Kid Photos

Okay,

 Is it physically possible to take pictures of four kids at once 

and have them all looking nice at the same time?

 I think not.

 Yup, definitely not.

 Geesh.

So I tried to take individual pictures.

Reed was kind of funny. 

He's into touching and scratching everything with his hands lately. 

 I wake up to Reed scratching his bedding in the night instead of fussing. :)

So taking his picture he'd be like, "Smile!"

 "Ooo, I have feet!"

"Oh yeah - smile!"

"Oooo, grass!"

Haha.

 I did capture some smiles individually but they are all FUZZY!!!  Waah!

Man, doesn't Alden look old in that one?! 

LOVE my kids!!

Halloween

 For Halloween this year we had ourselves a cat, Harry Potter, a ghost, and a bear.  Gracen changed her mind about what she wanted to be almost daily.  So the week of Halloween I made her a black tutu that could become a witch, a cat, or a ballerina at the last moment. :)

Eli is definitely the most into ghoulishness of all the kids. He was adamant about having a spooky costume.  He was seriously disatisfied by the lack of hauntedness still going on in our house after our decorations were up (which...I never got pics of!  Darn!)

 Is it just me or does my little bear look REALLY big?! :(  Actually, all these kiddos look really big, now that I mentioned it!

It's tradition in our church to do a trunk or treat.  Our ward here does theres right on Halloween, just before trick or treating started.  Gracen's cute little friend, Lexi (who had borrowed Grace's cheerleading dress up), found us and followed us through the trunk or treat.  They were holding hands the whole time - too cute!  Lexi's mom said she'd been talking about trick or treating with Gracen all week.  So sweet!

 Jaron ended up getting off work at a decent hour.  At first I wanted to make trick or treating a whole family event but Jaron didn't want to make someone else hand out our candy. Reed also didn't need to be out in the cold.  Jaron ended up taking the kids and I stayed home to hand out candy.  I got the house cleaned up while they were gone and, ironically, got the Halloween decorations taken down.

 The kids went almost all the way around our subdivision and came back with their buckets full.

Our new dentist here is adamant that it doesn't matter how much sugar you eat, it just matters how often.  In light of that advice, I'm letting the kids eat as much candy as they want each time they get it (and brushing their teeth afterward), rather than allowing them only a few pieces and having the candy last into the new year.  So far it seems to be working well!  I expect we'll be through our candy in another week or two!

Happy Birthday, Grace!

First of all, this little guy turned five months.  FIVE MONTHS!!

 I am in utter and complete denial.  I cherish every single day that I have with this little guy and am truly saddened that he's growing so fast!!

Then my little girl turned four.  She may be the only girl I get and she's already not little anymore!  It was a tough week for me emotionally!

As per tradition, Gracen got to choose dinner (corn dogs).

 Then we opened gifts from family.

 The boys were more than happy to "help."  I didn't have birthday paper big enough to wrap the big one...she didn't seem to mind the Christmas paper. :)

 When the boys got the nursery box open, Alden exclaimed "We get to build it!"  And I said, "What?!  Since when do you have to build toys you buy at garage sales?!"  I guess the people had never used it, haha.  Alden had a blast putting it together.  He loves any and all building toys.

 And then I was taking pictures of Gracen playing with her new goodies and I caught this:

 Awwww!  I love my kids!

We had a princess party with a whole bunch of cute little three and four year olds.

 The cake ended up not being able to fit Barbie in so...Fisher Price's Loving Family mom stepped up to the plate. :)

 The day before the party we scored this sweet ginormous fridge box and turned it into a castle for all our princesses.

 I got crowns from Burger King and spray painted them yellow.  We decorated them with jewels, glitter glue, and crayons.

 Kids do not get near enough art time in school these days.  Seeing intense concentration during an art project makes me happy. :)

 Gracen requested corn dogs again.  We decorated up some apple and banana slices with peanut butter and sprinkles and we were set for our princess banquet.  We got "fancy" cups from the dollar store for our pink lemonade and the kids loved them!

 Gracen had fun opening presents.  Which, why doesn't anybody actually wrap presents anymore?! Gift bags just aren't the same!

 We played pin the kiss on the frog.

And lastly, we went on a treasure hunt for the treat bags  The princes used their swords to "slay" the dragon blocking the closet where the treasure chest full of treat bags were in.
 

 All in all, a fun party!

At four Gracen is into all things girly.  She loves babies, dolls, pink, and glitter.  She loves to play with her Barbies, even though she has no accessories for the few that she has!  She loves friends and going to preschool.  Gracen asks almost everyday if it is dance class day.  She's taking dance from a gal in our ward and she LOVES it!  She's become very interested in letters in the last few weeks and is starting to be able to write words.  She's a happy, fun-loving little girl.  We love her to pieces!!

Favorite quote from Grace lately: On the morning of her birthday she said "Is my costume still going to fit me?" Haha, she was worried it wouldn't fit since she wasn't three anymore! :)