Halloween 09

Halloween is always a crazy weekend, but this one seemed especially crazy. For one, we were buried in snow. School was canceled for 3 days last week just after getting back to school from a 2 week fall break. Nice. The snow was crazy, we survived, it was actually kind of fun. My mom flew into town on Thursday in the middle of the crazy storm. I'm so glad she got to come be a part of our weekend. She flew for Halloween at to make my crib bedding which I absolutely love. I don't know how she does it. I smile everytime I walk in to the HER room. (it still feels so weird to me when I say she or her)
My mom arrived, we ate dinner and then the festivities began with carving pumpkins.

It was nice to have my mom here to help carve pumpkins. Usually I do the job by myself because of some tragic childhood experience of Luke puking into a pumpkin. He still refuses to gut the pumpkins.

Luke had Friday off and took the boys sledding for their first time. Tanner got tired before which is totally rare.

Even Lukey got in on the action. He squealed the whole way down the hill. After sledding, my mom took some impromptu family photos which will be revealed at a later date. We hurried home to change and then it was off to the ward Trunk or Treat.

I love being able to repeat costumes. My mom made this for Austin 3 years ago. We got Luke to wear this costume by telling him he was Captain Feathersword from the Wiggles. He loved it and kept saying 'I pirate. Ahoy Me arteys'

Austin wanted to be Darth Maul this year, which was sort of surprising because he hates being scared. He loved having face makeup on. His costume was easy to make, a basic black cape and hood.

Tanner wanted to be Luke Skywalker, but due to my lack of knowledge about Star Wars I bought the fabric for Obi Won Kanobi (I don't even know how to spell it) I was able to use the same pattern for each costume which made things really cheap.

Luke loved the idea of trick or treating. He would walk up to the house and say trick or treat and then run back to us saying, 'I got one.' It never got old.

Somehow, during all the craziness of the weekend my mom finished the bedding set. I haven't taken a complete after picture. The bed skirt is the stripe. I love it and can't imagine a little girl sleeping in it but I can't wait.

Thank you thank you to my mom who has crazy sewing skills. She was seamstress, photographer, and grandma all in one weekend.

Catch Up- Austin is 5

Austin was quite busy last week. Here is his week in pictures. We'll start with the end. He turned 5 on Oct. 28th. Poor Austin waits patiently all year long for his birthday so when it comes its a big deal. We didn't have a party this year do to the fact that we are still getting to know people. Well I guess Austin didn't agree with this and started inviting everyone on his own to his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. I had two different people come up to me at church ask when he was having his party because there child had been talking about it for weeks. Then I was told that Austin was individually choosing members of his preschool class to come to Chuck E Cheese. Long story short, we had to take him to Chuck E Cheese, he was totally expecting a party. So we braved the snow/blizzard and went as a family to Chuck E. Cheese He kept asking when Chuck E. was coming out to say hi to him.
He/we also braved our first huge snow storm. I posted more pics on facebook. We had 20 inches of snow in our backyard. The boys had a blast playing for hours. I really do wonder if/when they will get sick of yet. Surprisingly, Austin loves it more than Tanner. Austin would make seats and then just sit in the snow all relaxed like he was in a sauna.

oops, I think this is actually Tanner but I have the same picture with Austin. It's hard to tell who is who when they are bundled up in the exact same coat. I've learned from that mistake. Next year different coat colors.

What a goofball!

Also, Austin participated in his preschool costume parade. This is the day before the snow hit. This year Austin decided to be Darth Maul, but scary costumes were not allowed so he wore his boxer costume from last year.

Austin is such special part of our family. He is a very sweet, happy, random, goofy child- I can't picture our family without him.

I'm not sure where he learned this.

Yesterday I had the following conversation with Austin. I asked him to give me a kiss I puckered up and then...
Austin: I want to give you a kiss on your lips because then I can have a baby.
Me: (it took me a second to decide what to do) Well mommy already has a baby in her tummy. I can't fit another one.
Austin: Yes you can! Some people can fit two babies in their tummies. Then he proceded to give me the name of a boy in his church class that is a twin and said that his mommy had two babies in her tummy.

I guess you kiss twice to get twins.

Forecast: Chance of Snow

Today we woke up to a nice thick blanket of snow and it has continued to snow all day. The boys were asking to play in the snow at 8:00 am. (Tanner is in his 2nd week of fall break) I told them we could play at 10:30 hoping it would warm up a little. So, we started the bundling and the boys were off. They love it.
I'm not sure why we bought red jackets for everyone but it makes for a cute picture.

I love this one of Luke. I wasn't sure how he would react but he followed his brothers and jumped right in. He was insisitent on wearing his sunglasses. He looks like a true ski bum.

The boys first snow angel and now our yard is not such a nice blanket of snow. They were tackling each other, doing "jump slides" and acting like bull dozers pushing the snow everywhere.

Our neighbor gave us the thing Austin is playing with. It makes the perfect snowballs. Can you see Tanner getting ready to throw a snowball at Austin. They loved aiming at my belly too.

Now on to figure out how to make our Halloween costumes extra warm.

The overrated Pumpkin Patch

We've had some great weather so I've been urging/nagging Luke to go to a pumpkin patch. I started to research and found that there are no free pumpkin patches and apparently most people buy their pumpkins from the grocery store. What the??? Most places charge up to $8 for adults to get in and then additional fees for the pmpkins. I so miss our favorite patch from Bakersfield. I found one place that had a $5 entrance fee so we went with it. I had no idea half of Denver would be there too. It was just like the Fall Festival that Bakersfield does. Face Painting (with the mile long line), ball toss into the pumpkin, pumpkin hat making, etc.

Then we went into the highly anticipated pumpkin patch and discovered that we will be buying our pumpkins at the store this year. The pumpkins were smashed, bruised, and had no stems. What a bust! We took a hayride to back to the parking lot and called it a day. I guess we know what we will be doing for FHE.

I know this picture doesn't make sense but I had to include it in the post. On the way into the festival I was not watching where I was going and totally biffed it. I mean, I ate it hard. My foot stepped into the hole and then my 6 foot, 7 month pregnant body went flailing. The hole was between to cars so I sort of hit both of them on the way down. I seriously couldn't get up forever because I was laughing so hard and didn't know if my pregnant 4th child bladder could handle it. The poor people behind me were nice and acted like they didn't see it. I don't know how they held their composure. I would have had to turn the other direction if I saw someone biff it. Tanner just kept saying, "poor baby Audrey. I hope she is alright," over and over. I didn't land on my belly so I'm sure I'm fine.

Not sure this is effective

A brand new SuperTarget just opened last week about a mile from my house. I took my first of many trips and discovered the ridiculous speed limit in the parking lot. I've never seen anything like it. I can just hear the policeman, "mam, you were going 19 1/2 instead of 17 1/2. I'm going to have to ticket you." I mean really its almost more of a hazard, do you know the concentration it will take for me to find 17 1/2 on my speedometer. Geessh! I don't know about these CO people.

Way to Excited

I ordered some headbands off of Ebay this week and they came today! This probably sounds way lame, but I swear I could have almost cried when I opened the package. Inside were crocheted headbands in 12 different adorable colors. I can't wait to finish them with flowers and bows. I wanted to put the bows on something and then Luke volunteered the boys to put them on for me so we could see what little Audrey (thats pretty much her name) might look like. Tanner obliged, but said "don't you dare put this on your blog." Austin was most concerned with which headband he should wear but would not step foot in the picture. I called 4 different sisters, and sister-in-laws for someone to get excited with me but no one answered. I need some estrogen support.
Lukey loves his headband and hasn't taken it off yet. 2 months left, that sounds way to long.