Fall Festivals

Cole and Claire had their Fall Festivals at school (they can't be called Halloween parties anymore, of course, just like Christmas is now a bad word) and Ava and I were lucky enough to attend.

The kindergarten festival was pretty impressive.  There were tons of booths set up for the kids to make ghost suckers at, get their faces painted, toss bean bags, bowl pumpkins, etc.  

Cole with his friend, Savannah.

Cole's trying to make a "Frankenstein face."

Ava and I then went to Claire's festival, which was just in her classroom.  This is the only picture I took because my lens wasn't focusing.  I was freaking out about it (I had two shoots the next day and a wedding in Denver with Shannon a week later) and called Nikon when we got home.  As I was on the phone with them, I looked down at my camera and realized that the lens had been switched to manual focus instead of automatic.  Ava must've messed with it when we were in Claire's classroom, little stinker.  Glad that was all it was, though.  Whew!!!!!  Too bad, though, it meant Claire didn't get any good shots at her little party.

Wicked Fun

We had a lot of Halloween parties to attend this year. The first was at one of Claire's friend from school's house. Unfortunately, Ava and I were sick, so we had to stay home. Grant took Cole and Claire.

Claire was a spider princess this year. Not exactly sure what that is, but it looked cool!


Cole was going to be Harry Potter, then Ron.  Right before the party he changed his mind and wore this old pumpkin costume we have.  Whatever!  


He's trying to look tough here, but it's hard when you're wearing a neon-orange poofy pumpkin outfit.

Cole made the pumpkin pin he's wearing.

Next, Grant and I went to a Halloween party at our friends', Matt and Kim's, house.  Grant is Gilligan, which makes more sense when you see him with the Skipper and Mary Ann (a few pictures below).  There was no way I could find a maternity Ginger outfit, so I went as a witch.

I'm not quite sure what is going on in this picture.

Here's the Skipper (Scott) and Gilligan.

Mary Ann (Cami), the Skipper and Gilligan

Lots of witches came to the party (and a black cat).

All the girls.

We also went to the ward trunk-or-treat.  We dressed up as the Scooby-Doo gang.  Let's just say Velma's outfit is not the most flattering on my pregnant body.  Oh, well.  I did it for my kids.  My hair was pinned up better at the beginning of the evening, but this picture was taken at the end of the night after I'd been running around everywhere (I was partly in charge of the event) so it looks really scraggly.  And, if you can't tell, we sprayed Claire's and Grant's hair.  Grant's hair looked more green than blonde, but everyone got the point.

This was how we decorated the trunk.

And this was what we passed out.  

Halloween is such a fun time of year and I love all the dressing up and going to parties!  We've definitely been spoiled moving down here and we always have lots of fun events to go to.  We love it.

Our House

Ok, so I know I'm only a year late, but I'm finally posting pictures of every room in our house. It's finally all done. Well, mostly, of course. I still have little things here and there I need to add but most of those things are going to come slowly. So, as promised, I have pictures of every single room, including the bathrooms! The only room I don't have is our bedroom, but it hasn't changed too much since I posted pictures last year, and we're planning on getting a new bedspread anyway, so I'll post a picture of it when that happens.

So here goes.

Formal living room.  Needs curtains, a green pillow on the couch, and a picture frame on the piano, but otherwise finished.

This is a painting I did in college.  There wasn't a good place for it, so I found one of these easels and put it on there, which fills the corner nicely.

Dining room.

The office.  I made the picture board thing on the wall and I LOVE it!

Downstairs bathroom.

Family room.

I know I posted basically this same picture last time, but it's still my favorite shot in the whole house so I couldn't resist posting it again!  :)

Kitchen.

This is the view as you walk up the stairs.  I had to figure out what to put on this enormous shelf.  Kinda tricky. Do you see the little toy that's on there?  I meant to edit it out, but it's kinda cute to see the kids' addition to the decor.  :)

Claire's room.  I would LOVE to paint her headboard pink or green, but she won't let me.  Wouldn't that look so cute?  I decided to let it go, though, since it is her room after all.

I made the little birds that hang on her canopy.  I had a few extra, so I think I'm going to use them for Easter decor.

Haven't ordered all the pictures to fill the frames yet, but you get the idea.

I made the picture board on her door.  It has since fallen down, but I think I've figure out a way to make it stay on without totally ruining the closet door.  I have to make one for Cole next.

Cole's room.

Cole added the stickers on the drawers.

Kids bathroom.

Ava and the new baby's room.  I haven't totally finished it since we're going to be putting a baby in here soon.  Yes, I know it's the girly-est room in the house and Ava is the least girly one of all of us!  Hopefully the new baby will be girly enough to make it fit!

The loft (i.e. playroom).




And that's it!  I promise I'll post another picture of our bedroom when I get a new bedspread.