Happy Halloween!

We hope your Halloween was as SUPER as ours was.

Love the Nielsen Sixlet's.

Our candy tithing for the year is 45. Meaning, we came home with 450 pieces of candy tonight!

About our candy tithe: A few years ago our bishop had all the kids in the ward pay a 10% candy tithing. He figured this was a great way for kids to better understand how tithing works. He would then take the candy the children "paid" him and put it in his candy jar in his office. The kids were then able to enjoy a treat anytime they visited the bishop (also helping the children understand that the money we pay, can be enjoyed by all). Karl and I really liked the idea and have had our children pay their candy tithe every year since.

Yay for another successful Halloween. Even if we did have a funeral (another story for another day) and had a sick little girl.

Some day I will pay for this...

Today we went to Black Island Farms for Brooklyn's preschool field trip. This is the 3rd year I've taken my kids on this field trip and we have loved it every time. It was a bit cold today (of course it had to get cold just in time for our field trip and Halloween) so we all bundled up for our big adventure.

Some day I really am going to pay for this...

But I had to make sure my baby would stay warm.

Pink was all I had in his size. :)

Brooklyn's preschool class is pretty small. There are only 5 kids total, and they are all girls. And they love every minute of it. This is her class, minus one friend who wasn't able to make it today.

 Aubrey refused to keep a hat or gloves on.  She's a stubborn one...

 Zackie wasn't so sure he liked being all bundled up. 
Or maybe he was still mad at me about the tights?

When we got home, Aubrey got her foot slammed in our van door. Luckily her foot is not broken, just very, very swollen and bruised. 

To end on a happier note:

The girls got to decorate their pumpkins last night. Who knew we had our own Picasso in the family? 

Our Halloween extravaganza...

Our annual Halloween party was a bit scaled down this year due to a variety of things that just so happened to be going on, but the fun factor was still there none the less.

 This year we also celebrated Brooklyn's birthday at our party. I've decided opening presents in costumes makes for much more entertaining pictures.

 Aubrey was so excited when Brooklyn opened her Doc McStuffins doctor kit. This is the first time she has ever cared about present opening so it was fun to see her reaction.

 Zack had to have one too.

 This is what happens when you leave Zack on the floor by himself... Big sister sees an opportunity...

 Then quickly attacks...

 In this particular instance she decided it would be fun to roll all the way across the room with her brother. Over...

 Then under...

 Although her brother was pretty upset about this one, no baby was harmed in the taking of these pictures.

Look, I was there too. Karl and I just voted against dressing up this year due to that fact that we had 4 little monsters/super heroes of our own to dress up. As silly as it may seem, it's a bit of work to costume up that many kids.

 And see, Karl was there too.

I sure do love our Halloween parties. Thanks to everyone for making our evening  a great one.

It's that time of the year again...

I sure love this time of year. 

The weather, the leaves, the food.

And you can't forget about all the fun parties that come with it.

This year our ward had a fun Trunk or Treat/Chili cook off/Halloween carnival that we all seemed to love. I think they've decided there were well over 130 kids at the party and that's not even including all the adult.

Donut eating contest.

What you get when you leave a 6 year old alone with a 12 year old make up artist... 

Another one of our favorite fall traditions is to visit Gardener Village. I had every intention of trying, yet again, to catch that perfect family picture while we were there. I've decided this really is an impossible feat. Gah. The place was so overly crowded (we should have known the weekend before Halloween with perfect weather wasn't the best time for us to go) and the kids were so uncooperative that after one shot I gave up and stopped trying.

 Gotta love stroller hair!

At least we got to get out and enjoy that weather before it gets too cold. Fall never last long enough, in my opinion.