Happy Halloween!

Ah, the holidays! I am so enjoying the beginning of this holiday season and we loved Halloween! Ali and Logan carved their own pumpkins this year! They're all getting so big!

Cutest trick-or-treaters ever! Ali wore the same Statue of Liberty costume my mom made for me when I was little! As cute as Eli's ghost costume was it was terribly impractical so he only wore it for a couple of houses trick-or-treating and at zero Halloween parties, but being the lover of dressing up he is he didn't mind being a vampire at school, a storm trooper at the ward party and part two of trick-or-treating, and Yoda at our family party. Logan picked out his costume back in September and looked awesome!

Jake enjoyed a two hour nap while the kids trick-or-treated and humored me with a smile for the two minutes I made him wear this while they were gone.

Happy Halloween!

Sitting Practice

We've been practicing sitting. He's still not very good at it, but I'm hoping he'll get it down soon.

And every one of his milestones are encouraged and cheered for by his devoted fans!

Halloween Party

We had our second annual kids' halloween party last Friday, and it was a hit! Eli got to help with some of the food prep.

Here's most of what I made: cupcakes with worms or candy corn, mummy and skeleton gingerbread cookies, jello-mold ghosts and pumpkins, bone bread sticks, mummy hot dogs, tombstone quesadillas, and pumpkin cheeses. There was also punch and spiderweb pizza. 

We had 25 kids here! It was quite a bit wilder than last year, but everyone had a great time and my kids were all super cute with their gratitude and helping clean up when it was over. Family memories and fun traditions? Check and check!

Happy Birthday Eli!

Eli turned five! He is such a cheerful, helpful, easy-going, happy boy and I love him to pieces!

The day before his birthday he got to celebrate in school by making this poster (favorite color: dark green, favorite food: calzones and mac and cheese, favorite thing about himself: "my hands, because they can pick up things"), bringing in a toy (legos, of course), and "reading" the class one of his favorite books (he has it memorized).

For his party we had a Scooby Doo theme. He was super pleased with his super simple bone cake: 

And had a great time with all his buddies, which was pretty much the same group as last year. We had lunch, played pin the bone on Scooby, had a ghost relay (potato sack race with white pillow cases), a ghost tag game, a pinata, presents, and play time!

A week later we had another celebration at Aunt Amy's to celebrate both his and my birthdays. I love getting to celebrate my birthday with my favorite Eli!

Bow Tie Buddies

The young men in our ward often wear bow ties, and my fashion-conscious Logan really wished he had one (sometimes he would wear the St. Patrick's Day one we have), so I finally bought a couple, I have to say, they did look dashing!

Real Life

OK, let's be real. This is how Jake looks often; Eli calls it his "throw up beard." Nice. At least he usually has a smile on his face!

Reading Spot

The tree climbing continued once the kids got home from the camp out with their dad, and our tree has become a great reading spot.

Flag Football

Logan has been asking to play football for awhile, and this fall we found a great flag football league to join. He is on the Buccaneers and loves every minute of each weekly practice and game, despite the fact that they have yet to win a game. He did throw a touchdown pass one game. He said playing football is "tied for Disneyland for how fun it is," which I call a rave review!

Nauvoo

We hadn't been to Nauvoo since Ali and Logan were Jake's age. And then the other day Logan was watching some church videos and came running in, "Mom! You have to watch this! Did you know Joseph Smith was KILLED?!" After showing the video to every member of the family he was very interested to know that Carthage wasn't too far from our house and that we could visit some time. So, last weekend we went. Thanks for the great idea, Logan!

We actually went to Carthage the second day, but since this was the reason we went, here is proof.

We drove down Saturday morning, and first we spent time at the visitor's center and had some fun with the statues.

And enjoyed the visitor's center.

Then we wandered around town, enjoying the tours.

They loved playing with all the old-fashion toys.

Who knew Jason could walk on stilts?

We were often the only ones on a tour, so our kids got to help do lots of fun things, like make rope.

The next day we walked around the temple.

And let the kids have turns using the camera. I loved Logan's selfie.

We had Eli take this one so we could compare from the last time we went!

I love being at the temple with my family!

We walked down Parley Street to see the monument of those who lost their lives crossing the plains, including four Eldredge family members (the one that always tugs at my heart is "Infant Eldredge"). Then the kids had a great time playing outside by the Mississippi River.

It was a great weekend being together at a special place. The kids' favorite parts were the blacksmith shop, the gunsmith shop, playing with the old-fashioned toys, playing with the rope they helped make, and playing the the backyard of the house we stayed in.

A Silver Lining

We've had a few days that were pretty cold around here so we had to pull out the hats and gloves...arg. The only silver lining is that Jake looked ADORABLE in this hat:) This may be my new favorite picture of him.

Still fits!

Eli was going through his memory box and found this hat he had as a newborn. He shoved it on his head and says, "It still fits!"

Campout

The plus side of having the Fathers and Sons camp out cancelled because of rain is that the next weekend when Jason took the boys to make up for it Ali got to go too! Jason said it was his favorite camp out with the kids to date, and Jake and I look forward to joining them in a couple of years; they make it look fun!

Helping gather wood:

 Checking out the tent:

 Helping to make dinner, wearing her apron she brought just for this:

Learning to climb trees:

 Relaxing by the fire after the kiddos went to bed:

New Room

We had a great room shuffle around here to get Jake out of the basement before the winter came, and here he is getting used to his new room. I like having all my kids on the same floor with me, and the move didn't disrupt his great sleeping!

Architecture Tour

Shortly after school started Jason's work had an outing for his team where they all got to go on an architecture tour an bring someone with; Jason asked me to go with him:) It involved me finding someone to watch the younger boys for about 7  hours and the older two for about 4 hours, but I was determined to make it work--most of the day spent with just my sweetheart doing something fun and unusual was just too much to pass up! So, thanks to two great friends we got to go, and it was so nice! The weather was great and the company was better! 

Food, Food

So far, he likes pears, peaches, cereal, applesauce and carrots; tolerates peas; and dislikes green beans. He spits up his solids like he does his bottles...gross and annoying. But he's cute.