Halloween was a week of PARTIES!! (and a doctor's appointment)

I love holidays. I love everything about them. I love the different smells, treats, colors, activities, traditions (the list could keep going) that are associated with each holiday throughout the year. Halloween is no different. I absolutely love it!! I love pumpkins (carved, painted, plain), I love costumes (scary, cute, original, simple, kids, adults) I love halloween food (candy, pumpkin shaped sugar cookies, chili, carmel apples) I love parties (music time, school costume parades, adult dress-up parties)...it is so much fun!! I think this holiday makes me feel like a kid again and it is so much more fun having kids to enjoy this crazy holiday!

We spent Monday trying to get unpacked from our vacation and getting the finishing touches done with everyone's costumes. Tuesday I took the kids to the doctors for a check-up and flu shots. Here are some of their stats and also what they are doing at this age.

Jantsen is 4 years old. He 38 lbs (59%) and is 42 1/4 inches tall (75%). These are some of the things he is doing at this age:

• He goes to preschool Monday-Friday for 3 hours in the afternoon.
• His favorite thing to do at school are puzzles.
• He loves to eat cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs, quesadillas, spaghetti (any pasta) and pizza. He also loves corn (on the cob, frozen, warmed up...anyway he will take it), carrots, bananas, mandarin oranges, grapes, and apples. He is more of our healthy eater.
• He absolutely loves riding his bike everyday
• He is learning to sound out words.
• He lovesBOOKS... looking at (by himself) and reading (with mom or dad). He can spend an hour in his room going through all his books.
• A new favorite thing to do is have mom or dad help him add and subtract with our fingers.
• He usually sleeps for about 12 hours at night.
• He still sleeps with his blue blanket (from Grandma Nana).
• He still loves to play with trains, trucks (ones that pull trailers), motorcycles, and cars.
• He wants to be a motorcycle driver or a train driver when he grows up.
• He is much more independent and can dress himself and get himself ready for the day (brush his teeth and do his hair)
• Because he likes being more independent, it is harder to get him to do exactly what we want. He wants to do it his way. We are working on obedience and telling the truth with him.
• He does a great job entertaining himself. He can spend hours downstairs in the toy room playing with his train set and he totally happy to do it!

Kambryn is almost 19 months. She weighs 25 lbs (58%) and is 33 1/2 inches tall (90%). Here are some things that she is doing at this age:

• She has been learning alot of words lately. Some of her favorite words are "shu"(shoe), "maa" (mom), "Daaa" (Dad) "Nooo" (No!) "cho cho" (train), "go", "hewoa" (hello), "wawal" (waffle) "woo-woof" (dog).
• She can sign a few words like please, thank you, more, this, and go.
• My favorite animal sound that she makes is that of an elephant (she also puts her arm next to her nose and raises it in the air when she says it)
• She likes to wave at other kids.
• She does a good job going to nursery, eventhough she is alittle reserved while she is there.
• She knows how to throw a tantrum and is so stubborn that it takes alot to soothe her.
• She has the cutest girlie run (she runs on her toes with short little steps).
• She hides behind the curtains and blinds when she goes to the bathroom and then walks up to Kyle or I and points to her bum and says "Bum" signifying that she needs to be changed (but I am not ready to start the potty training stuff yet)
• She loves waffles, cheese, scrambled eggs, hot dogs, french fries, fruit snacks, and bananas. She is a really difficult eater and it is a struggle to get her to eat a variety of food. (she is our greasy fatty food eater)
• She usually sleeps about 13 hours at night. She loves her pink blanket (from Grandma Nana) and still takes a binky at nap and night time.
• She has a hard time staying in one place for a long period of time. She gets restless and wants to be involved in something else after a short period. It is hard to get alot done while she is awake (my main cleaning time is when she is down at night or taking a nap). She is just very busy!!

Wednesday we had a Halloween party for music time. It was a fun, chaotic, and super cute party. All the kids looked adorable in their costumes. They sang some songs, played some games, and had treats at the end. It was a fun start to the beginning of our halloween activities!

Jantsen our little pirate! "Aaarrr Matey"

Kambryn the dainty fairy.

Thursday we went to Kyle's Law School for a halloween parade. A few of the professors and some of the organizations/clubs at the law school handed out candy to the kids. Jantsen and Kambryn walked away with some pretty good loot...king sized candy bars are going to make the rest of trick-or-treating alittle anti-climatic. But we had a great time and the kids always love going to "daddy's school"!

Some of the cute "law school" kids. Creighton (monkey), Jackson (batman), Jantsen (pirate), Kambryn (fairy), and Kate (ladybug). Happy Halloween from Creighton University School of Law!

Finally HALLOWEEN!! Friday was busy!! Jantsen had a "Harvest Gathering Party" (a good way to hide that they are having a Halloween party...something about the school district not wanting to celebrate halloween. Kindof a funny term to call it...Harvest Gathering?? Whatever...ha) But Jantsen wasn't allowed to wear his costume but he was able to wear his Pirate black shirt so he was still happy that he could show off as much pirate stuff that he could. He was pretty excited to be a pirate, sword and all!! He of course brought home even more candy...(it just went into the bowl of candy we were going to hand out to all the kids. With our kids being so young we were able to get away with taking their candy and them not noticing much difference. Not for long I am sure though).

Anyways, so after Jantsen got home from school Kyle and I had to go out and find a costume for the 2 of us. (Keri, Ashley, Tiffannee and I were putting on an adult costume party that night.) I also had to get some decorations and other things for the party. So we set out as a family and were going crazy because we couldn't find ANYTHING and all the party stores were mad chaos. So anyways, we finally got home around 5:00 (with all the necessities we needed). We got the kids ready for trick-or-treating around Village Green. The weather was AMAZING!! 75 degrees for Halloween...What?! Who would have thought. But it was perfect for taking the kids around. Kyle stayed behind to do the passing out candy duty and I took the kids around. It was actually more like chasing down Jantsen, trying to keep Kambryn away from the slides and swings, carrying both their candy bags, and trying to capture the moments on my camera (I gave up on the camera option and try to keep the night fun for the kids...Oh well for lots of pictures).

We finally got the kids to bed after a dinner of corndogs, chicken nuggets (anything that was a quick pull out of the freezer), and of course some halloween candy! Thanks to Kyle for getting them all ready for bed so I could help decorate the clubhouse for our fabulous party! Oh it looked AMAZING! The party was such a fun time and a total success! Kyle and I dressed up as crazed BYU and U of U fans. Everyone had great costumes, there were yummy treats, we played fun games (the newly wed game and guess what character you are) and had a blast laughing and hanging out with everyone! It was also a great night without kids! Happy Halloween!