Bats, and Pumpkins, and Spookables...Oh My!

We had a super rainy, really cold, REALLY great Halloween! The girls were able to go door to door trick or treating for the first time this year and they LOVE it! Em had been practicing for days what she needed to do in order to get her candy, and she had it down! As soon as she would ring the doorbell she was screaming "TRICK OR TREAT" as loud as she could. I'm sure you could hear her through the closed door. :) It was gorgeous sunny day...until it was time to go trick-or-treating. The sky opened up and it rained...and rained...and rained. I didn't know it could rain like that in Utah! We went to Grandma and Grandpa Terry's trunk or treat and did a sprint around the circle of cars to collect our candy. After that we headed back to their house to dry off/warm up with some yummy clam chowder and scones. One of my favorite fall time treats! The Great Pumpkin must have heard our pleas because as soon as it was time for us to go door to door the rain stopped. Yeah! So, we are stocked up on candy for the next two years and enjoying our treats!
Two of the three Musketeers!

Ready for battle!

This is an end of night pic...They were soaked, tired and had discarded costumes along the way. But they were the cutest Three Musketeers I've ever seen. :)
Banana also had a Halloween parade at school, and we got to make some super cute goodies to take along! They were both Banana's idea and she helped paint the faces and decorate the mummies!

Grandpa and Grandma Woodward hooked up one of their trailers, loaded it with hay and took us on a fun hay ride!

I got to end the night cuddling with this cutie!
This is my niece Bentley and I am in love!

Pumpkin Guts

There are going to be a lot of pictures. Consider yourself warned. :)

(Love the smiles)!

I love fall. L.O.V.E. it! Our weekends have been jam packed with tons of fun stuff, and it's been great weather on top of that!

We made monster brownies. Cute and Yummy!
Went to Wheeler Farms where we dared to go through the spookable filled maze.
Good thing we had these tough chickies to protect us!
Played a little bit of Follow the Leader. Well mostly Banana led and we followed...

Picked out our pumpkins. Apparently the pumpkin was winning this battle.
Painted said pumpkins.
(Those are ALMOST finished Halloween Costumes in the background. So close)!


And here's the part where Running Man thought it'd be great to terrify Miss Em with pumpkin guts. I'm pretty sure the following was her thought process through the whole thing...
Hmm...what is that? Very interesting.
Oh wait. Maybe not. Don't come any closer dad. I mean it.
Maybe if I hide he'll leave me alone. Maybe.
Ok, maybe not. Maybe if I cry he'll see that I don't like it.
Well, crying has never really worked out in my favor. I think I'm going to be sick. Maybe puking will get him to back off. And maybe Mom will put down the camera and give a girl break.
Well, that didn't work either. I think I'll just resort to screaming my head off.
And success.
We're great parents, huh?!
To make up for it we went for a drive through American Fork Canyon.
It was GORGEOUS. So many pretty colors and there was the perfect fall crispness in the air. Heaven.Banana's biggest dream is to fly. Not like be a pilot fly. Really fly. Running Man tried to bring a little of her dream to life. They loved it.

The perfect end to a nearly perfect day.

Finally Fall!

I'm sitting here listening to the rain and wind outside, and it feels like HOME. One of our favorite things about living in Iowa was the amazing rain/thunderstorms. It is one of the top 5 things I miss about living there. Another things I miss about living there is this awesome girl.
And...she came to visit yesterday! I only got to spend a few hours with her but we didn't waste a second! I haven't done much, well anything, socially since we moved out here so it was SO nice to get out and spend time with someone who knows me inside and out.
I am LUCKY to have her as one of my best friends.
My girls take after me (and I after my mom) and fully embrace the start of the Holiday season! We love all things Halloween/Fall/Christmas at our house and I really believe it is my favorite time of year!
The first craft of the season were these Frankensteins. Super easy, super fun and kept them entertained for a good half an hour. Awesome!
(Em won't stop making this face in EVERY picture I ever take. And Banana looks slightly crazy in this pic...)

Running Man's parents and li'l sis came into town for Conference and I'm so mad I didn't get one single picture. But we did go to Gardner Village with everyone and had a blast finding all of the witches and eating some yummy candy from the candy store. I could have spent hours and hours in all of the shops, but there were 10,000 ppl there and the girls got grumpy. So...my bank account is safe for now. :)
The biggest thing to happen this week...Banana chopped her hair off! I kinda sorta didn't tell her I was going to cut that much off...Lucky for me she LOVES it. I couldn't get the smile off of her face, or get her to stop checking herself out in every mirror we passed. It makes her look so grown up!
(Yes, yes I know how dusty my shelves are. I did clean them promptly after seeing this picture on my camera)!
Here's to Happy Fall Festivities!

{Giggles}

Why I love my job!

Goings On

I'm a little behind...Life always seems to get a little more hectic when Fall comes around. Banana is LOVING preschool, and Em is LOVING having some one on one time with me. Running Man has been crazy busy with work. The past few weeks he has been working all of his normal hours at his office and every night at the State Fair. We all missed him! I escaped to Price for a few days so the girls could play with cousins, grandparents and aunts. One of the highlights of that trip was going to my HS's Homecoming football game. I haven't been to one since the year after I graduated. So...a LONG time ago. Banana has a slight obsession with cheerleaders as of late (thanks to her aunt Tay-Tay). She was in HEAVEN cheering along with the girls all throughout the game.
Super cute to watch!

The girls spotted the Homecoming Royalty during the parade and asked me if they were real princessess (Banana's life long dream is to be a real princess). I told her yes and it was all she could talk about the rest of day. Well...at the game she spotted Ariel so we had to get a picture!

Running Man's bday happened to fall during the State Fair so we had to spread out celebrating out to the times when we got to see him for a few minutes. Sunday we did bday cake and got to just relax together for a few hours!

On his actual bday Grandma T. and Kenna came up to see Kenna's quilt that was in the fair, so we went with them and got to have a quick dinner with him to celebrate!

Banana got to see a pig and you couldn't wipe the smile off her face. (Those who know her well know that piggies are her FAVORITE animal. Ever.)

I have been diving into projects at home to try and keep me busy and distracted from all of the craziness that has happened the last few months. We live in an apartment, so we can't paint any walls so colorful crafts have been my goal! These are all from Banana's newly finished room. I am pretty excited about the colors and how everything turned out.

Art work for the wall.

I finally found a way to display all of Banana's pictures my friend took a few months ago. There were way too many cute ones to choose from so I just displayed them all. :)

Finally, the BIGGEST project I have ever taken on. The girls have always used a dresser that used to be mine when I was a baby. I kind of tried to re-do it when we lived in Iowa, but with lots of curious hands grabbing at it, it didn't last too long. This is the best before picture that I could find...

And here's the after. I sanded, painted, stenciled and mod podged fabric onto the top. I LOVE how it turned out. I have the bug now and can't wait to get started on all of the other rooms in the house!

We {heart} school!

This little girl got all dolled up this morning and headed off to her first day of pre-school!

(Well...technically not her very first day ever seeing as she was in school last year).

But that didn't take away from the total excitement (on her part), and the tears (on my part).
Miss Em is slightly distraught about Banana not being around, and about her not being able to stay at pre-school. She did NOT want to leave that incredible classroom and come with her boring old mom. So I'm looking for things to do with her to help pass the time! Having Banana at school makes it easier to run errands, but I don't want my alone time with Em to turn into strictly errands all of the time. Any suggestions on what I can do with this spunky, crazy two year old?!

A Lesson For All

After a trip to the ER and five stitches...

Em has learned to NOT play with scissors.
{Sigh}
I'd rather she learned her lesson a different way...