Our First "Snow"

So what do these three cute girls have in common?

Will took some pictures of the girls before church.  They don't usually look this happy after church.

Anyway, these girls LOVE the snow.  We got a little "snow" this morning.  And the emphasis is on little.  It was like a centimeter.  

Of course, we had to go try it out.

Megan wasn't too sure about it at first.  But her sisters' excitement helped build up her own.

Here we are trying to catch a snowflake in our mouths.  Whitney and I were able to get some, but I don't think Rachel ever got the hang of it.

And then snow was discovered on leaves.  I probably should have prevented them from licking leaves.  But hey, you are only young once.  

And finding snow on a broken chair.  Megan was funny because she would scoop up snow with her glove and then put it close to her mouth and then wouldn't put it in her mouth.  She must have thought it was too weird to put something from outside into her mouth.

Like tradition, we had to have hot chocolate after the first snow.

The hot chocolate (which Whitney informed me was warm chocolate) was very well loved.  I hope that amount of snow is all we get for awhile.  One centimeter that is all melted by 2:00 is what I can handle.

Here Comes Halloween

I wanted to dress up as a family again this year, like we did with the Incredibles two years ago.  I just think that is really fun.  But I also knew that I was going to be huge pregnant, so I would need to accommodate that.  Here is our costume.

So I was Prego (everyone got a big kick out of this one), Will was spaghetti and meatballs, and the three girls were three little chefs.  I thought it was a cute idea.

And they waited patiently for Halloween to wear their Halloween shirts.

You cannot really tell, but we made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies.  Whitney wanted me to put some flour on her cheeks so she could really look like a chef.

This was trick-or-treating on Main street in Hermiston.  Notice the lack of hats on the girls, it was so windy that we finally took off the chef hats (after both Will and I taking turns chasing them down the street).  We were not the only ones; it was almost humorous watching all the adults chasing missing masks and candy buckets with sad children in the back.

Seeing a kid in a Scooby Doo costume.  That is what my girls really wanted to be, but I didn't want to buy all the things necessary to make those outfits.

We went to the mall on Halloween morning for some fun activities.

The girls got to make a 'monster' on a stick, play some little carnival games, and eat some 'monster goo'.  There were a ton of kids there and we lost Rachel for a few minutes, so then we decided to go home.

This was at my parents' ward Halloween party.  I tried warning Megan several times that the chili was hot.  But she didn't believe me.  Poor girl.

Showing off the face painting.  We were the first kids to get our faces painted, so we didn't have to stand in a long line.

This one was cool.  It was glow in the dark ring toss.  The girls were amazed.

Doing the cupcake walk.  For some reason, I never think about this game but I remember really liking it as a kid.  Whitney and Rachel both got their cupcakes really quickly, but poor Megan kept having to go around and around.

Then we had to taste our cupcakes.  Megan wins for messiest child.  Her cupcake had black frosting on top and it turned her tongue and chin all black.

It was raining that evening.  So the trunk-or-treating was brought inside.  The girls made the rounds twice, so now we have plenty of candy.  I might have stolen a chocolate or two also.

Anyway, those were our fun Halloween happenings.  Now we are just eagerly waiting for our new little baby to arrive.

A Pirate Party

Last week for story time at the library, they had a pirate party.  The kids thought this was awesome.  Maybe I will have to try this idea for one of the kids parties.

You must dress the part of a pirate.

Rachel trying to figure out the eye patch.

And Whitney making her best pirate face and pirate growls.

We listened to a couple of stories about pirates.  Notice the two little babies in the background.  Those are the two ladies in the ward who just had their babies, now I have a little baby envy.

Playing "pin" the mouth on the skeleton.  Megan also played but without the blindfold and amazingly got the mouth right in the correct spot.

This was a huge chutes and ladders board.  I remember chutes and ladders taking a long time to play, but Rachel got there in only like 4 turns.  Hooray for hitting all the right ladders.

And going on a treasure hunt.  The kids got 'telescopes' to help them in their search.  I think the telescopes were actually broken, but none of the kids cared.

And to go with the 'p' for pirates, we had pizza and pop for lunch afterwards.  It was a fun party.  And it didn't seem to complicated to plan.  I will have to think about that because we are still trying to decide what theme to do for Rachel's birthday party next month.

Pumpkins Pumpkins Everywhere

It is pumpkin season.  My girls love picking out pumpkins at the patch.  I wouldn't dare ever buy one from a store, that just isn't so fun.

At the first pumpkin patch.  This was on the outskirts of Hermiston.

Will gave Megan a ride as we walked through the patch.  We spent awhile trying to find the perfect two pumpkins.

And then playing on the tall hay piles after finding two big pumpkins.  Our camera was being a little funny, so we didn't get a lot of good pictures from the pumpkin patch.

This was at the Fall Festival at the church we went to last week.  All the kids were allowed to take a pumpkin home for free.  Megan didn't have one; she had a hard time making up her mind about one pumpkin.

Whitney balances a pumpkin on her head.

For FHE yesterday, we decided to carve our pumpkins.  Taking out the seeds and gunk took a long time.  Megan wasn't too sure about getting her hands messy, but the other girls went to town cleaning the pumpkins.

This is Megan's monster pumpkin.  She picked three circle eyes, a triangle nose, and she wanted a sad face.  Megan was very proud of her pumpkin and kept bringing me more pumpkins to carve.

Rachel wanted a Velma pumpkin.  Velma from Scooby Doo.  There weren't any good pumpkin carving examples of Velma, but I printed out a coloring picture.  Will did an awesome job making this pumpkin.

And Whitney wanted a Scooby Doo pumpkin.  This one turned out well also, and was easier because there were templates on the Internet.  

Anyway, those are our pumpkins.  We had fun making them.  And then we had a very late dinner of nachos and chili. Hooray for pumpkin season!

October Festival

It has been a long time since our last blog post, but we haven't gone out to do much.  We still mostly go to the park or I stay busy doing things for my calling.  But yesterday was a fun day.  We went down to the Tri-Cities because I saw something in the newspaper about a free fall festival.

Of course, the big pumpkin shaped jump house was a big hit.  The girls are experts at bounce houses.  Even Megan automatically starts taking off her shoes when she sees one.

Checking to see how tall the girls have grown.  Whitney is like 3 1/2 feet, Rachel is like 3 1/4 feet, and Megan is like 2 3/4 feet.  Hooray for growing bigger.

In the straw maze and trying to decide which way to go.

Poor lost Megan.  She wasn't really lost; we stayed right by her.  It was only Whitney that actually got lost in the straw maze.

They had an apple press and the kids got make some apple juice.  I didn't try turning it but it looked fun.

Petting some of the animals that were at the festival.  The kids got to pet ponies and chickens and bunnies.

All of the girls got to ride a pony.  They love the chance to ride on ponies, but don't get very many opportunities.  So this was a treat.  All three girls were all smiles as they rode.

You cannot really tell but this was on the hayride (notice the pumpkin face paint).

There were a lot of carnival games that the girls could play and earn some candy and prizes.  Fishing was my favorite as a kid.  I think my girls really like it too.

Shooting a ball down a rain gutter.  This only took a lot of adult help.  There were a bunch of other games too.  We really scored on the Halloween candy today.

And finally a family picture.  My mom came to the festival with us, which was fun.  But she opted out of the picture.  Thanks for coming mom.

Anyway, it was a really fun day.  We were all exhausted by the end.  We will have to go back next year because free fun is always good.