Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween! The kids loved Trick-or-Treating and thankfully the rain came and ended the candy collecting earlier than last year. Seriously, last year, Nate took the kids out for at least 3 hours! WHAT?!! I started to wonder if something tragic had happened!

This year, we decided to offer to buy the kids candy. I thought it would never work, but it was the best idea. They came home and we let them eat what they wanted, and then made the offer. They agreed to choose 5 more pieces and then say good bye to the rest! We went the next day to let them pick out the new toy of their choice to buy with their money. It worked out great and now I have loads of candy to secretly eat all to myself! Oh great- maybe not such a great idea!!
Nick decided to be Iron Man this year along with hundreds of others.
Mckay was our cute little Batman who didn't want to wear his mask or cape!
And Natalie wanted to be something different every time we dressed up. Once a lady bug, then a Supergirl (from last year), and then a pirate at the next party!

We met at my parents before the trick-or-treating for dinner with all the grand kids. My parent's neighbors had amazing decorations this year. They had about 20 full size freaky monsters set up around their house. Luckily we went when it wasn't too dark and not too scary for the kids.

You Know, We're just a couple of Mavericks!

Can you Read it?

Nick just brought me this note, and then covered his face. I love that he is learning to write me love notes, and grateful he still thinks I am the "gratis"!

AHHHHH!!

Just had to take a few pics of the beautiful winter wonderland we live in! AHHHHH!! Seriously, can I move to Hawaii for a few months? The kids were very excited to wake us up this morning and show us what happened over night. I really need to get my mind in the mode for winter. I know that most of us struggle with this change each year and somehow we all make it through and gladly rejoice when springtime comes again. We spent Saturday getting our yard ready for winter- while it was snowing. Guess we were a little late on this one. It will probably be back to 80 degrees next week, I will turn the heater off again, open all the windows because I can't stand turning the air on one day and the heater the next. I am grateful we have seasons as frequently as we do though. On Neptune, their seasons last 40 earth years. Can you imagine have winter for 40 years? Okay, we really are blessed to live where we live! I am grateful and will enjoy this winter season since it will only last a relatively short time.

LET ME OUT!!

Buying a new dishwasher is kind of an annoying thing. Not exactly what I wanted to spend $600 dollars on right now, but having a dishwasher that works great is a good thing. The boys were more excited to play with the box of course, and Natalie thought it looked like fun at first too. When she thought she was stuck in it, and had to wait for me to snap a picture, she freaked out- slightly!!

Nick's VIP Week

Nick had his VIP week in his class this week. We got to go in on Friday and tell his class all about him. The kids in his class were so well behaved. They used a lot of sign language- which helped them stay very quiet- to communicate with us. Nick got to bring a book to give to his class library. He pick a book about Black Widows- it was a little freaky. As I was reading it to the class, I felt a little guilty and hope I didn't scare any of the kids!