Halloween 2012

Everyone just had their own plan this year for costumes. Can we just say Yes! to colored Duct tape. helped out a ton.
Rowdy from day one wanted to be Nacho Libre. He watched it once a couple of years ago and i think I really regretted it because of the wrestling aftermath. But he made a great one this year! The wig cracks me up

Ezra just wanted to be something blue. We had to talk him into being a fireman on fire and tell him sometimes fire is blue. He does have a little blue hair color in his hair which he demanded.

Elliot was so cute telling everyone she was an, "oompa woompa" and "Twick ou tweat" and she'd get a "tweat fuh mah punkin!" I have some footage I will have to get. She was seriously adorable running down the street trying to keep up, or just get more candy. She has the best squeal of delight. and yikes she is a super sugar head like me.

Nan was in town and got to see the kids at the trunk or treat. Where Miles won the most original costume. It was so rad. He was the cutest little pot belly sun burned tourist I've ever seen. He looked awesome.

I'm a witch underneath this cute facade :) that's a zipper on my face

Halloween we had our normal garage gathering for soup. We just did chili and homemade root beer and cornbread. mmm. Last minute I decided to paint the bear with glow in the dark skeleton paint. Cody put up a few black lights and we had kids walk into the garage. It was really fun. We had a few impromptu fhe dance parties in the garage with the black lights since...and Cody's fluorescent orange train vests and gloves

 Paige let me paint her face day of the dead-ish. I love those little skeleton people. I thought she looked lovely.. for a dead girl

Livee Ms. Ultimate Supreme Toddler in Tiara helped out our Oompa Woompa

 

A week or so earlier Lynda and I hosted a witches night out. It was really fun

 
Elliot was almost potty trained there for a minute because she wanted a "tweet fwum mah punkin"
I'm about to pull it out again :) she was pretty sad to put the decorations away too. She loved her plate. I made it right before she was born and we weren't telling anyone the name so it still says Sister. She just sat there for 10 minutes. loking at he google eyes saying, "Mah Pwate, Mah Pwate"

Oh and one of my scripture mastery trick or treat games was a triumph ;)
Goodbye Halloween 2012

elly belly

These pictures pretty much speak for themselves

Ninja Stars

So..I am Rowdy's soccer coach this year. I'm having a blast doing it. 

Here are some action shots from one of the parents. I don't know if it because our team name is Ninja Stars that I think all of Rowdy's moves look like kung-fu or, if he feels like he has to play soccer ninja-ish ;)

 and Hudson the really blonde boy in the back, check out his ninja moves too

 notice the open mouth. It looks like he just said, "Hoy-ah"

 wax on

Rowdy is doing great though. He loves loves his soccer time. I am glad I get to be his coach this year too. Its working out really well.

Here is our cute little team

Cort, Trent, Levi, Me

Rowdy, Hudson, Seth, Caleb

and assistant coach Chrissy not pictured, thank goodness for her. Sometimes we feel like we are herding cats.

General Conference Jeopardy for Seminary

My Jeopardy Template

Preschooler!

Ezra's first day of pre-school!

Here he is with Miss Wendy his teacher

Wow. I was thinking about putting him in the pre-school Rowdy went to last year but it didn't feel right. It just felt too long for him to be away at school. He's my little boy snuggle bug, and I already feel like he is growing up so fast. I want to cherish it. I was thinking about even keeping him home but I am also teaching seminary everyday and thought we would both benefit from a little time apart. I'm thankful Miss Wendy decided to do one in her home for less time. It seemed like a good fit. I was a little nervous his first day. Rowdy was sort of born ready to go to school and Ezra hasn't felt that way to me. But it sounds like he did great and had fun. He loved a game of "leaf, leaf, apple." and told us he "had great adventures at preschool." So here's to a great start.....
of a lot more education.
We love you Ezra

Labor day and some sneaky Photoboothers

We were somewhere this weekend and there was a face painter, which the kids were suuuper excited about, however the line was insane. So I just told the kids I would paint their faces another time. Then I stumbled upon some face painting crayons. and since the boys wanted tigers, (this all began with Ezra wanting a "blue Tiger" we have no idea where that came from but ya know what evs) we needed black I just busted out the crayola markers. &..everything came off ...(as in they are now all clean) charmingly 

Labor day weekend Locke & Katie & fam spent the night w us on Sunday night. Cody was out of town and came back Monday morning. Sunday was Paige's birthday and Austin Connor's farewell so we ended up being late welcoming the Andersons. But we had us some fun. The kids rode bikes and we skyped Papa and Yaya outside w the new i pad Cody surprised me with last week. I forced Locke and Katie to chill on the couch with me and chat it up. I love to do that. Then, since poor Paige's b day was on a fast Sunday we made a midnight run w Lynda and Paige for a chimichanga at Allsups. and cracked each other up all the while Locke was unknowingly babysitting the sleeping children. I woke up the next morning with a side ache. It could have been the chimichanga or the laughing there is no way to know.

Labor day Monday we ate too much junk food. The first being bacon pancakes. mmmm

then we wen to the Roanoke community pool with a little waterslide and a big little waterslide. Armanie and Rowdy finally caught on and by the end of the day were loving it and swimming to us after coming off the slide. ...of course they learn how to swim at the end of summer. It was a nice day. Cody brought stuff for strawberry shortcake but we had no angel food cake. After eating some bockwurst & kraut and later fhe I made lemonbars while Cody was "sleeping." Unknowingly Cody invited the Carmacks to come down & bring angel food cake. So yeah I ate way too much. It was a fun weekend. + rejuvenating after my first half week of seminary. Which I love, but it seems all consuming right now

Uncle Cody attacked Miles w the duct tape.

 & Ezra

 

Yes we have had some photo booth fun nights.. but like 2 and they were months and months ago and I pushed all the buttons. and the kids are not supposed to touch my computer w out asking.

 So imagine me randomly stumbling upon these photos taken without my knowledge :)

 They continue to crack me up. 

Especially imagining the storyline of what was going on.

 wow nice black eye/white eye Miles

 Is that 1 photobomber or 2?

 Pure hilarity in Ezra's face. I love his belly laughs

 Rowdy is having way too much fun with this

 hee hee

love you, sneaky little photobooth bombers

Kinder!

 Rowdy's first day of school!

 Here is his teacher (meet the teacher night) I didn't even cry like I thought I would I am sure it was because of meet the teacher night. I still felt like I had cried.

 Ezra wanted to wear his backpack to take Rowdy to school

Walking to school already. Today was the first day he rode his bike

He's so big. I already miss him during the day.... although it is much quieter around here.

 So sweet

He seems to like it. He is pretty quiet about school by the time he gets home. I have been in his class at the end of the day a few times to help out & thats been fun. He says his favorite part of the day is getting to play superheroes with Miles at lunch.

Week before school

So the Cancienne's are in Reno. Our sweet neighbor friends, sisters, babysitters, musicians, comedians, help out in a pinch go to girls. We are going to miss them. We went out to eat at Olive garden the other night. It was a fun see you later girl party.

The girls were all insta-gramming it up.

 And so Megan is a super morning person and hungers and thirsts after righteousness and is so fun. So I am bummed she is not going to be in my seminary class. But Paige will make up for the both of them I am sure.  Megan did make it to the first day before she had to take off. And if Mckay were here I would've invited her to come do a musical number. She has the best voice. The peeps up there in Reno are super lucky.

There was a Seminary conference in Dallas and the sweet Stamps sacrificed some hotel points so we could go down to Dallas early to "plan" seminary stuff. We did get a lot of seminary stuff talked about and also a lot of non-seminary stuff talked about, all while eating thai, swimming and dodging huge cockroaches. This is my last ditch effort to remember the fun via photo. The seminary conference was excellent and I was grateful to have made it there. and grateful for the good company. I love this girl.

 In getting ready for seminary we have been cleaning out the toy room quite a bit and used the give aways to make some "robots" with the kids.

 They told me where they wanted stuff and I hot glued it for them

 They were fun for a day

 Randomly one of Elliot's favorite snacks is dried seaweed. 

Its one of the only green things we don't have to beg her to eat.

 I imagined painting a theme for the seminary year on the wall, but I thought it was a good theme for our family to have up too. Here are my lovely assistants

 and my other lovely assistant...the T.V. It was a small miracle that with all the paint and chaos and kids there was not a major spill or re-doo.

 I was only going to paint the seminary room but Cody got excited and painted over all our kid marks. It looked great. Who needs to clean? When you can just paint over it? haha We upgraded to semi gloss because the matte was not washing off.

 Thanks Paige and Megan and Livee for all your help w my little project

 I don't know why but i have always loved coveralls and Cody surprised me with my first pair! perfect for painting. after this project I painted a sign for Rowdy's soccer team. It made me want to paint something crazy with no lines because of all the tight letters I've been doing.

In addition to the obvious,... The Lord is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever.

This whole week I felt like Heavenly Father was helping me take care of so many things to be able to be ready for seminary. The room and paint with all the kids home was pretty smooth. I would have thoughts come into my mind to call a kid on my roll and even where to go to get Rowdy a specific backpack for school (jansport all the way)(we still have ours from high school!) I felt buoyed up. Which is amazing. Especially when I was trying not to be nervous about all the logistics. But I know Heavenly Father will continue to help me out if I do my part. He loves these kids so much, and I feel so lucky to be a part of this great seminary endeavor.