We did the mash! We did the monster mash!

Woo wee! Where to begin???

Well, we had a great Christmas...

Wait! What??? Hello?? It's OCTOBER, UTAH!!! We woke up to snow one morning last week... sigh. But at least it melted so we were good.

Then Parker got the throw ups.

Then we met Nicole and the baby girls at Wheeler Farm! I've been trying to get all the Fall festive, outdoorsy stuff checked off my list before it gets too cold.

The kids attempted to feed the ducks and geese but it was a little.... scary.

I mean just LOOK at the bird! It's as tall as Kaydence! Get down on a goose's level and it's not as fun as you'd think. Especially when you're holding a juicy piece of bread and they're trying to peck it out of your hand! Terrifying.

So, Parker would just throw whole pieces of bread instead of breaking it up to get them to BACK OFF.

"More! MORE!!!!!"

Nicole was the bird whisperer and about a million and five thousand huge birds came flocking to her for lunch.

I think it's funny how the bird in this picture is looking straight at me like, "Hey lady! Put that camera down and give me some FOOD!" And Parker's like, "Get me OUT OF HERE!"

We were having a blast, none the less.

Kaydence keeping a keen eye on those geese.

And what a joy, the kids discovered feathers! Better that than other treasures the birds left behind...

Nicole and I gave a valiant effort at trying to get the kids to both smile and look decent in a picture.... but as you can see Parker was working on a huge bag of cheetos and pretty much had perma cheese on his mouth the entire afternoon.

Kaydence LOVED this tractor!

Parker wanted a "Lightning McQueen" tractor...???

Wheeler Farm was awesome and it was so fun hanging out with my SIL and my nieces! Even if there were graves and things for the kids to play in.....

Parker got a little goodie bag from his teacher at school and it was filled with lots of cool stuff. Like these MONSTER teeth!!!!

Ok, so that night after the farm I caught Parker's throw ups and was in misery until about 3 in the morning. Oh man, I think my boys thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to die. But, the next day I felt fine.

Friday we met Spence and Mona Kay and the kids at Thanksgiving Point for a little Barnyard Boo action.

The kids rode the ponies... twice.

And played in the play houses and stuff...

And we rode on the carriage. This is me and Sagie Lady.

They decorated cookies...

And even got their faces painted! There was a poster showing each Halloweenie thing they would paint on your cheek, ie: a spider or a ghost. Parker specifically asked for a race car. Shew. The girl could have painted a frog and he wouldn't have known the difference but she was so sweet and gave him JUST what he wanted. He even asked her to paint eyes and a mouth on it. Sheesh!

The kids got to play games and win prizes...

And then Mona Kay and I forced them all to stand and smile at every cute thing we could find. :-)

Oh man, at least we tried.

The animals were smelly but other than that we had a blast! (One last attempt at a group shot- DOH!)

That night I took Parker to the ward Trunk or Treat. Tanner was,

any guesses?????

at school.

For some strange reason Parker LOVES this Picachu costume. Someday he will probably really see Pokemon and go, "Hey! That's like my Halloween costume from when I was 3!"

Oh well, he's still pretty dang cute.

We saw all of our friends and got some candy and even braved the spook ally! The ward did SUCH a good job!

Parker had to do the cake walk to win a cup cake. Boy, that kid walked around the circle about 15 times before his number was called!

SUCCESS!!!!!

Saturday was Halloween. Yes, it was. Remember the 4th of July? That was on a Saturday too! Because we live in Utah... ya.

Anyhoo, Tanner was..... drumroll....... at school all day so Parker and I got ready and were waiting for him when he got home and we headed up to Spence and Mona Kay's house for dinner and trick or treating.

Parker was a handsome police officer. He was sooooo excited to see his friends and go get some CANDY!

Mona Kay made the most delicious dinner in a pumpkin that I'm dreaming about as we speak and cute mummy hot dogs for the kids. She's the BEST!

All set for some trick or treating fun!

Oh, but Tanner, SUPRISE SURPRISE!, had to stay home and finish an assignment for school. SOOOOO, I took Parker.... by myself. Ok, so I was with Spence and Mona Kay, but seriously, next year he'd better join us! That's 2 years in a row he's missed out!

The kids did a great job trick or treating and I say that because it was hard. It was REALLY hard. It was raining and windy and bitterly cold and half way through the trick or treating Parker started saying, after every house, "OK! That's the last one!" He was soooo not feeling well. I know this because my son is a candy-aholic and would NEVER turn down an opportunity for free candy. Turns out the poor guy had a fever. :-(

Back at the house swapping candy.

Ok, so Sunday was the REAL Halloween. So we did all the traditional Halloween things like make a turkey dinner and light fire works. Isn't that what you guys did??

My poor little bug seriously NEVER gets sick. He woke up from his nap with a fever and wouldn't even sit up to watch his favorite show, Max and Ruby. But 20 minutes after the Tylenol he was back to normal.... and 20 minutes after 3 pieces of candy he was bouncing off the walls!

That night Angel and Luis came over and we watched football and lit fire works. (Duh! Cuz it's Halloween!) It was a nice, relaxing Halloween and even though we had LOADS of candy to give away we had no trick or treaters come to our door.

Creepy

Parker as a ghost....

Today I realized we didn't even carve pumpkins this year! Tragic! So I dug one out and made Pumpkin Stew. It was yummy.

Then Tanner finished his homework early and we went to see Toy Story 3D at the dollar theater!!!! It was the first time Parker had ever sat through an entire movie at the movie theater but he did AWESOME and we all had a great time! (Except for the kids who LOUDLY complained about the "tall" girl who sat in front of him... I mean, he would NOT shut up about it! Sorry dude, I'm really not THAT tall... he got over it soon enough.)

I can't believe the holidays are upon us! It's going to be fun!