HSM3 Party!

For Emilee's party this year, she decided to have a High School Musical 3 party! Our theater here has a little party room, so we had the party and watched the movie at the theater. She invited 10 cute little girls and we had so much fun! After watching the movies, we went back to the party room and had GIANT cupcakes (I've always wanted an excuse to buy these from Costco)!

We had a few minutes afterwards to play games. The girls played Duck, Duck, Goose and Simon Says. It was the easiest party I've every had to do! I highly recommend it. Happy 8th birthday Emilee!

Welcome Home Uncle Ryan!

Dan's little brother (well, not so little anymore) Ryan came home from his mission in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Sunday morning. Everyone was so excited to see him! He'd never met Danni before, as I was hugely pregnant when he left, so this was a fun moment. Of course Danni wasn't as thrilled as he was, but that's just Danni. There were a ton of people in the airport to welcome him. Braden said it was the smallest airport he's ever seen, he thought the part we were in was just the welcoming center...nope...it was the WHOLE Pocatello Airport! Dan's parents spent almost 2 weeks in Ukraine picking up Ryan and seeing all of the sights. They brought home this fox fur hat. Danni loved it and wouldn't let anyone else see it. It was so soft.

Ryan called and called for KaDee to come see him. Finally, someone had to tell Ryan that KaDee is almost def and he needed to go up to her! She may be def, but her memory is still there...she loves Ry and was so excited to see him.

Of course the kids were so excited to see what Uncle Ryan may have brought back for them. He got all of the kids beanies that were so cute (or cool for the boys). There was a lady there that Ryan had paint the temples that we were all married in and the dates on wooden eggs. They were beautiful. They said "Together Forever" in Russian at the top and in English at the bottom, except on some of them, the English didn't translate very well and ours says "Togever Forever!" I love it! He also got all of the guys and the big boys ties - they were way cool. All of the wives got little Christmas nestling dolls - the kind that hide inside each other. Danni loves to play with it and try to figure it out.

The cousins filled Ry's room with balloons and they found their way into the studio. After popping most of the balloons by wrestling with Ryan and his friends, the kids finally fell asleep. It was a very long, exciting day! Welcome home Uncle Ry!

SPUDNUTS (Need I say more?)

I was just thinking that in all of the years I've done spudnuts at Halloween, I don't think I have one picture...I'm usually too busy cooking! This year I had lots of help and it was so much easier and a lot more fun! Thanks to Staci and Kaidree! I made one and a half batched this year (a half batch more than last year) which is A LOT of donuts since one batch makes about 9 dozen or so. It was so great seeing our friends and neighbors and having them stop in for a while. I loved seeing all of the costumes and bags full of candy.

Joe is famous for his "double-dip" donuts. He likes to dip them again in the glaze...drowning them once in sugar just isn't enough.

Here's Emilee getting caught with a mouth full. Ed certainly wasn't a stranger to the spudnuts either. He talked about how he would go to Linda's and help himself to a full plate of them. These really do bring back lots of memories. This is only year 4 for me, but hopefully there will be many more years!

Every year we learn a little more. Dan thinks he's got next year all figured out. We are checking the kids' candy bags at the door, hiring a babysitter to stay upstairs and entertain the kids (maybe there will be a little less destruction and a few less candy wrappers all over), and the adults can just hang out and chit chat. Sounds like a plan to me! Now all we have to do is find a babysitter willing to work on Halloween!

We Love Halloween!

Halloween was a piece of cake this year. The kids all picked costumes that we already had (except Danni). Brianna was a zombie creature...she makes a pretty good dead person. Emilee was a monster bride. I'm not sure when my girls went from girly to gory, but I'm not sure I like it. As long as they're happy I guess!

Danni made the cutest little ladybug (at least I can still dress her girly!). She loves ladybugs. Her room has ladybugs all over, so it was one of the first words she could say. She wouldn't take off the antennae (ears as she called them).

Kaidree and Staci came over and helped this year with their kids, so they got to come over (as well as McKenzie) and go trick-or-treating together. It was the first year we let all of our kids go by themselves. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Danni only went to two houses and I felt like she got jipped, but Dan reassured me that she really didn't care. Braden somehow snuck out of the house before I could get any pictures. He was a football player again this year and went with his friend Ethan all by themselves. Then, our good friends had turned their house into a haunted house and had over 30 kids over to go through it and have a party. They're crazy, but our kids sure loved it! It was a really fun Halloween!