October in a Nutshell

 We spent one Saturday morning at the park. It was beautiful weather!  They got some climbing and lots of sliding and swinging and then we played a family game of steal the flag.

 Natalie's pretty good at catching lizards, especially since they are much slower now that the weather is cooler.  :)  This was an adorable little baby that she wanted proof of catching.

 Jane was just looking too cute this day, so I had to snap a pic.

 Blake is our little artist.  He's always been really good at coloring in the lines and making the cutest pictures.

 Because Natalie was so broken-hearted about the passing of our first lizard, we got another one.  We told her to pick the fattest one this time.  :)  She calls her Sunspot.  She's such a sweet lizard, and, if we must have a pet, I'm glad it's this one.

 Another Saturday we went to the Natural History Museum.  Jane's looking mighty sweet in this photo, but don't be fooled.  She was a little monster there.  We love her, though.

 The kids love doing crafts.  I love to watch them creating.  They were pretty serious about it too.

 Jane is our little climber.  She's not afraid of anything, but I get a little tense watching her do things like this.

I was in charge of the ward Halloween party.  I was so grateful to have the help of my wonderful friend, Angel, whose idea it was to hang the cute witch hats.  It was very Harry Potter-ish.  We had a chili cookoff with rolls, a trunk-or-treat and games in the classrooms.  There was a huge turnout-probably almost 300 people.  But there was plenty of food and it was lots of fun.  It was definitely a load off my shoulders when it was done.

And then a week later I was in charge of Super Saturday for the ladies in Relief Society.

 An inexpensive decoration I came up with.  You have to get creative with just $75 for 300 people!

We snapped the next few pictures right before heading out the door to the ward party.

 Rob and I were superheros and the kids were Frozen characters...Elsa, Anna and Olaf.

 This was at our ward party right before the trunk-or-treat.  The kids had a great time with their friends.

 Grandpa and Grandma Bell sent a fun Halloween treat package in the mail.  Jane's hair is always in her face.  I promise I do it everyday, but the second I turn my back, she takes it out.  Ugh.

 We carved pumpkins a little differently this year.  Rob got an attachment that fits onto his power drill that cleans out the inside of the pumpkin.  It was amazing.  I hate pumpkin slime, so it was worth every penny.  And, we'll be using it every year from here on out.

 Blake and Natalie designed their own pumpkin faces.  Natalie carved her own (on the far left).  Rob helped Blake carve his, and Jane asked for "Rella", so I did that one for her.

 The kids showing off their pumpkins.  They were so proud.

 We had a great time trick-or-treating.  I took the kids around.  The weather was perfect...we didn't even need jackets.  There were a few slightly scary houses, one really scary stop with a haunted house in the garage, bloody handprints and a chopped off head on the driveway and two guys dressed up as clowns that got right up in your face and pounded a bat on the ground.  It was a little too scary for Jane and for me.  I don't get into the gory, extra creepy Halloween stuff.

We swap babysitting with some friends in the ward.  They have twin girls that are Jane's age.  We watched them last time and the sweet girls got sucked into Frozen.  They were mesmerized.  It was so cute.