Can you tell I LOVE Halloween???

Yes, another post about Halloween:) Can you tell it is one of my favorite holidays? We like to celebrate all month long. For Halloween night, we had a ghoulish dinner before going trick-or-treating. It was a fun night!

My hungry little monster!

Boo enjoying the Halloween dinner

Yum! Yum!

Green Ghoul Enchiladas
Monster Hearts with Scarecrow Fingernails and Bat Eyes

The Trick-or-treaters!

Demarie insisted on being an Indian this year. I went to JoAnn's Fabric to get some fabric to make her a costume. There was a little rack of clearance costumes and there was one indian costume on the rack! Just her size! I bought a witch wig and braided it and then made a hair band with feathers. I thought she turned out to be a pretty cute little indian!

Preslyn wanted to be a pretty fairy princess so we used her birthday princess dress for her costume. I found some flowers at Michael's and made her headband. Isn't she cute?

I wasn't sure what to dress Broyden up as but I found this costume on the clearance rack at JoAnn's too. He was really excited to be a frog. Don't you just want to kiss him? He was so cute trick-or-treating. He kept hearing us say, "Thank you. Happy Halloween!" to the people as we left their doorsteps, so at one of the houses, he says, "Thank you... Happy... Birthday!" He almst got it right!

Enjoying the candy after trick-or-treating. I loved coming home when I was little and dumping my bag of candy out on the floor to see what I got. My siblings and I would sit and eat our candy and trade with each other. It was fun to watch my kids do the same thing!

Daddy scored BIG!!! He raided all the kid's baskets for the Snicker Bars and Reese's!

Ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat

Indian and Daddy enjoying the yummy chili
Flower fairy princess

Silly froggy!

Enjoying dinner with the Kalina Family

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Halloween Parade at Gold's Gym

Gold's gym had a little Halloween party so I let the kids wear their Halloween costumes. The workers in the daycare played different Halloween games with the children and then took the kids that were dressed up on a parade through the weights so that the parents working out could see their cute costumes!

Pretty Preslyn the Princess!
Broyden the Frog and Sadie the Cowgirl Princess

Halloween Sugar Cookies

I really think mom's that make sugar cookies with their kids ought to get extra brownie points in heaven! It sure takes a lot of patience and love! The smiles on their faces definitely makes it worth the mess!

The "It-took-me-five-years-to-complete" Blanket!

I was looking at my past blog entries and noticed that back in 2008 I did a posting entitled, "The "It-took-me-one-year-to-complete blanket." It was about a rag quilt that my mom and I made for Demarie's bed when we bought the bunkbeds. It took us one year from the time that I bought the material to complete the blanket for her bed. I had bought enough material with the plan to make two matching quilts for the bunkbeds.

Well, it is now 2011 (five years from the time I bought the fabric) and, thanks to Grandma Moon, Preslyn finally has a matching quilt for her bed! My goal was to complete it before my parents came home from their mission, but that obviously didn't happen. They came to visit for her birthday party and I said to my Mom, "I would love to get this blanket done and give it to Preslyn for her birthday. Do you think we could finish it?" My Mom was such a good sport and sewed for a day and a half, finishing right before Preslyn's party! While my Mom was sewing the quilt, Preslyn came up to her and said, "Grandma, what are you doing?" My Mom replied, "Oh, I'm fixing the blanket that goes on Demarie's bed. Would you like a blanket to match for your bed?" Preslyn looked at her and said in a matter-of-fact way, "No. I like the blanket that is on my bed right now." When Preslyn opened her presents and got to the one with the rag quilt in it, she looked at Grandma, and threw the blanket to the side. I guess she was pretty serious when she said that she didn't want to have a new blanket! I pulled her aside and said, "Preslyn, I don't care what you say, but as soon as I finish clipping this blanket and wash it, it is going on your bed whether you like it or not!"

A few weeks later, I was brushing all the loose strings off the blanket and getting ready to put it on her bed. Preslyn came into the room and exclaimed, "Mom! I have a new blanket! I love it! It is so adorable! Did Grandma love making this for me?" I looked at her and told a little fib, "Yes, Preslyn. She did!" She was so excited to take her nap with her new blanket. Such a funny little girl!

THANKS GRANDMA!!!!

Preslyn's Princess Party

Preslyn turned 4! She insisted on having a castle cake again. I found this kit at Michael's thinking it looked easy, but the towers are flat on the bottom and would not stay up. I finally got it all put together and then went to move it, but all the towers fell over! So, this cake is only for looking at! No touching, tasting, or blowing:)
We had a Princess Party to celebrate! The party started with making beautiful princess crowns for all the little princesses. Broyden was excited to have a blue prince crown too:)

Didn't they turn out so pretty? Preslyn wore her new princess dress she got for her birthday. I think she looks adorable!

We played several games including Fairy Godmother, May I? We were so lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Moon visit for her party. Grandma Moon was a good sport and dressed up and played the part of the Fairy Grandmother!

All the beautiful princesses and one prince: Preslyn, Lorryn, Kelsie, Ellee, and Broyden (the prince). Preslyn told me, "Mom, only girls can come to my party. But there can be three boys: Grandpa, Daddy, and Broyden."

The princess party throwers: Grandma Moon, Mommy, and Demarie. Demarie was so excited to help out with the games. Grandma was a big help for the party. She sewed for two days straight to finish a rag quilt that I have wanted her to make for Preslyn's bed! It turned out so pretty!

Singing "Happy Birthday!"

Opening presents!

We love Preslyn so much! She has such a funny personality and really keeps us in our toes! Daddy loves to tease her and she teases right back! She loves being the oldest in the house when Demarie is gone to school and Broyden imitates her every move! Preslyn loves to read the Book of Mormon and will sit and just flip through the Book of Mormon for hours, pretending to read. She always says the funniest things and is Mommy's big helper. Whenever I start cooking, she is the first to come over, climb up on the step stool, and ask if she can help. Preslyn has the biggest sweet tooth. If there is candy in sight, she is begging to eat it. She loves to play with her friends and is a star pupil in Mommy's preschool. We are so grateful she is a part of our family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESLYN!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Pumpkin Patch Carnival

Demarie riding one of the rides
Preslyn finally got brave enough to pet a bunny with her finger through the fence!

Broyden being brave with Grandpa and all the animals

We were so luck to enjoy a visit from Grandma and Grandpa in October. While they were here we went to a pumpkin patch with a petting zoo and several carnival rides and bouncy houses. It was so much fun! Preslyn didn't dare go in to pet the animals, but finally got the nerve to pet the rabbit through the fence. Broyden felt pretty brave holding Grandpa's hand and Demarie even fed the goats from her hands!

Painting Pumpkins

For preschool, we painted pumpkins with our hands. Didn't they turn out so cute?

GOOGLE: LUMP ON NECK

One Saturday night as we were getting the kids ready for bed, Aaron noticed that Broyden had a lump on his neck. We hadn't noticed it before and were not sure how long it had been there. In the morning, it had grown even larger! When I touched it, he didn't act like it bothered him. In fact, he was happy and didn't seem to be sick at all. I wasn't going to be able to take him in to see the doctor until Monday morning, so I started searching online for answers of what it could be. For anyone reading this, I would like to offer you the same advice that I received but didn't listen to... DON'T LOOK ON THE INTERNET AND TRY TO DIAGNOSE YOUR CHILD'S HEALTH CONCERNS YOURSELF!!!! After an hour of searching, I was convinced that Broyden had cancer. I was a mess worrying about him! As soon as the doctor came in the room on Monday I broke down! I never do this!!! Anyways, to make a long story short, he ended up having a swollen lymph node and it quickly went away with an antibiotic. Even though that was the most likely option that I found online, of course I focused on the worst case scenario. Usually I am much more level headed than this, but when it is YOUR kid...! If you are a mother reading this you know exactly what I mean, right?

Gilcrease Orchard and Children's Authors

One of my FAVORITE things to do each Fall is to take the kids to Gilcrease Orchard and let them pick out their own pumpkin to carve or decorate. However, this year was EXTRA special because...
Gilcrease held a special event one Saturday where they had several different children's book authors you could meet. Demarie's DREAM is to be an author and illustrator someday so she was very excited to meet some REAL LIVE authors! Demarie has already written several chapter book SERIES (and they are amazing!). We bought a few of their books and got their autographs. This lady was especially sweet to Demarie. Her name is Leslie Gillette and she wrote a book called "Coco's Identity Crisis." She talked to Demarie about following her dream and gave us the card of the publishing company she goes through. I'm sure someday Leslie will be honored that she met the famous author Demarie Sue Harris!

We found some fun picture stations set up so we stopped to pose!

We loved trying to find our way out of the straw maze. Has anyone seen Demarie???

And now...Finding the PERFECT pumpkin!

Demarie thought this bright orange pumpkin was PERFECT for her!

Preslyn was excited to find her PERFECT pumpkin!

Broyden said his was "HEAVY!" but it was PERFECT for his size!

The search was a success! Time to go home and decorate!

Instead of carving, we decided to paint our pumpkins this year

THREE PERFECT LITTLE PUMPKINS!