Karen & Jordan: November 2015

Halloween is so fun with kids. It's even more fun now then it was when I was a kid. We love all the Halloween activities and my kids had so much fun trick or treating. My kids are finally old enough that they got really excited for it this year. They started getting excited clear back in September. Shelley had a Halloween party with all my cousins which she started preparing for a month ahead of time. The boys would go downstairs and look at all the cute stuff she had for the party and they got so excited. They asked me everyday if Shelley's party was that day. We did some really fun Halloween activities this year and the boys loved it! They loved all the decorations, Halloween movies and other Halloween activities. During October we would go for rides and look for Halloween decorations. They would get so excited when they saw anything to do with Halloween. Our house is a construction zone right now so I didn't get to decorate which was kind of disappointing because I know they would have loved it.

Larsen Halloween Party

Shelley threw a Halloween party and invited all my cousins on the Larsen side. We had quite a few people come and it was so much fun. We had dinner and then Shelley planned a bunch of cute little games. We played the candy bar game which was way to old for my kids but they got candy so they were happy. Then she did a cute little poke a pumpkin game and there was a prize in each cup. My boys really liked it.

Link loved this game.

My favorite part of the party was the Zombie Apocalypse game. Shelley printed some little paper zombies and set them at the end of the hall. All the adults had to use a nerf gun and try to shoot down the zombies. Most of us totally sucked at this game but it was hilarious because my grandma and aunt Sue were really good. My grandma scored 100 points her first turn. When she was done shooting she walked over to me and Jordan and asked us how we'd done in the game. We told her we didn't even hit one and she responded "Well, I don't like to brag..... But I got 100." My aunt Sue ended up tying her score. So it came down to grandma and Sue in a shoot out. My grandma missed everything the first round she told Jordan and me "That's what I get for being prideful." Sue missed everything as well so they had to go another round. Grandma hit 2 zombies and won the game. She walked over to me with a huge grin on her face and said "I won. I guess it didn't matter that I was prideful."

Hales Party

Jordan's family had a fun little Halloween party with all the cousins. My boys love their cousins so much. They are always so excited to play with cousins. It was so fun to see everyone in their costumes and Jordan's mom had some really cute little activities planned. The boys loved absolutely loved it. Link was really tired that night so he was a little bit grumpy but he still had a lot of fun.

Nana's costume

Sharon always has cute little games and activities at all her parties. This year at the Halloween party we had a skeleton decorating contest. Each family got a little wooden skeleton to decorate. Ours didn't turn out the best because honestly we're not super creative. The boys had so much fun and carried the skeleton around for days.

After the skeleton contest the kids did some trick or treating and just got some cut little toys and goodies.

We took the boys to the pumpkin parade at the Riverwoods. We went with some of their cousins so of course they had fun. They absolutely love playing with their cousins. There were fun pumpkin scenes, fun little games, and the boys favorite a balloon man.

Our favorite pumpkins. Link was terrified of this because it had smoke coming out of it.

After the Riverwoods we stopped at my parents for Mike's birthday.

Shelley and I took the boys up to Gardner Village to see the witches. Jacks and Link absolutely loved it this year.

The Wild West Valley park is one of our favorite parks and it's only about 10 minutes away from Gardner Village so we stopped for about half and hour before heading home.

On Halloween we took the boys trick or treating on Main with some of their cousins. It was so crazy busy this year that I don't think we'll go again. The trick or treating is never exciting but every year the businesses on Spanish Fork Main Street make cute little scarecrows and I like to walk down the street and see the scarecrows.

Halloween was so fun this year. After trick-or-treating on main we went home and just kind of hung out at home and did some yard work. That night we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. The boys absolutely loved it. Jacks wanted to go forever. Link got really tired and since we aren't smart enough to take a stroller we ended up carrying him but it was still really fun. It was really fun to see my kids get so excited about it. Most of our neighborhood wasn't home but we still got a good stash of candy. Jacks had just as much fun handing out candy at our house as he did trick-or-treating. He loved seeing the other kids in their costumes and thought it was great when he saw another Iron Man.

Halloween was so fun this year. My kids absolutely loved it. They still ask me all the time if they can go trick-or-treating and other Halloween activities again. We're sad it's over but really excited for Christmas and all the fun traditions that my kids are old enough to understand and enjoy this year.

October is easily my favorite month. The weather is finally nice and there are so many fun fall and Halloween activities. Things have been busy lately but good. The boys are in kind of a rough stage right now. They are so fun and cute but they fight like crazy they just can't get along. It's hard to even leave them alone together because Link always ends up crying. Jacks can just be so mean. It doesn't help that our basement is covered in plastic and paint. The painters haven't made much progress and it's getting so frustrating. The basement was so nice because they could get away from each other or even just play together better downstairs. They can be so bad that it's to the point I don't really even like to be home with them it's just easier to go somewhere at least if we go somewhere they're entertained enough that they don't fight. We've been trying to take advantage of all the fun fall activities during October.

We've made a few trips up the canyon. Fall is my favorite season to go hiking and just go play in the leaves. We unfortunately haven't really made it hiking this year. I haven't really been feeling good enough to go hiking. I've been doing great just not well enough to carry Link up a mountain. So we missed out on that this but we've still had some fun just hanging out outside.

We've been feeling homeless with the painters at our house so we've been trying to stay away and spent a lot time at the park, visiting people, and taken a few trips to Thanksgiving point.

The Orem fire department had a little safety day where they let people into the fire station. We went with one of my friends and her little boy. We got to go into a fire truck, life flight, and do little safety activities and see demonstrations. They had cotton candy bigger than the boys heads and popcorn. The kids loved it.

Pumpkin patches are one of our favorite things to do in the fall. We went to three this year. We went to Vineyard Gardens at the beginning of the month. I didn't really love it and probably wouldn't go back. My kids did like the bounce houses though.

Our second pumpkin patch visit was to Jaker's in Springville. It's only a dollar to get in and I was definitely impressed. We went with some of our friends and the boys had so much fun. They had hay rides, spook ally, corn box, and a few other things. It was definitely worth a dollar. The kids loved it. It was by far my favorite pumpkin patch we visited this year.

They could have stayed in the corn box all day.

Shelley took the boys and me to Cornbelly's. This was our first trip to cornbelly's the boys absolutely loved it. 2 weeks later they still tell me all the time they want to go back to Cornbelly's. We did a lot of the little kid activities but skipped the maze. Carrying Link through miles of maze didn't sound super fun. Jacks really wanted to just to see the minions but it just wasn't really possible. The boys loved the little cow ride and the apple cannon.