Carving the pumpkin!

We had a great time carving "Pumpy" the pumpkin together. We tried to be noble and include Parker, but he only lasted about 10 minutes before he was carted off to bed.

There was actually a cuter picture than this one, but I kind of like Parker on the brink of destruction in the background:


Parker hanging with us, not even aware that we are carving a pumpkin. I totally just typed "pimpkin" at first. Heh.




Kenley cleaning it out, yet she wouldn't pose with it afterward, telling James in the third picture that it was "too slimy!"




Random picture of Kenley that is so not cute that it cracks me up each time:


And finally, posing with the finished product.

Disneyland again

I just decided to stop posting so many Disney pictures, but I had to squeeze a few more in here. We had been gearing Kenley up for months for going on some "scary" rides while Connor was here, warning her that endless rides on Winnie the Pooh and gazing at the princesses was not going to cut it. So she was so super brave - she LOVED the Haunted Mansion ride all set up like Nighmare Before Christmas. In fact, she announced that her favorites of the day were "Jack Skellington ride and Winnie the Pooh ride" because you know, you can't get more polar opposite than that. She also went on the little roller coaster in Toon Town, and she was sooooo exhilarated and terrified at the same time. I love this picture of her and James in front of the roller coaster:

Okay, can I just say that I LOVE our Joovy stroller? It is so small that if you have one kid in it, you don't feel lame, but we can fit three if we need to. Also, they can just hop on and off at places like Disneyland. It's so great. So the three cousins spent much of the day all snuggled together on the stroller like this:

And then just miscellaneous cuteness and Kenley exhausted on the walk back to the car. Well, I guess that's not really exhausted as much as it is actually asleep.

Trunk or Treat!

I feel like every blog is the same in the month of October, like we are all just living various incarnations of the exact same life. :(

For Halloween this year, Kenley was a witch (or a "ballerina witch" according to her) and Parker was a train engineer. We went to Trunk or Treat with my mom's ward so that James could go, and so my mom and Kirk could see the kids all dressed in their costumes. Of course both kids LOVED getting so much candy! We were lucky to have James' sister Holly, and her husband Mike and son Connor visit us this past week. Connor is the scary skeleton in these pictures.

Pumpkin Patchy

Here are our obligatory pumpkin patch pictures. They had a cute corn maze, racing pigs, and tractors and trains the kids could climb on.

Kenley's rocking a side ponytail in these pictures, which she absolutely insisted upon when I was doing her hair. Parker was also in a crabby little mood (he missed the memo that the trip would be more fun if he SLEPT in his crib for his nap instead of babbled for an hour and a half before falling asleep for 20 minutes). Anyway, we went with our Playgroup, so the extra friends in these pictures are from our ward here in Murrieta.




I just liked this picture. It's sort of....artsy, or something. It's actually kind of a weird one of me, but I like it anyway.



Parker and his buddy checking out some pumpkins.



Kenley and her friend Samantha in the corn maze.



The kids watching the racing pigs. They took their cheering quite seriously.

The scariest part about Halloween?

Letting your child make their very own creation at Build-A-Bear.


Yes, that is a Panda (named Pepper) wearing an Ariel costume. This obviously wasn't my doing. But at least she loves it. :)

And before going to bed tonight, we had to reenact the Build-A-Bear experience 5 or 6 times. When it was my turn to pretend to be Kenley, I said, "And I would like to choose this BEAUTIFUL Ariel costume! It is the prettiest one in the whole store!" And she turns to me, her eyes absolutely shining with delight, and agrees, "Yes, it is." Aw, you gotta love that.

Disneyland

Well, we braved the heat on Wednesday and took the kids to Disneyland. They do a big Halloween set-up, and all the characters are in costume, and Main Street is all decked out with pumpkins, orange banners, and all kinds of Halloween and harvest stuff. It's really cute. It was about 100 degrees, but other than that we had a great time.

We got great seats for both parades, and even waited in line to see the princesses. We never do that because the line is so long, but we decided to go for it. I gave Kenley this big scare tactic lecture about how they wouldn't let her in unless she smiled like a princess (I know I'm very mean). So the first princess we see is Mulan, and for some reason Kenley is TERRIFIED of her, but trying her best to "smile like a princess." When I was done taking the picture, she just about leaped off the seat, she was so scared. So, her picture with Mulan makes me crack up every time I see it. But she did great with the other princesses! She's finally getting the hang of this posing with the characters thing! Just in time for our passes to expire!





I know I barely have any pictures of Parker in this post, but he was being kind of a pill at Disneyland, and he doesn't really enjoy posing with the characters yet. If you miss his cutie face, here's a funny one from a few days ago, when he loaded all his trains up with popcorn and then ate it all.

Apple Picking

A few weeks ago we decided to go pick apples up in Julian. It was kind of funny - the place was run by these total hippies that live out of a trailer on the property. Also, all the trees were miniature trees, so the kids couldn't get up in them or anything. Parker just wanted to run and throw the apples, and Kenley just wanted to eat the apples. So Kirk, my mom, James, and I picked two bags of ridiculously overpriced apples. But they were delicious. And when we got home from Julian that day, my mom and I even baked a caramel apple pie. Yum! And guess what the best part was? That night before bed I asked Kenley what her favorite part of the day was, and she actually SAID it was the apple picking! Hooray! Oh wait, that was the second best part. Here is the best part:

Parker added APPLES to his extensive list of fruits and vegetables he will eat. The list now consists of bananas, carrots, and apples.

More pics of our fun day...







And here are some pictures of my food to take home: caramel apple pie, the apples we picked, Dudley's Fruit Bars, mini pumpkins for the kids (in ziplocks at Kenley's request), and some Orange Cranberry Mustard we bought in Julian. Yum, yum!

And a double Happy Birthday today

Happy Birthday to my dad and my brother-in-law Ian! Sorry, you guys don't get the same birthday post as Andrea, but I'll give you a special shout-out anyway. Love you guys!

Yogurt Express trip for Andrea's birthday

For my sister's birthday, my brother decided we should have a party in honor of her, even though she is serving a mission in Illinois. We met at Yogurt Express at 9:00pm on a weeknight. Does that seem incredibly inconvenient, late, and random to you? Why yes. And that's why it was perfect. If I could sum up something Andrea would love, those are probably the words I would choose. So we met at Yogurt Express, my sister's favorite place in the world. Many friends ditched out so it was just the fam, which was fun anyway. I brought a little statue of Andrea so she could be at her own birthday party.





If you haven't been to Yogurt Express, you need to go. Here's why. It's a self-serve frozen yogurt place. I'm hearing you now saying that you've been to a place like that already. No, you haven't. You really haven't. They have 8 flavors of yogurt and endless toppings, and you do your own creation, however you want, and then buy it by weight. Kenley got black cherry & vanilla with sprinkles and gummy bears, and I got a chocolate cake mix yogurt with peanut butter cups, caramel cups, thin mints, almonds, and heath bars (so shoot me, I like chocolate). Our grand total? $2.62. I kid you not. And check out our cups - they weren't exactly small. The best part about that place is that when you go to pay, you ask for 20 percent off, and they give it to you. No coupons, no punch cards, just "Can I have the 20% off please? Thanks." It's like the only secret club I've ever been in.

How to Play with Girl Toys

Just add cars.