Ahoy Matey!

Halloween Festivities

We've had a fun past few days with lots & lots of Halloween festivities. First was Maddie's preschool party on Wednesday. She was more than excited to wear her pirate costume. Here she is with her class.

Hitting the pinata after the parade.


Then that night we went to a trunk-or-treat. The kids were pirates, Ben was a monk, and I was a pregnant nun, which got way more attention than I was anticipating.

(Come to find out later that our RS President, who was laughing so hard when she saw me, was actually Catholic before she became LDS...and still has two aunts that are nuns, whoops. Hopefully I didn't offend anyone.)



The sister missionaries even wanted a picture with me...a little embarrassing.


Cam jumped right into the games they had inside. Here he is chowing on the donut he snagged from the donut on a string game.

Then during the day on Halloween we met up with most of the kids in our branch for a picture and then headed to the mall for some treat-or-treating. My kids were VERY uncooperative. Take notice of Maddie's frown and the fact that Cam isn't even in the picture b/c he refused.

Maybe I forgot to tell them we were taking pics BEFORE getting candy. They were very good for collecting candy at the mall, on the other hand.

Then last, but not least, we were invited to a Halloween party that night by some new friends. We had a yummy dinner and then headed out for trick-or-treating.

Cam surprised us all by being a real trooper, walking the whole way. He was also very good about saying "trick-or-treat" at each door and thanking them afterwards. What a guy!

They had so much fun with their new friends...and so did we. We came home to ONE trick-or-treater...guess we'll have to find out next year how many we actually missed. We were kinda interested since it's our first year in a house.

Happy Halloween!

Carving & Cookies

On Friday night we had some friends over to celebrate Halloween. We carved pumpkins and decorated cookies. Below is Ben & my pumpkins that we decorated for Maddie & Cam. Cam's is on the left. Maddie's is on the right. She was so insistent that I carve the same face that Ben was doing on Camden's...so the result was two similar pumpkins, only his was better b/c he used a stencil. Stinker!

Tiana & JC

Adrienne & Mark

I also had a picture of me, that Ben had taken, but I looked horribly gross and pregnant in it...so I will spare the laughs and not post it as well (Adrienne-I hope you do the same if you have a similar picture).

I saved a few cookies for the kids to decorate the next day, so at 8am they insisted on decorating/eating them just like last year, click here to see. Mmm, there's nothing like sugar first thing in the morning.

prego maddie

Maddie came downstairs before church today with a little surprise for me. After she posed for this picture, she lied down in the front room and gave birth to her little baby and went on her way playing. If only it were that easy.

Crazy 8's

I've been slacking with my blog lately, so I've decided to go ahead and do this crazy 8's questionnaire that I was tagged with...

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:

1-The Office
2-Today Show
3-Friends reruns
4-90210 (the new one)...how embarrassing
5-The Amazing Race
6-What Not to Wear
7-Jon & Kate +8
8-Grey's Anatomy

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1-Cafe Rio
2-PF Changs
3-Olive Garden
4-I love to eat-in at Pizza Hut for some reason, and now try new pizza places here in NY
5-New York Burrito
6-Brick Oven
7-Texas Roadhouse...mmm I'm missing their rolls right about now
8-Macaroni Grill

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:

1-Took Maddie to pre-school
2-Made cookies for a baby shower
3-Made lunch for my little kiddos
4-Made some clippies
5-Went pumpkin picking (again)
6-Had some NY pizza at a little restaurant with some friends of ours
7-Went to a baby shower
8-Made some more clippies, my new obsession if you can't tell already

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1-Dressing my kids up for Halloween
2-Meeting this little girl that's growing inside of me :)
3-Making some moolah when Ben gets into his profession
4-Going to see the Twilight movie next month
5-Someone coming to visit us, any takers??
6-All of the upcoming holidays
7-Ben graduating from school
8-Getting my body back, hopefully.

8 Things On My Wish List:

1-A happy, healthy family
2-A manicured lawn
3-All the clothes I could want for me and my kids (and I guess Ben too)
4-A nice vacation to somewhere tropical
5-A craft room for my growing obsession
6-A finished basement
7-Someone to cook, clean, and watch my kids for me after having this baby
8-A free, professional photographer on hand and while I'm wishing--a hairstylist as well.

pumpkin pickin'

Yesterday my friend Shelly called and invited us to go pick pumpkins with her and her two kids, while our husbands studied. What fun to go pick your own pumpkin, rather than grabbing one at Wal-mart on your way out. Although, no offense to those who get their pumpkins that way, I've done it many times.

They also had animals to look at/pet there, which Camden was thrilled about. Maddie continues to be terrified of ANY animal. Cam was more than happy to stick his hand in the goats mouth (gross!) and let any other animal lick his hand.

Here is Maddie, keeping her distance. Although at one point she asked to be held up to see a big hairy bull, and once I did, she started screaming, and asking to leave.

Pretending to look at the camera (little stinkers!...I always think I have a good enough picture and get home to find out that no ones eyes are actually looking at me)

Posing with their friends after picking some pumpkins.

Just a little evidence of how beautiful it is here right now...looks like a postcard, huh?

Trying something new.

So, I have been very busy lately with a little project. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm having so much fun. Here is a link to what I've been up to. Let me know what you think.

http://cranberriesandcapers.blogspot.com/