Ukki and Tonka Come to Visit

Larry (Ukki) retired then end of September so what was his plan, tour the country and visit his kids!  We were so excited to learn that we would be getting some visitors the end of October.  The kids had so much fun with them and Blaiden got to spend an entire morning driving around with Ukki and Tonka looking for new pj's.  We got to do a ton of fun things and they were here for most of the Halloween parties, carving pumpkins, and even the Denver vs Green Bay game.  All of us kids sent them off to Canada to Niagara Falls for a couple of nights for a retirement gift.  They stopped back at our house for a night before heading out to Tennessee to see Phillip and Felicia.  Blaiden was so excited to see them again and he was really excited when they pulled out the gift they brought back for him and Adilene.

They watched the kids while Fred and I went out TWO nights in a row! The weather was so nice we all got to eat on the patio set they had gotten us last Christmas.  Fred was even able to take them out to Amish country while Blaiden was in school.  It was a great trip and we are so excited that we only have to wait about 3 weeks to see them again.

Halloween Times 5

I love Halloween.  There are so many different ways to celebrate the holiday and so usually we do as many things as we can fit into the month.  This year that meant 5 different parties in one week! It all started a week before Halloween where an office that Fred works at had a dress up party.  The kids were excited to finally get to wear their costumes!  Blaiden had 2 costumes, Spiderman and Batman, and Adilene was Anna from Frozen.

When we got back Adilene stayed awake and Blaiden went and took a nap.  She went right over to his bag on candy and dumped it out and started picking what she wanted, It was so funny to see.

A few nights later Blaiden's preschool had a "trunk-or-treat" activity.  Blaiden loved showing off his costume and seeing all of his teachers.  He was going to be Batman but was afarid that no one would be able to see him since it was night time and the costume was black.  Adilene was so excited to just be walking around in the parking lot that she didn't even get any candy.

Then Friday our playgroup had a dress up party will all kinds of fun activities planned.  Ukki and Tonka got to come for this (more on their trip later).  The kids always enjoy playing in the gym there and so this was a very fun day for them.  Blaiden was to excited when it was time for trick-or-treating that he couldn't wait for us to keep up.  Adilene feels pretty comfortable here so she wanted to walk all around to trick-or-treat which was very cute.

Finally on Saturday it was actually trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  By this time getting into costumes was not that exciting and the kids did not even really want to go.  I knew that once Blaiden started seeing kids he would want to dress up again.  Adilene woke up from her nap with a fever so I knew she wasn't going to enjoy it much.  We all sat outside and passed out candy for a little while.  Once Blaiden saw a few different superhero's he wanted to get dressed up and go around to the other houses.  We left our candy on the front steps and started down the street.  Adilene and I only made it to a few houses but Fred and Blaiden went on without us.  Blaiden's favorite part is to pass out the candy so when he got back he stayed out there alone (because "I can handle it mom").

The last party was an adult party that one of the doctors around here throws every year.  Each year there is a theme and this year was TV sitcoms.  The original idea was that we were going to by "That 70's Show" and Larry and Tonja were going to come with us.  I couldn't find a sitter, I was just going to stay home with the kids.  Then they offered to watch the kids so Fred and I could go to the party.  So Saturday we rushed around with the new idea of the Simpsons.  We had a great time and if there was a costume contest I think we would have won!  You can't see it well in the pictures but our entire bodies were painted yellow!

Mobile Snapshots #11

Pumpkin Carving

Carving pumpkins is one of my most favorite things!  It was a big deal when I was growing up and now that I have my own family I think I have made it an even bigger deal.  The plan was for me to grow all of our pumpkins this year but I only got one small one so we headed out to our usual pumpkin stand to pick some up.  This year Fred and Blaiden got pumpkins that were all bumpy, we were warned that Fred might have to use a saw to carve them but he was sure he could do it.  Adilene and I got ones that were still a little green.  Just before we left Blaiden got to try out some pumpkin bowling.  He thought this was very cool!

When it came time to carve them we let the kids stay awake to dig out all of he guts.  Adilene was okay with touching them but she wasn't that impressed by the whole process.  Blaiden hated it again this year and Fred tried to get him over it by putting them all over his body.  Blaiden was not impressed with his daddy.  It turns out that the lady selling us the pumpkins knew what she was talking about because Fred did end up using a jig saw and a drill to carve his pumpkins.  Blaiden wanted to make sure that everyone knew which was his so he carved a "B" on it with the drill.  After the kids were in bed we finished carving the rest of the pumpkins.  I think this years turned out great!

Pumpkins left to right: Jessi, Adilene, Blaiden, Fred