Halloween 2015

Halloween this year was awesome! The kids are all old enough to get the hang of trick or treating and wearing costumes. We had lots of fun events to dress up for and there were lots of treats to go around! We kicked off the month of festivities at the realtor's party I posted about in the October post. About a week after that we carved the pumpkins the kids picked out. Talia wasn't feeling great that day and opted out of decorating, but she did help me decide on a design for her pumpkin and I did all the work. :) Beckett worked on his own pumpkin this year and is the only one of my children who didn't hate touching the pumpkin guts. I pulled a bunch of them out for him and he got mad and cried until I put them back in. Silly boy. We ended up with some great pumpkins. Pikachu was Davin, storm trooper was Weston, elephant was Beckett (carved by Ian), and Jack Skellington was Talia (carved by me). We also had our traditional donuts on the cat that night!

Talia got to dress up for dance class on Thursday and her cute teacher sent us the group picture they took. Too cute!

Talia dressed up again on Friday for her preschool Halloween party. She has such a fun class and teacher! The boys dressed up for school on Friday too. The little ones and I went to the school's Halloween costume parade first thing in the morning to watch the kids come through. I love how festive their school is. I didn't see a single teacher not dressed up. All the kids were in some kind of costume too. Love it!

Friday night was our ward's chili cook off and trunk or treat party. Even I joined in the dressing up fun! The ward party was actually a major success. The kids loved the trunk or treat and lots of people decorated their cars. I borrowed a simple idea from Pinterest for our trunk, but I think it turned out good. Beckett thought trunk or treating was the best thing ever. He went around the parking lot a few times, but since he's cute it was fine.

Saturday was kind of a long day as we waited for it to be trick or treating time. I went to Halloween Zumba that morning. It was seriously so much fun. I love Heather's Halloween playlist and it was just a fun group. Definitely my favorite way to exercise!

Weston had his last soccer game of the season that afternoon. I stayed home so that Tal and Beck could both take naps before Halloween night. Late that afternoon we ordered jack o lantern pizzas and had dinner with the Curnow's. We headed out to trick or treat pretty early. Davin had a friend come with us and Mel and Brad helped Wilson.

I love Halloween in our neighborhood. There are so many kids and the houses are close together. There are so many kids out that the streets basically shut down. We went around with some neighbors for awhile and all the kids found friends. Davin and James (his buddy) found his parents and went off with them. Weston found his friend, Grant, and went off with him, so it was just me and the little ones! Beckett got tired and headed home with Ian after about an hour. I took Talia and kept going. She was a trooper! We stayed out another hour! It was really fun taking just Tal. She was pretty cute and happy.

Mel and Brad held down the fort at the house handing out candy. When Ian brought Beckett home he threw a giant fit and was still screaming when I got home. I got him calmed down and we all finished watching a movie before the Curnow's left and we called it a night. Weston and Davin ended up hanging out at their friends' houses until 9. It was weird to have big kids like that. Weird, but fun! After we got the big kids settled in bed Ian and I went down the street to our friends' house and curled up to watch a scary movie with loads of candy and popcorn. It was a pretty great Halloween!

Grandma and Papa Visit

Grandma and Papa made their annual Fall visit to Utah this year during the kids' Fall Break. It was perfect and we had so much fun! We kicked it off with an adults only outing to BYU to attend the Bronco Show. It's a radio broadcast that airs live from the President's Loge in the stadium. It was such a cool experience! I loved how intimate it felt. There were only about 50 people in the room. Jim was in major fan mode. He loved meeting Greg Wrubell. The show was really fun and engaging while they discussed the season. 

There is always a player that joins the broadcast too. This time it was Devon Blackman. He was really funny and had an awesome rapport with Bronco and the audience. At the end of the broadcast Devon showed off some of his sweet dance moves and even got the group to sing Happy Birthday to an older woman who told him she had been attending BYU games for over 60 years. Jim brought a Bronco signed football that Aly had given him several years back and got a picture with Bronco and the football. We were some of the last to leave while Jim chatted up Greg Wrubell and Ian and I ran into an old BYU days co-worker. We had the best time and are so glad Jim got us tickets!

Once the kids were out of school we spent a whole day at the zoo. It was a little bit of a belated birthday outing for Beckett. The zoo was pretty crowded but we had a blast. The weather was perfect and lots of the animals were out and about. We rode the train and the kids rode the carousel. The elephants were a big hit with Beckett and it was fun that they were out in the main habitat area and walking around. The zoo had a Zoorassic Park theme this year so there were also life size dinosaurs throughout the zoo. Beckett was in heaven. Train ride, dinosaurs, elephants, giraffes, and carousel! :) We stopped off for slurpees on the way home. It was a great day!

Friday night was the BYU Football game! We went plenty early and took the boys into the tailgate party. We got there at the same time as Cosmo! The boys each played a couple of games. Davin and I ran into a group of cheerleaders and Davin got a picture with them. Such a little stud! Haha! The game was fun to watch and BYU won! The boys got a little bit cold and tired towards the end. Davin practically fell asleep on me! They did good though, had fun, and were glad they went.

While we were at the football game they announced a women's volleyball game that was happening on Saturday. We decided to head down to Provo again on Saturday to go to the volleyball game. We took all the kids. I love volleyball games! BYU won in 3 games, so it was pretty short. Beckett was so cute cheering. I got literally the LAST cougar tail at the concessions stand. The kids devoured it. Beckett wouldn't let me help him eat his piece, so he was a huge mess. I used all my wipes cleaning him up! It was great.

In between all of these fun outings Denny and I went craft shopping and then crafted! She introduced to The Wood Connection. I made a few things that weekend and bought a couple other projects for the future. I also got fabric and Denny helped me sew a Fall table runner! I did it almost all by myself, but I still don't know if I could do it again without help over my shoulder. :)

The boys played some MarioKart. Davin was so excited to play with his dad and Papa. It was so cute. Grandma brought us all big, cozy fleece blankets. The kids all got some snuggle time with Grandma and Papa in their new blankets. Beckett loved having extra people to read books to him.

Sunday morning Grandma and Papa wanted to go to Music and the Spoken Word in Salt Lake. They took Weston with them. They said it was a really nice morning. We spent Sunday evening relaxing after our busy weekend. We are so glad that Grandma and Papa came to see us and that we got to do so many fun things! It made our Fall break so special!

October 2015

This Fall has just flown by! We have had so much fun! I lucked out and got to go to a fantastic Idina Menzel concert with a friend. I loved it so much. I haven't been to see a live show in awhile and Idina put on a great show and sang so many of my favorites. 

That weekend we kept things low key with General Conference and a soccer game. Soccer this season was great! Weston had a bigger team, which was nice because even if we were missing a few boys there were still enough for subs. I'm the team mom again so I organized snacks. Ian was the unofficial assistant coach. He kept time for the coach and helped him figure out who had played how long and when/who to sub. It's nice that the younger kids are all big enough to mostly entertain themselves during games too. Soccer ended at the end of October and Weston scored his first goal this season! Way to go Weston!

A new pizza restaurant opened right by our house and had a grand opening with free food. It was a bit of a wait, but worth it for free pizza and drinks for dinner. Beckett at that entire giant slice and cried when I put his other "half" in a box. :)

We got to enjoy some last warm days playing in the water table. Beckett got some sea animals from the dollar store and he loved playing with his orca in the water. He asked every day for weeks to play in water! We even had Beckett's buddy Boston over to play in the water.

We all know Beckett is obsessed with elephants, but one day I came in to make his bed and when I pulled back the curtain to open the blinds I found a little elephant parade. It almost made me cry. So cute.

Talia had her first preschool field trip of the year at the pumpkin patch. It was at one that I had never been to before called Pumpkinland. We had a great time and it was really warm and sunny! Talia was one of the few kids that dressed up. I didn't want her to wear her Tinkerbell costume because I knew she was going to get dirty, so she chose to be Thor. I love that she loves her brothers' dress ups. She and Beckett ran through the corn maze then played on all the play ground fun things. We saw some petting zoo animals too.

We went to a few more BYU football games in October. We loved having season tickets this year! It was so much fun to go to games with Ian. I didn't go to all the games, but I went to four of the six home games. The other games Ian went with other friends.

Davin started karate in October! We found a place that's not too far away and allowed us to do one class a week (two is just too much for my schedule). He is doing it with his friend, Brigham, which is great for him and for me since we can carpool! Davin sure makes a cute little ninja!

We had a fantastic week long visit from Jim and Denny in October, but I'll do a separate post about all the fun things we did with them. Sneak peek...Denny and I did a lot of crafting. She helped me sew this fun Fall table runner!

Beckett also had a preschool field trip in October. Since we are doing joy school with our neighbors and we all have Thanksgiving Point passes we chose the farm for our field trip. It was perfect since the kids all love the farm! Beckett had so much fun running around with his friends. We loved having such nice weather for the field trips!

As Halloween got a little closer we went to a fun little client appreciation party thrown by our realtor. The kids got to debut their Halloween costumes. They got their faces painted, had balloon animals made, played on the playground and got to pick out their pumpkins! Of course, there was candy involved too. It was a really fun party!

I spent an evening with just the boys at the children's museum while Ian was home with a sickie Talia. She was pretty upset she got left home. :( The boys were great and the museum was empty. I loved following Beckett around and watching him get to do all of his favorite things at the museum. The vet room is probably his all time fav. Then the trains. Weston helped him do the green screen room and look like he was standing by the dinosaurs. He thought that was amazing. The look on his face was priceless.

The big boys participate in the Reflections program at school this year. Davin turned in an original composition called "Landflight." Weston made a cute stop motion video called "Hulk Dance." They both won awards! Weston earned an award of merit medal and Davin earned an award of excellence trophy and gets to have his project submitted to the district level of competition. They were both pretty excited about their awards and the goody bag. I'm proud of them both for putting their creative talents to work and turning in their projects on time. I had very little to do with it. Ian is the one who really helped them get it all together and submitted. Go team Bowles!

I was a busy girl with my Primary calling in October. We had a program at the end of the month. As I practiced the cub scout song with the boys after den meeting and helped at our big group practice I was a little nervous about how it was going to go. The actual program turned out amazing. The kids all did fantastic with the music and their parts. The spirit was so strong and the kids sat so reverently when it was time to listen to the talks. I am SO proud of them! I am also so glad that it's done.

I love watching the evolution of my tree in the Fall. It's full and green from summer then all of a sudden the leaves turn orange then red then all fall off. It's bare now, but I tried to really enjoy the pretty colors in the too short Fall season.

Random play time and snuggle time photos. So glad my kids have such sweet friends in our neighborhood to play with!

Courtesy cones at Arctic Circle after a doctor's appointment one morning

Davin outside his classroom at parent teacher conferences. Both boys are doing fantastic in school!

Checking out the fish at Cabela's with a friend one morning.

Sneaking outside for some bike riding before the winter comes!

Davin and his friend, James, built this cool zoob skeleton

Teaching joy school! Such good kids!

Snuggled up on a chilly day watching Monsters University.

My Halloween Jamberry pedicure!

Talia playing dress up as Rapunzel. The first princess dress up she actually likes.

Next up! HALLOWEEN!