Pumpkins and Halloween

We looooove Halloween! Jenny has a tradition that we all spend some time carving pumpkins and do dinner before taking the kids out trick-or-treating. It is hard having Halloween in the middle of the week, so this year we split up the two activities.

On Wednesday, the day before Halloween, we all got together for dinner (scones/navajo tacos) and some pumpkin carving. Todd and Melissa put a heater in their garage so we could all carve in one place and not make a huge mess.

Claire was a great helper, even with just one arm!

Randy bought a mixer to attach to his drill to help speed up the process of cleaning out the pumpkins, and it actually worked pretty good! Except when pumpkin goo sprayed out of the pumpkin and hit Harrison in the face. He was pissed!

Reagan was so funny! I think she helped clean out every pumpkin! At one point, she was taking the guts out of one pumpkin, then sneakily putting them into another pumpkin! She and I had fun carving pumpkins and playing with the carving tools all night.

Matt carved these two pumpkins. His friend Nate has gotten him into duck hunting and he had to make a "scene" out of the pumpkins. I am scared for the pumpkin scenes in the future!

I wanted to keep things simple this year. I carved a face and kept the guts! Sick pumpkin!

After carving, Wyatt and I started dancing. Soon Jenny and Claire joined in. Brad was much too cool. You know how it is being 9. Randy blackmailed us all and sent hideous dancing snapchats to people. I'm soooo sorry if you got one.

Thursday was Halloween! The part where I have to be a teacher is not the best. It's actually really exhausting. I always dress up in the most comfortable clothes I can pretend is a costume. This year I dressed up like Jenny and was a nurse. Scrubs are amazing! How can I wear them to work every day? After school, I basically rushed home because I was so excited to see everyone. Diet and Myrna drove up with Lance, Kendra and Kailee. More family time. We are so spoiled.

Matt loves being an uncle. He plays with the kids every chance he gets. He hadn't even showered after work and still made sure he played with the baby.

Oh my gosh. I think this was the cutest costume of the year. Little scarecrow Reagan. If only you could have seen the way we got this picture! She doesn't sit still for five seconds. It was a miracle she kept that hat on as long as she did! Loved it!

Harrison was not in a good mood. It was pretty hard to get a cute picture of him in his minion costume, which was also sooo cute!

Claire has always been something scary for Halloween. This year she was a dark fairy. Brad is the tough, just-got-in-a-motorcycle-crash-but-don't-worry-about-it-I'm-tough guy. He did not want to smile for any pictures.

The boys. The ADULT boys. Speeding around the neighborhood on the golf cart getting ready to go trick-or-treating.

The boys really like to scare the kids who come around on Halloween. This year, they rigged up a scary ghost thing from the roof and Matt sat on the roof all night and threw it down to scare kids on the front porch. Tim would then chase the kids away with a chain saw, while Randy showed the kids "Dead Ed", a "dead" body the kids could put their hands into and feel all his guts. Pretty gruesome! Isn't this holiday and festivities for the kids? Nope! For the adult-sized kids! Matt was having so much fun he spent almost two hours on the roof of the house getting ready for every group of kids that came to the door.

I usually volunteer to stay home and pass out candy. I don't love the cold weather! Myrna, Kendra, and Kailee stayed home and helped me pass out candy. Which meant that I passed out candy and spent the rest of the time taking pictures of Kailee! She is so darling. Her Halloween costume was a peacock with a tulle tu-tu and the cute headband. 

She loved the scary treat bowl! It has a creepy hand that pops out and she loved it! She cried when Kendra moved the bowl.

I'm sure she knew that the candy was in the bowl... Child's intuition, right?

Reagan was so funny when they got done trick-or-treating. She kept looking for more treats, running around, playing with everyone, teasing Harrison and Kailee, and just playing on a crazy sugar high. She climbed up on the couch next to me when I had my camera out (trying to get a picture of her mauling Kailee) and gave me a cheesy smile... Love this girl!

All the girls. I never seem to take any pictures of the girls (or adults really) so I made sure I got one of all the awesome friends and family we have. People like these sure make a fun night more fun.

Happy Halloween!

Growing Up

It's official. Matt and I are growing up. I know. You thought Matt would never grow up. I thought the same thing. Then last Saturday, we went over to the Title company and signed the paperwork to close on our lot and our construction/mortgage loan! Holy crap! As of right now, we own a lot in Richmond and are getting our building permits so we can start building our house!

We spent over an hour signing like a million papers. At the end, the loan guy says that we get to keep our pens. Wow. It was like spending $200,000 on two pens. Pretty priceless, right?

Matt already lost his pen. He actually lost it the same day we got it. We are so excited to get started building our house. I am so proud of Matt for his amazing talents. I cannot believe how much he knows how to do! I will be posting progress while we build, so keep your eyes open for more!

Harrison and Reagan turn 2!

I feel like it was just yesterday that these guys turned one! The last year has FLOWN by so fast.

Reagan is such a ball of energy! She talks so much and can already say my name. The most common phrase she says around us is "Matt! Treat!" She will literally pound down the bedroom door looking for a treat from Matt.

Harrison has a lot of personality. He also is a very moody two-year-old! He decides everything that he is going to do. If it isn't his idea, it's not going to happen. Similar to my 28-year-old husband...

For the birthdays, we had all the family over. Lance and Kendra brought up Kailee and it was so fun to see her crawling all over the place! She is getting really smiley too, and I'm glad I caught a couple pictures of her smiling!

Dinner is usually the best part... besides watching Reagan and Harrison run around and fight over all their toys!

This year, Matt and I had to buy the babies new cowboy/cowgirl boots. They both have a liking for boots right now, so we thought it was good timing! They also both got these horses and spent like 20 minutes riding their horses around the room in their boots. 

They also got these cool pop-up tents. Harrison wanted me to play with him in his tent, so I crawled in there and Reagan came in too! We had some good laughs playing together in the tent before dessert.

Cake time! Wait, no. Harrison was afraid of the candle. He wouldn't even look at the cupcake with the candle in it.

When he did look at it, it was only so he could scream at it. Then he started screaming at all of us when we sang Happy Birthday. Getting attention is apparently not something he likes.

Reagan had no qualms about her cupcake! Just that it had too much frosting! She licked at it a little bit, but then wanted the cake part! Harrison would lick the frosting off the top then pass the cake part to Reagan, which was a perfectly good arrangement for the both of them. This is funny because on their first birthdays, Harrison did not want anything to do with the icing, and only ate the cake, and Reagan was licking the icing off her cake so fast!

After the birthday festivities, the boys built themselves a ghetto fire. I love catching pictures of them all together, but I especially love getting pictures of all of them doing something stupid. Like putting really long pieces of wood across the fire so when they burn through the middle they break off and fall out of the fire pit.

Matt and Kailee

Lance gets the good uncle award for this. He was playing football with the kids forever! This picture is way blurry, but you can see him dragging Brad across the backyard to score!

It is always so much fun to have the family all together. We get together more than most families, but it is never enough. Happy birthday to our October birthdays, Harrison, Lance, me, and Reagan!

American West Heritage Center

More fall fun! I love October! Seriously, I think I am the busiest in October because I want to do everything. This year, Matt and I met up with Randy and Jenny and the kids, and their friends at the Heritage Center for some fall activities. The kids went on a train ride, slid down a giant slide, threw tomahawks, shot a BB gun and played old pioneer games. The adults mostly watched, but we did spend 45 minutes lost in a corn maze.

These pictures are the Matt and Harrison sequence. Ever since we moved in, Harrison and Matt are inseparable. The ONLY thing I like about Matt being out of town is that Harrison actually gives me some attention! He loves Matt.

And obviously, Matt loves him.

No, Matt. You can't stand next to Tori and Claire for a picture!

Okay, you can take this picture, but only if I'm in it too.

What are you taking a picture of Tori? This is MY Matt.

The leaves were a source of very good entertainment for Harrison while the other kids played pioneer games for a while. The day was gorgeous and made for some cute pictures. It really makes me want to learn the details of taking really good pictures... maybe someday.

Brad found a little snake while they were playing. Harrison wasn't too sure about it. Matt hates snakes and stayed far away. 

That night, we went back to the Heritage Center for their Haunted Hollow. It was really fun! Matt and I were holding hands, and he kept dragging me along, and wouldn't walk next to me. When I asked him why, he told me that he was guarding Claire's other side. Her arm was in a sling so he couldn't hold her hand, but he wanted to make sure she was safe from all the baddies on all sides! Seriously, good uncle award! The kids ended up being way more brave than I thought they'd be! Fun new tradition!

Haunted Mini Golf

Every year, Matt and I go mini golfing at an awesome course in Providence that is all decorated for Halloween. Back when I was in college, I had kidney stones on my 21st birthday. The doctor told me that while I was on my pain medication, I was not allowed to rest, that I had to stay relatively active. So babysitter Matt took Alex and I mini golfing. Alex, at the time, was on crutches with a broken foot and was also on pain meds. We spent the whole time mini golfing giggling and calling ourselves "crip" (Alex) and "stone" (me). Poor Matt. He skipped out on class to babysit a couple of crazy girls. And that was before we even started dating!

Last year, we went mini golfing with our friends, Natalie and Zach. We went at night and realized that on the weekends, they turn the mini golfing into a mini haunted house! It was so much fun.

This year, that was my one request for my birthday, that we all go to haunted mini golf. We had to bump our date up a week because Matt was out of town for my actual birthday, but we got Tim and Kamie and Randy and Jenny to bring the kids mini golfing. We had a blast! The kids had a ton of fun walking around and looking at all the Halloween decorations. We even got free hot chocolate after our game to warm up!

Harrison and Reagan were both too chicken to sit on the bench with the skeleton...