Halloween 2010

Costumes for 2010:

Emma: Jessie

Carter: Elmo

Cody: Elmo

We thankfully found another Elmo costume so the fight would end over the one we already had.  I haven't run across all the individual Halloween pictures of the kids, but when I find them I will update it.  We did go to a Halloween party and here are a few pictures from that. 

Lunch

 Balloon drop

 Wrapping mommy like a mummy

 Mummy friends

This was a fun party with Emma's friends from school.

And of course, the traditional Halloween cookies needed to be made, rolled, baked and decorated.  We had plenty of silly little helpers.

We also were in charge of the Halloween Spook Alley with specific instructions that it cannot be scary or dark.  Ok....so this is what we came up with.  It turned out really fun and even the little kids enjoyed walking through.

Birthday Time!

Emma turned 6!  She was so excited about turning 6.  Some fun things about Emma are:
*She loves to care for other people-she will make an amazing mother and wife someday
*She loves babies
*Emma is beginning to read and has passed off many sight word lists already
*Emma told me that after she turns 6 she will be going to High School like Aunt Breanna will :o)
*Emma loves to eat almost anything, she is not a picky eater
*She loves to cuddle
*Emma makes friends instantly where ever we go
We love our Emma so much and we are so proud of the choices she is making in her life. She is a natural leader and loves to take charge (sometimes a little too much), but she is a treasured friend for anyone.  Emma loves to perform in front of people and began piano lessons in August from her Uncle Ryan.  She is catching on amazingly well and is loving it.  I love that she loves the piano, singing, and music.  Emma's love to perform seems to be continuing on and we'll see what she decides to do with it. The current debate is deciding between ballet or gymnastics, but she will excel at either. 
This year, we held a family party for Emma.  Emma has 9 cousins so there are plenty of friends and family to come celebrate!  Here she is all ready to begin...

These are the treats she and I made to bring to her class at school.  Yummy chocolate dipped pretzels.

Then, that night we began by carving our pumpkins.

Emma wanted a Jessie party and a Jessie cake.  This was the best mom had time to whip up...not one of my best creations, but she was completely happy with it and that's all the mattered. :o) 

She got a super fun Jessie costume from her Grandma & Poppy and had to try it on immediately...

 ...and then pose...

 ...and of course with the umbrella...

 ...and a farewell. :o)

Emma is loved by so many people and is a joy to have in our life. 

Happy 6th birthday Emma!

Pumpkin Time

One of the super fun fall activities here in Colorado (and I'm sure in many other places around the US) is going to a pumpkin patch and picking out our pumpkins for Halloween.  In Idaho we grew our pumpkins so it had been a few years since we had been to an actual pumpkin patch.  We made Monster Munch the night before to bring along as a snack.

Then it was off to find the right pumpkin.

Each one was inspected to see if it met the requirements.

Some were made sure they would make a great seat

Until the perfect one was found!

The winners!

Cody fell fast asleep on the way there so the kids picked out a pumpkin he would like. We carved the pumpkins at Emma's family party (more to come on that later). 

The next evening we went to a Colorado Mormon Chorale concert with the girls.  They had a good time....for about 30 minutes.  Then we called it a night :o) 

Actually, we came back home and finished movie night with the rest of the clan.  They all hand made their own 'drive in vehicles'.

Ward Calling

So after being in scouts for 3 years while also being the RS pianist in the Spanish branch, we moved and returned to an English speaking ward.  While I will continually miss the dear sisters in the Spanish branch, I do welcome the lessons and messages that I am now fully able to understand.  :o) 

In our new ward I was quickly put into the calling of RS Additional Activities Leader; well we all know it by the old name, enrichment.  We took on many projects in 2010 some of which included sewing, cutting and putting together school bags and collecting all the supplies, then shipping them to the church to distribute to those in need in other countries.  We had a few other service projects and some fun ones and then had a HUGE one!  The RS presidency asked if I would host (basically put the whole thing together) for the 3 wards in the building.  Wow.  I am typically up for a challenge, but I had never personally been in charge of such a large shindig.  So we began planning.  Collecting ideas, creating projects and much more.  There were some 16 projects and while the other 2 wards were suppose to do 2 or 3 of the projects, they all bailed and decided to handle the food portion of the project.  Ok, so I delegated and got a lot of help from people in the ward.  One large project was a wooden childrens picnic table.  Lets just say we cut a LOT of wood!  Here is the aftermath of a couple long evenings with the dewalt :o)

My husband graciously helped a LOT and thankfully I had a wonderful counselor that is super crafty also and was able to help.  My mother in law was in RS for many years also and has put on many of these events; she was the best source for information and the biggest help.  Thanks mom!  We had many wood block projects as well.  Overall, I believe it turned out very well.  I love to be super organized down to every last detail so my mind was overflowing with all the details, but many people loved how organized it was and that was enough for me to maybe want to do something like it again.  :o) We have now moved onto another new ward and new callings have filled the void for now. We ended the long journey to our Super Saturday by celebrating with friends with a large bowl of Pho.  Yum.

And the kids were sure happy to have more mommy time. :o)

Utah & Idaho

This was on one of the many, many trips back and forth between Idaho, Utah & Colorado. We were able to see family of course and also finally made it to one of Greg's mission reunions. It was fun to meet a few people from his mission and to see his mission President again, President Christensen. 

The kids are so funny when we traveled and could almost sleep anytime & anywhere :-)

 Zonked out in the parking lot of our "favorite" store we visited most frequently while Greg picked up more supplies.

 Here Cody is sleeping with his "silky" piled on top of his head to block out the light

 And the reason for the frequent visits to the home improvement store was to continue improving our house there for a hopeful sale.  This visit we painted all the bookshelves (now I know that I should have bought a sprayer---it would have saved us HOURS!)

All done painting for now

The kitchen looks SO different now-I will post updated pictures later, but this was how it looked BEFORE renters moved in :o)

 And the purple bathroom.  Yes, we had a purple bathroom.  It is purple no more and went for a complete updated beige and white trim.  Now it matches the rest of the house :o)

 And of course we had time to see the family.  My sister will just love me for posting this picture.  :o)

Have I told you how much my kids adore their Aunt Breanna? She's truly one of a kind! And of course Emma loved spending time with her cousin Kate. 

 Cody and Hunter also enjoyed the time to run around together. I love their smiles. :o)