Halloween!

For some reason figuring out Halloween costumes was tricky this year and I stressed about them a little bit. I had a bunch a big plans, only some of which actually came to fruition. In the end, this is what we came up with.

Emma as "spa girl"

Eliza as "diner girl"Rachel as a cowgirl

Brigham the fireman.Hazel as a cheerleader.

Hazel as a bumblebee. She also dressed as a princess one night for our ward's trunk-or-treat, but I failed to get a picture of that one. At least in her case, we had lots of costumes for her to choose from:)The kids with the Jack 'o lanterns all lit up on Halloween night.

Field Trip to Apple Annie's

Brigham, Hazel and I got to go on a field trip with Rachel to Apple Annie's. We went through a corn maze, went on a hay ride and then each of the kids got to pick out a pumpkin.At the end of the field trip, we got a special treat--Daddy came to have lunch with us!

Soccer

Well soccer season is well underway and this year we have three soccer players at our house. Emma decided to try it out this year and, fortunately for me, she and Eliza ended up on the same team. They have all been having a good time although games have been kind of sporadic due to a week of monsoons toward the beginning of the season, a bye over conference weekend and fair weekend. It's all good though and the girls all have friends on their teams which has been fun.Rachel has been especially enthusiastic about playing soccer this year (which is nice since last year she was sometimes less than excited for soccer). This is partly due to the fact that one of best friends from Lafe Nelson last year, Shiloh, is on her team. Rachel with her team.

New floor

The one thing I did not like about our house when we bought it was the carpet. It was white. White carpet + 5 kids = nasty. So guess what we did? We ripped it out and got tile! Soooo much nicer! I was actually really torn between getting tile and a nice laminate, but in the end my gut was telling me that tile would withstand the test of time better and would still look nice. We also got a nice big rug made to put in our family room so it's still nice for hanging out with the fam. Yay!

We got tile in the hallway too...Ben is still working on getting the baseboards up:)Transition into the kitchen.

Here it is with the furniture and the rug.

Nikki's baby shower

We had a baby shower for Nikki in preparation for their new arrival. It was very fun to plan and I had lots of help so not too much work. We did a cute green and purple fairy theme to match Lynlee's cute nursery.

Reyna Verdugo made this adorable cake for the shower.My awesome friend Marie helped to plan the shower and also let us use her beautiful new home.Marie's and my first attempt at a diaper cake. I thought it turned out pretty cute.Nikki with Llisel and Eva, friends from the branch.Nikki with good friends, Karessa Slade and Dena Clonts. Karessa and Dena were in charge of the games for the shower and did a great job. Thanks girls!

A new toy

Some friends were cleaning out their garage and they brought this over. The kids thought it was great!

The BIG 10

We reached an important milestone today--our oldest child is now in the double digits! Emma is 10. It seems a little strange, but it's so fun to see her growing into a beautiful and sweet young lady. She has become my right hand girl and I have to say that I don't know what I would do without her around. Her birthday happened to fall on the first day of school this year which she wasn't too excited about. One good thing, she got to bring treats on her birthday for the very first time. Homemade oreos...mmmm. I love this girl sooo much!
Another big step--Emma got her ears pierced! She was sooo excited. She picked green peridot butterflies, her birthstone.