I absolutely love dressing up as a family! This year we did Inside Out!
Ashlyn- Disgust, Brinley- Joy, Claire- Sadness, Desiree- Baby Riley, Jenny- Anger, and Derek- Fear. I just crack up every time I look at this picture! My favorite is Derek's face..lol.
One of my favorite parts about Halloween is getting ready together. The girls were so excited to get their hair colored then to top it off with their costumes on. These girls are so much fun!
Disgust
Sadness
Joy
Baby Riley and Anger
Fear
I watched a Mom Conference online and it was so so good. I get so gitty and excited each year to listen to great speakers that talk about parenting, organization, marriage, and many more mom topics. One of the speakers talked about a Live List (bucket list) and I loved the idea. You have a family council and talk about things that each member of the family wants to do. It was fun to get inside the heads of the girls and hear their ideas and not just come up with them on my own. They had wonderful ideas that we have done throughout this month.
Here is our October Live List
Ashlyn (and it has passed on to all the girls) has been sick and had to miss church. Ashlyn has the best teacher who will bring her the stuff that they do in church so Ash doesn't miss out. Ashlyn loves it! She is definitely Lil' Miss Crafty.
Sick days... I rarely find her napping, but boy was this little girl tired.
Ashlyn is thriving on the piano.
For Mommy School we did F is for Fish and we went to the pet store to buy a fish.
These two are the best of buds. They are always saying to one another, "We are best friends, right?!"
The girls named the fish Nemo and Dory!
I remember when I was in first grade, our class got fishes and the bowl was made from a 2 liter bottle laid on the side with the side cut out. Well I told the worker about my memory and she said," Ma'am you really just need to buy a fish bowl." ha ha. So I cracked down a bought a fish bowl.
I was just crossing my fingers that the fish would last throughout the week and we are going on day 9!
Of course we had to watch Finding Nemo!
I have rededicated myself to read the Book of Mormon again, but this time with a parenting perspective. Last week I read 1 Nephi Chapters 3-4 and these are the parenting lessons that I learned from these 2 chapters!!! I am so grateful for the spirit of revelation and how we can learn so much for the scriptures. Thought I would share my thoughts with ya'll.
We are so grateful for grandmas who send awesome things to these kids! They love their Grandma's.
(This was a picture taken before we were opening door to get the package and they started fighting. Sadly, they had to open it the next day!)
Thank you!
So I got this random idea in the morning that I should have a witches day with the girls when we pick up Ashlyn from school. So after we picked her up, we tried to buy dry ice (went to 3 different stores, but I guess they don't sell it here). Well I decided to just make orange julius as our potion. We drank our delicious potion while painting witches (from the dollar bin at target that I went to that morning) and then we put witch's mole on each of us so we could watch on Netflix Room on the Broom.
Des is so much fun!
Oh how much I love our date nights!!! Last week we went on a walk before we went to get dinner and this is a sign we came across.....ha ha ..... ha ha. We must live in a retirement town. ha ha.
Are date nights go by wwwaaayyy too fast. So after dinner I didn't want the night to end so we went to walmart (there isn't a lot to do here). Derek started a contest on whoever had the highest blood pressure had to do 20 push-ups in the store. Well guess who lost....Derek! Heck yeah!
We went to a pumpkin patch and it made Derek and I really homesick for Omaha. Vala's will always have a special place in our hearts. But the kids had a blast!
These girls sure love to swing! If it was up to them, they would swing all day long!
I love the joy in Brinley's face! So cute!
My girls are climbers thanks to their daddy. The thing he doesn't realize is when he isn't with us when we go to playgrounds and parks, this will cause an early heart attack for me!
Shortcut to go down the slide!
Love the facial expression!
Hayride!!!!
Corn maze
Petting Zoo
We were on the cheap side of the fence.
Claire LOVES animals!
She didn't want to look away from the animal... this is her "Hurry Mom" face.
Riding the Ponies
Each girl rode a pony and loved it!
Daddy holding the baby guinea pig and the girls enjoyed petting it.
Love seeing pictures where Derek is playing with the girls. He is a natural at being the best dad! Our girls are so blessed!
On the way into Vala's there are lots of scarecrows and so when we drove into this pumpkin patch Ashlyn said, "Where are all the scarecrows?" Well we found one on our drive out of the pumpkin patch!
So I drove to 4 different stores since 7:30 this morning looking for blue spray for hair and then finally called around. We went to K-mart to pick up the last 2. Remind you Halloween is still a week away. My girls were so good going in and out of 4 different stores and they saw this beauty. They totally deserved a ride on the horses. Gotta love K-mart! ha ha.
Yep! That is me...still in my exercise clothes from that morning and not showered or ready.
I was bugged because I even called walmart beforehand and they said they had some.
Well I as relieved to buy the last two cans, even if it was double the price of walmart's ha ha. It was worth not having to hunt this thing down anymore.
Brinley's imagination is so much fun! She got the Book of Mormon and it is her spell book from Princess Sofia. The scissors is the magic wand.
She is in her own world! Seriously she had no idea I was taking pictures.
Halloween Dance Day! I forgot to dress the girls up and so Miss Susan let them borrow costumes. The girls loved it! Everything they did in dance class was opposite (bent legs, flex feet, etc.) They were so gitty!
I am in Young Womens and love it!! We have a combine Spanish branch and our ward and I have felt like their has been a barrier with the different cultures. I have been asking the girls individually to come to my house after school so I can get to know, we would on a personal progress together, and then they can stay for dinner. This has been so awesome! I have been trying to think of ways that I could serve them with my girls and this is a great way for them to come be with me and my girls, see what a young mom's life is like (remind you these are the crazy hours of the day), we work on personal progress together, and they can see what a family is like. It is a win-win. I have made some great friends with these young girls! I love my calling! I feel like I have learned so much for each of them.
On Sunday we did a lesson on the plan of salvation and we had to teach it to pass off personal progress.
Playgroup Halloween Party
Ashlyn has been working so hard at reading after school and playing the piano. Every time she practices she gets a sticker to fill up the A. She has filled up the uppercase and lowercase so on Tuesday they sell spirit sticks at school. These are a big deal with the kids at school. I love how hard she is working!
Ashlyn's friend Anders' grandma came to school and brought doughnuts with these teeth in them. It made Ashlyn's day! She said that she looks like Nana with her teeth. (She has a great memory of those gross fake teeth you have Nana).
The fun of spraying our hair for Halloween! The girls loved it and these are too cute not to post. WARNING...Sorry how they are in the undies.
