Vogue!

What do I get when I try to capture a warm and fuzzy daddy/daughter snuggle moment with my camera? See the smile? See the eyes pretending to be closed?

She saw me get the camera.

Yeah....she's posing. Moment of innocent snuggling gone as the model in Mackenzee shines through. Sigh....

At least it's still a cute shot, right?

The innocence of a child

My kids are awesome. Seriously. I am amazed at some of the things that come out of their mouths. And if they speak it, it obviously means they are thinking it. To know that their thoughts are as "deep" as the things they said today is seriously just.....awesome.

Kenzee: Mom, where does Jesus live?

Me: In heaven with Heavenly Father.

K: He come play wif me in five days. ok?

M: I don't think he's coming that quick.

K: Yeah. And he like to play toys wif me....and play outside wif me. But not on the tramp. He likes riding his bike too.

M: I bet he would love to play with you.

K: And Yannon (Landon) has the picture in his room of a girl and Jesus and I play wif him because he like to play wif me.

K: Mom, he be here in five minutes ok?

M: I don't think he's going to be here in five minutes. It's bedtime, so I'm pretty sure it's too late for him to come over and play.

K: Jesus come and sleep here mom?

M: I don't think that Jesus can come and sleep over tonight. I think he's busy.

K: Oh. I like to give Jesus a hug.....and a kiss. (She giggles)

K: I love Jesus, Mom.

Isn't she a doll? Sometimes I wish Jesus could come over and play too. :0)

And then there's my Landon. He is getting so big. The kids had to come along with Jaysen and I while we voted today. Before we left to go fill out our ballots I asked Landon if he could vote, which candidate he would choose.

He sat and thought for a minute and I began to wonder if he even knew what I was talking about.....

until he said this......

"Well, which one is the kindest?"

See what I mean? Awesome!

It's Autumntime!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Happy Halloween!

Our friends, the Dixons, did not have a "trunk or treat" in their ward, and so we invited them to go with us to ours tonight. It's always more fun to run around in costume in large groups right?

Amazingly, even being as OLD as I am, I learned some "real" life lessons tonight.

Landon was a CLONE TROOPER, not a STORM TROOPER. There is a difference. Storm Troopers are the bad guys, and Clone Troopers {like him} are the good guys. I had no idea.

If a fireman does not have a hose with him, he probably has a water gun to put out fires. {Or spray little girls}

Ringing the doorbell 20 times in a row makes you feel like the homeowner comes to the door faster. {Probably because they want that dang kid to stop ringing the doorbell}

Glow in the dark necklaces are cool.

You can never have enough candy.

Even if you pray for the rain to stop just long enough for you to get through Trunk or Treating...it won't.

After learning all of this, I thought I would have enough credits to earn my Halloween degree. :0) But...there was still more!

Landon will trade GOOD chocolate candy for bubble gum....and Mackenzee will end up with the better deal. :0)

If you point out which candy bars are made with dark chocolate, your kids will hand them over willingly. You won't even have to bribe them or try to sneak them from your 3 year old. :0)

You will be grateful for that large tub of dress up clothes when you realize your daughter has worn her Halloween costume so much that there are now two holes in it.

When you tell your toddler that they need to stop eating candy before they get a sick tummy and they tell you that they "can't stop!" maybe they are right. I mean...chocolate is hard to stop eating.

After five years and five Halloweens spent together, you finally find out that your spouse was never a huge fan of the holiday, and though he is not really "into" dressing up in a costume he has worn them FOR YOU for three years because he's THAT nice.

See...I told you tonight was a learning experience. :0)

I hope you all had an eventful evening as well!

Checking another item off the list

It has been pretty crazy around here....what with birthday parties, finals week, my new Relief Society calling, our Halloween party....you get the idea. I think I've been running on fumes lately. But, today I was able to check one more item off of the "to do" list for this psycho time of year. :0)

Today was Landon's class party for Halloween. And, honestly, though it took some time getting the preparations together, it was a lot of fun. Landon still loves for me to come and be a part of his classroom fun, and I'm going to take it while I can get it. :0) What was even more fun this year was that I was able to take Mackenzee with me. I figured this year she was old enough to join in the festivities.

The party starts with a costume parade, where each classroom walks up and down the hall to "show off" their costumes. What was fun about this was that I got to see most of Landon's friends in their costumes. Though you can't see his face under the mask, Darth Vader is really just Hatim in disguise. Doesn't he look fierce? And Cole dressed up as Ben 10. There was this awesome lady who made his shirt for him so that he looked JUST like the kid on tv that changes into an alien. Of course, it did help that he had the Omnitrix {the watch}. Landon was such a good brother and asked Mackenzee if she wanted to walk with him. She was so excited and I was so proud that he wanted to take his little sister on parade. :0) They held hands as they walked up and down the hall and through the different classrooms. When they got back to the classroom he found an extra chair and put it next to his desk so that she could sit next to him during the party. I think they were both eating up the attention that they got from her being there.

I had some fun activities planned for the kids and thankfully it went off without any problems. We played a candy bar relay, had a mummy wrapping competition and then I had the kids decorate paper plates like Halloween masks while they ate their cupcakes and candy.

All in all it was a great afternoon. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up with being "cool" to Landon, but so far I'm still "in". :0)

Another quick share here....

The Harvest Festival was tonight as well. I asked Landon if he was wanting to go and he said no. When I asked him why, I found out that he didn't even know what was going to be happening there. {SIGH} So, I reminded him of last year's party and of how much fun he had then, and do you want to know what MY son said?........

"Yeah, but that's because you came up with the games."

Can I just tell you that I almost cried? I'm not even kidding. He figured the games had to have been my idea because he LIKED them. If I hadn't been driving the car I would have given him a big old hug. Instead....I just beamed.

Now, to be honest...I didn't make up a single one of the games last year and wasn't even in charge of it. BUT, because I was the PTA treasurer I was in charge of coordinating helpers and making sure the games ran smoothly and were set up in time. But in no way was I creatively involved. Did I tell him that? NO WAY! It's not often that I get moments like that one! Most of the time he tells me I'm mean because I make him take a shower and clean his room. Oh...and eat the disgusting dinners I cook. You know...the usual mean mom stuff. So, to hear him reveal THE TRUTH about his complete adoration for me {Ok...so now I'm just getting a ginormous head off of it}...was priceless. I took it and ran.

Sigh.....I needed today. Even with the stress and the running around and what not....today was a good day.

Thanks Landon. You rock.

Party for the boo-tiful people

Yesterday was our 2nd annual Halloween party. Though we had to change it up from last year, the kids still had a great time running around in their costumes. I was pleased that most of the adults paid heed to my instructions that they were to come in costume as well. It's just way more fun that way, right?

The Jaques family had their costumes totally themed up! It was so cute. Shelby was little tinkerbell, with Breanna as Wendy. Apparently Joe made the better Captain Hook because Amy was dressed as Peter Pan. {And a sassy one she was!}
The Andersons were able to make it after all and were so excited to have them come over to play. Holly gets into the costume part of Halloween just as much as I do, though I will say she gets out her sewing machine to get her costumes ready. Me.....I click on amazon.com. Same thing right? :0) She and Zack came dressed as Fred and Daphne from the Scooby Doo gang. They rocked it! Ellie was a ballerina, and apparently Abby didn't want to be Word Girl again after wearing it at her birthday party, so she came as a purple fairy. :0) She was beautiful. Of course, sweet sophie...she always comes cute. :0)

The Arringtons really got into their costumes as well. YAY! They brough me a blueberry and a cow! Emily had gotten her sew ON with this blue costume as well. It turned out so cute and actually won the aware for the Most Original Costume. Emily came as white trash, and Bryan was just a giant spiderweb. I don't like spiders. I must not have given him that memo. :0)
You know...the one thing about these parties is you see how many of your friends try to show you up with their made sewing skills. Reagan and Elise were both dressed to the nines in the fancy costumes that their mother MADE for them . Reagan was a Knight with a helmet and shield {FYI....do not call it a hat. Because that would be totally wrong......yeah.....}and Elise's costume was of Glinda the Good Witch complete with towering hat. Again....ALL was sewn by miss seamstress girl person. I think I might have to stop inviting some of these people over. :0)

The Thompson brothers came dressed as Spiderman and Black Spiderman. Sadly, I was not able to grab a shot of little sister Kennedy before they left. It appears as though she was the naughty arachnoid that got her brothers into this spiderman mess. Sigh... :0( Poor Matt and Fonda....these boys will really be climbing the walls now. :0)

After much debate with my daughter over what she would wear, she finally agreed that she would wear the costume we actually bought for her to wear. Crazy! Sigh. Toddler girls. They are a bit much.

Now, for my Landon....I don't think I saw him the entire afternoon as he was down in the hole playing the Wii with the other older boys. When it came time to take his picture as well as his friend Hatim, they had both taken off the costumes. :0( So, no individual shots of them. It would have been awesome because Landon is dressed as a Clone Trooper and Hatim is Darth Vader. That's some good stuff there. :0)

This is us at the end of the night. My Clone Trooper there to guard me against the policeman who things I'm just a pirate hussy. My Abby Cadabby girl could probably take the cop down on her own though. She's tough. She could at least turn him into a pumpkin. :0)

I missed a few pictures too, so I may steal off blog posts from others to add to my collection. I never got one of The ghostly Tatem, or sassy Mollie.

Anyway....thanks to everyone who came. I hope you had an ok time. I wish we would have resorted back to carving pumpkins. But, that's ok. We'll just move on to the next adventure. You all ready for trick or treating? We've got trunk or treating on Friday and are super pumped!

Mackenzee 3 years