Trick Or Treat

Ashten, Ayden, and Anderson at the fire station
Anderson wore Ashten's dalmation costume from 2 years ago
Fire Chief Ashten

Ayden took his costume seriously, I don't think he ever took off his helmet the whole night

Papa, Grammy, and AJ
Ayden playing the fishing game
Junior Primary waiting for the pinata

The boys waited so patiently for their turns
Ashten loves pinata...he hit it hard and thought he was so funny for doing it
Us passing out candyAfter trunk-or-treat we stopped at Ggma's house for some doughnuts and chocolate milk

The boys had the best time celebrating Halloween this year. I tried to plan a fun Halloween activity every night this week. When Ayden woke up this morning the first thing he said was, "Ashten, do you know it's Halloween today?" We started the day by going down to Grammy's house to get the costumes last details finished. After that was taken care of we all went to lunch together. I convinced the kids to take naps so they wouldn't be cranky. It worked out perfectly Ashten and AJ woke up just in time to get dressed. We headed over to the Ward Trunk-Or-Treat. There were lots of games to play, a pinata, and of course the trick or treating. We stopped by a few family and friends homes on the way home along with some strangers houses that had their yards decorated really spookily. I asked the boys what their favorite part was. Ayden said, "Getting lots of candy" Ashten said, "The Trick or Treating and getting candy" If AJ could talk he would most definitely say CANDY also. Let's just say he was screaming in between pieces.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Ayden looks so grown up as he cleans out his pumpkin

Ashten wanted to try a bite...obviously he didn't like itIt took me a while to get Ashten to touch the pumpkin guts with his handsAyden concentrated very hard on getting his holes poked in the pumpkin
Ashten marking his pattern
Ayden cutting out his alien's eyes

The boys and their finished pumpkins

Ashten's is a witch holding a pumpkin and Ayden's is an alien head (if it looks funny it's because I didn't use a pattern I just made it up in my head)

This is the first year that the boys were interested in carving pumpkins. After dinner, we got out our pumpkin carving kit and chose out some patterns. They weren't thrilling Ayden so we looked online for some ideas also. We spent some time cleaning the pumpkins out. The kids were a little bit hesitant at first about having to stick their hands inside, but eventually they got into it and got all the seeds out. Ayden decided on an alien head so I drew one on with crayon and he poked little holes on the lines so he could remember where to cut. Meanwhile, I helped Ashten poke holes in his pattern. Ashten's pattern was much more detailed so it took longer and when I looked up Ayden was half way done cutting out his alien head. He did pretty much the whole thing by himself. He did a great job especially for a 4 year old! Ashten was a very good helper taking out all the peices that needed to be removed from his carving. I was kind of dreading the whole carving event but we had a good time and the boys were very excited about their finished projects.

Go Clean Your Room!

YAY a clean room! Since Ayden has moved downstairs, he has collected lots of things in his room, which used to be full of just a few books, a couple of toys, and his clothes. After playgroup on Wednesday, I found out that his room was a disaster. Evertime I send him down to clean it up, he stays down there and plays then comes upstairs and says he did it. Today, I wanted it done. I told him if he got it cleaned we would carve the pumpkins. He actually did it...kind of. I went down and at first glance I was in shock at how awesome he did in such a short amount of time. Then I noticed this:

and thisand this.

Ayden's face as I uncover more and more hidden piles

I guess this is better than nothing!

Left Out

AJ is now tall enough to see out the window. So, when the big boys go outside and play, AJ will stand at the window and watch and cry and scream. Then, he runs to the front door hoping that one of them will come back. Then, back again to the window for another round of screaming to them. It's so sad but he will be out there causing trouble with them in no time!

One time today, while this was happening Ayden noticed AJ in the window. He came in the front door and said, "AJ...kisses?" AJ ran over to him and gave him a big smooch on the lips. It was sooo sweet!

Spooner Farms

Ashten tried his best to push the wheelbarrow

Ashten, Anderson, and AydenThis house was pretty coolMy little pumpkin headsPumpkin Patch Rules: If you can lift it...you can have itOk, so Ashten could lift it but thought it was easier to kick it to the wheelbarrow AJ just kept running...And falling.We had fun going through the free corn maze. I would run ahead and the kids would scream for me to come back...ok so maybe it was just me that had fun in the maze.
While watching AJ, Daddy tried to catch a snooze while we did the corn maze
AJ slept of courseMooooo!
On the mark, get set, GO! Giddy Up!
Ayden peeking out the jail window
My big boys
This picture was taken in October 2004. This is the first time we went to Spooner Farms. Ayden was about to turn one and I was 5 months pregnant with Ashten. Boy have things changed.

Armand came home early at noon today so that we could go to the pumpkin patch for Family Home Evening. I'm going to keep this short as there are plenty of pics to tell the whole story! We had a great time!

Ashten's at it Again

Ashten...you're so silly Ayden doesn't even know what to think
This morning I had a really bad headache, so I was laying on the couch half asleep with my eyes covered. I heard Ayden whisper, "Come on Ashten let's show Mommy...she will think it's funny." Then I heard Ashten answer back, "No, Mommy will be mad!" I gave it a few minutes not knowing what they were talking about and I wanted to see what they would choose to do. They chose not to show me. So, I got up and went to see what I was missing. Needless to say, Mommy thought it was funny!

More Than Meets the Eye

Ashten and Armand having a war Even Ayden joined in the fun

When we were on our trip to Rexburg, we stopped at the DI there one day. Ashten choose out two Transformers (only $1.00 each). He was so excited to get them because he knew Daddy would love to play with them too. After a few days of Daddy being home but mostly sleeping, Ashten was finally able to get Daddy awake enough to play with him. He was so happy and Ashten was right, Daddy did have fun playing with the Transformer toys also.

Is it a Ghost?

Nope it's AJ Anderson was sleepy at church of course, so towards the end of church, Daddy, Me, and AJ went in the hall and waited for classes to get out. I put the blankie over AJ thinking he would just take it right off. Instead, he left it on for over ten minutes. At first he sat really still. Then, he started tipping over like he was about to fall asleep and then he'd catch himself and sit back up straight. Then he decided to start spinning around and around on his bottom. He finally stopped when the kids started running through the halls after church. What a goofball.

The Itsy Bitsy Spiders

Ashten playing with the "Googly Eyes"Ayden building his spiderAshten with his "dancing spider"

Ayden liked using lots of colors for his spiders We were supposed to go to the Pumpkin Patch today, but all week I have been preparing for Super Saturday and after a stressful week and a long day we decided that it would be more fun to go on Monday for Family Home Evening. Luckily we did, because I had planned to have the kids make these little spider candies to give out to their friends and teachers and today was pretty much the last day to get it done so that we could hand them out at church on Sunday. The kids did a lot of whining! They really didn't seem to want to do an activity, which was very frustrating to me cause I would have been fine taking a nap or watching tv. After awhile, they... well Ayden anyway, got into it and made all of the goodies for his class, his "3" teachers (I think he only has one), and two for himself. We had a pretty good time...well I did anyway. Just a little side note: On Thursday, I picked up 30 of these peppermint candies for their project and I came home later that day after some other errands and found that the three kids had eaten all but 3 of them!