Jeremy's birthday

Jeremy turned 29 yesterday. Sadly, he celebrated without us, but we sent him some gifts, so it was kind of like we were there. Jeremy told us that Kaitlynn got to choose everything for his special day so we had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast:

And then for lunch she wanted mac and cheese but wouldn't eat anything because she really wanted the (princess) castle cake. We all pitched in to decorate, as you can see. (watch out for Cody's side. He really likes frosting.) Also, I don't keep candy in the house so we had to use Trix to add some color and Walnuts for bricks. We have a gingerbread competition every year. This cake reminds me why the girls always lose the competition.

Nana and Papa came over and brought dinner. We called Daddy to sing to him and then she got to eat her cake.

Happy Birthday Jer!

Our Seattle Trip

So we went to Seattle. This was Cody's first time on a plane. Surprisingly both kids were good. Turbulence doesn't phase them so I was content with the way it all went. Our plane was 25 minutes early into Seattle and a little early on the way back. (Yea Southwest!) I took a couple pictures on the plane but it is really hard to hold a 1-year old and take a self portrait at the same time, so here is what we got:

We had lots of yummy food to eat while we were there and it was made by the best chefs in the house, as you can see. Kaitlynn and Christian played "all da day" as we say around here, and had a great time. Cody played too but wasn't quite as involved as the other two. Kaitlynn and Christian are couch potatoes so they were the best of pals.

I made Callie and Katie go to Zumba - which is my new obsession and we had a great time. We had a conference call (led by task-master Joni) to coordinate Katie's Hawaii wedding. We also ate at an expensive fancy cheese restaurant. I felt very cultured.

It was a really great weekend. Thanks to all my family who helped make it happen.

Halloween Time!

We did lots of fun things to lead up to Halloween and on Halloween. Here is our collection of pictures and stories for Halloween 2009:

We went to the The Farmstead Corn maze and activity place. We ate some burgers and dogs and played in the corn box. (sand box but instead had hard corn kernels). We also went through the corn maze. I stuck the kids in the carts you are supposed to use pumpkins for and wheeled them around. They were really cute. We went with Amy and Lee Carter and had a great time.

On Halloween, we decided to make sugar cookies at Grandma's house. This is a really silly idea when you have things to get ready for and don't really have the time, but, as you will see...They loved it. Smiles from both kids. Cody thought this was the greatest thing ever. He loves standing on that stool and being involved. Kaitlynn was asleep at that point so she wasn't there to take it away from him. I wonder if that is why he is laughing.

Now we are getting ready for trick-or-treating and a trunk or treat. Kaitlynn wanted to be a princess but then she saw Melissa being an Indian and changed her mind. She loved Melissa's face makeup so she asked Grandma to make her an Indian too. This is her cute curly hair.

It is hard to see but she has lipstick on and eye shadow. She was a cute little princess. We went to the trunk of treat first with Grandma and Grandpa. She got used to the idea of saying "magic words" and getting candy. Cody just went with the flow. He looked pretty cute as a pumpkin and all he ate all night were his suckers. In fact, he lost that one in the car and I figured he dropped it. When we got out of the car, I looked over and it was stuck to the back of his head. A smart mom would have taken him inside to wash it out. What I did was see the problem and want an immediate fix, thus a good yank on it. It ripped out his hair and he cried. Duh!

And here we all are before we go trick or treating: (Kaitlynn wasn't smiling in any of them so this is the best pic we got.)

So here is how trick-or-treating went: Kaitlynn had it figured out from the trunk or treat. We went with Abby, McKenna, Carson, Cameron, Ammon, Cody, and Amelia. She is the youngest of the four kids she walked (ran) with (Abby, McKenna, Carson). Despite that fact, she was the one who had to wait for the other kids. She would run to the door, say trick-or-treat and then "Thank you". Then she would come and tell me she said "thank you" and run to the next house. She was a model trick-or-treater. Cody, on the other had, cared nothing about going to the door. I gave him a sucker and he loved that but insisted on wandering around in the middle of the street. Of course, this was not going to fly. So Charise and I would carry him while he fought to get out of our arms. This led up to him screaming incessantly and I had to take him home before the police came and asked whether he was mine or if I was trying to kidnap him.

We had a great Halloween. Thanks to all our friends who invited us to things and kept us busy this October. Can't wait for next year... in California...but at least Daddy will be there.