Halloween Photos

So a couple of days after Halloween we took some pictures of the kids in their costumes:

Just a hodgepodge of pictures from September

Ok, so I have all these cute pictures from September that I was going to post cute stories about. But now it is November, and the time is just getting away from me. So, without much storyline, here goes some cute pictures:

Not the greatest composition pictures I’ve ever taken, but one of the sweetest smiles I’ve ever captured from Faith!

I called this picture: Beka vs the Apple. Believe it or not, with just 2 teeth she made quite the dent.

I told Emma that she had to drink her drink at the table…

Our ward primary took a temple trip.  I took Emma and Beka too. Emma was amazingly reverent! These are some of the cute pictures I took that day.

Emma got a tea set for her birthday. It’s one of her favorite things. She LOVES to have tea parties. I caught the first one without anyone knowing I was lurking about. Yeah, the last one… I was an unwelcome guest in Emma’s book.

I love how kind hearted Riley is. He’s always looking out for the little kids. We went to our cousin Weldon’s birthday party. This is Weldon’s cousin Austin. Riley was making sure he got a turn on the slip and slide.

Here are some more fun pictures from the party:

 

Riley liked the pool as long as he wasn’t getting toasted off his raft.

Finally, Emma’s birthday. We eat her favorite food: Mac and Cheese with hotdogs, plain potato chips and juice. And a strawberry cake with ice cream. We gave her a princess dress which she LOVES!

So there you have it. September’s hodgepodge of pictures…

Halloween

Ok so for something a more current than the last post! We had an eventful Halloween week. We went to the pumpkin patch, Riley’s class party, 2 trunker treats, a ward party and visited with grandparents. We have SO much candy it’s gross. We had been looking for costumes for a month, trying to figure out what the kids would be. I was in Target looking at the costume. Emma wanted to be a princess (no bigger right since her birthday had just pasted and she had a ton of stuff). Riley however didn’t know what he wanted. I had planned on putting Beka into whatever costume fit her. Well, I saw this super cute Tinker Bell costume and showed it to her. Beka got super excited, and cried when I put it back on the rack. Hmmm, well ok. The picture on the front of the costume looked just like her. So I got it. Long story short, the kids went as Peter Pan this year.  Riley was Peter, Emma was Wendy and Beka was Tinker Bell. It was so cute!

At the beginning of the week Allen and I took the little girls to the pumpkin patch. We met up with Erin. It was fun. The girls loved picking out their own pumpkins:

    

The next day  was Riley’s class party. They trickier-treated the school. It was really fun, they went a bunch of class rooms and got candy from the teachers and high school students. I was so happy I got to go to it. Finally, we went to our truncker treats! The kids look so adorable in their costumes! I couldn’t find a Wendy costume for Emma so I made on. I think it turned out GREAT! Yeah!

The kids had a blast at both trunker treats. We got tons of candy! The stake one was huge and so much fun! The kids loved their costumes. And I am very relieved that Halloween is done!

Emma’s Birthday

So I’m so behind! It’s been a CRAZY couple of months. So, in order to kinda caught up, I’m going to try to do an older happening with a newer happening. That way, maybe I’ll meet somewhere in the middle!

Anyway, Emma turn 3 in September. Emma is all girl! For her birthday she wanted to do a princess themed party, but she wanted to invite a couple of boys from her nursery class. So we did a princess and knight party. It turned out really well. We had a great turn out.

As each child came, we had a box of dress up clothes for them to pick out. Each girl got a crown, a pair of gloves, a little skirt  and a some shoes. Each boy got a helmet, shield, and sward.  Then I took them back to my studio and took a picture in their cute garb.Then we sent the kids outside for a sandbox treasure hunt and to catch the dragon (for the boys).

 

We then had a fun princess piñata which was stuffed with candy. The kids had blast diving for it!

After the piñata, we had lunch for the kids. We had heart and star shaped jelly sandwiches, fruit and I made cherry 7 up using frozen cherries. It was beautiful! And it tasted great!

Emma got a ton of presents. She has enjoyed them all! We opened a few of them but decided not to open all of them (other little girls were getting jealous)

Emma wants to thank everyone who made her day so special!

Happy birthday Princess Emmaline!

Playing in the Rain, Just Playing in the Rain…

I love the rain! We finally got some a couple of weeks ago (Of course this  past week  we’ve been blessed with tons of rain, however this was at the beginning of September.) I took Emma out while Beka was sleeping. I knew she would love to splash in the puddles. And of course she did:

 

 

  

One, two, three:

 

SPLASH!

This was so fun! And reminded me of another time:

 

SPLASH!

 

I’d taken Riley out to play in the rain while Emma was napping. Puddle splashing is just a fun family tradition!

SPLASH!

Cute Baby Blessing

The day after Joan’s funeral the family gathered for a much happier event: Landon Leavitt’s blessing. He is the cute baby boy of Josh and Rachael. This was planned a while back. Josh and Rachael offered to move the blessing to another weekend, but Richard said no. This is how it was supposed to be: something sad, followed by something joyful. He was a very good boy. And Riley, Emma and Beka were really well behaved too! YEAH! It was a beautiful blessing. Quiet, unlike our babies.

This is all the grandkids. Not my favorite one… sigh. I really do better when I don’t have a lot of adults trying to help. I get distracted, and didn’t see that Beka and Landon weren’t seen. so sad.

It was so hot, and so bright. I did my best, but the color seem a little odd. But the kids are cute anyway.

While everyone was getting food, Rachael and I took Landon upstairs to take a couple of pictures of him. These turned out way better:

Sweet little guy. Nice to have a new baby boy in the family. It’s the first one since Riley. Welcome to our family Landon!

The Monster Under the Bed

I had to get this on the blog before I forgot it:

A couple of weeks ago Emma woke up in the middle of the night. I went to check on her. She was fine, just afraid of the monster under the bed. The next morning she said

“I’m not afraid of the monster under the bed”

“Why not”

“Cause the monster under the bed is just Grover”

Silly girl! One of her favorite books is The Monster at the End of This Book.

Love it!

Joan’s Funeral

The Saturday following Joan’s passing we gathered for her funeral. Allen had been asked to do the Eulogy. He really struggled with it. He spent the night before working on it.  To read it click on the link above. Allen was unable to read it. As the music started, the passing of his mom finally hit him. His dad jumped in and read the beautiful tribute.

This was the first funeral I’ve ever been to that I was really sad at. It was a hard thing. But I am so grateful for the gospel that teaches us that family are a forever unit.

   

I am so thankful for my sweet sister and her hubby for coming down for the service. Between them and my parents they tended my little ones so I could support Allen.  

 

  

The flowers were lovely and the casket beautiful

Riley really struggled with his grandma’s funeral practically when they closed the casket and when we had to leave her at the graveyard.

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It was very hot at the gravesite, so we didn’t linger. Celise produced a wonderful slideshow of Joan. We are so grateful to the wonderful Relief Society who provided the food and decorated the gym so lovely. It really made us feel loved!