October Love #6

There are plenty of things to love about October. the crisp air, the colors on the trees, the food, the cuddling at night, but most of all this year was the

Halloween Fun!

Halloween day was quite enjoyable.

frisbee

mummy hot dogs

grocery store trunk or treat

rain

pizza party with aunt, uncle, and baby cousin

neighborhood trick or treating

and then plenty of this

(do you think it will last until Christmas?)

Two days before Halloween was just as fun.

Dressing up and meeting cousins at the nearest witch party at Gardner Village. I have taken the kids every years for the last four or five years and we love it. We usually see the same witches, but it never gets boring. Unfortunately no pictures of them, however we have some even better pics!

The boys love Uncle Ry, however they were slightly nervous when they saw him walking towards them.

Leonardo (without the turtle shell), knight in shining armor, ghost, tiger, Mario (with a turtle shell), a bat and then a bunch of cute kiddos underneath.

At first Corbin was going to be Mario, then after I made the hat, it was too small. He decided on something else. (and changed his mind five other times after that). I am biased, but I thought Levi looked too adorable in the hat not to have him be Mario.

Ealier this year we got the old school Nintendo. We love it. The boys think it is the greatest technology around. (That's my boys, we don't need high tech stuff.) We don't play it as much as we used to, but a month ago I thought it would be so fun to have Corbs be Mario, Tay be Luigi, and Levi be Yoshi. Levi loves to watch Yoshi (the little green dino). He runs around yelling "Soshi, Soshi!! Lellow Soshi, Green Soshi, Red Soshi!" Saying he loves Yoshi is an understatement.

However the kids want to be what they want to be. I think I am now learning that you just have to laugh and go with the flow, let kids be what they want. (within reason) It's for them anyway.

So back to the point. Again, I am biased, but I do think Levi is pretty darn cute in this.

After Gardner Village we went to Daddy's work for a little Trick or Treating.

Work has been good to us. I am so blessed to have an amazing husband who excels at what he does. He is continuing to educate himself. He never stops learning. He sacrifices A LOT to give us a better life and to give our kids a headstart so that when they are ready to enter this world of working, they will be even better prepared. Thank you so much for what you do. We LOVE you!

So for the boys to go and see Daddy's work place was excellent. After we left the boys asked why Daddy didn't come home with us. I told them he needed to continue working so that he can continue to take care of us. They seemed even more grateful this day.

Levi LOVES huckise. What are huckise, you ask? Suckers of course. And we are NOT correcting him on that one. It's too cute. As we were leaving, Levi was getting frustrated, so Justin went over to him and asked him what was wrong. Levi showed him that the balloon string was wrapped around his sucker. Justin said, "oh, is the balloon trying to take your huckie." Levi said in a said voice,

"yah, bloon taking Feevies Hucki."

(don't mess around with Levi's huckise, we have learned that)

I really do love the month of October! It was almost perfect this year. Now onto a great month of November and singing Christmas songs...right?

(the boys have requested for me to sing them baby Jesus songs the last two nights. I never get sick of it.)

October Love #5

Counting down the days to a day full of pretending and candy.

The countdown is on for one of the kids favorite holidays. Halloween is way more fun with kids and I love feeding off of their excitement. This year since we have the house up for sale, we didn't do too many decorations. (Don't think it would be a good selling point if I had creepy, gross things all over the house.) But the kids shouldn't suffer so instead we made a 13 day count down to Halloween. It has been so much fun to see them get excited about it.

Corbin comes home from school and heads straight for the countdown and pulls out the tag that tells us what we are going to do that day. Somedays have been harder because after he reads it I tell the boys we have to wait until daddy gets home. It's been a good lesson on patience.

I have really quite enjoyed it because it hasn't been overwhelming and helps me to focus on the fun of it all.

This night in particular was hilarious.

We had a trick night.

We each had to pull out a slip of paper and do what it said on it.

Whistle "I am a Child of God"

Play patty cake

Write your name and draw a self portrait in 15 seconds

Howl at the moon

Pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time

Waltz with someone

Yodel

to name a few.

We were laughing so hard. It was hilarious, although Corbin didn't love Waltzing with me. Can you beleive it? He's already embarrassed by that and we were in our own home! And someone's certain husband purposely picked yodeling for her.

It was a good night.

October Love #4

Halloween Party with Cousins.

We love our cousins and we love every chance to get together with them. (and I love the chance to see their moms and grandma)

It was the perfect day and ALL the kids looked so cute in their costumes. I have not finished the boys costumes yet so they got to pick from the costume box for the party.

Power Ranger

Night in Shining Armor

Batman rescuing the baby.

Little Red Riding Hood.

Miss America.

Adorable, shy, baby batman.

A Halloween Party is not complete until the dry ice comes out.

The Mummy Game. Boys against Girls.

Boys won for being the fastest. Two rolls of toilet paper

Girls won for actually making a mummy. One roll +

one more. Good job girls!

And lastly, decorating Halloween cookies. It was a VERY good thing that Mandi had plenty of frosting, sprinkles, and candy!

It was such a fun day. Thank you Mandi for allowing 16 energetic, adorable kids to come to your home and play! (which happens to be the most beautiful home) It was so memorable.

Now, a little humor from my dad.

"The Olive Garden"

October Love #3

Homemade Donuts when it's chilly outside.

And better yet, giving the boys some baking lessons. I really love to bake, it's so relaxing for me, Justin can tell you that I bake WAY more than when we were first married. When Corbin was old enough to stand on a chair and watch me, he was old enough to help me. When we were bored during the day, we baked. (Which is not a good habit to get into, trust me.)

When this time of year rolls around, I find our oven is on quite a bit more than usual. We go through flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin, chocolate chips, apples, and nuts so much more. When we make these, oil seems to go fast. But it's ALL worth it!

(We don't have a donut cutter, but we get along just fine)

It's hard work, but in the end, it pays off.

Sinking our teeth into these is heavenly.
(Taylor did not want his picture taken while enjoying each and every bite)
(thanks Nicole and Abe for the recipe, we have had these every year since you gave it to us three years ago)

October Love #2

Football Game and Birthday Party with Cousins on a crisp, cool October Day.

Huddle Time

That birthday boy has got an arm. Impressive.

What a catch!

Get him Jords. (And that of course is our kiddo, just chillin.)

What a play, so close Corbin.

The only girl cousin was holding her own. Trying so hard to tackle the birthday boy.

After a great game of football,we had a treasure hunt that led to these cupcakes. It is tradition in the Morris Family to let all the kids have a candle to blow out. They LOVE it. (in case you were wondering, those are ghosts.)We love Cousins...and football...and cupcakes....and being together!! (they just moved back two months ago after being gone for three years. We LOVE it!)

October Love #1

My sister-in-law is taking this month to write the reasons why she loves October. I thought I would follow in her footsteps and do the same.

There are so many reasons why I love October and this year it started out so right. And this is why.

General Conference was so great this year. (but when isn't it?)

I really enjoyed sitting back and really paying attention to every talk. Of course every year there are some talks that stand out more to me than others, but all of them have such great things to say and are meant to be said at this time.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: I have loved every talk of his in the last couple of years. This year, I appreciate how humble he was and how grateful he was for every member of the church. And then how grateful he was to his sweet parents who sacrificed so much during his mission so that he would have all the money in his bank account when he got back. When I heard this, tears were rolling down my cheeks because this is exactly what Jusin's parents did for him. And he had no idea. This gave Justin such a great start to his life when he got back and especially when we got married. Ever since I heard that Justin's parents did that, I said that is exactly what I want for our children and now hearing Elder Hollands talk just renewed my excitement to do this. Especially since we have three future missionaries.

Elder Dieter F. Uchdorf: I love this man so much. He makes me smile every time I see him. And the amount of optimism he has, I want to be that way so much. His talk probably hit me the most this time. Ever. single. word. was perfect and just what I have longed to hear and just how I want my life to be. If you are feeling down or frustrated, read this. If priorities are not feeling right, read this. If you need to get away from worldly things, read this. One of my favorite lines that I will definatly print out is:

"In family relationship love is really spelled t-i-m-e, time."

President Thomas S. Monson: I am so grateful to know we have a prophet. I love our prophet. I love his words. I love this talk. It has taught me to be more thankful and not be so caught up in things that really don't matter (even if we can't sell our house, we have just what we need and that is what matters). There are so many great things taught to me in this talk. I love how President Monson ended:

"Let us follow Him. Let us emulate His example. Let us obey His words. By so doing, we give to Him the divine gift of gratitude."

There were so many other great talks (this one was quite good, thank you President Packer!) and I can't wait to listen to all of them over and over to remind me that we only have one chance at this life and I want to do it right and not look back with ANY regrets! These talks help get me there.

What a great start to a great month!