Halloween Fun - part 1

It seems as the kids get older, Halloween just gets bigger and bigger!  The boys especially love all the decorations and activities and want to be involved in as many Halloween-related things possible.  So we started early this year, and even though Halloween isn't actually until tomorrow, we've been "celebrating" it for weeks!  A while ago we went to see the witches at Gardner Village with Heather and Cami.  We'd never been before (crazy, I know) so it was especially fun.  There were a ton of people there, even though we tried to get there early in the day to beat the crowds, so we weren't able to stop for long at any one witch, but we were able to complete the scavenger hunt and get our free cookies at the end.  The kids loved it.

We didn't dress up a whole lot - Ari just wore a little witch shirt and Matt wore orange vampire teeth, which make him look funny in all of the pics.

I love all their funny little faces in this one. :)

 Matt and Bryan were especially excited to see something really spooky for a change.

Later in the week, our friend Jana had a Halloween party for Janie and Michael and a bunch of their friends.  The kids were excited to be able to dress up for the first time.  Matt was a cowboy and Bryan chose to be a secret agent spy, although he took off most of his spy gear so he could run around.  The kids got to play at the part, do the donut-on-a-string game, and hit a pinata that Jana had leftover from a birthday party.  All of us moms enjoyed visiting and eating yummy Fall treats while we kept an eye on the kids.  It was a beautiful sunny day, so it all worked out perfectly.

The kids were all so cute in their costumes!

It's become an annual tradition to go to Hee Haw Farms with the Misiegos.  I guess this is more of a Fall thing than a Halloween thing, but it's all kind of tied together.  The kids had a lot of fun, as always, although this year Bryan thought he was "too old" or too cool to do some of the things he'd enjoyed in the past. :)  He refused to do the pony or tractor ride, but Matt and Ari had no problems hopping on.

Bryan was much more interested in hopping off the bales of hay and going down the big slides.

Ari was a little unsure of the animals in the petting zoo.  It was fun to watch her show interest from afar, and then shy away anytime an animal got close.  Matt didn't have any problems, though.

Matt couldn't get enough of all the tractors.  And Ari does whatever Matt does these days, so she was always right behind.

We went on a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch, but we decided to wait and get pumpkins at the pumpkin patch by our house.  We just enjoyed the ride through the corn stalks and sunflowers.

We were there with Jazmin and Landin and Sara and Ben and their families, but I didn't get any pictures of all the kids together!  Here are a few more of our kids enjoying the farm.

And who doesn't love playing in the hay?

Finally, last weekend we had a Toone Halloween/birthday celebration dinner.  It was Cassity's b-day (honorary member of the Toone family) and we also celebrated mine and Allison's.  I got some ideas for Halloween kid food off Our Best Bites (one of my favorite recipe sites) and the kids loved it.  I'm not a fan of hot dogs for the kids, but I couldn't resist doing these little mummies. :)  Neither the mummies nor the apple monster mouths turned out as cute as they were on the Internet, but thankfully the kids didn't know any better.

Our meal certainly wasn't very Halloween-y, but it was still delicious!  And it's always so fun to get together!  Poor Heather has had lots of health problems lately, but she was able to come with baby Lexi and looked great!

We've done plenty of other Halloween things this past week, but I'll wait and talk about those in another post...

We love Fall!

There's nothing like the cool air and changing colors of Fall!  Not to mention to yummy comfort foods, smells, and fun decorations.  We've had a lot of fun these last couple of weeks getting ready for the season.  Now that the leaves are changing, it feels like it's finally here!  This last weekend we took a drive up Mapleton canyon.  From our house, it looks like someone's melted red, orange and yellow crayons all over the mountain!  Up close, it's even more beautiful.  Pictures, of course, are never as good as real life.  We had fun driving around and letting the kids collect fallen leaves.  

Here at home, the kids and I have done what we can to make the house a little more festive, though we certainly have different ideas of what's good or not.  I've never done much for Halloween before - only Fall - but now that the kids are older I figured I didn't have a choice.  The only problem is, Bryan and Matt are all about bloody and scary, and that's not really my thing.  So we came up with a great compromise!  I found relatively non-spooky things for my part of the house, and I took them to the dollar store to let them pick out whatever they wanted for their room.  They thought it was the coolest thing ever. :)  So here's my idea of Halloween decorations...

And here's their's!  Still not super bloody or gory, thankfully, but certainly more kid-appropriate. :)

These next few weeks will be busy with Halloween parties, carnivals, and visits to the pumpkin patch!  And then when that's all done we've got Thanksgiving to look forward to!  I found out today that Dad's coming out for Thanksgiving weekend on his way to a business convention, so that will certainly make it special.  And I can't wait for the weather to get a little cooler (not too much cooler) so I can start wearing boots and comfy cardigans!  Hopefully the snow will stay away long enough for us to enjoy this wonderful Fall season!  

Smiley girl

With our camera broken I've been short on cute pictures!  But I came across these while going through the pictures on David's phone.  They're from Matthew's preschool orientation in August.  I love her huge smile in both.  And then one more from a few days ago with a little more subdued smile, but I love how it shows off her blue eyes!  She's such a spunky, sassy, sweet, smiley little thing who we love to pieces!

State Farm National Convention

State Farm holds national conventions every few years, and David's been looking forward to it since he started!  This year was actually the first time they'd done one in five years, because of the economic downturn, so it was a really big deal.  There are so many agents they actually had to do three sessions, and we went to the first.  They held it in Las Vegas and put us up at the Wynn hotel, which is one of my favorites for its flowery, whimsical decor.  :)  David and I were able to leave the kids with my brother and sister-in-law, so the two of us had a nice little get-away!  We drove down on Sunday and got there in time to get settled and eat a nice dinner at the Wynn buffet.

The next morning they bussed us to the basketball arena at UNLV where they held their "business meetings." It was certainly not your typical business meeting!  I expected some speeches and powerpoint presentations, but they made it so much more entertaining!  They started off with a State Farm talent show - people had to audition ahead of time to perform so they were all really good.  Then they'd hired singers and dancers to put on a broadway-style presentation/show about "getting to a better state" with State Farm. :)  It was pretty impressive!  They did follow that with a few speeches and things, but nothing that took away from the hype of it all.  I was entertained, to say the least.

That afternoon we met up with a couple of David's friends and had lunch at a too-fancy hamburger place.  I had a hard time finding anything that even sounded good to me...  Afterwards, though, we went over to a meet-and-greet kind of thing and a sales expo where they had tons of free food, so that made up for it.  It was fun to walk around and meet so many of the people David's associated with over the years.  Since he's presented to so many zones around the western states he knows a ton of people!  We were pretty worn out by the end of the afternoon, so we crashed for a couple hours in the hotel before heading out for the night.  We decided to eat off the strip at a Benihana's restaurant (I was really wanting Asian food) with David's agent friend from Vegas and his wife.  It was a lot of fun!  After dinner we drove down to the Bellagio to see the fountains and eat dessert - both were amazing!  Best fountain show I've seen, I think, and the dessert was to die for. :)  We were pretty stuffed by the end of the night.  Thankfully we'd driven so we didn't have to walk the strip back to our hotel.  I'm certainly not a fan of the strip late at night!

The next day I decided to let David go to the business meetings alone so I could sleep in and do some shopping at the Fashion Show mall across the street. :)  I did more window shopping than anything, but I still enjoyed myself.  David said the presentations and entertainment were even better than the day before, but I'm still glad I had a few hours to myself.  We went back to the sales expo that afternoon - got more free food - and then rested before the big finale event that evening.  They set up a carnival of sorts out at the UNLV football stadium - lots of yummy food, singers, carnival games, prizes, etc.  We won enough stuffed animals to bring home as gifts for the kids, so that worked out well.  Then they did a light show parade followed by a concert with Don Henley from The Eagles!  I didn't realize how many of his songs I knew, but it was really fun to hear classics like "Hotel California" sung live!  After the concert they did one of the most amazing fireworks shows I've seen!  They had songs playing that matched the type of fireworks, so it was really fun, and so impressive!  State Farm certainly knows how to put on a show!

The next morning we ate breakfast at the buffet at the Wynn and then stopped at the outlets for a little while before heading home.  We made it home just in time to see Matthew's last soccer game, so it all worked out perfectly. :)  I can see why State Farm only does these conventions every few years - it's certainly a big expense and a ton of work, I'm sure - but it was a blast, and we're already looking forward to the next one!  I think we'll even try and take the kids next time, like lots of families did, so they can get in on the fun as well.

Here's a picture of part of our room, although these pictures don't do it justice, and our view from the window.  We were on the 54th floor, so the views were awesome.  (We didn't take many other pictures of the trip, though we should have!)

And a blurry one at night...

Life update

I hate that my camera is broken!  Blogging is no fun without good pictures. :/  With that said, though, I guess I should still keep up on what's going on, with or without pics.

Soccer season ended a couple weeks ago and I've enjoyed having so much more time!  I don't have to rush meals to get to games or practices and leave a messy kitchen, or rush our bedtime routine since we've come home so late.  We've still been busy, but we've had a lot more time to just be at home and get things done.  

Our mornings aren't as productive as I once thought they'd be.  I've had a hard time getting up as early as I'd planned, so we just have time for a little piano practicing and scripture study.  Thankfully the kids are on top of things and make sure the scripture-reading gets done, no matter how chaotic things get.  Bryan and Matthew both start at 9:00 three days a week, so getting them both ready and out the door is sometimes I challenge (I know it will only get worse as they get older and I have more kids in school), but thankfully David is able to take them on his way to work most of the time.  I love my mornings with Ari to clean or run errands or go on walks.  She's such a good little buddy and is content to read or play on her own if I need to get things done.  Every Wednesday, I take care of my niece, Maily, who just turned two, so Ariana's always excited when she's over and they get to play.

Things have been going really well for David at work.  He's got a great team of employees right now and that makes a big difference!  He's really enjoying what he's doing, and for that I'm grateful.  It's still not clear what the next several months will bring, but if things continue as they're going now, it should be good.  David and I got to go down to Las Vegas for the National State Farm Convention a couple weeks ago and we had a great time.  I'll have to post about that later.

And I turned 33 last week!  I didn't really care - once you hit 30 the years kind of all blend together. :)  Since we'd been in Las Vegas (we got home the day before my b-day) I didn't feel like we needed to do a whole lot.  I went to visit Heather and her new daughter, Alexia, got some yummy lunch, and picked up some Nothing Bundt cakes (yum!!!) to enjoy later that evening with David and the kids.  Bryan had his last soccer game, so we went to that after a quick dinner at home, and then we went to go look at rental properties!  It was a random thing to do, I know, but I was anxious and made some appointments to see some places we'd been looking at.  We're dying to be in a place with more space!  We've been thinking of options for months now, and the timing has just never been right.  Turns out, it's still not!  We went and looked at these places and really liked them - lots of space, nice upgrades, a garage (which seems like such a luxury these days) - but the next morning reality kind of hit and we decided we'd better stay put a little longer until we have a better idea of what we want to do long-term.  So it was all kind of a waste of a b-day evening, but at least I'd gotten to do plenty of celebrating the days before in Vegas!  And just a couple days later we celebrated birthdays with David's family (Maily, Darcy, and Jazmin all had their bdays as well), and I had a nice family get-together with my side of the family tonight.

Mom actually came into town this weekend!  She was dying to see Heather's baby and she had a three-day weekend already, so she just took an extra day off from teaching and came on out.  Heather, unfortunately, is struggling with lots of health issues right now, so it's good Mom was able to be here to help for a few days.  Allison and Bree and I have all been taking turns going up to help when we can with Cami or the baby or housework and things.  Heather's had it pretty rough, but hopefully they'll get some answers soon and she'll be able to find some relief.   Tonight, Mom brought Cami down and we had dinner and a fun visit with Grandma Willes, Allison and Nate, and Bree.  It's been so long since we've had people over - getting harder with more kids and not having much space - but I loved the happy chaos that always ensues. :)

Bryan and Matt are both enjoying school and doing well.  Bryan's made new friends in his class and recesses are certainly the favorite parts of his day!  He does enjoy writing, though, and loves making books at school.  He's also getting better and better at reading, which is exciting to see.  His favorite things to play with or talk about at home are secret agents, weapons, and superheroes.  He enjoys playing with Legos, creating booby traps for his brother and sister, and he's dying for me to buy him some clay so he can make sculptures of things. :)  I've got to remember to get him some...

Matthew is still our crazy tractor enthusiast.  I love how constant he is. :)  He also loves playing with Legos and is really good at creating little vehicles, and his favorite thing to do with me is play board games.  He hates to lose and has a bit of a break down each time, but we're working on that.  Ariana is all girl - she loves her "ponies," babies, and kitchen set.  She still LOVES books and would read all day long if I were able to.  She refuses to wear jeans these days - only colorful leggings for this little princess.  She's all about sparkly and pink and skirts and dresses, and I love it!  But she's definitely a tough little cookie when she has to put up with her brothers.  And she continues to surprise us with her sass. :)  

I know we've had more going on lately, but I promised David I'd get to bed and we've got a big day tomorrow!  More on that later. ;)  Here's to hoping that my camera's fixed soon so I can start doing fun posts again!  Until then, I'll try to at least keep better track of our family happenings so I don't just let these months slip by...

The things they say

I love all the quirky/sweet things kids our say!  Here are a few things I've remembered from the last couple weeks...

Matt came in the other day after his quiet time, where I assume he was doing a lot of thinking, and with a choked up little voice said, "I don't want to be a farmer anymore.  I would miss you too much being away on the farm."  :)  It was so tender.  I assured him that he doesn't have to do that if he doesn't want to be away from us, but that the farm's really not that far away.  He loves tractors so much these days, I'd hate to see him give up on his dream for our sake. :)

Later in the day Bryan and Matt had a conversation in the car about what else Matt could be and Bryan said, "I'll be a policeman and you can be a fireman and then we can see each other and stuff."  I guess he thinks all community heroes hang out together or something in all their free time.  Then they started discussing the danger of fires and decided maybe being a fireman wasn't the best thing after all.  So Matt's future career remains up in the air!

Ariana and David have lots of cute little conversation routines that always make me smile.  David will say, "You're the best!" and Ari will say in an exasperated voice, "O-kaaay!" and they'll continue on until he starts tickling her or something and she erupts in giggles.  And every morning he asks her how she slept and what she dreamt about, and she either says "Mommy" or "Daddy."  She knows if she says "Daddy" she'll be on David's good side, for sure!  Unfortunately, she refuses to let him put her to bed at night.  If I'm at home, I'm the one that has to read to her and put her down.  Tonight he tried until she told him, "I don't like you!" (something I've started hearing throughout the day as well when she's done something she's not supposed to do).  Thankfully, she's quick to say otherwise and asks for forgiving hugs and kisses.  She still wouldn't let him put her to bed, though!

Also, when we ask Ariana to say the magic word ("please"), she says, "Meeska mooska Mickey Mouse!" :)  It's the magic password for Mickey Mouse's clubhouse.  Ari's not a big TV watcher - I let her watch an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Little Einsteins on the computer while I'm showering and that's about it - but I guess that's stuck with her. :)

Another cute thing is hearing Ari say words like "huge" and "beautiful."  Sometimes she'll say "pretty-ful," which is my favorite.

Matthew, aside from doing deep thinking about his future, has turned into our little tall-tale teller!  He makes up the craziest stories, and tells you straight up that they're true.  For example, the other day at dinner he went on and on about how when he was camping with David on the Father and Son campout a few weeks ago he went hunting and killed a bear.  He jumped right on top of it and killed it with a knife.  And there was a baby bear, but it was cute so he didn't want to kill it, so he brought it back to the tent and slept with it to stay warm.  He apparently also came across a lion and a snake, both of which he killed as well and put in a cage in the forest with the bear. :)  Crazy!  And he says it all with the straightest little face.  Other times he'll just elaborate on things that really did happen.  Like he'll say he scored 10 goals at his soccer game, when he really just scored one or two.  I'm assuming that's normal for this age, but I don't remember Bryan ever coming up with such imaginative tales!  At least I know he's a creative thinker!

Bryan's surprising me lately with how old he's sounding sometimes.  Like he's a boy now, and not a little boy anymore.  The other day we were walking to our car after a soccer game and he points to a boy in front of us and commented how fast he was.  I encouraged him to tell him, so he catches up with the kid and says, "Hey, Dude!  You're really fast."  The kid just nodded and said, "I know." :)  But I loved how Bryan addressed him and had the courage to say anything at all.  Although Bryan's never been scared to talk to anyone in his entire life, I think.  He's certainly our most confident child!

I'm sure there are tons of other things the kids have said that have made me smile, but this is all I remember right now...  I'll have to do more posts like this more often to keep track of all the crazy things they come up with.  I love it. :)