Kate's 18 month Pictures

Here are Kate's 18 mo pictures. We had them done at JC Penny. I have the codes for the Smiles By Wire for those who want to see the entire session - just let me know and I can email them to you. Also, let us know if there is a certain size/quantity of picture(s) you want. The top picture (in color) we have a package of, but we really don't have many of the bottom picture to share. I just bought the one sheet because I thought it looked so classic, but I wanted most of the ones we sent out to have her smiling! Hope you enjoy them!

Trick Or Treat

Before it gets too late...we had a great Halloween! Hope ya'll did too! Here are some fun pictures of our spooktacular day! (The cutie at the top of the post is my fabulous niece Madison with her Halloween candy that she got on her very first Trick-or-Treat! Way to go Maddie!)

Here is Dallin and Christopher after putting out the little scarecrow we got at Wal-Mart. Dallin was obssessed with scarecrows this year thanks to Elmo's Halloween and he insisted that we HAD to have one. This was the first thing we did on Halloween!

Here are the kids painting little pumpkins. We rented Elmo's Halloween from the library and Elmo learns about a bunch of different Halloween activities...so, of course the kids wanted to try them ALL. We didn't manage the hayride and we didn't MAKE our own scarecrow, but we did paint the pumpkins, carve the pumpkins, get a scarecrow, and toast pumpkin seeds...mmm. Thank you Elmo, you are the standard by which we live!

Here is Dallin with the pumpkin that he painted. He actually did a pretty good job. He got lots of red on it and a few other colors too. He took it very seriously.

Here is Kate painting her nose. She tired of the pumpkin quickly but she painted that nose for at least 15 minutes and was upset when we finally took her brush away. She was blowing blue boogies for a week!

Here they are getting ready to carve the pumpkins. They were sooo excited to do another Elmo Halloween activity. However, poor Christopher did all the work while they watched.

Here is the kids helping with the pumpkin guts...err...playing in the pumpkin guts. It was even messier than it looks. Kate loved to squish it and throw it in the garbage can. Dallin did not want to have anything to do with reaching into the pumpkin because it made his hands "yucky" but he was happy to help Kate put it into the garbage.

Here are our finished jack-o-lanterns. We took them to Nana's house and put them out on the porch there. Dallin is WAY upset that we didn't bring them home and is STILL asking if we can go back and get them or get new pumpkins from Wal-Mart and carve them. He LOVED all the Halloween traditions this year.

Here are the kids trick or treating with daddy before we headed over to Nana's house. We started pretty early though (before 6 is TOO early) and many people weren't home or weren't ready. The kids got some weird "candy" - someone's leftover brownies and someone's old Valentines candy....hmmmm Next year we don't go out till at least 6.

Here we all are trick or treating together in Nana's neighborhood. It was so much fun to go together. The kids had a great time. Maddie even held her own bag. Sooo sweet. Dallin and Kate did VERY well at saying trick or treat and thank you and only taking one piece of candy! Yay me! I learned though that my kids' costumes were WAY too hot for Texas. We were all sweating the entire time and poor Dallin kept asking everyone for water instead of candy and laying down on the concrete. Yeah....we cut it a little short so he could strip down at the house and hand out candy instead.

Bathroom Stall - 1 Me - 0

I thought this was post worthy because it is a week old and still looks pretty awful (although it is looking better every day). It is about 2-3 inches across and an inch tall. It was black, but it is going purple/green now. It doesn't really hurt for looking so bad though.
Now the story:
On Sunday I had the kids by myself during sacrament and was trying to get them both into the handicapped stall so Dallin could use the bathroom. In the handicapped stall the purse hook is half way down the door so it is handicapped accessible. So....when I swung the door closed while trying to keep the children inside, I got pegged in the arm by the purse hook. It REALLY stung, but I forgot about it quickly with trying to keep up with the kiddos and all. I only remembered later when I noticed the MASSIVE nasty bruise on my upper arm.
I don't know whether it is funny or sad, but since I live in Texas and it is still warm here I am still wearing short sleeved shirts so....people can SEE it and I have had more than one person ask me (in that concerned kind of way) how I got it. They just don't seem convinced when I tell them I got it from the church bathroom stall. LOL
Until next time...my nemesis (the church bathroom stall). We shall meet again, and I will be ready!

Dallin's 3 year old Picture

Dallin's picture turned out great this year! Isn't he handsome!? Our little guy has really grown up. We had this done at JCPenny and I have the Smile By Wire code for anyone who wants to see the entire session (drop me an email for the code). Also let me know if you would like one of these pictures and what size.

Trunk or Treat

We went to our ward's trunk or treat last Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and the kids REALLY enjoyed it. Will, Tammy, and Maddie came with us and that made it really fun. They were dressed as an M&M family...too cute. They always make everything more fun. I am loving having them close by while it lasts. Plus they helped me not go crazy with my two mobile kiddos and the kids ADORE them.
It was WAY fun to debut our costumes and see everyone else's too. Dallin is still at the age where he thinks that character costumes ARE the REAL character. lol So he enjoyed seeing Buzz Lightyear and James the Engine, but especially MICKEY MOUSE! Oh yes, there was a sweet gal there dressed as Mickey Mouse and she was kind enough to play along and wave at my starstruck children as they followed her around the gym. She even gave Dallin a hug. Dallin made sure that Mickey got plenty of cheese on his/her chili too (because mice like cheese you know lol) It was very sweet.
They had a potluck chili dinner and little games for the kids. I was really surprised at how into the games my kids were (especially Dallin). I thought for sure he would be bored with it and want to "trick or treat", but he was totally excited to see all his friends and play the games. He caught on VERY quickly that you got candy when you played the game and REALLY thought that was great. They had a duck pond, beanbag tosses, stick the wart on the witch and a candy walk. They could have walked in circles for hours I think--just because they MIGHT get picked for candy. lol Dallin kept skipping. Kate thought it was a game of duck duck goose and kept walking along saying "duck duck duck duck" the whole time. It was so cute.
It was a good trial run for Halloween night too. I definitely WILL put glowbands on the kids even though we plan on trick or treating early. It is hard to see them in the dark. Also, we WILL trick or treat early to try to avoid the crowds. Dallin did pretty well at staying with me, but didn't quite get the concept of going from car to car in a row. He would run to whatever car looked interesting (and some were quite decked out with lights and decorations...even a live snake in one that Dallin got to "pet"/squeeze...poor snake). I was very proud of him for saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" at each car with little prompting. He had a hard time remembering to OPEN his bag though. LOL I will definitely bring a stroller for Kate on Halloween as well. She had enough walking after the second car and I had to carry her to the rest (there were at least 35). She would stare like a deer in the headlights and occasionally say "teat" (trick or treat) and "dah" (thanks) She was a lot more uncertain of the whole thing, but VERY pleased that people kept putting candy in her bag.
We had a great time, got lots of candy, and can't wait to do it again next year! VIVA TRUNK OR TREAT!

Halloween Costumes Debut!!

Just a quick post to show off this year's Halloween costumes! We made our grand debut this evening at the ward Trunk or Treat party, but I took a few pictures of the kids before we left--lookin all cute and unrumpled.
Dallin is a lion this year. Isn't his costume AMAZING!? We actually bought it off ebay 2 years ago and it fits him just perfect this year.


















Kate was the pick of the pumpkin patch this year in her little costume. What a cutie pie (pumpkin pie that is lol)! It was hard to get her to hold still for a picture though.





Here I am as WonderMom! I wore my apron (with timer, pen, first aid kit, sanitizer, and wipes) and Dallin's cape. I stuck on a nametag on the front and back that said "Hi! I'm WonderMom" and then I put a whole bunch of nametags with mom jobs on them all over the apron (teacher, doctor, mediator, chef, chauffer, nutritionist, hair stylist, personal shopper, etc.) It was a pretty fly costume even if I do say so myself. I have to add that I was super proud of their trick or treat bags that I made for them this year. Aren't they sweet? Dallin love scarecrows and pumpkins and Kate adores all things Elmo so it worked out great. I just used 2 yellow gift bags ($1 for 2 at the dollar store) and the Elmo Halloween coloring book and a few stick on jewels I had laying around and TA-DA!

Introducing "Kate's Hair" Blog

I am starting a new blog at www.kateshair.blogspot.com to put all my pictures of Kate's cutie patootie hair dos (and VERY general how tos on how I did them). I have to say that I am totally getting into styling her hair and I really enjoy being creative and making her look even cuter than she already is (if that is even possible). My hairdos are not original(and they are certainly not perfect)-I get my ideas from other hair blogs (some of which are listed on my site), but I like to try them on my KatieBug and see how they do in lil girl hair. Hope y'all enjoy my "art" work and seeing how my little girl is growing and blossoming.