!
Poor Shane had obviously hit his limit for the evening.
The lovely ladies who birthed all the above children!!!
I'm always SO embarrassed with pictures like these because I feel like a freakin' giant,
towering over everyone else!!!! And one person *ahem* Tricia was even wearing tall shoes!!

And look at this little gem, they can see from their back windows!!!! (Mt. Timpanogos temple)I was seriously in SHOCK driving down the freeway, seeing temples right and left!! Jennie was a good tour guide, calling me on the phone to inform me which temples were which.

Since the hubbies had their guy time, we managed to squeak in a little girl time on Saturday with window shopping at the mall and pedis. :) Jennie had to get these awesome blue "flip-flops" since she came wearing close-toed shoes, so being the good friend that I am, I got a pair too, so she wouldn't be embarrassed walking out to the parking lot. ;) Pretty toes!
Saturday afternoon, I took pictures of the kids, but I'm going to blog about that separately. :)

We had an awesome time in Utah and we're so glad that we went!! The weather was gorgeous, we had fun relaxing a bit, and staying up wayyyyyy too late, just like the good 'ole days! Thanks for having us, Barneys!!

Last leg ~ Provo and thereabouts ~ Part II

Thursday was a VERY full, VERY looooooooong day!!

First stop, the Dino Museum @ Thanksgiving Point. This place was AWESOME!! The kids loved every second! Well, maybe not every.... We watched a dinosaur movie in 3D. While purchasing tickets, the guy at the front desk assured us this was perfect for little kids. Maybe he hasn't watched it yet. Gavin was freaking out that it was too loud and refused to wear his 3D glasses. Blake and Brooklyn had theirs off a good majority of the time too. I wouldn't blame them when freaky, life-size dinos appear to be lunging at your face out of the screen!!!!!

Weird scienceAll seven kids on the DINO SCALE! They weigh 227 lbs collectively!Swimming away from daddy jawsAnd what trip to the dino museum would be complete without digging for fossils??

After getting some lunch, we trekked up to Temple Square. Despite the crazy construction all around, the Spirit is still felt strongly on the grounds!

I love how my kids knew exactly who this was. :)

Salt Lake Temple~Forever Family~

I had never seen the Conference Center before now. Last time I was on temple square over 10 years ago, they were just breaking ground. Holy huge and beautiful!It was neat to be able to show the kids where General Conference was broadcast from. This place seats 21,000 people! It's breathtaking!

Weston was able to snag a pair Jazz preseason game tickets for that night so Weston met us from work and I left Matt to go with him. A little male bonding time.Matt & Weston were also able to visit their friend and classmate from optometry school, Martin Lundell, who recently suffered a stroke. It was perfect timing because Martin was finally headed home that weekend to be back with his family in Idaho.Almost done......