Ward Halloween Party

The kids got all dressed up for their first Halloween event – the ward Trunk or Treat! 

They really did a fantastic job with it this year.  Layton and Mandy loved getting their faces painted,

and playing games.

Dallin was DETERMINED to get him a fish.  He played that game OVER and OVER until he finally got him one.

Mandy and Layton got one too.  I had to run out late that night and get a fish bowl and food.  Only to have them all die about a week later.  Oh well. 

One of the cutest parts of the evening was the haunted trail through the woods.

It was super spooky and lots of fun.  With crazy butchers,

a mad scientist,

a possessed grandma,

a pirate all set to shanghai someone,

and of course the evil witch with her poisoned apples.  

It was a seriously good time!

Don’t you just love Florida?

I love living in Florida.  I honestly do.  Even the summer time.  I don’t even mind sweating.  And the winter is heaven.

But occasionally there is a little annoyance.  Like mosquitos still swarming at the end of October.  I mean come on! 

I go outside to take some cute pictures of my kids in their Halloween costumes, only to have to run back inside minutes later to grab some bug spray.

Then I take a close up look at this adorable pictures of Layton,

only to see a mosquito on his temple. 

Grrrr…  Thank goodness for photoshop.

Happy Halloween!

The Pumpkin Patch

As per our annual tradition, we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins.

So many to choose from!

But finally they were able to find ones that they wanted.

I think this scarecrow helped them choose.

After picking, they decorated their own little pumpkins.

They did a great job!

Then they helped me decorate a pumpkin to go on the table.

I love the touch of autumn it brings to the house!

Getting a new smile

My kids have really small mouths.  Really narrow mouths.  So small and narrow that there just isn’t enough room for their teeth to come in properly.

Because of that, they are midway through the process of getting all wired up.

These wires create a constant but gentle pressure on the inside of their palate to make their mouths less narrow and create more room for their teeth.  They will be getting the bottoms ones put in at the end of November.  In addition, Dallin will be getting some limited braces to help guide his permanent teeth into place.  Mandy will also need braces, but they will wait for more of her permanent teeth to come in before they move to that step.

In addition, several times throughout the day they have to wear their “trainers”.  They are called that because they train their tongues to sit in their mouths at the right height and they train their facial muscles as well.  They are supposed to have their mouths closed tight around it to exercise the muscles,

but it way more fun to see them smile with them on!

From One to One Hundred

Layton thinks that he is really cool because he can count to 100.

I happen to think that he is pretty cool too.

Mandy - The Memory Master!

If you haven’t already seen this on Facebook, Mandy is doing amazing with learning the Articles of Faith.  She now knows the first eight essentially word perfect (there are one or two words she messes up on) and is working on number 9.  I think that’s pretty good for a 6 almost 7 year old!

I think having really great primary teachers has really helped.  Especially since they promise her candy for learning them :)

A Morning of Laughter

Dallin and Mandy are off from school today.  On my computer they discovered where I had saved lots of old videos of them when they were little.  They spent the entire morning looking at and laughing at themselves when they were small.  But this particular video they have played more than 20 times and have laughed hysterically every time.

This is Dallin after I asked him to sing twinkle twinkle little star.  This is so like what Layton is like right now that it is crazy!

Randomness

I have a smaller camera that I have for sticking in my purse when it would be awkward to carry around a big camera.  The other day I downloaded the pictures from it and came across a few that I knew that I had not taken.  Apparently the kids took it out and took a few photos.  It was interesting to see what they thought was photo worthy :)