Pre-Halloween

Before Halloween, my mom invited us over for a Halloween dinner and some in house trick or treating. 

Kyler was in charge of making the homemade root beer. 

So that morning Layla disappeared into our “art” room and when she emerged later she told me she was working on a new Halloween costume. 

About 20 min before it was time to leave, she showed me her new mask she had made from the cover of a giant coloring book and her start to cutting out her cardboard Poppy dress. She needed help with the cutting. After I finished that for her, I pulled out the paints and she went to work to create the rest of her new costume. Because we were short on time, Kacin gave her some help so we could leave on time, but really Layla takes the credit for the planning and the creating of her Poppy costume.

The day before Halloween, Layla had her first ever piano recital. She started taking lessons in August. We have loved her teacher, but the made the hard decision that after the recital we were going to take a break from formal lessons until next year. All the kids dressed up in costume for the recital. Layla told us later that she was really nervous, but she said a prayer and felt calm. I’m glad she knows Heavenly Father always hears our prayers. She did a great job playing “Bubble Gum”.

The Friday before Halloween we also went to Layla and Perry’s Boo Bash (except all week Layla kept calling it the boo dash). Kyler volunteered to work at the Haunted House (which was awesome!) and Eric and I took the kids around to the games. Perry refused to dress up. I loved the progression of these pictures at the donut on the string game (Perry’s no hands to hands).

Kacin wasn’t feeling well enough after his surgery for us to go to our ward trunk or treat, but I think we had plenty of pre-Halloween fun.

Pumpkin Carving

This was the first year in a lot of years that we simply picked pumpkins out at the grocery store. We learned last year that pumpkin patches in the desert in October are hot and dusty and not as much fun as pumpkin patches in the northwest. So the grocery store suited us just fine this year.

Eric always heads up this tradition. But Kyler and Kacin are pretty independent in pumpkin carving.

Of course, we did not leave baby B out of this tradition.

Perry did not want to join us at first, but eventually he calmed down enough to get some baby time and then start to carve his pumpkin with daddy.

Kyler took a knife to Kacin’s ear, too. Either that or it was a day after his ear surgery.

The finished pumpkins! Two faces, Minnie Mouse, and the Seahawks 

More pictures of B

Remember when I said I have lots of pictures on my phone of baby B? Well I was not exaggerating. And I’ve tried to weed through them, but when she makes such adorable facial expressions it’s hard to narrow them down to just a few! 

These were from October 18th. Which was just a regular day we had time at home so I took some pictures.

Layla still gets excited to help with the baby. And she would help all day long, if I let her. It is sweet.

We have another daddy’s girl right here.

She’s not a fan of tummy time, but she likes playing on her mat.

If B is awake before the kids go to school, she gets two siblings that fight over swinging her, changing her, and holding her.

When my dad was in the hospital for a few days, B brought a lot of cheer.

Here’s a few more from the day she turned 3 months old.

The older kids all thought it was pretty great when she got a hold of her pacifier clip and was waving it around.

Clearly, she is a well documented baby girl. :)