Our Week

I had several cakes this week, so MacKelle decided that she wanted to make me a "cake" every time I was working on one. I gave her her own counter area and some left over fondant and she went to work. Here she is taking a break from her labors and eating an egg. She is SOO cute. I love how she wants to help out so much.

In this picture you have to look hard, but she has CRAZY static in her hair. I'm not sure if it is the colder weather or her winter coat, but we may need to change conditioners. Ü

For Veterans Day, Trace's school did a musical program. It was hard to get a good picture, but I tried to make his face lighter so you can find him. They did so good. They sang three songs, with actions and sign language, it was fun!

Should've seen it coming!

This week we've had an extra house guest. He has been fantastic to have around! My kids have loved playing with him. Things have been going so well that I didn't even notice that he and MacKelle had been playing in her room for a while. When I saw them in "Princess Dresses" I had to take a picture (Sorry Bobi Ü) I should have figured that if someone plays with MacKelle long enough, eventually they'll be wearing a dress. He looks kinda sad in this picture, but 1/2 second earlier he had a big grin and was saying "cheese".
That is more like it Ü. It's not like he probably had much choice with MacKelle.

Trick-or-Treat

We LOADED up on sugar this year! We went into Idaho Falls on Friday for a Trick-or-Treat thing they had for kids. There were a ton of kids there. We met up with our neighbors and joined the hundreds of people there. We even ran into some of Justin's cousins.
Here they are at a booth.
We had to wait in line for about a half an hour before we got to any booths. Jenny took this picture of us waiting. Justin had to step out of the line for a minute, so it looks funny me and Tobee there with all the kids.
Here is Scooby and Daphene with the Mystery Machine. We had to get a picture. Even though they're bundled up enough that you can hardly tell who they are supposed to be.
We also went to Trace's costume parade at school. Mason was SOOO tired.
MacKelle doesn't go to school there yet, but Trace was nice enough to let her be in line with him. All the elementary kids march through the older kid's classrooms to show off their costumes.

Here is one of Trace, MacKelle, Tyson, and Keylee when we were in Idaho Falls. Trace and Tyson have been the same thing for the last 2 years. They are great buds! Keylee is a little lamb. Cute kids!!!

Pumpkin Carving

Last night we decided to carve our pumpkins for Halloween. MacKelle wanted a mad kitty, and Trace wanted Yoda (Who else?) Let me tell you, I don't think Yoda is supposed to be made from a pumpkin. Trace kept telling me that it didn't look like Yoda. When I told him that I was trying my best and that it probably won't look just like Yoda (and maybe it'd look like a goblin) he started saying that it looked "Just like Yoda". Maybe next year he'll pick something easier. Ü

Its Autumn Time

The other day we came back from a trip to town and we noticed all the leaves on the ground. We had to rake them up and jump in. Trace missed the fun because he was at school, but there are more leaves for another day. MacKelle whipped out her plastic rake and we got a pretty good pile.
Mason LOVED the leaves, he thought they tasted fantastic! He loves being outside. He kept crawling everywhere and putting stuff in his mouth. He had a great time exploring. Ü Being with the kids when they have fun reminds me of when I was a kid. It makes all those activities more fun again. Childhood is so fun and carefree.

The Great Pumkin Patch

After seeing the fun some of our friends/family had going to pumpkin patches, we decided to find one. We found The U-Pick Red Barn in Idaho Falls that was so much fun! They had pumpkins EVERYWHERE! Not only pumpkins, but watermelon, and other yummy produce.
Here is a picture of some of the pumpkins (they were like this in every direction).
You can also get eggs, and behind Trace and MacKelle you can see some of the chickens. The kids were so cute! There was a lot to do there and they were excited!
We are starting the search for the best pumpkins. We made a rule that they had to be able to carry their pumpkin (So we didn't end up with the biggest one there and we had Mason to carry Ü).
Mase seemed to like the pumpkin search too.
The kids went through the straw maze (about 5 times).
Justin and Mason too. I think Justin and I had as much fun as the kids (Maybe more, check out Mason's and Justin's faces Ü)
They also got to ride on a "train". Trace was very excited and MacKelle started off a little nervous. As the ride progressed they both relaxed and had more fun.
Trace even jumped off and back on! I'm sure they were ready to kick him off, but it was a great day and a fun fall activity.

Our Annual Halloween FHE Party

We started getting ready for our yearly Halloween party (awesomely hosted by Brooke Ü) . Trace decided to be a vampire this year. I think we have past all the cute Halloween costumes with him. The scarier the better! I made a Halloween cake with a hand coming out of it(See cake blog for pics), and when I asked him if it was too scary he said I should make the hand holding an eyeball!!!
The rest of us are Scooby and the gang. MacKelle is Daphene and Mason is Scooby. I am Velma and Justin is Shaggy (We didn't get pics of Justin or me yet-we'll have to get it on Halloween).
Here are some of the kids (the ones we could get to hold still long enough for a picture) and their awesome costumes.
We played some games, this one is the mummy wrap. Thanks to all the dads that became Mummies.
Here is another team (a very competitive one-Trace still claims that they won Ü)
Here is the winning team. The dads were as fun to watch as the kids!
How fun!!
The other game we played was pin the hair on the witch. The kids are waiting in line for their turn.
Here is MacKelle's (Daphne's) turn.
With a little help she got the hair to the head "on her first try"-she was so excited!!
Then it was Trace's turn. He found his mark and was quickly. . .
Looking through the goody bags to find the perfect one. He couldn't even pause to look up for a picture. Ü It was a fun night!

MacKelle's first week of pre-school

MacKelle had her first week of preschool this week. She has school on Tues. and Thursdays. There are only 3 kids, but she LOVES it! Us moms take turns teaching each week. I started out. I had as much fun as the kids I think! They were so cute. We did the letter "A". We also learned about Columbus and Fall. Here they are ready to throw their "a"irplanes. I think it will be good for MacKelle to have some structure and some fun with friends. We look forward to this preschool year.

Snow Way!

So we woke up the other morning and look outside and see a good few inches of snow. We do live in Idaho and it IS October, so I guess we're due. Trace and MacKelle were SO excited. They asked me first thing if they could go out and play in it. I knew it wasn't going to be around long, so I said ok and by 8:30 a.m. they were out in the snow. It was really wet snow, notice how the tree is all bent over in the background. We had several branches break off our trees from the weight of the snow.
Here they are ready to go out.
We decided that to be festive since it was October and we had just put up our halloween decorations that we would make snow pumpkins. When I told Trace we could use food coloring and water to make them orange, he said "or we could pee on them". Ü Could you imagine our neighbors waking up and looking outside to that sight! I opted for the food coloring.
Here is MacKelle and her pumpkin.

And Trace with his. . . Are you loving the ski mask?

And this is what the living room looked like after they got cold enough to come back in. Of coarse you have to search through ALL the gloves and hats to find the right ones, and there is no time to pick up when you have fresh snow waiting for you outside and hot cocoa waiting inside. . .isn't it great to be a kid.

Monster Mason Eats Mermaids for Breakfast

Say that 5 times fast! Mason got a hold of Ariel's fins and thought they made a good teething toy! Ü
I just thought it was too funny. You never know what kids will do.