::vote::

Bubb, Mae-Mae, and I voted today.  Hopefully it'll do some good.

:]

Now, the Mr. and I are glued to the TV watching to see who wins. 

 He's nervous. 

 I'm not.  

We'll see how it all turns out.

::halloweeny::

We had a lot of halloween this year!!

Here they all are...

The boys' costumes should be no surprise.  They just used the same ones from last year (since they wanted to still be Mario and Luigi). We decided right after Halloween last year that Ava would be a little ghost. We even pinned her costume on Pinterest a year ago!  I was so excited to make it for her-I had to wait a whole year!!  Chloe wanted to be a witch-she picked that not long after we picked Ave's costume.  We pinned some witchy eye make-up, and just went from there.  I made her a little witchy tutu.  She looked pretty cute.  It was the first year since she was a baby that she hasn't been some kind of princess/Barbie/fairy.  

So our lots of Halloween started off with a party/carnival at Bubb's preschool.  

Here's his class all dressed up.  His teacher, Miss Katey, dressed up like a clown.  There were 2 Luigis!!

She made a witch's brew...

And they played lots of fun carnival games...

It was the cutest little party.  She did a great job.  She does it all by herself.  She asked a few of us moms to help her out with the games, but she did all the preparation and stuff herself!  She's kind of awesome.  She's such a doll too!  I told Coop he's so lucky to have Miss Katey for his teacher.

That same night (the 30th) we had trunk-or-treat with our ward.  We had a pretty good turn out!

I wanted to decorate our trunk with spiderwebs and Bubb's spider he made at his preschool party (isn't is awesome??) but the store was all out of spiderwebs, so I just hung the spider up without a web.  One kid screamed when she saw it (really?).  

Then (whoops this is out of order)...On the 26th, we went to the school carnival.  It was at Chloe's school.  We go every year.  The kids love it.  I didn't take many pictures this year!

I did take one of them getting ready to go for it in the silly string room!  This was a new thing this year. Chloe and Port LOVED it!  Bubb...not so much.  Matt had to help him push down the nozzle.  Plus the smell in there was SUPER strong!

Ok, back on track.  On Halloween day, I (and Bubb and Ave) went down to Port's school to watch his Halloween parade.  The kids just walk around to Halloween music in their costumes.  Is it worth waiting 30 minutes with 2 rowdy, tired little kids to see your 6 year old walk past you for 3 seconds?  I don't know, but Port was happy I came :]

Which brings us to Halloween night...

Here's our ghost...

She was so cute!  She even would say "boo."  She didn't love her costume when she first tried it on, but she got used to it.  Her boots, she loved!  She still does.  She goes and gets them out of her room and brings them to me to put on her.  She LOVES shoes!

Mario!

He wouldn't let me draw a mustache on him.  Not sure why.  He thought people would think he was weird.

A Witch!!

A cute witch.  She was so excited to wear her costume.  She got to wear it to school, trunk-or-treat, and on Halloween night.  She even had some sparkly tulle on it!

Luigi...

Poor Luigi.  He's not happy in this picture.  He wanted some candy.  He just wanted to go get some candy.  He didn't understand why we had to take pictures when all that candy was out there just waiting for him.  He was a cute Luigi anyway.

::I'm still in my 20s::

Today, I'm in my 20s.  I just thought I'd get that down while I still can.

I'm not gonna lie.  I'm not too happy about it.  I'm kinda sad about turning 30.  I don't feel like I should be 30 yet.  

30...

THIRTY!! 

30.

Thirrrrrrty.

Sounds weird.

I don't like it.  Maybe one day I'll be ok with being in my 30s, but I'm sure it won't be tomorrow.

Also, it snowed in our little mountains today.  

See...

This has nothing to do with me still being in my 20s, I just thought I'd mention it.  Bubba saw it this morning when we were waiting for Port's bus.  He said we could "just drive the Denali up there and just go sledding."

::football::

 Yesterday was Porter's last flag football game.  He's been playing every Thursday (except for one-during Peach Days) since the end of August.  It's been pretty fun to go watch him- a little frustrating if you're Matt, but fun for the most part :]

In this (horrible) picture, he's the one in the black pants and white jersey and blue flags with the ball (if you can even make out the ball) running towards the right of the frame.  He was running it in for a TD.  He didn't make it.  He would've gotten a first down, but he saw a sea of blue jerseys and got scared that they were going to pull his flag so he turned around and ran the other direction.  Oh, Porter! 

So just little stuff like that all season.  Overall, he did pretty well.  He learned a few things, and he had lots of fun, which is most important!  He loved running around with his buddies and tackling each other.

Here he is with his medal after the game...

The whole team...

:cornbellys::

Ok, so this might be a photo overload, but it's one of my favorite Fall traditions.  We've gone every year for the last, what 6 years (give or take a year)?  They add new stuff every year, and this year was no different.  It is HUGE!!  We were remembering back to our first year when it was just on large field, and they only had a few activities, and a corn maze.  We thought it was fun then, but now, there is so much to do, we didn't even do the corn maze!

We met my parents down there too.  My brother and his family were invited, but they had something else going on, so it was just us and Grandma and Papa Kitty, which was way fun. 

So here's our family...

There are TONS of wooden structures to play on.  They're all shaped like fun things like trucks, castles, houses, pirate ships, things like that, AND they'e for sale.  They don't come cheap, but it's nice to know you could have one if you really wanted one :]

There were lots of hay stacks with those irrigation tubes for the kids to slide down.  They were a big hit.  Ave didn't love the tube slides.  She preferred the little slides and the little hay stacks (unless I climbed up the big hay stack with her).

A friendly game of tetherball...

They even had a REAL LIVE tractor there!  A REAL one!  Bubb was all over that.  He sat in it and loved it.  He took it pretty seriously...

The slide races, a family favorite...

A game of tic-tac-toe.  

Squashes vs Pumpkins.

The zip line!!  This (among other things) was new this year.  We decided to do it.  Chloe wanted to do it as soon as she saw it when we pulled into the parking lot.  Port wanted to too, but was a little unsure. I did just because it was pretty much the same price as if 2 people went (I think like $1 difference), plus it looked way fun.

So there were only 2 lines which meant only 2 on the platform at a time.  Port and Chloe wanted to go together.  Chloe said she would count down and they would jump together.  3-2-1...

Chloe jumped and poor Portie was still on the platform.  I watched Chloe and listened to her squeal with joy, and I climbed up the steps to my frozen little Tatey.  

Chloe LOVED it!!  She wanted to do it again!!

Port was a little scared.  I asked him if he was ok.  He said "I don't know how to do it, Mom."  I held his little fingers and told him to just step off the platform.  I counted 1-2-3, and sort of pulled him gently off the platform, away he went.

Then I went.  It is a bit weird to just step off a platform that high in the air, and with a bunch of people watching you.  It was fun, until I realized I might hit the wall (an air-filled wall) in front of me at the end of the line.  That's how come the face...

I came to an abrupt stop pretty quickly after I made the face.  This sweet girl helped me down.  

The zip lining was way fun!  Chloe and Port wanted to do it again.  Chloe-no surprise there.  She'll be my child who will want to go sky diving when she grows up.  Port-what??  He's not the dare devil of the fam.  But he loved it!  I'm proud of him for doing it and not being too scared to try it!  Great job, Port!!

We love Cornbellys!!  We'll keep going back every year as long as they keep lettin' us.  They added the zip line, state fair food, paint ball, some new games, and probably more stuff that we didn't even get to. 

Thanks, Grandma & Papa, for such a fun day :]

::pumpkins::

While the big kids were at school, we grabbed some of these at the local fruit stand.

Bubb liked the wagon.  He liked trying the find the biggest pumpkins he could, and also finding "worty" ones.  

We got a little carried away with big ones.  One kept rolling off the wagon because there wasn't room.

But we made it.  $15 and 9 pumpkins later, we made it, and our porch looks Fallish.

:]

::she's 9::

Chloe turned 9 on the third, (...cue the cliche'...) and I can't believe even believe it!!!

She's 9.  NINE!!!  It's crazy.  The thing that makes it really crazy is that we have her mini-me living with us (Ava), so we're constantly reminded of what Chloe used to look like/do/say all the time!  I woke her up for school the other day, and this long legged girl was laying there sleeping with princess jammies that were too short for her, and bright colored heart undies.  As I was patting her back and pinching her cheeks to wake her up, I told her how she used to be Ava's size and wear diapers and how she couldn't even talk, and now look how big she had gotten.  It's precious and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Anyway...she's 9, and we celebrated with a little family party with the 6 of us.  We took her to Wingers (her pick), and had some cake and presents at home afterward.

The cake was gooood.

Oh man!  We struggled with what to get her this year!  She has a fun bike, a scooter, an iPod, a TV, lots of movies, etc, she's NOT getting a phone (no matter how much she begs), what else is there that's fun??  She's kind of at a tough age.  A little in between toys and big kid stuff.  I guess that's why they call them "tweens."

We decided on uDraw for the Wii.  It's a tablet that the Wii remote plugs into, and you draw on it, and it shows up on the TV screen.  We got the artist studio game and Pictionary.  She LOVES to draw, so this seemed like it might be fun for her.  So far, she loves it :]

We all played Pictionary for a bit, drew with the artist studio for a bit, and went to bed later than we should have.  

On Friday, we took Porter, Chloe, and a couple of her friends to see Hotel Transylvania.  We didn't plan on a friends party this year...don't know why...just didn't.  So we thought a movie with a couple of buddies would be fun.  It was a pretty cute movie.  Our favorite was how Count Dracula walked :]

Happy birthday to my sweet Chloe!  I love her so much!  I'm so proud of her and who she is turning in to.  She's smart, helpful, sweet, friendly, happy, funny (sometimes not on purpose), gentle, silly, and many other amazing things.  She's is one of my greatest blessings, and I adore her.  I'm so very grateful to be her mom :]

::fire station field trip::

On Sept. 27th Coop's preschool class had a field trip to the Brigham City fire station. 

His whole class 

(minus Bella-she was scared to get on the big truck)

Bubb LOVED it!  He loved the tires, the hoses, the lights, the ladders, the doors, pretty much everything on the trucks.  He wouldn't try on the hat.  Not sure why.  He even got to go inside one of the trucks.  The fire chief asked the kids if they had any questions and Bubb asked him how much the truck weighed.  The answer was 95,000 lbs.  Good question Bubb!

At the end he got some Tootsie Rolls from Miss Katey (his teacher) so the kids can remember to stop, drop, and roll, and he got a hat from the fire chief.  It was such a fun little trip.  Right up his alley.  I'm glad we got to go :]