Santa

We got to see Santa at our church Christmas party last Friday.






Santa also visited our neighborhood the next day. He came on a fire truck.




The fire truck stopped and he got out and talked to all the kids. Andrew was excited to talk to him because he had changed his mind on what he wanted and needed to put in a "new request."
Timothy was shy this time and wouldn't talk to him.
So he whispered in his Dad's ear and then he relayed the message for him.
The babies just tried to ignore him.
Kylie even hid her face.
Brian didn't think he needed to talk to him again since he had already done it. But I did talk him into standing by him so I could get a picture.

Holiday Trees

Before we get to Christmas I have to show off our Thanksgiving Tree. We make one every year. Just to remind you how it works we take turns saying something we are thankful for. We then write it on a leaf and add it to our tree. The catch is that something can only be said once so each leaf says something different.









And now on to the Christmas tree. We put it up on one day and then decorated it the next day. The kids had lots of fun. We let them do almost all the ornaments so our tree pretty much looks like it was decorated by a bunch of kids, but it's beautiful. :) Good thing I'm not a person who needs a perfect looking tree. The decorations on the bottom 2-3 feet only lasted about 24 hours and the babies had them all off. So now it's only even decorated on the top half. But it makes us smile every time we look at it.

Merry Christmas!!

Halloween

And now, the post you've all been waiting for: Halloween!

The Costumes:

This is the first time since I made our dinosaur costumes like 4 years ago that no one wore one of them. I guess after 4 years of use it was time for them to have a break. Anyway, the theme in our family this year was: "The Wizard of Oz." (Not the boys first choice of course but I talked them into it after watching the movie.) I wanted the kids to have cute costumes but I didn't want to put a lot of money into them or spend too much time on them. So I did what I could with stuff I had on hand and without any patterns. I think they turned out pretty good considering that. I made them all except for Kylie's.

"The Wizard of Oz."

Brian as "The Tin Man" or "The Tin-Can Man" as the boys call him.

His costume was made out of sweats and an oil funnel.

Andrew as "The Scarecrow."

His is made from scraps, pieces of the Indiana Jones costume, and shredded grocery bags.

Timothy as "The Cowardly Lion"-- He's roaring in the picture.

His costume is make out of a yellow towel and brown felt.

Philip as "Toto."

For his costume I just put ears on his hat and dressed him in dark clothes.

The Whole Family (Derek and I didn't dress up, we're just boring I guess).

When I was taking pictures of everyone, Kylie wouldn't stand still long enough to get a picture of just her. But as you can see in looking back at some of the photos, she was Dorothy. She even had ruby slippers, they were her favorite part-- she loves cute shoes. :)

Trunk-or-Treating:

Our ward had a Halloween party and as part of it we did Trunk-or-treating (cars line up in the parking lot and the kids go trick-or-treating to the trunks where people are waiting to give them candy). The kids had lots of fun. Here's a few photos from that:

Timothy helping Kylie get some candy

Getting candy from "The Yellow Brick Road"

Getting candy from "Glenda" (the good witch from The Wizard of Oz)

Brian giving out candy-- he loves that job

The whole family at our trunk

(too bad, Philip decided to take his hat off just in time for the picture)

Halloween at "The National Air and Space Museum":

The National Air and Space Museum had a Halloween celebration. We decided to go check it out. It was quite the adventure! We had to wait in line to even get in to the parking lot. Once we got in the parking lot we got one of the last parking spots. The parking lot holds 2000 cars and was full of all mini-vans and SUV's, so you can imagine how many people were there. It was the same day as our party at church so after all the waiting in line (we also had to wait in line to get in to the building) we didn't have much time to enjoy ourselves. But we did get to do the main thing we came for and that was to get our pictures taken with Star Wars characters. (The things one does just to meet Darth Vadar.)

We are wondering how many blogs this picture has ended up on. When the kids posed for it everyone standing around thought it was so cute that they were all taking pictures too. I could barely even get in to get a picture of my own kids. Derek who was standing just to the side looking out at everyone said it was quite funny to see all the cameras.

Since we were at The Air and Space Museum we thought we needed at least

one picture with airplanes.

Waiting in line

Waiting to go inside-- notice all the mini-vans and SUV's in the parking lot

Andrew checking out the large telescope

Brian checking out the large telescope

Timothy checking out the large telescope

School Party:

Our elementary school had a Halloween party, although it wasn't called that. To be politically correct they couldn't call it a Halloween party so it was a Fall party and costumes were encouraged. The kids had lots of fun playing all the games.

Digging for treasures

Football toss

Basketball throw

The Duck Pond

Golfing

Timothy needed a little help trying to figure out how to golf (sorry Scott and Rob, we just aren't golfers at our house). So Derek stepped in to show him what he needed to do. When Derek let go of the golf club Timothy swung at the ball so hard the club came up and hit Derek in the side. Those of us watching got quite a laugh. Derek stepped out of the way for the next swing and only narrowly missed getting hit again. Who knew golf could be so dangerous. :)

Making spin art

Kylie and Philip got to use the last few tickets.

Here is Kylie waiting with her tickets.

Catching Ducks-- she loved catching them so she just kept picking them up with no regard to the only one rule.

Philip waiting with his tickets

Catching ducks

Carving Pumpkins:

Of course we carved pumpkins-- it's the longest standing family tradition we have since Derek and I did it while we were dating (it was actually our first date).

The cutting begins

Removing the tops

Cleaning out the insides

Kylie was really into the cleaning part. She was our best cleaner until she started putting the "pumpkin guts" back in so she could dig them out again.

Carving.

We have these child safe knives, so all the children got to do some cutting. They loved it.

Brian and Andrew cut their pumpkins out all by themselves.

Even the babies got to do some cutting

When they weren't helping with the cutting the babies entertained themselves by

sharpening all the pencils.

The finished products

Brian and his pumpkin

Andrew and his two-faced pumpkin

Timothy and his pumpkin

Showing them off in front of the house

Our Halloween Celebration:
Since Halloween was on Sunday this year we didn't participate in trick-or-treating. Instead we took Derek's sister who was visiting us to see the Washington D.C. temple. We decided it would be great to get away from the house for the evening and what better way to remember the dead. :)

The boys following President Thomas S. Monson's counsel that,

"As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us."

"The Loveland Girls"

Trying out the "Love Bench"

It was a "Love Bench," we just couldn't resist.

Besides I thought it made for a happy ending to the post since now I can say,

"They lived happily ever after!"

(My Halloween post is late but at least I managed to get it posted before Thanksgiving!)