Turkey Day and Decorating the Tree. . .

I'm so behind on my blogging, and I have so much to blog that I figured I'd just lump everything together! Here is our lovely Christmas tree. We had a great time adorning our plastic tree and drinking hot cocoa! And of course, later after the kids were down for the night we "redistributed" the ornaments.
So many decorations, so little time.

Karsen just really took to this snow globe, so I thought I'd capture the moment. I think this is the first year she really realizes it's Christmas and knows who Santa is.

We visited my mom in CA for Thanksgiving this year. It was a total blast. My little bro and his wife and baby Gracie were there. We hardly ever get to see them, and this trip just left me wanting to be closer to them! The weather was beautiful for the most part, except for the rain the morning of Thanksgiving. It cleared up quickly and the kids were able to fathom the joy of gathering real autumn leaves. They are such Arizona kids, they think orange and red leaves are simply fascinating! They collected buckets and buckets of them!

Keaton holding her real blood cousin Gracie (don't laugh, cousins are scarce in our family! Get going on that Seth and Jane! ;) ) She was such a cutie and is growing like a weed. The kids adored her and wanted to hold and kiss her the whole weekend.

The girls with Gracie and Uncle Seth.

Okay, these little kid cars are so much fun! My mom's got a great cul-de-sac for the kids to play in safely. We have a pink jeep like this one ourselves, but check out the tripped out jeep for bigger kids below! We had a couple of minor accidents and whiplashes, but it's all in good fun right?

My stepdad makes the greatest lemon meringue pie you've ever tasted! I think it's the California lemons! He started these Thanksgiving morn, and the girls were intrigued so they jumped in.

The secrets of a great pie crust.

Cookin' with Keaton and a Soccer Update

So, we were bored one night and decided to bust out the Easy Bake Oven. If you have a little girl and do not have this, you have got to get one! We've had it a couple years now and still use it. It's definitely been one of those gifts that Keaton continually wants to play with.
Keaton's always just been naturally interested in baking (which makes me so happy by the way!). Everytime I would bake something she'd pull up a chair beside me and want to help. So getting her her own Easy Bake Oven was an easy decision. This night we decided to make a white cake. Here are the girls making the cake mix.

Next, pop it into the Easy Bake Oven. Be careful, it's looks unassuming but is very hoooottt!!

Here's Keaton frosting her masterpiece.

Viola! Here you go! A nice little mini cake to enjoy and share!

And here is our happiest customer! Now, when Keaton's not whipping up delicious treats in the kitchen, she's on the soccer field. I must say that in the last couple of games that I've watched Keaton, I really think she's "gotten" it. In the last two games she's scored 5 goals, winning the games for each. Before this they had a big goose egg (read: no wins!) but now she and another little girl on the team (who's verrry good, too) have a healthy little competition going that now secures their team wins! Good work Keaton, we're so proud of you. Now that I've seen she's getting it, and enjoying all the praise for scoring goals, we've asked her if she wanted to play in the winter/spring season. We're thinking about it, although she has to choose between soccer or art class! So many talents, so little time! I should be so lucky!

'Tis Halloween!!!

Halloween night! So, I would like to introduce you to Princess Leia, White Trash Guy, cowgirl, and Hannah Montana! The fam before taking off trick or treating. My girls are such posers! :)
Kendal mid trick or treat. All the girls were so cute (and I was so happy not to have any Disney princesses in the bunch) that I just kept grabbing them and hugging and kissing them. They were like, "Mom, leave us alone, we need to get candy!"

Here's the group again post trick or treat. Notice Karsen's flushed face and sweaty forehead? Brian got everything between, "You Joe Dirt? to Are you Billy Ray Cyrus?" I guess it was because he was accompanying Hannah Montana. His reply was, "No, just White Trash."

Here the kids are with their papa. He was some kind of cross between Ghostbusters and Rick James.

The kids trick or treating at our neighbors, the Whipples. They are the grandparents of our neighborhood, the kids simply adore them!

Trunk or Treat (It's a Mormon Thing)

The Wednesday before Halloween our bishop held a Trunk or Treat in the field beside his home. For those of you who don't know, trunk or treat is when you get a bunch of folks together and you trick or treat out of their trunks! Lots of people really get into this. You should've seen some of the decorated trunks that there were! This year, Brian stuffed an outfit and stuck a Star Wars helmet on it. As the kids walked by they would eye it suspiciously and say, "Is it real?" It was so funny! The kids had an absolute blast, not to mention pounds of candy, rootbeer, and cotton candy!
She's my brown-eyed cowgirl. I thought this pic was so cute of her!

The girls and their Nonna. They were so excited to spend this night with her.

Carving Jack 'O Lanterns

It is a Halloween tradition isn't it? Well, I am all about tradition, so I thought I'd ask our good friends Jen and Rich and their family to carve pumpkins with us for FHE! We all had so much fun (as you can see by the smiles above!). Notice party-pooper Kendal is not featured in this pic, she was having a diva moment in her room. :)
Mommy and Kendal scooping out the goop.

Now I must admit (as Brian won't) that Brian gets into carving these pumpkins. Notice the furrowed brow? It is the artist in him. Rich looks pretty serious about this as well.

I love the looks on Keaton and Paige's face, it's like, EWWWWWWW!!!!

Kendal and Paigey cheesin' for the camera.

Ever since Keaton was a wee babe, we painted our pumpkins instead of carving them. Keaton's just always loved to paint, and it always seemed like such a cleaner option to carving! So we painted some tiny pumpkins as well.

And here is the piece de la resistance! All the lanterns lined in a row. Spooky huh?

Happy Birthday Kendal!!!

Here's Kendal's Halloween Birthday cupcakes! She saw these pictured in a magazine and had to have them. Making them was so much fun, I definitely want to do this again!
Here's the mummy made from a marshmallow and mini and regular M&M's.

The skull was made by tucking a marshmallow at the bottom of the cupcake, the eyes are Jr. Mints and the teeth are made from candycorns. The mag said to use sliced almonds for the teeth, but I don't know too many kids who like nuts! The bat is obviously made from Reese's mini and regular peanut butter cups. So fun!!!!

This spider was fun too. Made with M&M's.

Here's our beverage of the hour! Witch's Brew! This was a blast to make, but it was even more fun to see the kids eyes when the liquids were added to the sherbet and dry ice. It even bubbled like witch's brew! We made this by mixing lemonade mix, seltzer, sprite, sherbet, and food coloring.

As you can see, the kids were in awe! The loved trying to "catch" the dry ice as it swirled over the sides.

Musical tombstones! This was a great Halloween twist on a party favorite.

Spooky Twister! Some of the little ones had trouble with their lefts and rights, but we had fun anyway!

And what party would be complete without the pinata? Here's Kendal taking a whack at hers. Of course the bigger girls were the ones that finally cracked that sucker open!

It's present time! Kendal's favorite part! Thank you to everyone for the cute gifts. Kendal had so much fun for the rest of the day playing with them.

It's a birthday necessity, blowing out the candles! Thank heavens Karsen didn't blow 'em out for her like she did last time. Happy 4th Birthday darling, we love you and can't believe how big you are getting (sniff sniff).