Happy Halloween

October is such a busy month in our family. Now to end the month with Halloween!

Miriam loved this skeleton decoration. She called him her husband!

We waited until Morgan returned from Spokane to carve pumpkins. Miriam and I made a silly faced jack-o-lantern.

Luke insisted on testing his father's carving ability with the Iron Man jack-o-lantern.

After celebrating Eve's birthday on Friday, we went to a friend's Halloween party. Here are all the children in their costumes:

On Saturday our ward was having their fall festival and trunk-or-treat. Miriam was so funny in this game. She wound up her arm just like a pro baseball player before sending the bean bag to the hole.

Here's Iron Man Luke trying to win some tickets.

Morgan and I are HUGE "Chuck" fans. If you haven't seen the show, check out NBC on Monday nights at 8:00. Such a fun show! Anyway, Morgan was the Nerd Herd guy Chuck Bartowski and I was the kick butt spy Sarah Walker. Close by are our little princess daughters and our super hero son.

Miriam and her best friend Ella.

Little Cinderella

Sunday night I took the kids to just a few houses in our neighborhood. Here are our candied out kids:

and Luke looks like he is about to fly off his seat!

Time to ration the candy out!

Hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!

Happy 1st Birthday Eve

We celebrated Eve's 1st birthday on Friday, October 29th. It is hard to believe that a whole year has gone by since she was born. Here's a little bit about Eve:

Eve is such a busy little girl. She loves to play in her room by herself (I think there's less competition for the toys that way). She likes to sit in her music chair and play with the school bus that plays "The Wheels on the Bus" song. She loves to dance to music and LOVES to play on the play set. She will pound on the back door until I let her out to go play. Eve has a head full of curly hair and will rub her head as she is falling asleep. She loves to take a bath and will come to the tub the instant she hears the water running. She squeals at decibel levels that are dangerously high. Eve has her Daddy wrapped around her finger. She is sensitive and doesn't like to be scolded and will make the world's saddest face when she is in trouble. Eve has the purest laugh and we love to hear it in our home. She has brought a piece of heaven into our home and we are grateful to have her in our family.

For her 1st birthday, we kept things low key. After school we opened presents and then had birthday cake. If you are wondering about her red cheeks, it is just a result of her allergic reaction to amoxicillin that she was taking for strep throat the week before. I guess my allergy to penicillin was my gift to her for her birthday. Lame, I know.

Eve and all her presents.

She quickly got the hang of ripping the paper off the presents. She has been playing with Miriam's baby dolls and now she has one of her own.

Her new ride!

Eve and her cake...a brownie pull apart cake.
Eve absolutely refused to eat a piece of her cake. We tried and tried but she would have none of it. Oh well. Did I mention that she is strong willed?

Maybe next year I will make her cookies instead. She likes those A LOT!

Happy Birthday Eve! We love you!

Happy 6th Birthday Luke

Can you believe that Luke is now 6 years old?! We celebrated in true Iron Man style the Saturday before his birthday.

The festivities began with all the kids making armor arm bands while we waited for all the guests to arrive.

We then tested their super hero abilities with several games. First we tested the sense of direction with "Pin the Spark on Tony Stark."

Then the evil Modok threatened to destroy our party fun with bombs. Luckily, the super heroes were able to diffuse (pop) the bombs just in time.

All super heroes need to be quick, so a test of their speed was conducted with a race.

Then we were off to an obstacle course in the back yard that included climbing over the fence, jumping over obstacles, looking for gold in the sandbox, shooting a basketball into the hoop, blowing a bubble and going through string obstacles. Here are our friends Landon and Toa during the course.

We worked up quite an appetite with all those skills tests and headed into the kitchen to refuel on birthday cake. Make a wish Luke!

Our friend Kira playing on the play set during our refreshment break.

Here's Miriam enjoying the pretzels! After food, the super heroes needed to destroy the evil Modok once and for all. Luke, Miriam and I had made a Modok pinata for this very moment. Here's a before picture of the pinata:

Here's Caleb attempting to destroy the villain.

Modok was defeated and now we can celebrate with CANDY! I had to risk my life to get in the midst of these kids to help scatter the candy towards the back for the kids who couldn't get into the grabbing. Miriam was very grateful though for my sacrifice!

Present Time!

After presents, we sent the super heroes home! It was such a great party and I am so grateful for our friends Tamme and Sean who stayed to help with all the games. Luke loved all of his new toys and even shared several of them with Miriam...on a temporary basis, of course.

On Tuesday, his actual birthday, we celebrated with his classmates during snack time with frosted sugar cookies.

Once we were back at home, Luke got to open the presents from his family. He refused to open them on Saturday at the party because he wanted to have something to open on his actual birthday. That was a very big deal to him!

Luke got to eat his favorite Pepperoni Pizza for dinner and have leftover birthday cake.

Happy 6th Birthday Luke!

We love you so much. Thank you for the joy that you bring into our lives!

Eve Playing

Who knew that the mosquitoes in GA could be so aggressive? Shortly before Morgan left for Spokane, he helped move the playset into our screened in back porch. It was the smartest thing we could have ever done with that back porch. Now the kids have a place to play without getting eaten alive outside.

Since Eve started walking, she has really enjoyed playing out there too. She will bang on the back door and wail until I let her out to play. I decided to take these photos one day while Miriam was napping and Eve was craving some outdoor time.

Our little Eve. So glad that I am her mommy.

Stone Mountain with Maw Maw

Maw Maw came to visit us in Georgia last weekend. When I was small, we visited my Aunt Dedra when they were living in GA and they took us to Stone Mountain. Ever since we moved to Lilburn, my mom has talked of going back to Stone Mountain. I am glad that we were able to go back again with her some 25+ years later.

The Pumpkin Festival is currently going on now at Stone Mountain. Lots of games, show, and a costume parade to celebrate Autumn.

We always have to spend time at the ropes course. Luke and Miriam are getting so fast at completing the course.

Even Maw Maw took a turn at the course.

Thanks so much for coming to visit Maw Maw. It was so great to have someone to talk to at night since Morgan is away. Maw Maw also helped hem Miriam's Halloween costume, kept the kids entertained and made my beds every morning. She was the perfect house guest.

So who wants to visit us now?