Ward Trunk-or-Treat

Friday night was our ward's Halloween party. We were amazed at how big it was (about twice the size of our past ward.) We got there a little late, but had plenty of time to get some doughnuts, hot chocolate, and of course candy. Here's our "scary" tiger:I spent the afternoon making a bow for Brooklyn's costume. She turned out to be a cute lioness!

Here's the two of them in front of one of the trunks. Brayden caught on quickly that if he says three simple words, "trick or treat!" then he would get candy. Brooklyn sat in the stroller the whole time and was enthralled by everything going on.

Costumes

So...for about a month every time someone asked Brayden what he was going to be for Halloween he said, "a SCARY tiger." As soon as I realized he wasn't giving up on it, I gave up on my original idea of him being a devil and Brooklyn being an angel. I bought Brooklyn's angel costume after Halloween last year for $3! The week before Halloween I started looking at Kid to Kid for a tiger costume, expecting their costumes to be pretty picked over. The South Jordan store surprised me and they had quite a few costumes left, and they were all 25% off! I started looking, saw a few, but didn't grab them while I was still looking. Of course a lady came in and grabbed the one tiger costume I was most likely going to get. I kept my eye on her the whole time while she tried to convince her daughter to be a tiger. Lucky for me she wanted to be a giraffe. Yeah! I snatched the tiger costume and didn't let it go.

After I bought it I showed Brayden and this is what he said, "Mom. That is a nice tiger. I want to be a SCARY tiger." It took me a while to convince him that he'll make it scary by growling at everyone. He accepted that explanation and we were done with one costume.

I was going to use the angel costume for Brooklyn, but I would have to buy white sweats to go under it. After buying Brayden such a warm costume for only $5, I decided to find a warm one for Brooklyn. The day before Halloween Josh took Brayden to work so Brooklyn and I headed back to the South Jordan Kid to Kid. I found plenty of costumes and narrowed it down to a lamb and a lion. My mom said a lamb is more girly, but the lion costume was adorable. So what do you do? You try them on in the store and ask everyone in the store. Everyone liked the lion costume better, although the lamb was much more girly. One of the employees grabbed an orange bow and clipped it on the lion and my dilemma was solved! The lion costume was adorable with the big bow on it and now Brooklyn can stay warm while trick or treating!

All Bundled Up

We have been working in the garage these past few weeks. We're finishing the insulation and sheet rock on the walls that don't have it. Here's the wall we've started with:

Here is the second set of shelves I finished building. They will go around the window against the wall we're sheetrocking.

As it has started to get cold, we've had to bundle up, so I couldn't resist taking pictures of the kids in their cute hats and jackets.

Me Too!

The other day Brayden was naughty so I put him in time out. As soon as he was done, Brooklyn quickly followed and put her nose in the corner. It was hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing as she did it over and over again.

Huh?! Who's That?!

A few weeks ago Josh took the sugar glider cage outside and deep cleaned it, then he brought it inside so it could dry off. I came around the corner and this is what I found: (Look closely at the cage)
She had way too much fun climbing in and out and playing with the little wheel. She's just as curious as her brother!

Las Vegas - Part 4

Monday morning we woke up at started packing everything up. Here is how I found Brayden in the morning:

Josh took Brayden swimming one more time while Rachael and Mike went back to the outlet stores. Here's Brayden swimming in the hot tub since it was a little chilly in the pool:
I knew the ride home would not be so fun. We left around 11 and it was my task to keep the kids awake until St. George. Not easy. They were both tired and very ornery. Here's Brooklyn enjoying a sucker for the last 20 minutes of the ride.

And here she is eating her foot after the sucker. All I can say is sticky, sticky, sticky!We ate lunch in St. George then split the kids up in the two different cars. I stayed with Brooklyn and she slept for about 2 1/2 hours. Brayden slept about an hour. We finally made it home, unloaded the cars, and crashed for about three days. Luckily it was easy to put the kids back on their schedules since they were so exhausted. Overall, it was an awesome vacation but I am sure glad to be home!

Las Vegas - Part 3

Sunday was a great day. We tried to keep it simple since it was the Sabbath. In the morning we went to the outlet stores and walked around. I was proud that we didn't buy anything, although I found plenty of stuff I would have bought if it weren't Sunday (saved me lots of money :) I did, however have a few quarters so the kids could ride the truck. They loved it.Here are the kids on the way back to the car. I love that we figured out how to put both kids in just one umbrella stroller! Worked out great since I couldn't bring my big stroller.

We went back to our place so the kids could take a nap, which we all ended up doing. We had complimentary vouchers for the Brazilian grill, so we went there for dinner. Then we were able to walk part of the strip solely to entertain the kids. We went to the M&M Factory only to miss there last show by 5 minutes. Here's Brayden looking down from the top floor:

Here is our little family in fron of the race car at the M&M Factory:

We continued on to MGM Grand. This was heaven for Brayden. It was so fun to watch him interact with all the fun animals there. He loved the elephant. Here I am with him at the elephant, although the picture taker only got the ear of the elephant in the picture:

Here he is talking to the tree. I couldn't believe he actually asked it questions and had a conversation with it. Maybe my little boy has an imagination after all and thinks about things other than basketballs!

Our next stop was the Excalibur. Brayden loved that we went inside a castle. He was overwhelmed with the game area and didn't want to leave.

We let Brayden shoot the hoops and play the Wack-a-mole game. We got enough tickets for tootsie rolls and jolly ranchers - which was a perfect amount of sugar to give the kids a little more energy for the rest of the evening.

We hustled back to where our car was and stopped at the Belagio to see their water show. Of course the kids loved it. I, unfortunately, missed it because Brooklyn had dropped her binky somewhere along the way so I went back to find it. I went too far back looking for it and finally found it on my way back to the Bellagio. I'm still shocked I found it. After we met back up we rushed back to the car and headed back to put the kids to bed, play some games, and go to bed ourselves.