The rest of our Halloween Adventures

Thursday at pre-school Caitlin had her Halloween party and presentation. It was really cute. She did a good job on all the songs and actions.

Friday we headed to the college for a Halloween parade with the children's center that the girls go to when I am working. It was fun, and there were SOOOO many kids. Chris started out with Ashlee and her 2 year old class, while I was with Caitlin and her 4 year old class. Toward the end then Chris and Ashlee waited for us, and the girls walked the rest of the way together- hand in hand. Just to adorable.

Today we had trunk-or-treat at our church parking lot. It was a good turn out, so the girls each filled their buckets.

The girls costumes looked like this:

But it was a coat wearing Halloween (our first since we moved here), so it was harder to actually tell what they were, especially when Caitlin took her hat off because of the wind.

All in all we have had a fun Halloween season, with way to much candy. The girls had fun dressing up. And I can't wait to take the Halloween decorations down.

Dressing Up- round 1

Last Saturday night we had a Halloween carnival at church. Caitlin wanted to be a ballerina, so Ashlee did too (we had a dragon costume for her but she did not want any part of it). Luckily we had 2 leotards and skirts, but only 1 pair of ballet shoes. But, we did have a pair of tap shoes in our dress-up barrel, so Ashlee was a tapping ballerina. Snow white and the little skunk were with us to, we were babysitting them that night.

Today Caitlin dressed up, like a witch this time, for ballet. Thursday she will dress-up for pre-school, Friday for something at the college, and Saturday for a trunk-or-treat. I am glad that we will be taking the day off on Sunday.

A New Cousin!

We are so excited to have a second cousin on the Bishop side (the girls 3rd cousin total).

My brother, David, and his wife, Julie had their second girl on the 19th!
Welcome Maddie! We can't wait to meet and hold you.

picking pumpkins

Last Thursday the girls and I headed downtown to the local pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. (Chris had rehearsal, so we had to go without him).
They each got to pick a little one for free and we picked 2 others to take home. Caitlin liked looking for the pumpkins we would take home, and Ashlee just walked around. She was to occupied with her little pumpkin to worry about anything else.

Monster Holiday

Courtesy of the Taste of Home Magazine, the girls and I made these fun cupcakes yesterday. I like the Mike Wazowski looking one, but I think the "3 eyed" purple people eater maybe turned out the best.

fall tradition

Last weekend we drove to Colorado to visit Chris' parents, and to make applesauce. This has been a fall tradition with them ever since we moved to Rock Springs.

Trish and I did all the apple preparation, and everyone else ran the machine (the Victorio Strainer). The girls thought it was so fun to help. We had a ton of apples, so we made a lot of applesauce! and even came home with a box full of apples! One can never have to many apples in the fall.


We also love going to the park that is just across the street from Grandma and Grandpa's house.

(Caitlin loves being motherly to her cousin Gavin)

Change underfoot

If you've ever had carpet under your table with small kids, you know it is not that much fun. That's what we have been living with and we decided it was time for a change.

We pulled the carpet and laid new flooring in the dining area, kitchen, entry way and bathroom. Needless to say, we love the change. It looks great and is so much easier to keep clean!

Before:

After:

(the little door is the playroom)

(we downsized our entertainment center, which really opened up the space, plus the old one just kept falling apart more and more)

Our friend, Reed, helped us with the floor and is an absolute saint. It really looks great thanks to him, you are awesome Reed!

Why all the changes recently?

We moved in 2 years ago and didn't really make any changes. We were pretty happy with it overall, and we were overwhelmed with a new baby, a move, a new job, etc. etc. etc. So now we are making changes and making it more of our own.

A house within a house

The walled-in, wasted space under our stairs is wasted no longer.

It started with a hole cut in the wall in June.


Fast foward to September and more work.........


and even more work..........

Fast foward to October when the carpet guy came..........


and we have a little playroom!

A little house the girls can call their own.

It is so fun, so cute, and was so much work that we are glad it is done! And we are thrilled that the girls love it.

Thanks so much for all your help Alex and Reed!!!

Courtesy of Caitlin

I finally uploaded from Caitlin's camera. It is a daunting task for me because it holds 600+ pictures. To have to sort through and delete is very time consuming, but worth it in the end :)
I gave up trying to decide if Caitlin took the picture because it is a favorite toy for a sister and all friends.
This picture, for instance, is by Caitlin's friend, Chandler. This picture is blurry, but he actually has a very good eye. His pictures were by far the best of all on the camera.

This picture is a sneak peak at our new playroom. This is when it was literally just a hole in the wall. As I type, the carpet man is here tucking and laying, and the room will be done today!!!!

I love when Caitlin tries out some of the different features of the camera. It doesn't just take pictures, it does fun edit things to.

And when she adds silly things to the pictures.

I didn't know we were a family of ducks!