Halloween

A crazy, fun night - with LOTS of trick-or-treating and the expected sugar high.

Pumpkin Carving

Eli, Maggie and I had a fun time last night getting our jack-o-lanterns ready for trick-or-treating. They loved digging in the gooey "guts" as Eli called it, and squishing the seeds through their fingers. I gave them a marker to design their faces (Eli wanted scary and Maggie wanted happy), then tried my best to reflect their designs in my awesome carving capabilities. Fortunatley they are still easy to please.

They also wanted to make some Halloween cookies, so we tried the kind my friend Monica recommended. I bagged the picture because they didn't look nearly as nice as hers, and resembled pancakes more than cookies. They did taste quite good despite their disguise...Halloween cookies, right?

Christmas Card Proofs

Eli, Maggie and I had our first formal family picture. Because I just jumped in at the end of their individual sittings last year to get one of us three, I thought I'd try to plan a little better and use a photographer my friend Lisa has used and loved - Emily Jane Photography. After our experience, I would highly recommend her as well.

(Note: The beautiful girl in blue on Emily's home page is Lisa's daughter Belle.)



Emily did "mini sessions" to give you a family picture and Christmas Cards. We met at a park in Farmington and had a fun time doing a few quick shots in a number of locations and poses. I know I'm VERY biased, but I think Eli and Maggie look pretty fabulous - especially sitting on the bridge!

Sunday Stroll

My parents grabbed us after church for a Sunday stroll at one of our favorite hiking places - a trail above Mount Ogden Golf Course. (It's also a good excuse for Dad to look for balls.) He grew up on this trail and still golfs the course often, so he knows all the short cuts. (He has even pointed out where he and his friends used to come "park" in high school.) I had fun snapping shots of the amazing views - both towards the mountains and over the valley. Of course Eli and Maggie just loved the adventure.

Note: When I finished doing Maggie's hair this morning, she looked in the mirror and said."Mom! That's weird. My hair looks crazy." Apparently one of my favorite childhood styles isn't as cool as it used to be.

Annual Halloween Birthday Carnival

We had our usual crazy birthday party for all the cousins today and tried a couple of new games with the kids: (1) Made a spider web out of black yarn, using a piece of string for each child. They had to unwind their string throughout the house to find their hidden surprise at the end (Halloween Webkins). Ian's string was VERY long and took him outside, around the house, and ended with his surprise right where he started. (2) Pumpkin Toss. (3) Pumpkin Pinata. We topped it all off with chicken tortilla soup, root beer and caramel apples.

Spiderman Birthday!

Eli celebrated his 5th birthday yesterday climbing the walls. He invited Isaac, Drew, Cragun and Ian to throw their Spidey suits on, then hit iRock to show off their Spidey moves. Eli has a reversible suit and tried both colors to see which one was best on the wall - Black Spidey is his favorite. Uncle Skylar helped me belay the boys and was a big help in coaching their climbs. We ended the night with quesadillas and cupcakes at Costa Vida while we sang Happy Birthday and opened presents. Eli said he had a great time and loved climbing with his friends. He's also looking forward to more time with Ian at the skate park now that he's got his new, bigger, Spidey skateboard, too.