Happy Halloween

SAT:  This year halloween is on a sunday but everyone is trick or treating on saturday.  Here is what we did that day.
To start off our halloween we got up and fixed ourselves some pumpkin pancakes....so yummy!  It will be a tradition every year-the kids just eat em right up.  I then had to break the news to them that we had to go to their primary program practice-really? on halloween.  Let's just say we survived it!  Finally it was time to get our costumes on and head to Salt Lake City this year.  Aaron's oldest brother Casey & his family moved here a few years ago and we have never spent a Halloween with them so Aunt Krisa had a great idea to invite us down for some good food, games, and trick or treating.  I'm glad that we were able to go spend the time with them and let the kids hang out with their cousins that they don't see to often.  After dinner the kids enjoyed a few games that their older cousin Caden put together for them.  They started off with a treasure hunt, they did a game like pin the tail on the donkey but instead it was a spider on a cob web.  It was really cute!  They then finished with a game of bingo using count dracula cereal to mark off their spaces.   Then it was time for some trick or treating:)   

 For dinner we had "hallowieners" (tradition) Rhodes rolls wrapped around hot dogs that look like snakes.  We had homemade root beer, finger foods, and some yummy soups and breadsticks.

                Casey, Krisa, Eliza, Kennady & Grandma Stewart (aka Grandma Ed)

                      Grandpa Stewart (aka airplane grandpa) Reed and Logan

Trick or Treat! This is right before we headed out to get lots & lots of candy.  Logan's costume was supposed to be a master chief (halo guy) but he decided to borrow one of Reed's swords and be a ninja with him.  They had a great time with one another.  Kennady finally wore her doggie costume which we had to tuck the tail in because she was embarrased.  I on the other hand look huge and will need to find a new witches costume.  The kids had so much fun running door to door seeing how much candy they could get.  There were quite a few houses that gave out big candy bars which the kids LOVED!  We might have to go to slc every halloween:)  Uncle Casey sat in his car in the driveway with Logan's Halo mask on and honked the horn to scare all the trick or treaters that came and Logan & Reed hid in the bushes as well.  It was a memorable Halloween for our kids.

SUNDAY:  Yay we get to celebrate again!  After church we came home and had the usual...nacho's!  The kids then grabbed their halloween sacks to divide up their candy. 
                  

One of the best things I remember at halloween when I was a kid was putting all my candy into a big pile and seperating them into smaller ones.  Putting m&ms together, candy bars together, skittles together and etc.  That way you got to see everything you got.  With the kids we combined all their candy together & seperated them.  We let them each take 3 pieces from each pile for their own stash and the rest went into a bowl that they will have to earn it by doing chores, etc.  Some of it may end up going to Aaron's work there was so much of it.  Maybe we are a little mean but now that I am a mom I can't stand seeing all that candy and wondering how fast they are going to eat it, & how jacked up their teeth with be:)  I do remember though that I would fill half a pillowcase full of candy and that still wasn't enough.  I'm surprised my teeth are as good as they are.  The kids were fine with it though and still have plenty with their own little stash.

  

One of the main stops we do on Halloween is going to great grandpa Herrick's.  The kids always love it because they know they always get to pick 2 pieces of candy from his pumpkin bowl, or however many they want. They then are usually doing cart wheels in the front room or doing something else that I'm sure drives him crazy but he just smiles and enjoys the time with them.   
 Later on we went to grandpa & grandma Herrick's for soup, bone chilin breadsticks, and Aunt Jenna made root beer cupcakes.  They were like eating a root beer float-they were good.  And of course we had to take all the cousins picture in their costumes.

Every year my mom does sacks instead of just picking a treat out of a bowl.  My grandma Herrick started this when I was young and thankfully my mom has kept up the tradition.  The kids each have a sack with their own name on it and they have to go around the house and find them.  This is them after finding their sacks.

In the sacks are usually a capri sun, gold fish, applesauce, and a few other treats. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Preschool Halloween party/ Witches night out

Today was the last day of school before the halloween weekend.  Both Kennady & Wyatt's preschool let them wear their costumes to school.  Kennady's original costume was a doggie but we borrowed this witch costume for our "witches night out" later on and she decided to wear this one instead.  She was so excited to wear her costume to school.

This is her cute little friend Sophie.  She lives in our neighborhood & we car pool and they have become quite the little friends. SO CUTE!

 At the end of preschool all the mom's were waiting outside for a trunk or treat. The beginning of all the candy. yay! (not really-for me atleast)

This is Wyatt's second full year of early intervention. He gets to ride the bus to and from school & he thinks it's the greatest thing ever.  He was so excited to show off his transformer costume to EVERYONE! He kept on singing "transformer be meet be eye".  Hhmm I'm pretty sure that's not the actual saying but who cares...it's so funny when he says it.  Good lookin Optimus Prime.

The kids have been dying to carve and paint pumpkins for about a week now and we finally got a chance to do it.  Kennady & Logan were good to clean out their own pumpkins even though they didn't like it a ton.  Wyatt just said no thanks you do it mom.  He did however try carving out a face on his pumpkin.  Logan did a great job doing a scary face and kennady painted all different colored stripes around her pumpkin.  For some reason I didn't get a picture of the final pumpkins but they all did a great job and they turned out great.

WITCHES NIGHT OUT:  Every year our ward/neighborhood does a witches night out.  In the past it has only been the adults where we all dress up as witches and go out to eat.  This year though was a "witches in training" night out where mom's and daughters both went.  We all got in our witches costumes- some were decked out and others just wore witches hats but we all looked great:) We went bowling at fat cats and later went out for ice cream & shakes at Artic Circle. It was alot of fun!!!

 We had to sneek in the bumper cars and a few games so kennady could get her some fun little prizes.

             Mmmmm Ice cream!  Kennady went for the Oreo...one of mom's favorite:)

couples weekend

This past weekend a group of us got together and stayed in Heber City in a condo.  Our friends Tyler and Stacy were nice enough to let us use their time share and plan this terrific weekend.  We all met up in Park City for some good food, treats, and entertainment.  We ate at Bandits resturant, got some yummy caramel apples and sweets at the chocolate factory, although I had to settle with a sugar free toffee bar with this no sugar bet I'm doing.  Wished I could of had the caramel apples, they looked delicious!  Then we went to a local play-Dracula.  My favorite part of the weekend though was hanging out in the condo until 3 am playing games.  The next morning we ate breakfast at the Hub and Aaron and I headed back to park city to the outlets to finish off our great weekend.  It was a great group we went with and we had a ton of fun!

   Bowen's, Dixon's, Iverson's, Morales, Berger's and us.     

Here we are before the play.  The guy next to me was a little creepy as well as the play...can't say I will be going back to see it.   We had a great time though and enjoyed everyone's company.  It was a great weekend getaway.

Volunteering

Today I went and volunteered in Logan's 3rd grade class.  They were cutting out haunted houses for their halloween party coming up.  I am trying to be better this year about helping out now that Wyatt & Kennady are old enough to behave themselves if I have to take one with me.  The kids were really cute and excited that Logan's mom was helping them.  I had almost every kid ask me "what happened to your face" and I had one boy ask me if I was married....weird and funny!  It was lots of fun to see Logan interact with the kids in his class and I think he actually liked me being there.

 I tried to be sneaky taking this picture while the teacher was finishing up giving instructions on what to do.  I accidentally had the flash on and all the kids attention ended up going to me...oops!  Logan was a little embarrassed I think. :)

Most of the kids were all done with their haunted houses so I snuck in one last picture.  Why?  Logan has a little bit of a crush with the girl that sits next to him (Abby).  I thought it would be fun to let Logan have a picture of them sitting by each other.  SO CUTE!  He even has to sit by her at lunch.  Logan came in the room as I was posting this and saw this picture- he started blushing.  So funny how I remember those elementary crushes.  Fun times.  (Mrs. Lafleur- 3rd grade)

Perfect Weekend

 One of our favorite things to do together as a family is go to the sand dunes.  We decided to make one last trip over UEA weekend-the weather was perfect.  The kids practically entertained themselves the entire weekend.  It's a huge sandbox for them to ride, play, and explore. We even found ourselves a scorpion, which is a little scary. They were so good I finished reading the first book of Hunger Games. (It's a good read-go and get it)  It was nice to be able to just sit back and have a little "me" time. The kids spent most of the day digging huge holes in the sand, being pulled on the sled, and bugging our friends dad to take them for a ride in his buggie.  We have made alot of great memories at the dunes but I would have to say that this one for some reason was my favorite.  

  

Wyatt likes to ride his green 4-wheeler but he would rather just play and play in the sand and get it in places you didn't think possible. :(  Kennady on the other hand is always ready to ride.  It doesn't take long once we arrive for her to ask if she can go for a ride.  She is a good little rider. 

These are the huge holes the kids loved digging.  There were alot of little kids running around camp and they all got along.  I wished the picture was a little better to see all their great faces.  I need to take lessons from my sister-in-law Amy on how to take good pics.

Aaron was the one always pulling the kids around camp on the sled. I'm glad he was able to have some time to relax himself.                                      

Besided riding- Logan loves to climb to the top of the dunes and run as fast as he can down them.  It always ends with him tumbling down instead. 

Here is the wonderful buggie!  Thanks to the Kendricks the kids had a great time going on rides.  This time it was Kennady, Hadlie, Kade, and Wyatt.

                          Jericho sand dunes- September 14-17th, 2010

We finally got a family picture at the pile of rocks.  This is a place we always ride to everytime we go.  It overlooks all the dunes and the kids love to find little lizards hiding within those rocks.  Logan almost climbed one of the biggest dunes on the way there.  He has gotten extremely good at riding this past year. 

Why not?

Kennady came home from preschool today and asked if we could go get her ears pierced today.  Why the heck not?  I figured if she was ready then we should go for it.  I usually confide in Aaron with everything first but for some reason we thought we would surprise him on this one. YIKES!  Anyway if it were up to just me she would of had them pierced at 6 months old.  So off we went to the mall.  When we got there I told her she could pick out some other earrings mostly to keep her mind off of how those earrings have to go in the ears.  Of course though came the question of "is it going to hurt"? 

                                                           HAPPY!

                                               NOT SO SURE ANYMORE!

                                                ONCE AGAIN HAPPY!
 She was such a big girl and didn't even cry.  Probably because I bribed her with going and getting a cookie after at Ms. Field's-mmm! :)  On our way home though she did say that she was about ready to cry because it hurt a little. We had to show everyone that day her pretty earrings and wait for the reaction of daddy.  He reacted better than I had thought.  But he keeps his anger hidden well..lol!  He told her how pretty she looked and asked many questions about getting them done.  Later on that night though he mentioned it made him a little sad that his little girl isn't so little anymore. She's got him wrapped around his little finger.  She can't wait until she can change her earrings though- and I bet ya can't guess what the first pair will be.  Yup dogie earrings which are actually pretty cute. Gotta love her!  Way to go Kennady.

Stewart Family Reunion

September 22-26th, 2010/ Green River State Park
Every other year the whole stewart family gets together for a family reunion.  This year we headed to green river. The first day there it was just our family and Aaron's sisters family.  We decided to head into town for breakfast to a place where it over looked the river. According to Wyatt- Santa Claus was there.  We told "this" santa claus Wyatt's name when Wyatt wasn't paying attention so when santa claus was ready to leave he came up and called wyatt by his name and asked what he wanted for christmas.  Wyatt just thought it was so awesome that he knew his name:)  That was our highlight for the morning! We then went back to camp where Aaron and Mike went golfing and we took the kids to the park and just hung around camp.  The rest of the weekend we went hiking, 4-wheeling at 10 mile wash, and Grandpa Todd had brought some great crafts for the kids to do around camp.  They made marshmallow blowers, derby cars, and the girls made necklaces. The last night we all sat around the camp fire and enjoyed some great stories and family memories.  It was a great weekend and was good to see everyone.

The day of the hike the kids enjoyed climbing on the rocks and catching baby frogs.  We were able to see some pictographs and was lucky enough to watch a skydiver try to break a base jumping record of 29 jumps in 24 hours.  It was really neat to watch and of course Aaron was wanting to do it too.

      

This was mostly everyone except for my family and Krisa who was taking the picture.  I'm not sure where we were at this time but somehow Kennady was able to jump in the picture. I am looking forward to the next reunion.