Halloween Week

I don't know about the rest of you moms of 4 yr. olds out there, but at this house it felt like Halloween lasted all week long. Well actually it all started on Wed. Taylee has this thing I call music preschool and basically any moms with kids about 5 or younger can come for free to this group at the church and this lady in my ward has all the songs and materials to do this little preschool with lots of singing. Anyway, she got to dress up for that...

Ellie has actually been coming with us the past few times and this day was her actual birthday so it was so fun to bring her along. The two witch girls...

After it was over Kelli, the lady from my ward, brought donuts and apple juice yum!

Then after a quick lunch it was off to Ellie's costume birthday party....


The next day was real preschool and she got to dress up for this too. They put on a Halloween parade and program for us. Here they are doing the 5 Little Pumpkins fingerplay...

Here her teacher is reading/singing a Halloween song with the kids that is like the 12 Days of Christmas. I just have to put in a proud mommy moment, Taylee is so different then she used to be. She participates, sings and is happy. It was so so fun to watch and see how much she is enjoying herself!

Another spooky Halloween song...

After the program they got yummy cookies.

Taylee, Conner and Brynlee in the back.

Halloween here was on Saturday. That morning we had practice for our Primary Program (which Taylee did awesome at by the way) and then we decided to carve some more pumpkins. We did this earlier at Tiff's, but Aaron wasn't there and the pumpkin we did was already rotten so we went at it again, this time with Andy, Bonnie and Daddy.

Digging in...

Taylee with another scary face pumpkin. I don't think there has been a year yet that she hasn't wanted a scary pumpkin. Funny girl.

Mine and Bonnie's. (Mine says trick or treat if you can't tell)

Andy's and Taylee's/Aaron's

Getting ready for Halloween night... krimpy crazy witch hair!!

All dressed and ready to go!

A quick stop at the Crabtree's to see all the cousins...

Love that ladybug!

A witch, a vampire and a power ranger...

Pumpkin Holland, Batman Quinton, Tay the witch, Tiger Weiland, and Ellie the witch. They were all so cute!

Freaky....

I just love him....

Aaron and Andy manned the trunk while Bonnie and I took Taylee around. Aaron's bowl had slimmy noodles and Andy had the good stuff. Aaron would tell them they could take a whole handful so they would reach in and grab a huge handful of noodles. The boys got a kick out of this and it was pretty funny to watch!

Taylee and Daddy looking at the loot. Taylee was done after like two rows of cars. She saw she had some tootsie rolls and she was good to go. We had a great Halloween, hope you all did too!

Taylee's 4th Birthday

Way back in January, at Brynlee's birthday Taylee saw her pink castle cake and thought it was so cool. She had been wanting since then to have a "pink pony castle cake" for her birthday. I was thrilled cause Taylee doesn't usually choose the girliest things. This lasted all the way up until she went and saw Toy Story 3. Then it became all about Toy Story. I convinced her we could have a cowgirl party since Woody and Jesse were cowboy/cowgirl and with a few stipulations, she thought that would be ok. So this is Taylee's 4th Cowgirl Carnival/Toy Story birthday party.

All I had to do was tell Tiff my theme and her talent took over from there. Give all credit for the cute decorations, invites, party favors... the list goes on, to her. Thanks so much for helping me pull this off.

I loved the food table, so fun.

We had a total of 12 kids, including Taylee. 5 of them were cousins, but we had a few friends over too. Each of them got to choose a bandana and a cowboy hat to wear.

Both Tiffany and Lacey were there to help me and I don't know how I would have managed with out them. Each kid got to come fill up a goody bag with their favorite candies.

Here is a picture of the bunch. Top row: Ryker, Conner, Quintion, Weiland, Ellie (and a tiny bit of Brynlee). Front row: Shelby, Coulson, Bella, Caydence, Taylee (Evelyn behind Tay) and Holland. All lookin good.

The first part of the party they did little games like a ring toss, pin the tail on the horse, and knocking cans over with squirt guns. I have to say the best part of the party was having two real horses come to give horse rides. My awesome neighbor down the street was so so so nice to bring her two horses over and make this extra special for Taylee. It was a little nerve racking at first because the kids were so excited and they kept running up and around the horses and I was just hoping no one got hurt. Rob and Cathy were smart enough though to sit them down and tell them a few safety rules before we got started.

Taylee wasn't sure she wanted to do this at first. She let a few other kids have their turn before she decided to get on, but once she did she loved it!

They each got to go once around the yard...

Weiland's turn, he could hardly wait!!!

Then miss Ellie...

Ryker the pro....

Quinton

And Conner....

Now the Toy Story comes in. Here is her Toy Story cake. I couldn't find all the characters in mini form so her birthday present from Aaron and I was a huge combo pack that had everyone bigger. If you can't tell, this is supposed to be a bed. I did the best I could....

Blowing out the candles, which got done a little pre-mature so we had to re-light in the middle of the song...

Present time! Her special requests this year were a pillow pet (which is what she is getting here)...

And...... Buzz Lightyear of course! Thanks grama for fulfilling those wishes!

She was so pleased cause all her guests seemed to know that Toy Story stuff was her favorite right now. She got a Buzz towel, sunglasses, visor, backpack, coloring pad, stickers, water bottle.... I can't even remember it all, but she was a very happy girl. A little bit after her birthday her Gram and Papa came to visit and brought her lots more good Buzz/Toy Story stuff. Then Bonnie, Molly and Andy showed up and she was even more spoiled with a Buzz costume, a soft Buzz to sleep with and even Toy Story popcorn and container. It was quite the birthday and I was so exhausted by the time all the little 4 yr. olds left, but I was so glad Taylee had a great day. I count every birthday as a major blessing for me to get to watch her grow up. Happy Birthday Tay!

Oh and Makay and Addi, she loves doing those beads that melt. Thanks for thinking of her too!

6th Anniversary

Aaron and I take turns planning what we will do for our anniversary. This year it was Aaron's turn. Some guy who owns this ranch up past Island Park (closer to Yellowstone) came in to Aaron's shop over a year ago and traded him horse back rides for computer stuff. I thought that was a fun trade, but we just hadn't made it up yet to use them. They worked out perfectly though for a really fun/unique anniversary activity...

I rode behind Aaron on the way up and not too far into the ride, I renamed his horse gassy. We laughed a lot on this little trip!

For some reason my horse (Ross) would get behind and then all the sudden realize he was slow and then would run to catch up. My behind was KILLING me by the time we were done.

It was a long process getting everyone on their horses and all the workers would try and freak everyone out by telling them some crazy habit their horse had. They told some they were riding rodeo horses, horses that just like to lay down, horses that bite... I got told mine was a kicker and the funny thing was on the way down Aaron was behind me and when his horse got too close, mine actually would kick at him. We had a good time. It is always nice to spend a whole entire day with your best friend and celebrate how happy we still are to be married.

FHE at the Drive-In

One of Aaron and I favorite things to do in the summer is go to the drive-in. We have it all worked out perfectly. First we drop Tay off at Tiff's (since she is always so nice to let us put Tay to bed at her house), then stop at Maverik for some good snacks and then on to set things up. We put our back seats down, blow up an air mattress in there and get comfy with pillows and blankets.

As soon as we saw that Toy Story 3 had made it to the drive-in we decided to let Tay in on the fun. She thought it was so fun to lay between mom and dad, eat some snacks and watch a great movie. We thought it was great cause when her movie was over she went to sleep and we watched our double feature. So fun!

My Favortie Moments

So tired...

These moments are too few and far between... there really is nothing better then having your baby asleep on you.

R Mountain

So we live pretty close to R Mountain out here in Burton, but had never climbed it. It wasn't till Aaron went with the YM for a mutual activity that the obsession with this mountain started. I'm joking of course, but it sure seems that way when you climb it like 4 or 5 times in one summer. Actually the truth is, it is what happens when all of Aaron's family comes to visit in one year at different times. There just isn't that much to take people to do here so we duplicated activities many many times. Too funny.

Hey I look just about as cool as Micah in my Yellowstone post....

The first climb was just Aaron, Taylee and I. This is not a long hike, but a pretty steep hike. Taylee just ran practically the entire way except when it got a little scary and then daddy carried her. It is pretty cool to get up there and find out it is a volcano on top and to see some of the cool features of it that were formed from Yellowstone.

Ok I lied, I do have a few pics from my parents visit...

I really can't remember much of that week my parents were here, not because it wasn't fun (cause it always is) but mostly because I didn't take enough pictures. So bummed.

We did get to go have a fire at the pond which is always fun...

Aaron showing off his mad soccer skills...

And we did go to Rigby lake which was in much better shape this year.


Oh yeah, and we went to Jackson Hole for the day and tried to ride the free Gondolas, but they are closed to the public on Saturdays.... so dumb. But we ended up eating our picnic in the park, going to the candy shop and getting an ice cream cone. Then we went and did the Alpine Slides.

Me and Taylee starting off...

Everyone went down, including Grama and little Holland too. Love these things!