Trunk-or-Treat

Tonight was our ward Halloween party. We had donuts & hot chocolate and the kids went trunk-or-treating. Addison and Urban looked ADORABLE. I want them to wear their costumes every single day. Addison didn't want to be a cheerleader at first but she finally came around and I'm so glad. She makes a perfect cheerleader. And I was kind of bummed at first that Urban was going to be Scooby because I was trying to find a different costume for him that I just wasn't able to find. But he was the cutest Scooby-Doo ever! Everyone loved their costumes and they had a blast getting candy (of course) and watching all of the other kids who were dressed up so cute. I was a little surprised that more adults didn't dress up though. I think there were probably only 4 other grown-ups besides Jared & me who wore costumes. I was a witch & Jared was a 70's basketball player (for those of you who couldn't tell). Since Jared & Addi's costumes coordinated we taught Addison the "Daddy, daddy, he's our man. If he can't do it no one can!" cheer. Here she is performing it.Ready, okay!

Mid-cheer

Yay! Woo-Hoo! Go Daddy!

She's so dang cute, I love that girl!

Oh, and just to clarify (since they have the same colors), she is a UNLV cheerleader not a U of U cheerleader. I gotta stay true to my school no matter where I live. =)

I'll post pictures of Urban tomorrow once I put him back in his costume. I didn't get my camera out until I had already taken his costume off.

BOO!!!

Did I scare you?

We went "boo-ing" last night and made these cute little goodies.

We put some silly toys and treats in the bag and Addison helped me make the cookies. She was so excited about all the shapes we were using. Ever since we got "boo-ed" a couple of nights ago she's been excited to do it to someone else. When I explained to her what was going to happen (that we would quietly go to someone's door and put the treats down then knock and run away and hide) she just listened intently with a huge smile. When I was finished she said "that sounds like so much fun, it's a good story to me!" So Daddy & Urban stayed in the get away car while Addison and I delivered the goodies to the door. She did a great job being sneaky. Once we got back in the car though and she realized that we weren't staying to play with Avery (we "boo-ed" my sister's family), she was a little sad.

Pumpkin Patch

The Saturday before last we took the kids to a pumpkin patch. We all had a lot of fun. There was a little farmer's market area with produce and pumpkins. Addison loved looking at the different shapes, sizes & colors of the pumpkins. She was so worried about picking one out. We kept telling her we would do it before we left so that we didn't have to carry it around with us. I guess she thought we'd forget because she kept asking us if she could go back and pick out her pumpkin.
There was also a petting zoo area with lots of fun farm animals. Urban was quite amused by them and Addison liked petting the cows.

In the middle of the field they had lots of fun activities to do. There was a bouncy house, little rides and lots of slides. Addi was being a little bit of a stinker and wouldn't go down any of the slides. But Urbi was having a blast riding down with his daddy. This picture cracks me up because that little boy in the red shirt was booking it to get out of Jared's way. I think he thought he was going to run him down! Unfortunately I was dumb and wore a dress (I don't recommend doing that) so I couldn't go down any of the slides without risking inappropriate exposure for a family activity.

We also went through a corn maze which was fun and confusing. We always get so turned around in those things. The kids were excited at first but eventually just wanted to

get out of there.

Last but not least we went on this fantastic hayride. Our driver was a lot of fun and made us sing songs and shout out "yee-haw" before he would go anywhere. He also went over all the bumps really fast (well as fast as a tractor pulling a trailer full of people can go) and made us all jump all over the place and get real familiar with our neighbors. The kids liked the bouncing. We rode out to the middle of the pumpkin patch where we got to pick out our pumpkins. Once we were done we got back on the tractor trailer to go back to our cars. As I mentioned before I wore a dress, well, along with that dress I wore high heeled boots. After I had picked out my pumpkin I started walking back to the trailer. I had Urban in one arm and my big pumpkin in the other. I'm sure you can probably guess where this is going...yep, I biffed it. As I started to fall I was contemplating in my head what I should do because obviously I didn't want to drop my child, (and this may sound awful)but I also didn't want to drop my pumpkin and have it splatter to the ground. I figured that maybe dropping Urban would be a good lesson for him, that lesson being LEARN TO WALK ALREADY!!! Maybe he would realize that his mom is not coordinated enough to walk for the both of us. Anyway, obviously I would never let my baby fall. Luckily I was able to catch myself with one of my knees so I could kind of roll my pumpkin to the ground and grab ahold of Urban. Can you believe that boy had the nerve to yell at me! It really wasn't like a scared cry, it was like a yell of annoyance. I think he was embarrassed. So was I! As I got up to assess the damage I realized that I was filthy. I was wearing dark colors so the dust & dirt showed up perfectly all down the left side of me. I had dirt all down inside my boot, a hole in my tights and little pieces of leaf stuck all over the cute scarf I had borrowed from my sister (sorry Heath). While I was trying to clean myself off I looked up and noticed that almost all of the other people were already back up on the trailer and just looking down at those of us still choosing our pumpkins. So of course I caught their attention by displaying my graceful pumpkin/baby juggling act. Man did I feel stupid, but I still had to laugh. It was quite funny and I learned a valuable lesson for next year...don't wear a dress and heels to a pumpkin patch. I'm not Heather, I can't pull it off. =) All in all it was a great day. We made lots of fun family memories.

What is this stuff?

Okay, so I grew up in southern California and have spent my entire adult life in either Las Vegas or Phoenix. So I guess you could say I'm not exactly sure what a "real" winter consists of. Well, a couple of weeks ago (I think it was Sunday the 12th) I found out. We had a freak snow storm in October and probably got about 8 to 10 inches of snow. What the heck is that all about? I'm not a big fan of cold weather (to put it mildly) but seeing my first snow was kind of fun. I've been to the snow before to play and stuff but have only seen the actual act of snowing once before when Jared & I took a trip to Alaska. This was beautiful. We got some really big snow flakes falling. The funny thing is, the weather the next week was in the high 70's to low 80's...perfect!
The kids had so much fun playing in it. Addison was so excited. When she woke up in the morning I took her to the window to look outside. She got a huge smile on her face and started giggling and said "Wow, it's so beautiful. Where does snow come from?" I thought that was such a cute reaction. After all, she had only seen snow once before when we came to Utah for Christmas one year. All day long she was staring out the window until we went outside to play.

Urban was ADORABLE! He was cracking me up. This was his first encounter with snow and he LOVED it! I was holding him outside (because he's STILL not walking) and he was squirming like crazy trying to get out of my arms. Finally I stood him up in the snow just hoping that he wouldn't get too cold. He could care less about the cold. He was rolling around in it like he was a super model on a bear skin rug or something.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture until later in the afternoon when a lot of the snow had already melted. Earlier in the day though it was covering all the trees and bushes and piled up on the roof and grass. It was quite a sight.

We threw snow balls at eachother and ran around for a little while then went inside for a nice cup of hot chocolate. It was a cozy day.

Finally!

I've been trying to post this forever but have been having problems. First I couldn't figure out how to download pictures onto my computer because some how the photo program re-formatted itself. Then I couldn't find my camera for a couple of days so I didn't have the memory card to download.

Anyway, about 3 weeks ago Jared's parents came to stay with us for a week. We kept busy and had a lot of fun but unfortunately I didn't end up with any pictures of all of us together. I don't know how that happened, I feel really bad.

I'm not sure how much of a vacation it was for them seeing as how they helped us do a lot of stuff around the house while they were here. Jared and his dad replaced the carpet in two rooms downstairs in the basement (and did a great job might I add) while Dianna helped me re-upholster some furniture. I use the words "helped me" very loosely seeing as how I didn't do a single thing other than pick out the fabric and watch her go to work. She did a fantastic job too, it totally looks professional. I wouldn't have even known where to start. She re-upholstered the cushions on our chair, made some throw pillows for the couch to match and made me a pattern so I can re-upholster my chaise once I find material I like.

Dianna also showed me how to cut Jared's hair. She cut his right side and I cut his left and I must say that the left side of his head looked FABULOUS! He got compliments on it for days. ;) I put my skills to the test for the first time today. I cut Urban's hair all by myself. I was very nervous (especially after what I did to my own hair) because he is such a wiggle worm. I just sat him in his high chair with a sucker and got to it. It actually turned out pretty good. I messed up in a few spots but you can't really tell unless you're looking for it. It's kind of short but his hair grows so fast I figured the shorter the better. I couldn't believe the pile of hair that stacked up, it's only been a little over two months since his last cut. So what do you think Dianna? How did I do?

It makes him look like such a big boy, it kind of makes me sad.

We also did plenty of shopping. Anyone who knows Jared's family knows that those Estes' LOVE TO SHOP!!! It doesn't matter what store you go to or whether or not you even need a certain item...if it's on sale for a good enough price you buy it! After all, you may not need it but somebody else could use it! =) I like to tease them about their shopping habits, but it really is pretty fun to go shopping with them. They search the aisles for clearance racks and if you just barely mention that you like this or could use that then it's put in the cart faster than you know what happened. We went to the base, thrift stores, antique stores, furniture stores, craft stores, fabric stores, decorative stores like Tai Pan (which is Ron's new favorite store EVER by the way! hee hee) home improvement stores, department stores, malls, Wal-Mart (a couple of times), Target, and I'm sure I'm probably missing some and this was all within a week.

The week went by so fast, I don't know where the time went. Addison is so sad now that all of her grandparents are gone. For the last almost 3 weeks she's had one set of grandparents or the other here visiting. She and Urban have been SPOILED and doted on non stop. And I miss having my dishes done by the magical "dish fairy". I probably only had to do the dishes about 4 times or so while the moms were here visiting. Thanks a lot for everything grandma & grandpa. We love you and miss you already!

Photo shoot

Heather did a mini photo shoot with Urban for his 1st birthday and she got some great shots. If you would like to see some pictures of my cutie pie you can go to http://tippytoesblog.blogspot.com. Thanks again Heather, can't wait to get our family pictures now.