{Halloween & October Happenings}

Well October was such a blast & busier than ever! I am excited the holiday busy-ness is upon us!

First, we had General Conference which is always so great & uplifting! 

Our sessions consisted of snuggling our handsome little guy!

 While the boys went to Priesthood the girls got pedi's! Here Charlotte & Emmett are playing. She is just waiting for him to actually be a little bit more mobile and then they will be mischief makers together! 

We also had a delicious brunch Sunday morning with Pierce's family and our family friends the Krogs.

Of course when you think of October-- you think of Halloween! The festivities started a few weeks early when I went to the Witch's Night Out at Gardner Village with my step-mom & sisters. My Aunt & cousins also joined us along with my step-mom's sister Jackie! We went to dinner at Chili's and then headed over- it was PACKED so we didn't stay long-- just long enough to get fudge :)

Sweet Vampires!

Cousin Sarah, Step-Sisters: Taycie, Taylor & Tahni, Jackie & me!

Me & my step-mom & sisters.

We got to carve pumpkins with my sister & her boyfriend Isaiah!

Pierce de-gunking.

Cuties

Isaiah's 'Y' pumpkin &  Bree's Bat pumpkin

We look awesome- don't we!? Nope, not our costumes!!

I call mine "I want my Mummy" & Pierce says his design is "The Joker"

Some of the other happenings in October:

We hung out with this little lady & her mama!

If you can't tell- he fell asleep holding his foot!

My Little Pumpkin

Learning how to hold a bottle!

We got a membership to the Aquarium with Helen & Charlotte!

Best Buddies

We went to City Creek one day with Nana & Bree.

We had some great Halloween Parties we got to go too. The first one Chase & Helen threw for some couples in their ward and from school. I don't have any pictures and Pierce & I didn't dress up but it was a BLAST!

Second, we had my dad & step-mom throw a little Halloween dinner & Party. 

And lastly, HALLOWEEN!

We had found Emmett's Darth Vader costume on Amazon a while ago and thought it was cute! We weren't going to dress up but then decided that we needed to get in on the fun! I think our last minute costumes turned out well! We got to visit my mom, the Gleason's, Brian & Mindy and ended with Granny Liz & Papa Jeff. 

Emmett with Nana

My sweetheart & me!

Pretty Much Sums up how tired we were!

Hope everyone's October & Halloween was as great as ours!

{Liz's Birthday Bash: Part 2}

Saturday evening, they got the kids a babysitter and all the adults went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then Hunger Games. Emmett was a stinker and was up in my ribs at the start of the movie and was making me just super uncomfortable and so Pierce and I ended up having to leave early but we had seen it already so I wasn't too mad at Emmett ;)

Sunday: we all got up at 9 am and went to Jeff & Liz's sacrament, it was HOT in there (at least for me haha) and then Pierce and I went home because we had to teach our sunday school class and the rest of the group had brunch- sad we missed out on that! 

Then Pierce and I were in charge of the Easter Egg Hunt for the grandkids, so we set that all up and had fun watching them run around and gather all the eggs. It will be weird next Easter when Emmett is running around- ok maybe not running but still haha! 

We had "bunny bucks" in some of the eggs that the kids cashed in for a big present along with all the candy- Ava got a Barbie, Locke got a Lego car and the babies got Animal Books. They all also got a picture of Jesus with a child. It turned out really fun and successful I think!

Easter dinner was delish! My family got to come to dinner and they went back for thirds I'm pretty sure! Cade made the meal and it was heaven! I don't even think there were much left overs. Also, we got my mom's cake pops....and chocolate pie! It might possibly be one of my favorite things.

Sunday night Chase and Helen put together these family games all about Liz or the year she was born etc... it was so fun and we won some soap- which we really needed so thanks guys!

It turned out to be a great weekend- busy- but great and I am glad that I got to celebrate a wonderful woman's birthday in such a great way! Happy Birthday Liz, we love you!

{Liz's Birthday Bash: Part 1}

So Pierce's mom just turned 50 this past week and we wanted to celebrate in a big way....for about a month or so, Pierce's siblings and dad had coordinated that all the kids and grandkids to fly out on Friday to surprise her. It was really hard for me to live this double life and a few times I almost spilled the beans...luckily I didn't!! Anyway, her actual birthday was Thursday- so Wednesday night, we went to the airport and picked up a lovable puppy for her gift from Jeff. It was partly a distraction so she wouldn't suspect anything in the next 2 days and also because she loves Newfoundland dogs.

Thursday, Liz's good friends threw a surprise birthday lunch for her at Tuscany that I got to go to-- so delicious and fun to see her surprised! They gave her a hard time with all the "Over the Hill" and "Old Age" stuff but I hope I look like that at age 50!

 Thursday night, we had to watch the new puppy Louie so Jeff could take Liz on a special birthday dinner. She kept wanting Pierce and I to come but we had to make up about 100 different stories about why we should just go out on Friday etc.... luckily (luckily? or unluckily?) Pierce is a great liar and got her convinced we should just go grab some dinner and a movie Friday so she agreed.  Chelsea and Travis flew in with their kids that night and stayed at a hotel so we got to quickly say hi to them that night!

Friday morning, we got up and Chelsea came over and we went and ran errands for the party that night. Everyone else was flying in and Pierce had to be at work to keep up the story and in case Liz stopped by to see him and Jeff. She was really tired from the um-- puppy/monster and tried to get out of doing anything with us, but Pierce knew how to convince her to come and meet for at least dinner (wink wink). 

We got the party set up once everyone arrived and then Jeff got to the restaurant early so we could have the hostess lady tell Liz and Jeff we would be eating in the private room...she pulled back the doors and we were all standing there and yelled Surprise!! Needless to say, she was surprised and she is a hard person to dupe! We enjoyed dinner at Joy Luck and then went back to the house for cake and ice cream. The cake was divine!

Saturday Morning: we all met up at Johanna's Kitchen for breakfast and then headed up to Hogle Zoo!

Here are some favorite pictures from there, Pierce took a majority of them!