Happy Halloween EVERYONE!!

K, I know Halloween was like 3+ months ago, but I'm still playing catch up!

We had a great Halloween!  We celebrated throughout the week!

On Monday, October 25th, we went to the Riverton City Halloween party.  It was a lot of fun!  They had a little Easter Egg type hunt (with black and orange Easter Eggs) and a bunch of candy scattered all over the city park lawn.  It was at night, so the kids had to use flash lights (which I forgot) to find the prizes!  They had so much fun!

I know the LAST thing they need is MORE candy at Halloween, but I'm a sucker for fun, FREE things!  I'm also always looking for ways to create fun childhood memories for the kids!  They love it!

After we came home from the city Halloween party

On Friday, October 29th, I went to the kids school to see them in their school Halloween parade.  It was a lot of fun.  Afterward, I helped with Derek's class party.  Later on that day I helped with Brooklyn and Tyler's class parties.  I was glad I was able to go to all of their parties (and amazed none of the times overlapped!).

That night, we went to Kev's work Halloween party.  It's always a lot of fun and the kids look forward to it every year.  They have pizza and cookies and then the kids "trick-or-treat" to all the offices.  It's fun!

At Kev's work party.  Benjamin was supposed to be Buzz Lightyear, but he found this Zorro hat and toy gun in the Halloween box just before we left, and insisted he be a cowboy!  Soooo....he was a cowboy!

On Saturday, October 30th, Kevin ran a half marathon with his brother, Neil.  It was the "Provo Halloween Marathon."  Kev and I wondered why they called it a "Marathon", when it was only a half!?  hmmm?  They had fun and the weather was PERFECT!  I drove down there with some of the kids (and all the mobs of people!) to see them finish!  We saw Kevin run right by us just before the finish line.  It was cool.

That night, we took the kids Trick-or-Treating (since Halloween was on a Sunday, we celebrated on Saturday).  Sadly, the weather was awful and rained most of the night.  We had to drive the kids around in the van part of the time.  The kids were still "hard-core" though and stuck it out.  Tyler went with one of his friends and not us (for the first time...sniff...)  He had a lot of fun though.

We took the kids to a house by us that goes ALL OUT for Halloween.  It's pretty amazing!  They set everything up only a day or two before Halloween and have so many fun Halloween decorations.  They had a haunted house set up in the backyard too that the kids "enjoyed".

We also took the kids to another house by us that serves hot dogs and hot chocolate.  It's always a lot of fun!  They also give the kids candy and a new box of crayons.  I think it's awesome.  We had a great, yet chilly and wet, night!

Just before we left to go Trick-or-Treating...Ben still didn't want to be Buzz Lightyear....sigh.

Tyler has never been "into" Halloween costumes much, even when he was little.  He was a baseball player for the school Halloween party and Kev's work party.  For Trick-or-treating, he decided to be ummmm...this!

Brooklyn was an adorable cave woman.  She borrowed this costume from her cousin and loved it!  Brooklyn still had to find a way to make her costume "glam" (even a cave lady!)  She added dangly Halloween earrings, sparkly eyeshadow, and shiny black lip gloss!

Derek REALLY wanted to be a skeleton.  He loved it!

Jacob must be a #5 child.  I really didn't want to bother with dressing him up, but the kids really WANTED to dress him up!  I found this costume in the Halloween box and he wore it for about 5 minutes.  He wasn't too fond of it. ;-)

After Trick-or-treating!  Tyler looks to be on a "sugar-high!"

Tyler's "loot"

Brooklyn with Jacob

Benjamin didn't want to stop eating candy long enough to pose for a picture!

Derek...

Jacob enjoyed "playing!"

Hike to Donut Falls

On October 16th, we took the family on a fun hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Donut Falls.  It is a PERFECT hike for a small family.  It is easy, beautiful and not too long of a hike (3/4 mile).  It's also fun to see the falls at the end.  We brought a lunch and ate at the falls.  It was a fun day.  Here are some pics...

Just starting out...

Taking a rest and enjoying the beautiful scenery

Kev, Ben, Jake, Brooklyn...Kevin is always so good to carry the babies!  I try to carry them part of the time, but he always takes them back!  I don't know if it's just because he is a wonderful husband and doesn't want to wear me out, or if he's just worried I will trip (I've been known to be a klutz!)  Kevin is amazing though and never seems to get tired!

Quick pic amidst the trees

Eating lunch at the falls...you can kind of see them behind us...

Heading back...this is the only hard part of the hike and it's not too bad.

Random Fall Pictures

Just like it says, here are a bunch of random fall pictures...

Kev with freshly washed Jacob (almost 6 months old).  I love the little chubby toes.

At October General Conference with Brooklyn, Erika, my sister Holly, my cousin Scott, and his wife, Linda Sue

Jacob, almost 6 months old.  He doesn't take a binky anymore, dang it.

Derek enjoyed playing soccer this fall.  He is #3, about to make a goal!

This picture cracks me up.  This was at my nephew, Grant's baptism.  Derek looks so lonely in this picture because he didn't have Grant to sit by!  Preston, Tyler, Derek, Erika, Brooklyn, Vivian, Darci.

Benjamin got potty trained!!!  Yay!  This is him with his potty training prizes!  He makes the funniest faces in pictures lately.  He is such a crack up!

This is at Tyler's school.  The 6th graders (and their parents!) had to write a (freaking HUGE) autobiography!  They had an open-house in the classroom where the parents could come and see all of the autobiographies.

Sweet Jacob, 6 months old

Benjamin and Jacob in Jacob's crib.  Ben loves to climb in the crib and snuggle with Jake.  They are best buddies!

The BEST Sugar Cookies!!!

Yesterday I decided it would be fun to make Valentine Sugar Cookies with the kids, so I came across this recipe and it is awesome!  I've never really LOVED any of my sugar cookie recipes, so every time I make them, I search for a new recipe.  I've made a lot of cookies that have turned out either crunchy, flavorless, flat, too poofy, or the dough is too hard to work with.  This recipe is perfect and the cookies turn out soft, flavorful, and yummy!  You don't have to refrigerate the dough either! 

This recipe will now be my ONLY Sugar Cookie recipe, so I thought I would share.  You can use it for YOUR Valentine cookies this year!  Yum!

This isn't my picture, but it's about what they looked like

Yummy Sugar Cookies

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll into a golf ball size and place onto ungreased cookie sheets. Pat down slightly to 1/4"-1/2" thick.  (I'm sure you could roll them out and cut them into shapes too.  Just roll them to 1/4"-1/2" thick)
3. Bake 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks  
**I like my cookies soft, so I err on the thicker side and less cooking time.

Here's a yummy frosting recipe too.  (I love almond extract, but if you don't love almond extract, you can use vanilla instead.)
Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup milk
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. almond extract
In a medium saucepan bring butter and milk to a boil. Remove from heat. Add powdered sugar and almond extract. Beat until smooth. (The recipe said that it will seem runny at first, but it sets up after a while.  I added about a cup more powdered sugar and it turned out great.)

Derek's Birthday Stuff

Derek's birthday was crazy this year (read my last post for details), so we pretty much celebrated all weekend long!

We do "friend" parties for our kids every OTHER year and "family" parties on the off years.  This year he had a family party.  We knew that Kevin and Tyler would be gone for Derek's birthday, so on Thursday (the day before his birthday), we sang to him and had him open up his presents. 

He was thrilled to get this talking parrot!  I took the kids to Toys R Us to "look" at toys a few days before Derek's birthday.  He saw this parrot the minute he walked in the door and he couldn't stop playing with it!  Basically, the parrot repeats everything you say.  Derek just laughed and laughed and laughed!  He BEGGED me to buy it for him.  I told him there was no way I was going to buy "that bird" because it was just too loud and obnoxious.  I then had the older kids distract Derek while I secretly went and bought it.  Hee hee hee.

It was so much fun to see Derek's face when he opened it!  He was thrilled!  He was also excited to get the Toy Story Legos and the Disney Cars ambulance!

On Sunday, we went up to my parent's house to celebrate his birthday.  We sang to him and had cake and ice cream.

I saw this Kit Kat cake online and thought it looked fun.

Derek LOVED celebrating his birthday over several days!  He felt very special.  He had a great birthday!

Happy Birthday Derek!

On September 17th, Derek turned 7!  He is getting so big!  He had a very fun birthday, but I had a CRAZY day!  This is how I felt...

At the end of the day, when I finally had a chance to breathe, I jotted down all that I had accomplished that day and was amazed by how crazy it was!

I know this is just so exciting, but just for kicks, here was my schedule...

7:30-8:30  Get up, help get kids ready, make lunches and take kids to school. 
8:30-10:00  Get myself and Ben and Jake ready, tidy up the house and eat breakfast (this was the calmest part of the day)
10:00-11:00  Go Visiting Teaching
11:00-11:45  Run to Walmart
11:45-12:15  Run to Dance Store to get dance clothing for Brooklyn
12:15  Receive call from Realtor saying that someone wanted to come see our house in 2 hours! (yes, our house is for sale)
**Freak out a little
12:15-1:00  Cruise home, madly clean the house, feebly try to nurse the baby and make a quick lunch for Ben.
1:00-1:45  Run to Derek's classroom (because it was his birthday) with a poster of him and treats for the class. 
1:45-2:15  Pick up the kids from school, rush home and madly try to finish cleaning the house with the kids "help".
2:15-3:00  Go to Baskin Robbins with the kids (needed a place to go while the Realtor showed our house and it was Derek's birthday too)
3:00-3:45  Run over to the church to quickly do the project I signed up to do for "Fabulous Friday".  Very fun.
3:45-4:00  Run Brooklyn to dance class
4:00-4:30  Run home to get Tyler ready for an overnight scout camp out.
**Received another message that someone else wanted to see our house in a couple hours.  Cleaned up existing messes and threatened the kids to not make any more messes.
4:30-5:30  Picked up Brooklyn from Dance Class and headed to Boondocks with the kids for Derek's birthday
5:30-8:00  Enjoyed the night at Boondocks, however Kevin was at the camp over-nighter with Tyler, so I was a single parent.  It all worked out though.
8:00-8:30 Grabbed a Redbox and Taco Bell for the kids.
9:00  Got home and talked to my parents on the phone (which was very nice) because it was my dad's birthday too!

**Sat down to feed the baby and realized how TIRED I was!  Holy cow!

Here are some pictures from the day:

 Derek with the poster he brought to school

Brooklyn and Derek getting ready to drive the cars at Boondocks...I'm lovin' Brooklyn's funny face.

Derek, driving...I was very happy (and surprised) that he was such a careful and cautious (i.e. slow) driver!

Brooklyn, driving...she was a fearless speed demon

Brooklyn and Derek on the boats...they enjoyed shooting people with their water gun.  They also got "shot" quite a bit by the other boats and by their mom shooting the water gun from the sidelines.

The kids waiting in line (soaking wet) to go on the boats AGAIN!

The kids on the last hole of the miniature golf course...I didn't realize that as their ball went in the hole, the statue guy shot a stream of water out at them.  Sadly, the stream of water hit Jacob SQUARE in the face as he sat innocently in his stroller.  It was sad, and he wasn't too happy about it. ;-)

Benjamin LOVED the Whac-a-Mole!