Halloween

Halloween was fun and crazy as usually =)  The kids all had class parties, and I spent the hour running in between each classroom trying to make sure each of them got equal time.  I managed to snap a quick picture of each before dashing to the next party.

 Alexis was sad that the middle schoolers didn't get to dress up.  But they still had a great "social" and  got plenty of treats.  I took a few pictures of her and they all turned out like this because she was talking a mile a minute =)

After school we headed over to grandma and grandpa's to have some Papa Murphy's pumpkin shaped pizzas and get ready for trunk or treat.  I bought some red hair dye at Tori's request, and Alexis and Levi both wanted to use some too.  They tried to talk me into dying Scarlett's hair too, but I decided against that =)

Here is Tori our Vapriress  (I don't really know how to spell that)

 Scarlett as our little owl (not a bat as many people thought)

Alexis was Red Riding Hood  (Someone told her she looked just like the girl who played Red Riding Hood in the movie that came out a while ago.  That made her day.)  She looks so grown up to me in this picture. 

And  Levi was our SWAT team guy.   Nana and Daddy took the three older kids to pick out costumes, and I was surprised by his choice.  But he totally rocked it, and it was the perfect costume for him =)

The whole bunch! I can't believe all these cuties are ours =) 

Daniel and Charbel met us at mom and dad's for dinner and to go to Trunk or Treat.  Benji was a police man, and the cutest little policeman I have ever seen.  He got so many compliments on how cute he was.  When we were trick or treating a lady even screamed (literally) to her husband to come and see him.  He even had a badge that said Sheriff Benjamin.

Grandma, Grandpa and Michael all came with us to trunk or treat too.  It was fun to have them there.  I love this picture of my mom and Michael with Scarlett because it shows how much Scarlett is adored around here =)

Grandma and Grandpa manned the candy.  I thought I had bought a ton of candy, but we were one of the first ones out! I told them to give each kid only one, but with my dad in charge of the candy I am sure it didn't exactly happen that way =) 

After Trunk or Treating we headed over to Nana and Papa's house to trick or treat in their neighborhood.  It's our favorite place to trick or treat because so many people decorate so fun for Halloween and they always give lots of Candy =)  

Here is the gang before we headed out trick or treating. 

 And it wouldn't be Halloween without the creepy old man mask.  Although this mask seems to make an appearance quite often, not just at Halloween.  We have gotten far too much entertainment out of this thing.

We stayed out trick or treating for a few hours.  Daniel and Charbel were such good sports to run from house to house carrying Benji so that they could keep up with my kids who couldn't get to the houses fast enough!  Michael even pitched in carrying Benji for a while.  They must have been so exhausted but they never complained!  It was so fun to have Daniel, Charbel, Benji and Michael trick or treat with us this year.

When we got home the kids had to count all their loot.  Then all got an insane amount of candy, around 300 pieces each! 

It was a very successful Halloween, and we have been eating candy ever since! haha

Fall Pictures

I am so behind on blogging and have a lot to catch up on!  For now I will just share some pictures I took of the kids last week when they were on fall break.  I have been wanting to take some pictures of the kids for a while. But I get way to stressed about it.  I always want things to be perfect and so it always turns out being  so stressful.  I did get some cute pictures out of it though.  Here are a few of my favorites

                           
                            

 I could get pretty much no pictures of Scarlett looking at the camera.  She was more interested in playing with and eating all of the leaves that were surrounding her.  We will have to try a different day again with her =)

 I had a great vision for this picture, but as you can see, it didn't work out.  Apparently the sun was too bright. lol

 Finally I let the kids play on the playground.  This was Scarlett's first time in a swing!  I know she doesn't look thrilled, but that's just because by this point she was exhausted.  She really did like it though.

I thought this was cute =)  Tori and Levi swung like this forever

So, even though it was a little hectic, I love how some of the pictures turned out.  Maybe now I can give some updated pictures to the grandparents =)

Sound Asleep

I have so many pictures of Tori falling asleep in weird positions and places.  When I went to check on her tonight before I headed to bed this is how I found her:

That can't be comfortable!! LOL

Scarlett at 6 months

A half a year has gone by since our sweet Scarlett joined our family.  She has brought nothing but pure joy to our family.  (Well maybe a few sleepless nights too, but that's OK)  Scarlett is growing and changing so much every day.  She has her own personality and is so much fun. Here are some things we want to remember about Scarlett at six months:

• She doesn't have her 6 months appointment until next week, but when I weighed her at home she was 15 pounds on the dot.
• She is wearing 3-6 month clothes and some 6-9 month. 
• She's in size 2 diapers.
• She seems to have gotten a lot taller because all of her jammies suddenly didn't fit overnight!  She had to wear onsies for jammies for a few days until I could get to the store to get some new jammies that fit!
• She is now rolling all over the place.  I put her under her play mat and in a matter of minutes she has rolled across the room to whatever she had her eye on to play with.  This also poses some problems at bed time though.  I will lay her down and after a few minutes I hear her making all sorts of noises.  When I check on her she is happy as a clam playing on her tummy.  I roll her back to her back, and after a few times doing this she will finally fall asleep.
• She is still waking up a few times a night. 
• She starts out in her crib, but then after she wakes up I move her into the play pen in our room.
• She started doing this really loud squeal.  She will do it over and over until we look over at her and then she will burst into the hugest grin.
• She loves to be outside.  When I go running she grins and smiles the whole time as I push her in the stroller.
• She loves to grab onto whatever is in front of her.
• When I give her a bath she loves to suck on the washcloth.  I will start to wash her face and she will immediately grab the washcloth and start sucking away!
• She recently discovered her toes, and loves to play with them.  
• She has tried sweet potatoes, peas, bananas, oatmeal and rice cereal.  The rice cereal didn't agree with her, so we are just doing oatmeal now.  She loves sweet potatoes and bananas.  I started bananas and peas really close together and one of them isn't agreeing with her so I have stopped those and will introduce them one at a time to see what one is OK.  I have been making her baby food and am loving it
• She still has a little patch of hair on the top of her hair, that looks like a comb over if I don't put anything in it =) 
• This past month I have started calling Scarlett "Scarly" and "Scarly Scar"  It's funny the nicknames that just develop =)
• Scarlett is still a binky girl through and through =)

I did a little 6 month photo shoot with Scarlett.  I love how they turned out!

 Alexis was such a big help getting her to smile.  She is also such a big help with Scarlett.  Scarlett loves her so much and Alexis can always get her to calm down if she is crying.  She loves to get her to sleep and put her in her bed for her naps.  We're still working on the diaper changing =)

Here are some pictures I got of her sucking her washcloth one night in her bath.  Her facial expressions crack me up!

Here she is playing with her toes. I love it!

 She loves playing with cousin Jack since he has been here all Summer.  They will smile and smile at each other.  They both have grabbed each other's hair on occasion and the other day Scarlett stole Jack's binky and stuck it in her mouth.  We will be so sad when Katie, Forrest and him go back to Provo next week =(

This past month we also got to have all four of the baby cousins together again at the family reunion.  It will be fun to continue to get pictures of the all together as they grow older.

 I love this brown head band but I don't have her wear it too often because on more then one occasion I have had people make comments that when they first glanced at her they thought she just had a huge blob of hair in the front! haha

 Scarlett loves books.  Not to read, but to chew on =)

 She is still the source of a lot of entertainment for the kids.  Alexis decided to put her in the laundry basket one day and carry her around.  I know Scarlett doesn't look amused but she actually really liked it =)  The funny thing is, I have a picture of Alexis when she was about the same age in a basket full of laundry.

 This same day Alexis decided to do some other funny photos:

Poor Girl! 

We sure love our little Scarlett =)