Scariest Halloween Party... EVER!

Honestly, I was TERRIFIED! 

Questions like:

Where will everyone sleep? (and) How early will they wake up? tormented me!  But despite my fears, we went ahead and had the all our nieces sleepover.

And guess what...

It wasn't scary at all.

We have wanted to do this for a long time, and I dare say we will do it again.  We made smores and told ghost stories.  Then went around the circle and had everyone make up one part of the story.  I used to love doing this as a kid.  And no campfire is complete without a little singing.  :)

I was even cool enough to find a glow in the dark ball, and let the girls play catch after it was dark outside.  Then after a little stargazing, it was inside for a scary movie.

This picture cracks me up.  Ty and Halle have the same look in their eye!  

I was honestly pretty worried about how the morning would go.  But 3 out of the 7 kids didn't wake up until 8:30, and we didn't hear anyone until 6.  So that was way better than I had emotionally prepared for!  All the kids were really good, and had fun coloring in the morning while I made breakfast.

We hope the kids had as much fun as we did!

Kick-Off Party!

Did you think I meant football?  I'm talking about Fall.  One of my favorite times of year.  The cooler temperatures, the warmer food, the decorating, the decreasing amount of yardwork... One big kick off party to the real prize, Christmas season!  I really should be working on my many Christmas projects since I always have a goal of being 100% ready for Christmas by Thanksgiving, (a goal I typically reach by the way) but I have so many cute pictures to show off I just had to blog instead!

We are having a great Fall!  Starting off with ANOTHER weekend in McCall.  This times we took the kiddos and met some cousins and grandparents up there as well.  It was wonderful!

Yes, this is going to be a picture intensive post!  The week after our trip to McCall, we headed down to my mom's house when the girls had a couple days off from school.  As always, we had a great time.  The girls love helping my mom in the kitchen, and we had some seriously yummy food!

We also had a great FHE with our good friends, the Dunns, at the pumpkin patch.  It is tradition to go with them, and it gets more fun every year.  Only hitch this year was Jen and I couldn't get on the hayride in time since we were chasing our babies around.  So there we stood in the dirt watching as our families rode off into the sunset, literally.  Neither of us had any money, so we couldn't even sit down and enjoy some hot cider.  I was just relieved that Todd made it in time since the girls got on there really quick.  There is NO way my anxiety could have handled that!

Yes, Todd and I are now the proud owners of a parent leash.  Ty loved it and it was much easier than trying to maneuver a stroller around the pumpkin patch all night.  Definitely will be using it alot in the future. 

And aren't you just dieing over how cute my girls are dressed?  :)

Romantic Getaway?

Remember back in August when Todd and I took the kids to McCall?  Of course my blog post was all about how wonderful it was.... But we did have one really bad experience...

The HOTEL!

I swore I would NEVER go back!  They granted the people before us a late check out, didn't tell us, were super rude and unapologetic, and we ended up checking in almost FOUR hours after check in time.  However, combine all that with a whiny customer (me) and a nice manager, and voila, you get a free night to use at another visit.  

So I swallowed my pride, and allowed us to stay at this dreaded hotel one more time.  :)  We instantly decided it would be fun to go without kids.  But then we went ahead and invited Tom and Emily anyway! 

Now alot of people thought we were really weird to invite friends to come with us.  (Maybe they were jealous...)  But you have to understand the dynamic we have with these crazy kids.  It was still a romantic get away with nice meals and quality time with eachother.  Tom and Em didn't cramp our style at all.

I have always wanted to eat at one of the restaurants overlooking the lake.  The food was delish, and the view was awesome.  We did have to move inside before the food came though.  Brr...

Here I was planning to put some super cute pics of Emily and me wearing our skinny jeans and boots.  So why aren't the pictures here?  Because my blog is being lame and won't upload vertical pictures all of the sudden.  This has caused me much heartache all week, as we looked soooo cute!

I guess these will have to do...

Saturday we spent our time riding our bikes around Ponderosa.  It was amazing.  Soooo quiet, sooo beautiful, sooo kidless.  It is my new favorite spot on the planet, and I can't wait to take the kiddos riding here this weekend.

Even though this picture looks lame, I am posting it anyways!  It was my idea to pretend to be jumping off the dock and take a picture of it.  It was going to be a hilarious part of this post.  But alas, it is a sideways view that doesn't do the picture much justice.  PITY. PARTY.  Is anyone else have this problem with Blogger?

It felt great to be able to take our time and enjoy some views along the way. 

 

Todd found this heart-shaped rock and sweetly presented it to me.  :)   See, I told you it was a still a romantic weekend.