Halloween!

The kids have been looking forward to Halloween for MONTHS, I have had to point out to Noah almost daily what day it was, and how much longer it was until Halloween.  At first both boys wanted to be pirates together, and I had planned on making their Halloween costumes, but with 3 kids and being pregnant, it didn't happen, and Ammon started changing his mind about what he wanted to be.  He went back and forth for a few weeks between wanting to be a pirate, and wanting to be a monster, before he finally settled on a monster.  I waited a few weeks to make sure he wasn't going to change his mind again before I ordered the costumes, and they were both VERY excited when their costumes came in.  Halloween morning when I was getting Noah dressed in his costume for school, Ammon started crying saying HE wanted to be a PIRATE too! Oh dear....luckily Noah shared some of his pirate accessories with Ammon, and he quickly became OK with being a monster again.  Here are some pictures of my cute kiddos in their costumes:

 

 

And here is the treat I "made" to send with Noah to school, they had asked for healthy snacks, and I found this idea on pinterest, Noah thought it was VERY cool.

 

 

After begging all day to go Trick-or-Treating, they were all very excited when it was finally time:

 

 

All that walking was hard work, I think Daddy earned his share of candy too :P

Pumpkin Patch!

This year the boys were very much looking forward to going to a pumpkin patch, we hadn't been able to go last year, and I really wanted to make sure they got to go this fall.  It turns out we had one Friday when we would be up in Reno where it would work out, but the day before it was raining buckets, and more rain was on the forecast for Friday, it didn't look very promising.  I explained beforehand that we might not be able to go if it was raining, and the boys were definitely bummed, however, luck was in our favor and it was a beautiful sunny day!

Ammon's favorite part of the day was riding the ponies:

 

Noah's favorite part of the day was the petting zoo (particularly chasing the chickens, although I wasn't able to get a picture of them doing that)

 

 

McKenna wasn't too impressed by all the animals...

 

 

It is dang near impossible to get a picture of three small children looking at you and smiling all at the same time:

 

They all really enjoyed the bounce houses, even McKenna:

 

 

And they got to ride the train:

 

They all picked out their own little pumpkin, and Ammon specifically picked his because it was "yellow" unlike all the other ones:

 

 

McKenna is One!

It is definitely bitter-sweet knowing my baby girl is now a one year old!  It is rather unfair how fast this last year has gone, it seems like yesterday when I first held her in my arms.

She has been such a sweet and loving spirit from the very start.  She was by far my "easiest" baby, and people have often commented on how happy she always is.  She loves giving hugs and kisses, and while the moments are becoming less as she gets more and more active and curious, when she sits and snuggles with you, it just melts your heart.  She is a little chatter-box, she doesn't say a whole lot of "real" words yet, but that doesn't stop her from having a full on conversation with you. :)  She absolutely LOVES to sing, she sings at the top of her lungs at church, sings whenever she hears music, and just sings to herself while she plays.  She is not quite walking yet, but she has always been one to do things on her own time...and she gets into plenty of trouble already, with out walking. :P  I like to play a little game with her where I rock her in my arms counting, and when I get to "three" I toss her gently onto the pillows on a bed, she thinks its hysterical, and now she will climb onto the spare bed in her room, rock on her knees and count "wha, dwoo, weee!" and throw herself down on the bed.  Recently she has started pointing to things that she wants and saying "diss, diss!" (meaning "this"), and has started getting a little sassy attitude when she doesn't get what she wants, or if one of the boys takes a toy she was playing with.  She has such a little personality, and we love having her as part of our family.

Here are some pictures of her special day:

 

After Daddy helped her unwrap the first present, she figured out how to pull the wrapping paper off all by herself :)

 

Her cake that I made, it was my first time ever doing fondant, and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out:

 

 

 

The inside of the cake was zebra-stripped too :)

McKenna Riley's one year photo collage:

 

 





Potatoes!

During the summer we had a plethora of potatoes in our pantry, we had bought some from the store, then Mike's mom had given us some she had bought in bulk, then someone from our ward came by with 2 big bags of potatoes they could not eat themselves, and we were not able to get though all the potatoes before some of them started sprouting all over the place.  Mike took about 15 sprouted potatoes and planted them out in our front yard, and we got some pretty big potato plants growing from them.  After I did some online research, and Mike talked to someone from work who was knowledgeable on the subject of harvesting potatoes, we decided to harvest them last night, and we got a pretty good crop.  We planted a few different kinds of potatoes, and the boys were so excited to help daddy pull them up.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our entire potato harvest from this year:

 

Next year hopefully we will be able to get more of a garden going, and earlier, so we can enjoy more than just potatoes!