Halloween 2015

We had our ward's trunk or treat on Wednesday. I really enjoyed it!! It was prolonged....the kids were easily entertained and not waiting around for anything to happen. They had so much fun...here's a quick pic I took before we headed out...and before we put shoes on!

On Halloween night, we went to a friend's house! Yummy food and then we all went trick or treating together. The kids just had so much fun. Elliott was leading the pack...and Emily was trailing the pack. I had her walk up to the door by herself (among friends) and told her I'm watching you. Then each time after that she'd say to me "you watching me??" So cute! They went to way too many houses than I would originally take them to. But since we were with the group...I let them. We were out for about an hour. I'm so glad they had such a fun time!!

 She kept wanting me to take her picture....I HAD to oblige!

  A friend insisted on taking our family pic....I really didn't want mine taking...since I'm big and all...but here it is.

Elliott is 7!!

Somehow this not so little guy is 7!! I can't believe it's been 7 years!! Our little "surprise" baby has brought us so much joy!!!

He has always been such a good boy and we are so so proud of him. He's been working really hard on his reading since school started...and we are so impressed with how well he can read now! He absolutely LOVES school...we hope that he keeps on loving it through the years.

And we really can't believe that we only have 1 year to get him prepared for his baptism for when he turns 8 next year!! 

Elliott woke up early!! 5:30!! He was pretty excited that it's his birthday!

Here's his cupcakes I made yesterday. My attempt at Bay Max Big Hero 6 cupcakes. And they were oh so yummy!! Red velvet cake!

So after Patrick and I finally got up...we realized we didn't have ANY candles!! So Patrick and Elliott took a trip to the store real quick. Elliott picked them out...and he picked out the "trick" candles. He had so much fun with them!!

And he had a mountain of presents this year:

Trying to guess what it is....

He was pretty excited about his blanket....and it's huge...and heavy!

His loot! You will notice hot tamales, a jar of cherries, and peanuts. The only thing he asked for his birthday was the star wars blanket and "grandpa's candy"...that would be the hot tamales. He loves the cherries inside the sonic drinks and his favorite restaurant are those steakhouses and you can throw the peanut shells on the floor. So he asked for those too! Silly boy...we included a few others too! We also got him a BYU shirt...mostly so he can wear it on college days at school...but it was still fun for him to unwrap.

We had such a fun day! We had done parties for the past 2 years...and since most of the kids he gets along with are girls...and I wasn't going to throw a girl party...we decided to celebrate with just our little family. We had lunch at Peter Piper Pizza....the kids had a lot of fun! I hung out with Emily and Patrick with Elliott....so I didn't get as many pics of Elliott.

We then ventured to a mall in Arlington where the kids could ride a big carousel....they had so much fun. And then we wandered by a kiosk that was selling hermit crabs. I mentioned to Patrick that was a pet I could handle. I have already vetoed fish. So Elliott wanted to use his birthday money on his new pet. He picked the spiderman one because it's red...and of course the case was red. We have since upgraded the cage to a bigger aquarium and added a friend. We read they do better when they have a buddy or 2.

We then came home and carved pumpkins!! We love having Elliott's birthday 1 week before Halloween!!

Oh...just because she was being cute!

I took a gazillion pictures of these 2!! This is the best I could get....

Most of them looked like this....but this is my next favorite one!! Ha ha!!!

China Cabinet

We've been on the lookout for a china cabinet since around Easter-time. And now that we have painted the dining room. We've really been antsy to get one. So I searched and searched and searched some more! Craigslist...garage sale fb groups....etc. The big issue was our SUV would only fit up to 44"...so we didn't want to go too far away to find one since we'd have to strap it to the top. Or we'd have to rent a truck.

I finally found one on the 5miles app. It's okay...nothing spectacular. Mostly I wanted it because it was less than 2 miles away here in town! And then when we got there....it was missing a handle...and it was pretty roughed up. I was able to talk them down $20.

So we decided it really needed a facelift!

Here's the before:

And here's the after....we also updated the hardware since we were missing 1 handle:

Patrick had to hold the chandelier out of the way so I could get a pic of it!

So excited I now have something to put my Grandma's china in! They have been sitting in the same box since she passed away when I was in high school!!

Elliott is Hairstyling

Elliott hates it and fights me when I do his hair. I don't even try anymore. This morning...he got a hold of the hair gel...and went to town on his hair....all on his own. Afterwards, he looks in the mirror and says, "Man...the girls are going to LOVE me today!" Oh gosh....I'm in trouble! He surprises me every day!

General Conference weekend!!

We LOVE General Conference weekend!! We LOVE listening to our church's leaders! My favorite that resulted in a cry fest was Elder Holland's talk about Mothers....thank you preggo hormones!!!

It's also a time we tend to spend more with the family. For Saturday breakfast we decided on belgian waffles with nutella, strawberries, and whipped cream. This was a food the kids actually ate!!

Then Saturday night...after we cleaned up our painting mess....I started on the overnight cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning. I forgot to take a pic...but they were super yummy!!

Kitchen & Dining Room Facelift

Over General Conference weekend we decided to tackle the painting of the kitchen and the dining room! The dining room DEFINITELY needed it. I couldn't take the dark plum for much longer. The kitchen was okay with the sage-y green...but I wasn't a huge fan for long term. So we chose a light blue. We are happy with how it turned out! And we are super happy that it's all done!!! 

Here's the before pictures from when the house was on the market....

And the dark plum dining room....it is quite the "jamberry" room!

 Ahhh...now this is a lot better!! The after pics:

Grandpa

Elliott had to interview an "older" family member for a homework assignment...and he chose his Grandpa! So proud of him!!!