Thanksgiving

We didn't go anywhere and didn't have anyone over for Thanksgiving this year. It was kind of weird. But we had a nice, laid back day. I got up and ran the turkey trot, came home and the girls asked "did you win your race?" No, no I didn't. "well did you run faster than everyone?" ha, not even close. So then they wanted to go running, so we took them down to the high school track and we ran "races" until they were tuckered out. They're so fun. Isaac is getting pretty fast and can almost keep up with Mia. Mia can almost keep up with Aspen. So it was fun to do their little races.

Then we drove around looking at big beautiful house with land and big shops....someday, someday, someday.

And then we came home, ate our yummy, low key turkey dinner and enjoyed these cute little guys that I'd made the night before. They don't make gluten free double stuff, so I had to make Aspen's with extra cookies. Haha. :)

I am thankful for so much in my life. Its been a long, hard year, but we have been blessed beyond measure. I have an amazingly wonderful family. I am most thankful that my mom is doing better. And I am grateful for the wonderful family I was born into, as well as the one I married into. And I am thankful, oh so very thankful, for my awesome cute hubby and for our beautiful children. Aspen, Mia and Isaac bring joy and purpose to our lives.

And I am grateful for the friends I have. My whole life I have been blessed with true friends; I do not know why, but I have. And I am grateful for them all.

I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and the love that He has for me. I am thankful for all He has blessed me with, and continues to bless me with. I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the sacrifice He made for me and for all of us.

I am excited for Christmas as it approaches. I love the Christmas spirit. I am thankful. Thankful for my simple, but wonderful life. :)

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year. Aspen and Mia were SO excited (and remembered so much from last year - it is so amazing to me how much they remember!) for Halloween to come. We even had a countdown because every night when it got dark, they asked to go trick-or-treating and we had to say, "no, 29 more days" and so on. I have to say, I LOVE how excited my kids get about even the littlest things. It makes it so much fun to do things for them and with them.

Anyway, since July Aspen has been saying she wanted to be strawberry shortcake, Mia Rapunzel. And Isaac, well he didn't get a choice. He was the monkey. The monkey Mia was last year and that Aspen was the prior two years. Haha. That monkey has definitely been worth the money. ;-) Anyway, enough jibber jabber and on to the pictures! :-D

Here is our lovely pumpkin carving. We had one big one and the kids each had a little pumpkin to decorate. This picture of Isaac makes me laugh; it looks like he's mad at his pumpkin "what am I supposed to do with this things? You won't let me throw it, but its round like a ball!" hehe.

 

 

Halloween morning we had a festive breakfast of ghoulish ghost pancakes, pumpkin shaped ham and eyeballs (blueberries).

 

So Aspen had a fun little Halloween party at preschool. This was her gf jack-o-lantern pizza.

 

 

It was actually really fun to make a gluten free version of all the little treats that everyone else was bringing, so that Aspen could have some of everything.

After her party (which was really fun and I got to hang out with her at it! yay!) we came home, had naps and then when everyone woke up, we got up and got ready to go to the merchant trick-or-treating in downtown Benton City. Its a pretty cool thing they do, they open up all the stores in the itty bitty stretch that makes up downtown. Its cute. And they pass out candy. The kids love it. We met up with some friends and that was fun. Aspen saw a lot of her friends from preschool, too, which was fun. I didn't manage to get any pictures there, left my camera on the counter. Oops.

But then we came home, had dinner with daddy and then daddy took the kids around the neighborhood trick-or-treating while I stayed home and passed out candy. After awhile, the kids and Malo came home and Aspen and Mia passed out candy. They were so cute, they got SOOOOOO excited everytime someone came to the door (which was often because we get a TON of trick-or-treaters!) and they even started saying "another customer!" haha. They crack me up; I have no idea where they come up with this stuff, but they sure make us laugh. Anyway, Aspen is a VERY generous passer-outer of candy. I'm talking handfuls at a time. We blew through 10 bags of candy! Anyway, back to more pictures:
Isn't Aspen the sweetest Strawberry Shortcake ever?

 

Mia Bediah is Rapunzel - and the hair made the costume. It came all the way down to the floor and would have a gathering of leaves and other stuff as she walked along trick or treating. :)

 

And our little monkey Isaac. He did NOT want to put his costume on. But once we got out and he figured out the sheer excitement (haha - candy, candy, candy) of trick-or-treating, he was good to go!

 

Here's some pics of all of us.

 

It was such a fun Halloween. The kids are already talking about their costumes for next year! ;-)