Thanksgiving 2012

 We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  We had dinner with my family and then went out to the Dawson's in the evening.  I can't believe how we lucked out with having such great family around.  We had everyone from my side except Luke and Lisa.  When we went to the Dawson's we were only missing Freddie and Heather and kids.  Ben's aunt and uncle and cousin were also there to help boost our smaller numbers.  It was so great being surrounded by all of the people that we love. 

Halloween night

 I remember my Mom saying she didn't like Halloween when we were little.  I never understood how she could dislike such a great and wonderful holiday!  Well, now I do... completely and understandably.  I do not like Halloween.  I hate the costume deciding, the pumpkin carving messiness, the loads and loads and loads of candy, trunk or treats ( I think walking from car to car 2 ft. from each other is not earning your candy), the late night followed by early school... I could go on.  I am not one of those good Moms that go all out for this Holiday.  So with that all said, I feel like I did a decent job on letting my kids enjoy it this year. I try not to let them know how much I don't like it.  

They all finally chose a costume, some were decided 2 hrs before trick or treating.  The only two things that I like about Halloween, is what we did that night.  We went around the neighborhood for an hour with friends, and to my parent's Halloween dinner where we were joined by Larry and Sharla.  It turned out to be a fun night.

Carly was a beautiful princess kitty

 

 Abigail chose to be a lovely vampire princess

 Luke stayed with the zombie costume thank goodness

Our sweet little snow white

Pumpkins and apples

 I am catching up on some more fall activities.  We had our annual  

Pizza @the Perry Park and Picking Pumpkins @ Pettingills Party. 

Every fall all of the Jenkins women and grandkids meet up at a park in Perry and My Mom treats us to hot chocolate, pizza, and my grandma Dixie brings dessert.  After the kids eat and play for a while, we go to Pettingills on the highway and my Mom gets the kids pumpkins. We had to install a rule last year where the kids have to be able to carry their pumpkin that they pick out.  Otherwise we just had kids pointing the the biggest one and asking me to carry it.

 Abigail took this very seriously and took FOREVER to pick out the perfect one

 Hailey's at this great stage where she pulls her hair out every time we get in the car

 Luke also took quite a while before finding his

 Hayes and little Ems

 All the kids

 Kael's out of here

This is only a small amount of the apples picked this year, but these are the ones the kids helped with

 Next up was picking apples.  My Aunt Becky and Uncle Scott have two apple trees.  They don't need them every year, so they let us have them this year.  My kids are always trying to devise plans to earn some money, so I told them to come and pick apples.  Shannon and Beau came with us, and these three kids were apple picking champs!

At first I told them they could earn 3 dollars per bucket, but I quickly realized Abigail was going to clean me out.  So I adjusted the pay scale a bit :)  

Later, all of us women (Jess, Shelley, Shan, Mom, Me, Ab, and Car) made applesauce.  Abigail and Carly were excited to be able to help this year, in the past I've just made them watch.  We made a ridiculous amount of applesauce.  Then I brought more apples home and made more by myself (which isn't nearly as fun).  Needless to say I'm sick of apples for a couple of years.  I'm just glad that my kids like un-sweetend homemade applesauce better than store bought.

October so far

 We've had a fun month so far... I love the start of the holidays. 

Abigail and Carly signed up to dance at Fremont's half time show.  Abigail loved it.  They practiced for a week before the game.  Carly didn't love it so much... she almost didn't perform, but my sweet neighbor bribed her with some candy.  Why didn't I think of that?!

I've been taking some photography classes, and one of our assignments were to photograph people wearing white.  Carly was a very willing subject, but she kept posing in odd places. 

She wanted to pretend she was about to fall asleep on this bench.

Abigail is always a very willing subject

She's growing up too fast, and looking so old!

Last week we carved/painted pumpkins, ate candy and popcorn, and watched ichabod crane.

Luke was the only one not afraid of the pumpkin guts, so he carved his. 

snuggled up for the movie

Here I am taking photography classes and I take a blurry picture!

The kids had a Halloween carnival at the school last night.  The girls decided at the last minute that they wanted to be witches instead of what they had planned.  Their costumes were too small, because I made them when Ab was 2 1/2, but they were determined.  Hailey's fairy costume was also too small, but by the time we got everyone dressed, we were in danger of being terribly late.  We just went with it last night, but for actual Halloween I told them they had to be something else.  We will see what they all decide.  Luke was a zombie, and he said he loved it so much that he will be that on Halloween also. 

Carly's the birthday girl!

 Our sweet little Carly is 4 years old!  

Favorites:

color- 'purple and pink and blue, oh wait, and red, and yellow, and orange, and brown.'

food- "strawberries and watermelons and quesadillas."

thing to do- "play babies and play with Hayes-a" (Hailey's got lots of strange nick names)

place to go-" write down everywhere... it's m-o-g-a-i... that's how you spell everywhere"

scripture story-" everything, Ummm. maybe this one the most (holding up the D&C reader)"

friend- "Meagan" our neighbor

drink- "water, milk, juice, and punch"

Carly is growing up quick, but she still likes to be babied a little bit.  I call her my kitty cat, because anytime I sit, she just curls up on my lap.  She gets really sad if we don't have our special snuggle time while Luke and Abigail are at school, and Hailey is sleeping.  

She's such a sweet heart, and she's always thinking about her siblings.  If she has a snack, she'll get more out for the other kids if they aren't around and she'll save them for when they get home.  

Carly is a bag lady.  She has a hoarding issue, I know I've mentioned it before... but I think we're making progress on it.  She used to keep all of her things in the unfinished basement  in a  pile.  At first it was cute, and then the pile grew, and it got to be a big problem.  If she ever heard someone going down the stairs she would follow them to make sure they didn't touch her stuff.  Then things started to dissappear.  Like watches, cell phones, bills, my makeup, and lots of little important things.  So we got it all cleaned out,    VERY TRAUMATIC...  I told her she could have one bag full of her special things.  That's been going pretty well, I still have to go through her bag every few days because she'll sneak sandwich baggies full of her left over lunch into them.  She usually has a couple of bags full of things and then keeps them in a little shopping cart.  She also goes on strolls through the neighborhood with all of her things.

On a side note-  we had to quit calling it hoarding because Abigail forgot to put the letter -d- in the word.  One night she yelled to me, "Mom, Carly's hoaring again!"  So we just call it her stuff now.

 Carly woke up feeling good on her birthday, but quickly went down hill.  After she tossed her cookies, she said she was glad she had another birthday in a couple of days.  We had to have her party 2 days late because of the Grandma's schedules. 

 Luckily she could pull it together enough to celebrate a little bit that night.  She said she only wanted two things for her birthday, a cherry purse, and a shopping with the little baby car in the front of the cart.  Nevermind that we already have a million purses and stroller/shopping carts. 

 still not feeling good, but determined to have a good birthday

 She decided to eat a cupcake... we were regretting that later that evening

 2 days later, so HAPPY!  She put on this special dance outfit for the party

 cute little Abs

 making a wish (she wants a real baby, a real live baby for herself)

 She requested a cherry cake

 Daddy's girl

 Also Uncle Blake's girl. He can't be around her without her climbing onto of his shoulders

 Hayes-a chillin on our new patio built by Ben

 Kael was not happy with me, I just wanted a picture of the cute little guy

 Besties... Jake (next door neighbor) told his Mom that him and Hailey are besites

 handsome Beau

Carly got lots of fun gifts from her Grandparents!  She was excited about all the new things to wear.  For some reason none of the pictures turned out of our guests, but it was sweet of them all to come and make Carly's 2nd party special!