Happy Halloween !!!!

It has been a fun, fun, fun Halloween week!!! We have been to two Ward parties, a friends party, trunk or treating, trick or treating and then we can't forget that today is Courtneys Birthday!!! Happy Birthday Courtney!!! Courtney turned two today but the funny thing is, we didn't tell her it was her Birthday. With Halloween & her Birthday it's just way too confusing. Today was strictly Halloween & tomorrow we will officially celebrate her Birthday!

Here is Jake dressed up as a Karate Ninja, Courtney is Bat Girl (Scott taught her the Bat Man song & she loves to sing it) and Logan is dressed as an Army Dude! We trick or treated up on the ledge above my parents home. The homes were gorgeous & decked out in Halloween decorations, hundreds of kids were trick or treating and the weather was warm, it was a perfect night.
I tried so hard to take a good picture of my two kids but after taking over twenty pictures, this is the best one. Sooo miss my sister Laura and her picture taking talent.
Courtney loved dressing up in her Bat Girl costume. She was especially proud of her yellow Bat Girl belt.

This is how the night started (check out courts face) Courtney was scared of everything! Anyone wearing a mask she would cry or whimper. At one time she was crying, had her arms wrapped around my neck, her head buried on my shoulder & her legs wrapped around my waist. Anyone else find it amusing that my Halloween Baby is scared of Halloween?

After about thirty minutes, Courtney caught on to the trick or treating and started having fun. After each house she would say "more, more". If she saw a house that had lights flashing or a lot of pumpkins she would shake her head and say "scary" and we would have to skip that house. She was cracking us all up!!

Thankfully we had Heather & my Mom to help carry Courtney around. With her little legs she was really slow even when she ran. She did her best to keep up with the boys but Jake & Logan were running from house to house. Have to say, Jake totally scored. He filled two pumpkin bags. He was definitely on a quest to get as much candy as he could and he succeeded. Not sure what we are going to do with all his candy???

Before we went trick or treating, our Ward had a trunk or treat. It was fun to see every ones costumes but again Courtney was terrified and we finally had to stick her in the van so she would stop crying & screaming every time she saw someone with a mask.

This is Scott and I dressed up for our friends Halloween Party. Scott is a Ninja, on Scott's back is his real Samurai sword. I am of course a Witch, a really scary Witch. I don't like this picture of me at all but Scott looks great so he made me post it. LOL!!!

This is Jake on his way out the door to the bus stop. He is dressed up for his School Halloween party, before he left he said "I feel cool in my costume". Too fun eh! Courtney is dressed warmed as she loves taking Jake to the bus stop. Every morning when Jake jumps out of the car we roll down the window and she yells as loud as she can "Bye Jake". It makes me laugh every time!!

This is Jake and his kindergarten class. Jake is on the back row, far right. He had so much fun that day. His class performed fun Halloween songs for the parents, the entire school had a parade and then the rest of the morning they played Halloween games and made a Halloween craft.

As you can tell we had a great Halloween week. I'll admit it's nice to have it over but now I have to find energy as tomorrow we start Birthday week!!!

Pumpkin Maze

Last night our Ward had a fun Halloween party. We ate chili at the church and then drove to a Pumpkin Maze. The pumpkin maze took us 5 minutes to go through, not sure how we managed this, either the maze was easy or we are awesome? I'm thinking we are awesome. Thankfully we had the two huge slides to entertain the kids, can't even count how many times Jake & Coco went down them. It was cold & it started to snow but we all had so much fun. What a great idea for a ward party!

The kids & I enjoying the first snow fall of the year.

Courtney & I at the Corn Maze. By the end of the night she looked & felt like a frozen popsicle but it was worth it cause she had a blast!!

Jake going down the slide for the one billionth time!!!

Here I am taking Court down the slide. Do you love her outfit?? Pink hat, black & brown jacket & orange pants. I think I need to go winter clothes shopping!!! (Scott was taking all the pictures which is why he is not in any of them).

Canadian Wedding

My Dad, sister Heather & myself went on a road trip to Canada to attend my Cousin Katherine's wedding. It was a quick trip but we had a blast. Way more fun driving 11 hours in the car without kids. LOL!!! We had a great time staying at my Aunt Gayla's house and visiting with family from both sides. Thank you to all of them for the fun visits & yummy food. Below are some highlights of the wedding. Enjoy the pictures.
My beautiful twin cousins. Katherine the bride and her sister Camellia who is getting married in 6 weeks. How fun is that????

My sister Heather holding my cousins Paul & Kamile's little girl Dawsen. First time I met her, sooo cute!

Of course we were not surprised that the Canadian weather was Canadian weather. Snowy & windy. This is Katherine and her husband Chris, his brother and Camellia outside the Cardston Alberta temple. I always thought I was going to be married in this temple, but of course this did not happen. It was so special to witness a marriage sealing in this beautiful temple.

Chris & Katherine with Katherine's brother Nathan.

Thankfully Heather was around the entire day to re-do Katherine's hair. With the wind & snow it was crazy. I was put in charge of make up and we all had so much fun as we were able to visit early in the morning and throughout the day.

My Cousin Kamille with her two little girls Elliet & Kyndel (hope I am spelling these right). Elliet just barely turned 3 but is the same size as my almost 2 year old Coco, she is soooo tiny.

Katherine was glowing the entire day, I have never seen her so happy. Chris is perfect for her and I am so happy for both of them. I love you Katherine!!!!

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I wish I had more pictures to share but I was in charge of taking pictures with Aunt Bev's camera so my camera was neglected for most of the day. It was a beautiful & special day and I am so thankful everything worked out and I was able to be there.

I have to mention this.. at the reception they served roast beef. Can you believe this, a full out roast beef dinner with salad, potatoes etc... I had totally forgotten that Canadian weddings serve dinners at the reception. WOW and soooo yummy!!! Yeah to Canada weddings!!!

This is Heather & I visiting my Grandma Woolf. She is living in a nursing home. She doesn't remember us butshe is still so fun to talk to. I have to brag about my Grandmas skin, she is 90 years old and hardly has any wrinkles. She has the most beautiful tight, non blemished skin I have ever seen, it is flawless! She is beautiful! I pray that some of her genes were passed down to me LOL!!! I love you Grandma!!

She's A Riot!!

The other day I bought a roll of pink wrapping paper which Courtney loved.She carried it around our house the entire evening. When it was bed time she insisted on sleeping with this roll of wrapping paper. (I wish I had taken a picture, was hilarious).

Last night she insisted on sleeping with her baby stroller??? Too funny!




This is Courtney at her Grandmas house. Not sure who was more proud, Daddy or Court. She definitely has her Dad's upper body strength.

Never a dull moment with our little girl!!!

'Scary Pumpkin'

This evening we went on our annual outing to the pumpkin patch. Picture this...our kids are having fun, I'm taking cute pictures then all of a sudden we hear Courtney scream and then see her run. She runs right by me, keeps running and then jumps onto a bale of hay. I turn around to see what made her so scared and standing behind me is a tall man with a carved pumpkin on his head. It made me jump so I understand why Court reacted the way she did.

I know this makes Scott & I the worst parents ever but we could not stop laughing. It's impossible to describe but watching Court run and jump onto the hay was so funny. The man quickly took off the pumpkin head and we tried to comfort her but she continued to whimper everytime she looked at the man. She wouldn't let me put her down and kept saying "scary". The man (Farmer of the pumpkin patch) thought it was funny as well and said that he has never seen a child run past the parents, they usually run to them. I figure that if there hadn't been the bale of hay to stop Courtney, she would still be running.

Unfortunately we now face the consequence of our daughter being scared of pumpkins. All the way home she pointed to the pumpkins we bought and said "scary". Fingers crossed no "scary pumpkin" nightmares tonight.

Before we left we had to torture her one more time to get a picture of her with the "scary pumpkin". Look at Court's face, poor little thing and yet so funny.

This is after the man took off the pumpkin head. Courts face stayed like this until we got her back into the van. Jake had a blast, he too jumped when he saw the "scary pumpkin" but then started laughing along with the rest of us.

This is Courtney before "scary pumpkin". My Mom bought her this outfit. It says #1 Halloween Princess. Perfect for our little Halloween baby.

My Cute Kids!!! (Before "scary pumpkin")

Crazy Courtney!!!!!!

Like most children when they are quiet you know that they are up to no good. Today was no exception. I found my sweet little girl on the floor of my bedroom putting my black eye liner on her face. Notice the picture below... no smile. She knew she was in BIG trouble!!!

I know you shouldn't compare your children but I have to say that it has been quite an adjustment going from Jake who would hardly get into things or make messes to Courtney whom if you leave the room for 30 seconds she has either emptied a drawer, dumped a bottle of lotion, found something she shouldn't have gotten into... the list of her mischief goes on and on and on. For example; last Sunday morning as I was doing her hair in her bathroom, I left her for maybe 45 seconds at the most. When I returned I found her with Jake's bottle of gel opened and dumped all over her hands and dress. She was then wiping the bathroom mirror with her sticky geld hands. What the heck????

This picture is after I found Courtney emptying every drawer in her bedroom. Yes, I said EVERY drawer. After completely trashing her room she picked out this outfit and insisted on wearing it. Of course I let her because I am such an Awesome Mom but I also knew it was a day we weren't going anywhere. Haha!

This is Coco playing in her little play house. I bought this play house at a garage sale this summer for $20 (they retail at stores for over $250) She absolutely loves it. No crazy story about this picture, I just thought it was a cute picture. LOL!

This is a picture of when I found Courtney eating marshmallows which she got out of the pantry all by herself. I have no idea how she did this as I keep the marshmallows on the 3rd shelf?? As you can see in this picture, she was very proud of herself. What a ham!

Deep thought from Sarah...

This past month I cut back my work hours, this was very huge for me & quite scary as I have always worked. I was worried about what I was going to do at home, how I was going to handle all the changes, especially the change of not seeing my family every day? I will be honest and say it hasn't been the easiest and I am still adjusting but the positives definitely out way the negatives. Definitely the biggest positive are my kids. Each morning Court and I hang out together when Jake is at school. We have our fun routine of cartoons, breakfast, bath, hair time, quiet time, play time, YouTube (she loves watching little kids sing I am a child of God) run errands and many other things. She especially loves the walk to the bus stop to pick up Jake. The afternoons I get to spend time with Jake. Court usually takes a 2 hour nap so in that two hour gap Jake and I have our one on one time where we, play cards, read books, make cookies etc.. I love this new time I have with my kids, time that I seem to never have had before. I have always been scared of change but these past weeks I have realized that change is not always bad sometimes it is a blessing!