This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween

Before I get into the Halloween nonsense, let's start on a happy, peaceful note.  UEA.  How I love UEA.  We spent it this year up at my parents cabin.  It was gorgeous, relaxing and so

 much fun.  These two little sillies dubbed themselves to being the "Squirrel Girls" since they spent most of the trip feeding Daisy (the squirrel)

 

 We went on long walks....

 And jumped on the tramp in the middle of the forest.. Nothing is better than that!

 Then it was back home to jump in some more leaves.....

 This is Kate dancing to the song "Thriller."  Yes, she put her pants on by herself after going potty.  Without my help this is usually how they end up.

 Here's our cute little pumpkin Rach. 

 Now onto Halloween.....Here's the thing........  I actually LOVE Halloween.  I think it is such a fun holiday (although getting costumes ready always stresses me out), and what a way to get tons of candy.  One of my many weaknesses.  But let me just paint you a little picture of how the past 5 days have gone and why I am thrilled that Halloween is over. 

First of all, on Sunday night we had a Schick Halloween party at my sister Aimee's house.  We got all dolled up in our costumes and of course I had to take a bunch of pictures which is good because I totally failed in that department on Halloween night.  So here we are, all excited for our first Halloween party this year.

 We had a supercool Batman.....

 The cutest little cowgirl west of the Mississippi....

 And the most beautiful Snow White that anyone has ever laid eyes on.....

 We had Dr. Venkman ready to take on all those ghosts.....and then guess what I got voted to be?

 The Stay Puft Marshmallow man.  Didn't get a single of me, but really it's okay.  And yes I am pregnant, but no that is not my real belly (or legs).  How rude! 

 Here's at Aimee's house, a family shot....

 And we had to get an action shot of this.....

 Then on Monday night, we had a murder mystery dinner at Trav's sister's house with all the Maughan clan.  We had to dress up for this one too, but we all had "parts" so they had to be specific costumes.  Here are some of the Indians....Tiger Lily, Little Bear, and Dances with Wolves....

 And here's the Indians with Hope Clifton, the ranchers daughter, and Slash Jackson, the outlaw.  Neither of which were the murderers.

 Then on Tuesday, we had our second annual haunted forest.  I must say it turned out great this year!  We have added a graveyard...

 Spooky skeletons....

 A giant spider.....

 And this ghost freaked a lot of people out too....

 We had lots of spooky pictures (drawn by Rachel), pumpkin luminaries, and of course don't forget the slide of death (off of the treehouse).  Everyone had a great time and we had a really good turn out.  Like most nights we have friends over the kids ended up playing "Ghost in the Graveyard" which was very fitting.

Now this is the only picture I really got of them on Halloween night.  They had a blast and got some major candy.  This is all after they had class parties at school (which I helped out with Josh's)

So as you can see we are a little Halloweened out.  I wanted today to be my day of rest but now I have to undecorate, get my house back in order, and Trav's out of town.  Guess I'll rest next week.  At least I have lots of chocolate to tide me over until then.

So much

So much has happened in the last month I will just briefly show what's been going on.  First of all there was a daddy daughter campout.  They talk about this all year long and always have such a good time.  This year there was a friendly bunny there too. Don't worry, Josh and I look forward to have a mommy  son date too when they're gone. 

 There's always puddle jumping after the big rainstorms....

 We hiked up Baer Creek Canyon, which is the same creek that is in our backyard.  It was such a gorgeous hike.....I can't believe we hadn't done it before.  It will definitely not be our last time.

 I must be really good at brushing my teeth because my smile is just shining.  And I don't remember Rach washing her face so good either. 

 Then Rach had a pool party with her soccer team at her coaches house and the entire family was invited.

 Yes, Trav was the only parent that swam.  He really is the best daddy ever.

 We went to the Kaysville firestation open house.  We got to have treats, spray the hoses and even watch a helicopter take off.  It's always fun.

 Kate was right in her element.

 Here's the best buddies.  Okay can I start a blog petition to help keep these buddies from moving away?  They are moving in about a month and we cannot imagine not  having them next door anymore.  How are we going to survive?

 Oh, and we also got a new van!  It's very fancy and we love it!

 It's also has a lot of space to grow.....

 We also went up to snowbasin to see the leaves and take a few pictures.  It was so gorgeous up there.

Happy fall!

Some Firsts....

Well we'll start with the first day of school.  We now have ourselves a 2nd grader,

 

And a kindergartener.   They were both so excited and so far so good.

  It was funny because when we were eating breakfast that first day of school Rachel says to Kate, "Okay Kate.  Now me and Josh are going to be at school so you need to be nice to mom.  You can't just boss her around all day.  Instead of saying "I want my milk!"  You should say "Mom, can I please have my milk?"  Me and Josh aren't going to be here to help so you have to be nice.  Got it?" 

I'm not going to lie, I loved that conversation.

We also had Kate's first hike up Ensign peak.  

 My first time ever bottling peaches.

 And once or twice a year we get hot air balloons at the park across the street from our house.  We had it 2 days in a row this year.  They are a spectacular sight!

 Josh came up with a new method over plugging your nose.....

 We went to the Natural History Museum for the first time.  It was so cool and we could have spent so much more time there (if it hadn't had been naptime).

 We went to the State Fair.  Okay, this one isn't a first but we still had fun!

 We went to the zoo and saw all the new Polar stuff for the fist time.  It's awesome!  They did a great job on that remodel.

 The whole crew waiting for the bird show.....

 And this is the biggest first of all.......Rachel scored her first goal EVER!  I can honestly say that was one of the happiest moment of MY life.  She was so excited and it was a totally awesome goal.  We always told her that if she scored a goal she could get a giant ice cream cone. 

 Ahhh, the sweet taste of victory.  I'm so proud of her!

 And after 2 floods in 2 weeks we decided to get a new toilet.  Yes this is  a first.  A potty on the deck.  Or should we just call it Trav's new "mancave."  Hope the neighbors don't mind...

And I don't have a picture for this last one but we were having a bbq outside a couple weeks ago and it was smoking like crazy.  Okay, this was not a fire but a little charcoal bbq and our whole yard was full of smoke, and the neighbors yard, and the street.  We kept thinking there was no way that our little bbq was producing that much smoke but apparently it was.  Well, a few minutes later our neighbor came over to check and make sure that our forest wasn't on fire and he said, "The fire department just showed up."  What!?!  We had a fire truck, and 3 firemen come and investigate our house because of all the smoke.  It was pretty embarrassing, but so so funny.  They were cool about it and checked around and just laughed.  Well, about 10 minutes later our bbq stopped smoking and there was still a ton of smoke everywhere.  We had been framed!  Our neighbors had a fire and must have been burning totally green stuff because of all the smoke.  We didn't realize they were having one earlier because of all our smoke.  I just hope we don't have a black mark by our name at the fire department. 

That definitely was a first!