BUNCO

A few months ago, some of the women in the ward/neighborhood organized a Bunco group, and I was invited to be a part of it. So this month it was my turn to host it at my house. I have been having nightmares for the last month where it would be time for Bunco, and I was missing various things. So this week I have been making sure I have all my "I's dotted and T's crossed" so my nightmare's didn't come true. I think everything turned out pretty good. I had one of the worst games of my life, but it still a lot of fun to have a girls night.

The score card-I don't know of you can see, but there are spider webs in the 4 corners, a spider, and scary writing. The place settings-Each person got a set of funky teeth and a pumpkin or pirate skull sucker, as well as skull coasters for our drinks.
The dessert-it was a spice cake with cream cheese frosting. The frosting was SO soft, so I had slight issues with it staying where I wanted it to. I ended up doing the final touches with it in my fridge to try to keep the frosting colder. It wasn't exactly what I had envisioned, but it tasted yummy, and I guess that was the most important thing.

Our group of ladies.

We were missing the 2 Kat's, but Tina and SuZet subbed for them.

I forgot to get a picture of the prizes, but it was all things chocolate. 1st place was a fondue set, 2nd place was a gift certificate to The Sweet Tooth Fairy, Most Buncos was a Hershey's all chocolate cookbook, Travel was a small fondue pot, and we had 2 door prizes of hot chocolate and mugs. I also decided to do a booby prize for the person that scored the lowest amount of points. While I had a horrible game, I ended up with 2nd to last, instead of dead last. Charlotte ended up with the lowest score, but she scored this awesome Halloween sweater vest from my mom's closet. j/k...it was from DI. But I swear that my mom used to have one or five just like it. Charlotte was a good sport and modeled it for us.

Thanks girls...it was a fun, much needed girls night!

Carving Pumpkins

One of my most favorite things about Halloween is carving pumpkins. I don't know why, but I absolutely love getting my hands dirty and getting creative all at the same time. This year proved to be another fun, VERY messy experience.

MIKKELE

She is always such a girly girl drama queen when it comes to getting messy. She was a little less whiny about it this year, and dove in and got messy. Still had to have some grossed out facial expressions though. She decided she wanted to make a witch out of her pumpkin because she thought the stem looked like a long witch's nose. She even glued crazy hair on the pumpkin. Still need a witch's hat to go on it though. I always have to crack up at her and her tongue. It's always sticking out when she concentrates. One of these days she's gonna end up biting it off.

GRANT

I have never really been all that adventurous with Grant while carving pumpkins. This year, I decided I just needed to let go and let him have fun with the goop, even though I knew it was going to be a HUGE mess. He definitely proved me right. He had a great time though. He was super funny and kept trying to eat and lick the pumpkin.

At one point all the pumpkin goop fell off his tray onto the floor. He thought it was pretty funny. No matter what limitations he has, he still finds little ways to be a typical 4 1/2 year old boy.

Grant's favorite super hero is Spiderman, so I asked him if he wanted a spider carved on his pumpkin and he said "ya". Here he is with the finished product.
HALLIE
Hallie is always wanting to feel new textures, so I knew that carving pumpkins would be right up her ally. I stripped her down and stuck her in her Bumbo chair. We started by showing her her pumpkin. She basically just looked at it cross-eyed for a bit. She touched it a little bit, but mostly just sat and inspected it.
And then she found the bowl with the pumpkin goop next to her and decided she liked that better than the pumpkin itself.
So we glopped some on her tray. She had such a good time with it. First inspecting it...

And then digging in and making a big ole mess. Good thing kids and bumbo's are completely washable. Both Hallie, Grant and the bumbo and tray had to have bath's after we were done to clean the goop off of them.

Mikkele showing off the finished products. Jeremy did a Pac Man going after a Pac Man ghost and I did a barfing pumpkin. Mikkele's witch pumpkin still needs a hat, but it has the hair glued on. It looks more like a old man right now instead. We didn't carve Hallie's pumpkin since it was too little. Plus it already has character to it since it has curves like she does. :)
All light up

A Hayride and a Pumpkin Patch

Last Monday, my sister in law, Holly, and I took our kids to the Big Red Barn in Santaquin. You go on a hayride to their pumpkin patch, pick out the pumpkins you want, and take a hayride back to your car. It was such a fun way to pick pumpkins, and we'll be turning this into a new pumpkin picking tradition. Warning: Picture overload...

Waiting to get on the hayride.

On the hayride

Picking out our pumpkins.

Mikkele wanted to get a pumpkin with a really long stem. I think she succeeded.

My beautiful girl
My handsome boy
Look! Is that the "Great Pumpkin" from Charlie Brown? No that's just me. Why in the heck did I choose to wear an orange shirt to go pick pumpkins? Obviously didn't think that one through that morning when I got dressed.

Scary Ghosts Dillon and Mikkele

Cute pumpkin kids

Hallie, Dillon, Mikkele and Grant

Our pumpkins: from left to right, top to bottom

Mikkele, Jeremy, Grant, Hallie, and mine

We picked a curvy one for Hallie, since she has lots of rollie pollie curves.

Fall Pictures

While I'm not loving the cold fall weather, I do enjoy seeing the leaves change colors. They have been really vibrant this year. We always like to go up in the mountains and take some fall pictures. We have gone up a couple of times now and taken some pictures of my kids, cousins, and friends. Here are some of my favorites.

This little guy and his brother were playing in the parking lot when we pulled in at Jolley's Ranch. They ran off as quick as they could when we pulled up. This one ran up a tree and was hugging it for dear life. The kids thought it was pretty cool to see racoons up close . They were such cute little baby racoons.

My Cute Kiddos

Cousins

Mikkele, Grant, Hallie, Connor, and Dillon The colors were much more vibrant 3 days before this when I took some pictures of Tina's kids (picture below). We have had a bunch of snow and frost at night since that day. So some of the colors have dulled out a bit, and the leaves are starting to fall. But they still look pretty good.

Tina's Kids
Owen, Carter, Luke, and Lucie
The colors here are much more vibrant, and it's the same mountainside. Amazing what a difference 3 days makes.