A Visit From Some of Our Favorite People

A few days before Halloween we got lucky enough to have a great visit from Poppy, Grammy, Richie, Erin, Zeke, and Ezra!! It was awesome! We were all so excited to have them here and get time to play. The weather was great so we got to be outside at the park, swim a little, get crafty, and do some Halloween stuff! 

We took a trip one day to Old McDonald's Farm and the kids had a blast. Colt keeps asking to go back and feed the animals and ride the train! The goat here in the first picture ripped Ellie's bag of food right out of her hand and ate the bag, not the food but ate the paper bag instead!

Tire swing, a favorite a all of theirs. 

We made it to our ward trunk or treat and had fun running the parking lot for candy. Colt was upset in the picture because Ellie took a piece of candy from our bucket and he was for some reason really bothered by that! Grammy is so great at participating! I know the kids wish I would dress up, maybe one year!

Fun fun trip! Its always a blast with these guys around when all we have to do is play and have a good time! I love you guys, thanks for coming everyone!

Some from Erin's Blog on this trip!

We spent a lot of time in the pool on this trip!  With it being so warm, we all wanted to be in it all the time!

We stayed in all the way until dark!

Grammy and Poppy unloaded a suitcase full of gifts for all the kids.  Zeke got a cool CAT tractor toy that moved, and Ezra got a fun little barn toy with lights and sounds.  They loved them!

The next morning the kids had fun playing in the little house all together.  It was so fun to hear their conversations and play scenarios in there!

Spent some time on the trampoline

Then of course, back in the pool!

Zeke and Ellie stripped down for some nakey time

The next day we loaded everyone up and headed to a Pumpkin Patch.  All the kids were in the van with Grammy and Pop, except Rachel and Ezra with us in the truck.  Rae insisted on riding with her Ezzie.  She loves being with him and helping with him, it's so sweet.  So cute hearing her talk to him.

We were quite the bunch walking in there

We got a few bags of animal feed and all the kids got to feed the livestock

Ezra just hung out and watched from the stroller.  He was happy in there

More animal feeding

There was a little horse station where you could ride a pony.  Zeke was happy just to pet it, had no interest in riding it

We decided to let Ezra get in on some of the action and take a pony ride.  He was fine at first, but got a little unsure half way through and cried the second half of the 20 foot loop!

Dad and Zeke wandered off to feed some free roaming deer

Feeding these crazy animals!

Then the kids all got to pick their very own pumpkin from the Pumpkin Patch!

Grammy and Poppy with all the kids

Our little family

And these two crazies!!  These two sure are funny together!  They are both crazy on their own, but they bring out an extra dose of crazy in each other when they are together!  Lots of screaming, yelling and a whole lot of laughing!

Zeke loved assisting Eric clean the fish tank

That night we went to their wards trunk-or-treat.  This was the week before Halloween, so of course being the slacker that I am, I did not have costumes for them yet.  So they just wore their Halloween outfit/shirt that Grandma sent them.  And looked awfully adorable in them!

We got there a little late because the boys were napping.  So Zeke got to walk right in to some of the games without having to wait.  Eating a marshmallow off a string, and sharing with Grammy

We made it just in time for the trunk-or-treating!  Zeke was happy to get some candy!

Checking out all their loot!

The next day was our last.  We just hung around the house mostly and went swimming, of course.  

Rachel and Ezra, best buds!

Our last time in that wonderfully warm pool!

Ezra was such a happy boy!  He loved every minute of pool time, cousin time and play time!  He had a poopy incident in the pool so I took him to the grass to spray him down.  Even sitting naked in the grass and being sprayed by the hose, he was all smiles!!  Love this kid!

Halloween

Here is our Halloween! Only a few month behind :) The kids of course all loves the countdown all month until the big day! 

Colt did lots of Halloween themed things at school and loved it so naturally the girls were a little jealous of his "fun" school and wanted to do some of his stuff too.

Colt at his preschool parade. Colt was excited to be a super hero for Halloween this year. I think it was a Thor costume but he went with super hero!

I love all of his smiles! 

Everyone had a great Halloween day. We saw Colt's parade and then got to eat lunch with the girls at school. The girls thought they heard an announcement that they could wear their costumes too school but they were mistaken and were the only kids to show up in costumes! Luckily they wore regular clothes underneath just incase this was the situation! 

We went out for a quick dinner, in costume of course!

So we had a super hero, a 80's girl, a princess and a cheetah!

Ellie was right there with all the other kids running along from house to house. She was the cutest saying trick or treat and thank you. She got scared of one trick or treater with a scary mask which was sad and kind of funny. Our street was so crowded and lots of the houses were decorated so it was a fun atmosphere for trick or treating.

Great day for us. I sure love this gang! And that night was a true blessing, Becky had her baby! A healthy baby girl named Lakey! Such way cutie!

Welcome sweet girl!

Terrible Two's

I haven't resorted to this yet but I am awfully close! This was from our Relief Society activity and I thought it was hysterical! Ellie has just been on a whole different level of hard for me than I have experienced thus far. She has many opinions, demands, she is smart and knows how to do a lot of things as well as not being scared to do anything. She screams a lot and is extremely loud and stubborn and sometimes makes me want to cry and pull my hair right out.  

When she gets mad or agitated, which is often, she says "uuugghhhh" loudly, calls people stupid, and spits with her tongue out (like making a pass gas sound!). She is out of control sometimes and I don't know where picked up the spitting habit. 

I want you to know that you are giving me a really hard time lately Ellie but I sure do love you tons. You are infuriating one minute and cute as can be the next with your babies and saying who is your best friend at the moment. You make everything you see into a mommy and a baby and it is so sweet how you think like that. 

I love love you but you are very hard for me right now! But as I have been told, these are the easy problems just wait until she is a teenager, so I will take them and be happy you still want me to hug and hold you. 

Colt's Best Buddy Bevo!

Meet Bevo the guinea pig. The week before Halloween Colt got to bring his class pet home for a week. He was so excited to have him here and got even more attached as each day passed. By the end of the week he never wanted to put the poor guy in his cage and I know he would have loved some quiet time in his cage!

It was really cute to see Colt so attentive to Bevo. He just wanted to take care of him and play with him like he was a real toy. It was so sweet to see him care about this little guy!

Everyone loved little Bevo and he was constantly being played with. Colt got his quality time in with Bevo when the girls were at school.

Just sitting there watching Bevo in his house!

And boy did Bevo love to eat! The kids were feeding him as much lettuce and carrots as he would take. I think he gained like two pounds when he was here! Colt can't wait until we get to take him home again! Thanks for a fun week Bevo!