Happy Halloween from a Fireman and Pablo!

Tonight after a quick dinner we headed over to our church for about an hour to take in the Harvest Party. Daddy met us there and in we went to gather up the candy loot and have some fun jumping in the bounce house. They started by making the rounds to the games. First the ring toss, followed by "digging" in the sand (packing peanuts), then onto fishing.

They got some candy and cool little trinkets and then made a mad dash to the kiddie bounce house.

They jumped all around and this one had a built in slide that they went down only about 1001 times.

We pulled them away from the bounce house with the promise of decorating a cupcake. They had a blast and proceeded to get frosting all over themselves!

Ally was being adorable I was trying to take a picture and so I called out her name and she gave me this big cheesy smile.

After gobbling down these tasty cupcakes in a very quick hurry,

we made our way onto a couple more games then of course back to the bounce house. Daddy left to get home and have some dinner and we hung out for another 5 minutes or so and followed in his footsteps. On the way out Mrs Lori (our pastors wife) grabbed us and they gave each of the kids another HUGE handful of candy. We made it back to the house and had a quick snack of pop tarts then got ourselves put back together and headed out to make the rounds around the neighborhood. We made our way around the neighborhood throwing out the phrase, "trick or treat," and in return getting gobs and gobs of candy! We also had to work on remembering to say, "Thank you," after receiving our treats. After awhile they had gotten so much candy that their buckets were too heavy to carry so they would set them down when they knocked on doors.

When we finally made our way back home they had loads of fun just sorting through their loot and asking us what each piece was.

Dylan also really got into handing out candy, he would watch out the window and open the door before anyone would even knock, at first he was just handing out huge handfuls to each person, then Daddy told him to give each person two.

He then became very meticulous in making sure everyone got the same amount, and that he didn't forget anyone. Finally we were out of candy and so the lights went out and the kids to bed.....man am I tuckered out! Happy Halloween All!

Lots of Pumpkin Carving Fun!!

After a yummy dinner Dylan comes running over to me and says, "You said we could do something with the pumpkins!" So I proceed to get everything set up for carving the pumpkins out.

I nominated Poppa as the pumpkin carver. So Poppa cut the top off one

and I proceeded to cut the top off the other....watch out for the Momma with the knife!

We got the tops off and then started the goop scooping process.

I decided I wanted to be all Suzi Homemaker and save the pumpkin seeds to roast....so Dylan and Aunt Cagney went through the painstaking process of separating out the seeds from the goop.

The went through and got it all separated out while Poppa was working ever so hard to make the pumpkin faces. Dylan wanted his to have an angry face, and demonstrated what it should look like.

Ally wanted hers to be scared, which Dylan also demonstrated.

Such an adorable boy! Uncle Eric got into the carving and tried to carve out the little white pumpkin we had gotten.

The kids wanted a star and moon carved out of it. Turned out really cute. Here are the finished products. Pretty Dang cute if I do say so myself!

PS: The seeds never got roasted......bah!

I have flying kids!!!!

So when we got back to the hay stack, the kids were having a blast jumping off of the hay stack. I got several amazing pictures of the kids "flying," Uncle Eric too!!!

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

Today we set out for the pumpkin patch. After getting everyone ready and in the car we headed out to meet Poppa Mike, Grandma Jo, Grandma Hotrum, Grandpa Hotrum, Grandma Winnie, Uncle Roger, and Uncle Eric and Aunt Cagney.

After arriving the kids spotted a HUGE hay bale stack and so we all ran over to play on it for a little bit before taking a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch. Ally wasn't quite sure at first

but after showing her around and helping her she got the hang of it and was running and playing like crazy!

Dylan like always just jumped in and went for it!

After letting the kids play for ten minutes or so we decided to head over and wait for the tractor. While we were waiting we looked around at the gourds and other assorted fruits and veggies they had in the barn. Finally! The tractor arrives and we all load up. The tractor driver comes back and asks Dylan if he would like to drive the tractor, he was a little hesitant but I urged him on and went with him.

Here is a brief aside: Every time my kids get to have a new, fun, exciting opportunity I get choked up! Luckily I have learned how to swallow it or I would be sobbing uncontrollably!

Ok back to the story....So I hand Dylan to to the kindly tractor driver and heft myself up on the tractor, then he hands Dylan up to me and we get all settled in. Then he takes the brake off and we are off....Dylan and I were driving together!

He had a blast! About halfway out we stopped and let someone else have a turn to drive. Ally was a little bummed, she kept saying, "I want to drive the tractor." We told her maybe next year! She is still so young even though she acts like 5 years older than her age! We make it out to the pumpkin patch and get off the tractor, immediatly the first big pumpkin Ally sees is the one she wants....so I had to keep urging her on to look around for one a little smaller.

She loved sitting on the pumpkins and posing and just all around being cute,

meanwhile Dylan was on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin

followed closely by the paparazzi.

After finding the perfect pumpkins for us

Dylan and Ally joined Poppa Mike in the corn stalks to investigate.

They found lots of cool green pumpkins and some corn that hadn't ripened all the way. Uncle Eric went out also to see what he could find! After taking some pictures and looking around some more they came back over and we waited for the tractor to come back. Finally the tractor makes it back and Poppa want to film us waving at him as we are driving away on the tractor, then he was going to run and jump up the stairs onto the tractor....while it was moving. I was a bit nervous but he did it, and didn't kill himself!

We made our way back and got our pumpkins weighed, the kids picked out some gourds, and Daddy got some apple cider. We loaded the stuff in the car then decided to go play on the hay some more. After playing around for awhile more, running, jumping, and all out going crazy we decided to head on home to have some dinner and carve our pumpkins. I had made a big pot of beef stew for us to enjoy....so yummy!