Happy Fall, Y'all!

Well, the Droubay Halloween Extravaganza weekend was a BLAST.  We had so much fun.  We got things off to a good start on Friday afternoon / evening by choosing which pumpkins we were going to carve.  Very important pumpkin backstory:  A few weekends ago, the kids and I picked all 17 of our pumpkins and I let them decide where to place them out front.  (Some were even placed out back and in window wells).  I intervened only once when Carson plopped one down right in front of the garbage can.  I explained to him that it would be inevitably smooshed if we left it there.  He decided to move it.  Well, anyway, here we are gathering the pumpkins to take out back and clean out by the chickens.

Here is Carson bringing his pumpkin of choice.  

He's with the band, by the way.

So anyway, the chickens were very grateful for their pumpkin snack.  

Poor Rhett didn't get a turn cleaning out a pumpkin, 

but he did manage to find ways to enjoy himself.  

He's such a happy little stinker!

Here is Annie "looking to see if there was any more guts."  

Kinda blocking the natural light there, my-dear!

So after we cleaned out the pumpkins, we went to Papa Murphy's (we've made our peace since the Rhett hand-burning episode), and bought a pumpkin-shaped pizza and baked it.  We watched Pirates of the Carribean.  We had to rewind several times so Annie and Carson could laugh hysterically at the funny faces that Captain Jack Sparrow makes.  

Here they are with their pizza

making their "scariest faces"

After we were done eating, we carved the pumpkins.  Annie did hers all by herself and Ryan helped Carson.  

 

Here is Annie making her "concentration face"

 

Carson and Dad carving away

 

After Carson carved his final (of three) pumpkins, 

he declared proudly, "hey, this one is a puzzle."  

Here is his puzzle.

The final product

The final product in the dark

More jack-o-lantern action

On Saturday, which is when our town (don't know about the rest of the state) celebrated Halloween, we had pumpkin pancakes for breakfast.  Now, when I say pumpkin pancakes, I don't mean with pumpkin IN them (which is borderline healthy).  I mean regular pancakes dyed orange with butter triangles for eyes and a syrup smile.  I pulled out ALL the stops on these pancakes, let me tell you.  Food coloring = WOW!  

 

Here is one of Annie's pumpkin pancakes

Here is Rhett, eagerly anticipating his next pancake

After a day inside (weather was not good) watching more Halloween-y movies and finishing Annie's costume, we were ready for our Trunk-or-Treat.  I present Glenda, the good witch of the North from the Wizard of Oz, the S.W.A.T. police officer, and the Spider.  Yes, the spider.  The spider was not very happy about this photo shoot, but o-well. 

Annie, Carson, & Rhett

A happy Spider moment

The trunk-or treating was VERY wet.  

I was just fine with my perch under our Explorer's hatch.

After the Trunk or Treat, we visited the great grandparents and trick-or-treated to two houses on our street.  Then we went home and ate lots and lots of candy.  It was very simple, boring, and just fine with us!  We hope you had a great evening too!

HaPpY HaLLoWeeN!!!!

this is my very favorite picture of all.  

What a silly willy

Family Pictures

Here we are, for the first professional FAMILY PICTURE ever!  
Hard to believe, but nope, haven't done it yet!  
Well, to be correct, we haven't done a professional family picture since we've had kids.  

One of my College BFFs took these for us.  She always does such a great job, and we always manage to have a blast together.  This time, we decided to literally CLING to the side of the mountain for some of the shots.  Honestly, to look at the slope, it didn't seem that treacherous, and we all made it up and down just fine.  Probably would've been easier if I and Annie hadn't been wearing heels, but I think you'll all agree with me that sometimes you must sacrifice for fashion.  Well, at any rate, it was a good time.  We'll start the pictures out with a classic:  this is Ryan "lifting" Carson down the mountainside:

 

The funny thing is that later during the shoot, Annie and I were climbing up a slight slope of a hillside (still in our heels, of course), when Annie pulled against me to balance herself.  I was not particularly balanced myself at the moment, and well, let's just say we had a nice roll down the hillside.  It ruled.  Well, except for the part that it totally messed up my hair, gave us both splinters and chunder all over our clothes.  Oh, yah, and then there was the part where I totally chewed her out for pulling me down.  It was not a shining Mom moment, nor was it likely graceful.  I did have some nasty bruises up my back the next day.  We do what we must to have our feet look their best (even if they don't show in all the pictures. . .)  So here's one of my feet so it all seems worthwhile:

  See how the flip flops enhance the ensemble?  I thought so as well.

 Please allow me to indulge my 

"I think my daughter is the most adorable thing on the planet" mommy pride 

with "a few" selections:

 

Here are my boys:  

This picture does NOT do the precariousness of their situation justice.  

They are within mere inches from their deaths by falling.

 

My not-so-little-anymore Carsie.  

He surprised us by face-planting on the sidewalk the evening before 

on our way home from the Tooele Homecoming game.  

Go Buffs!  (yeahhhhhhh, not so much)

The most gigantic, yet tiniest and sweetest chunk of a baby ever.  

Don't you just want to eat those cheeks?

The following are Exhibits 1 through 4 

that the hubby and I actually like and love each other.  

Yummy!

This one was so we could gross out the kids later.  

Awesome.

Another Family Picture

See ya later, alligator!