Halloween!

For FHE on Monday we decided to carve a pumpkin.  We let the kids draw whatever face they wanted, and not try to make it "better" for them.  We just carved them how they drew them.  We used one pumpkin to save on clean-up, and carved 3 sides of it...worked out pretty well.

This was Logan's side of the pumpkin.

This was Landon's side.

Marlee's side was just a bunch of scribbles, a little too hard to carve, so I thought she'd like a simple star. :)

They were all very proud of their pumpkin!

And here are pics of the kids right before we left for Trunk-or-Treat tonight.  I made the kids' robes and scarves when we were in Prescott for fall break.  It's always nice to have Mom McB close by for tips on sewing!  Overall, I think they turned out well, and people were able to figure out who they were at the ward party, so that's always a good thing. :)

Marlee as Hermione Granger

Landon as Ron Weasley

Logan as Harry Potter

The three best friends ready to cast their spells!  Landon had fun telling people at Trunk or Treat to "give me your candy or I'll cast a spell on you!"  He thought he was hilarious. :)

Someone asked if I had a hard time getting them all to want to be Harry Potter characters.  Logan and Landon were happy about it, but Marlee wanted to be Snow White.  Unfortunately, her Snow White costume is 2 sizes too small, and is undone at some seams, so we told her she had to be Hermione this year.  She didn't throw a fit or cry or anything...and once she saw the boys in their costumes, she was excited to get into hers.  So they all had a good time.  I almost forgot about Masen!  We put him in some Phoenix Suns warm up pants and jacket and drew a goatee/mustache on his face....he was a Suns player.  But darn it, we didn't take a picture!  Duh, I can't believe we forgot.  Oh well.  Happy Halloween!!

Kid pics

So these were done way back in August....I know, I'm a procrastinator. I decided to use these as their annual pictures instead of the pictures they take at school. I like the scenery better I think. Jen took these for me with her fabulous camera. Thanks Jen!

As you can see, Masen was having a GREAT time!

Here is Logan, 7 years old.

Landon, 5 years old.

Marlee, 3 years old.

Masen, 6 months old (well, he's 8 mo old now, but only 6 here)

I LOVE my babies!!

Sleeping and growing

I just love it when I go in to wake Masen up from his nap to feed him and he doesn't hear me come in. And sweet little Marlee got so tuckered out she fell asleep on the couch. Love catching them sleep!

Poor little baby has been so fussy lately because his other bottom tooth is trying to break through. Sometimes the only thing that will make him happy is putting him in the baby swing outside. In the past few weeks he's gotten his first tooth and learned to crawl. He's growing up too fast! I'm seriously trying to cherish his infancy while I have it. I'll be so sad when I don't have a baby anymore. Can we just pause life for a while??

First day of Legacy Traditional

So the boys finally started school yesterday. Is it totally nerdy that I have them wearing matching outfits? Lanny liked his first day of school, and was excited to tell us that they wrote numbers in shaving cream on their desks. How FUN! Logan liked his class too, and liked learning how to write letters using the clock face instead of the old way. We're excited to see the many different things they'll learn. It will be a great school!

Now we just have to figure out how to get Marlee to quit whining "I want to go to school" and "I want to grow bigger now." :) I do have to say I've enjoyed having one-on-one time with Marlee. We've been practicing counting, colors, and shapes. We'll work on letter recognition soon. I finally have time to do that with her! Hooray!

Answered prayer

So this is pretty cool. Our washer kicked the bucket and we found some on craigslist but none of them worked out, for various reasons. So I went on Home Depot's website last night to order a new washer. It was going to be pretty darn expensive....so while I ordered I prayed saying, Ok Heavenly Father, if we aren't supposed to get this washer (which wouldn't be delivered for another week), please let something better come along that's a better deal before the new washer gets here. Lo and behold, our home teacher's wife (who is also my friend) wrote me a note on facebook today saying they got a different washer and are selling their old one (that's only a little more than a year old), and selling it for very cheap. It has what I'm wanting in a washer too...lots of room, and is a good brand. I didn't tell Lonni this yet, but this is totally an answer to a specific prayer! I just feel so blessed and so grateful that Heavenly Father is aware of our needs, even in the little things in life, and am grateful for His tender mercies in caring for us and answering our prayers. Cool huh?

Around the house

We thought this was a pretty good bitter-beer face (does anyone remember those commercials?). Masen just woke up from a drive around town. :)

This is my sweet little Tub-tub. All of our kids have been given silly nicknames that just evolve over time. Tub-tub has stuck for Masen. He's so chubby, I love his giant belly.

This is my sweet little princess. Yes, sweet little princess. If I keep telling myself that, maybe it'll come true! No really, she is sweet...I just don't feel that way in moments like this. She got ahold of our (thankfully non-toxic) washable markers and decided she was going to wear lipstick like mommy. She turned out more like the evil version of Ronald McDonald. :)

Logan was getting in touch with his creative side. Kept him busy for a while...always a good thing for my boys.

I was just about to give Masen a bath when I walked in on this! Talk about major weebs! It actually looked bigger in person.

So these are just the pics we have taken lately. Usually what I blog about is what we take pictures of...I know, kinda boring. We're heading to UT this week so I'll be sure to blog about our trip when we get back. It'll be fun to see everyone!

Masen's 3 month pictures

This is Masen, three months old. Seriously? Where did the time go? He's not a newborn anymore! We are just loving him to death. Thanks Jen, for taking the pics, I love them! These are some of my favorites.

Missing teeth, smiles, feet, father/sons

Logan is now missing all four front middle teeth at the same time. This picture was taken before the last one came out this past week. So he's got a big hole in the front and talkth like thith. He thought he was hilarious sticking his dimes/nickels in his nose and ears. (Sorry cashier lady at Walmart.) :)

As if his cheeks couldn't look any chubbier, Landon gives us a big cheesy smile and his cheeks double in size! We like to call Landon Caillou, and then he says "I don't have a circle head, I have a square head!" I think it's round. :)

Princess Marlee (or as Marlee would say "not princess Marlee, I princess Ariel!")

He's already got that boyish look of mischief.

Masen is always quick to give us smiles. He likes to look in the mirror and smile & coo at himself too. It's really cute. Masen really likes when we play patty-cake with him. That's when we get him to smile the most, and it almost makes him laugh.

Mr. Monkey Toes.

I took these pictures when Masen was just a few weeks old. I really like this one, just such a good remembrance picture of how little they really are at birth. He has really long toes and an amazing ability to spread his toes apart that puts me and Logan to shame (we can both spread our toes apart pretty far). :)

Bryce took the boys to the Father/Sons outing last weekend. Aside from the hoards of mosquitos (and sleeping in a tent), they all had a pretty good time. Bryce isn't a camping fan, so this was a big sacrifice on his part to create some memories for Logan and Landon. Thanks babe! Landon came home with loads of beer bottle caps and thought he had a treasure. :/ I don't think we'll be hanging on to them for very long. Good times.

Baby blessing weekend

Last weekend was really nice. My mom flew down from Oregon and stayed with us for 5 days so she could be here for Masen's blessing. It was nice having her here...it was the first time she's been to our house in Casa Grande, so we enjoyed showing her the desert scenery and giving her a feel for what life is like in AZ. We think she had a good time. :) Tawna (Bryce's sister) and her family came too, along with Mom and Dad McBride (of course). Thanks for making the long drive Tawna...especially being 7 weeks from having your own baby! The blessing itself was really nice....I'm grateful for Bryce and that he honors his priesthood. It was nice to share the weekend with our family and friends.

This is our first family picture. We'll have to have Jen do a real one for us soon (or maybe in a few months after I shed these unsightly pregnancy lbs!).

The cousins playing in the backyard. Thank HEAVEN for backyards!!!

Mom McBride made Masen's baby blessing outfit (as she did for all the other kids too). It turned out SO cute! Thanks Mom and Dad, for all your help while you were here!

I really like this picture of Mom Bates with Masen. Sometimes it makes me sad that she doesn't get to see our kids more often. It can be hard living so far from home. If I didn't love this AZ sunshine so much....

We of course had to show grandma the Casa Grande Ruins. It was a fun outing.

And here's the star of the weekend. :) Masen has just been a joy in our family. He's is such a content, happy baby. He sleeps so well, and eats well too. He's already 13 lbs! He's such a sweet little boy, full of smiles and gives us a coo once in a while too. We love him SO much and are so grateful he was sent to our family.