Happy Halloween!

For the last couple years I've been telling the kids that they don't have to wear coordinating costumes if they don't want to, but I'm always happy and relieved that they end up choosing to.  I love it!  This year we decided (after much brainstorming and debate) on Harry Potter, Hermione, Ron, and Hedwig (the owl).  It turned out really great!  I was planning on making myself into Professor McGonagall, but time and sickness (dang this cold!) prevented me from getting farther than cutting out half the pieces.  The next step would have been to make Dan into Hagrid, which would have been AWESOME.  Maybe one of these years I'll get around to getting the grown ups into costume.  Maybe.

Here are some pictures from before trick-or-treating tonight.  A big thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Smith for providing the robes, glasses, and wands!

 Dan started snapping some pictures of Harry-Ryan before we went outside.  Which is good, because I didn't end up getting another good one of him...

...which is mostly due to his current love of making weird faces instead of smiling.  Which is funny, until they're all that way!

Sweet, sweet Hedwig-Nathan.  I made his costume from a white sweatshirt, some fleece for the hat, and a whole bunch of felt.  I love how it turned out!

Oh. My. Gosh.  Perhaps someone with a Photoshop talent could make me a decent picture of my four children?  Because they are apparently incapable of doing so on their own.

 Katy.  Sweet daughter of mine.  What are you doing?  David and Ryan look great!

 Is there a rule that only two of them can look great in any one picture?  Nathan looks adorable, Ryan looks great, but David's smile isn't as good as in the previous picture.  And Katy...why does your face look like that?

 Okay, this is probably the best one overall.  They all look pretty good.  So now I'm mad about the plant.

 Maybe a different background?  Only, you can't see the pumpkins, you can only half see our cute monster door, and why is the side of my house so gross looking?  None of the kids look very happy, either.

And it's Ryan's turn to ruin the picture (although not intentionally I don't think).

Maybe I'll have more luck with individuals?  The lovey Hermione-Katy.  Always happy to have an excuse to wear some of Mommy's makeup.

Harry and Hedwig!  I love it!

I'm so happy we got the orange hair stuff!  It really makes for a good Ron!

Another picture of Hedwig.  Because he's adorable. 

Side note: I had several people call him a girl tonight.  What?  This is pretty dang gender neutral, leaning towards boy because Hedwig is a boy.  Right?

Okay, kids, let's try again.  Nope, still not great.  Oh well, I give up!

 One more lovely picture of Ryan...

 And another adorable picture of the not-baby baby.

 Flapping his wings!


We then met up with some friends from the neighborhood and made our rounds.  It was nice to go with them, especially because between grandparents and parents the rest of our group had a 8:4 adult to child ratio.  That sure helped out my 1:4 ratio!  I was slightly annoyed that Harry and Ron kept hurrying ahead, but at least they were still with our group.  It just defeats the purpose of coordinating costumes if nobody sees them together!  It's hard to hurry a two year old though.  He kept stopping to look at people's decorations. :-)  And he was definitely ready to go home before everyone else was.  So then I got my arm workout for the day carrying his heaviness!  I deserve at least a few pieces of candy for that, right?


When I was getting Nathan in his jammies  tonight we had the following conversation:

Me: Were you a white owl?
Nathan: Yep.
Me: Did you say "who, who?"
Nathan: I said "trick or treat!"
Me: What happened when you said "trick or treat"?
Nathan: I got candy!
Me: And then what did you say?
Nathan: I said "thank you."
Me: Did you have fun?
Nathan: Yep...let's do it again!

Sprinkler fun!

Here are some more pictures from the summer that I wanted to get on here.  Just a random afternoon playing in the sprinkler.  I got some cute pictures!

 Yep, there's my kid in a diaper.  How very redneck of me.  Sometimes, it's just easier...

 David came out to show us that he was wearing a whole bunch of shirts.  Unfortunately, neither of us remember why.

 Katy finally ditched the umbrella and ran through!

Clearly, we should have done the sprinkler more often...that grass looks bad!

Fourth of July

Yes, the Fourth of July.  Kind of random, but I uploaded and organized a bunch of pictures lately, and decided I should blog some of them.  Tonight I'm doing the Fourth of July!

So, I have a slight problem with the fact that I often use my phone to take pictures, because they aren't as easy to upload and organize with the rest of them.  So I remember taking pictures on the Fourth of July with my phone, but they aren't here.  They include a few pictures from the ward pancake breakfast/bike parade, and a picture of the cute snack I made before the kids started eating it.

 Bananas and watermelon and blueberries - yum!

 See, here's the remaining half of the flag.  It was cute.  From Pinterest, of course.

 After the kids ate the snack and while Daddy was making dinner, we went out and did the day "fireworks" - pop its and smoke bombs.  Here we have Ryan trying to teach Nathan how to use pop its. :-)

 Katy sure has a happy smile!

 Still doing pop its.  And see the boxes in the back of the car?  Those are our fireworks!  We spent our money differently this year - more on good quality mortars, less on fountains.  Definitely the way to go!

 Once he got the hang of them Nathan really liked the pop its!

Ladies and Gentleman, my Eternal Companion.  Hey, at least he's making dinner!

 The kids were really great together doing fireworks.  I love that!

 It's lit!  Move!

 See, Ryan even helped teach Katy how to use the lighter.  :-)

Well, for some reason I didn't even try to take pictures at night, so this is all I have.  It's probably because Dan and I took turns either being in charge of lighting the fireworks or holding Nathan, so neither of us was free to be the photographer.  Maybe next year Nathan will be smart enough to be safe without constantly being held.  One can dream.

Nathan's ABC Book

We finished Nathan's ABC books a few days ago, and it just occurred to me that I should put them on here!  They didn't end up cropped exactly to the right size, so on some of them the words look like they're in weird places.  They look better in the book.  I can't wait for it to come!