Maura's outfit of the day...very unique.

She's not a shoe wearer...only likes flip flops.  She also likes to do her hair on her own.  Not crazy about me helping in any way.   

Love this girl!

Early Birthday!

Maura's birthday is coming up soon!  Grandma and Grandpa Russell sent her a card in the mail and she just couldn't wait to open it!

 Lucky girl got some money!

 She was very very excited!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Russell!

Halloween Costumes!

The Ninja

 Crazy soccer player.

Maura changed her mind about costumes 3 or 4 times.  

First she wanted to be a spider skeleton.  

Then a warewolf spider ninja. 

We couldn't figure out how to do those costumes...

 So, for the neighborhood carnival we were witches together (I think she just wanted to wear the fake eyelashes and the sparkly lipstick).

Then this is what she chose for Trick-or-treating.

I think she said it was a "Skeleton ghost with blood".

 

We love to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  The weather is always good, just a little cool but not so cool that you have to wear coats and boots!  Everyone in the neighborhood sits outside with their pumpkins and treats and it's a good way to meet the neighbors! I really love it!  

Before it gets dark most neighbors gather in driveways with their friends and have dinner.  This year we joined the Woolf and Grimes family.  We had spooky food like "Trolls toes", "Swamp Stew", "Mummy Rolls" and such.  It's a good way to get kids to eat a healthy dinner before sending them off to gorge on candy!

After we coerced the kids into eating some dinner they were anxious to start knocking on doors!  I sent Trenton home to hand out candy while I walked with Maura for a bit.  Maura loves everything spooky!  She loved the houses that had decorations and people dressed up in scary costumes.

In addition to trick-or-treating, Maura also carried a small box around for UNICEF.  Her school collects money each year at Halloween.  Maura did a great job explaining what she was doing.  She had an entire script; "You can help kids who don't have water, and cookies, and shots, and schools and doctors. (She got this from the pictures on the back of the little box)  I am collecting money for UNICEF.  Will you help?"   That was the general gist of it...sometimes it was MUCH longer.  I love that she was willing to help and that she wasn't afraid to ask!

Dallin wanted to go with a couple friends on his own because evidently I slow him down!  He spent the evening roaming the neighborhood with a pack of friends his age. Jeff did the same thing.  He found some friends and terrorized the neighborhood.  they were both too old for the pumpkin treat collecting baskets, so they got their pillowcases-much more cool.

I'm thinking their trick-or-treating days are coming to an end soon....they are getting pretty old!

The only problem I have for this time of year is I never buy enough candy! I thought for sure this year I was prepared! I bought 6 bags of the giant Halloween mix stuff and I still ran out!   Kids started coming about 6pm and at 8pm I had to shut off the lights and go inside.  It was a steady stream of ghosts and ghouls and princesses (and their parents...seriously??) for two hours!! Even after the lights were off, we had kids knocking!  It's a super fun event!  

Another reason I love, Love, LOVE my neighborhood!

Pumpkin Slaughter

It's a tradition at our house.  Each kid got to hack away at their own pumpkin.

 Love how Maura has to use her tongue to concentrate!

Evidently Dallin uses his tongue too!

Not Jeff.

 Say "cheese".

 The scary pumpkins!  It's hard to see, but Jeff put airsoft bb's in his, and they had an eerie glow!

 Modeling the pumpkins (and the outfit of the day)

Our Jack-o-lanterns don't last long here in the warm weather.  We carve them two days before Halloween and they are always moldy and green within a day or so.  I wish they would last longer...I sure do love seeing them!

Very Fashionable!

I give up.  I try to help Maura get dressed and she won't have it!  I suggest what she should wear and she always chooses the exact opposite.  So, I give up.  I've decided that I should just be grateful that she gets herself dressed and hope people understand that she is not homeless, and she does own more than one pair of shoes.

So, instead of saying anything, I'm just going to document them.  Someday she will look back on these and laugh!! OR maybe someday she will be a world famous designer and remember this as her first exploration into clothing design...

This is the outfit of the day...actually it's quite nice.

This was yesterday.  Note the tied sweater, and the belt for a head band.

I'm sure there will be many more outfits to come!

Look out Vera Wang!

 Jones Party!

To celebrate Dallin's 12th birthday and him being ordained to be a Deacon, we invited the Jones clan to come party at our house.

It was a good old fashioned Jones party with popcorn, chips and salsa, and home made ice cream! Several people brought their ice cream makers...one of them was a hand-crank machine!  Everyone took turns turning the crank.

 This is what we do best at a Jones party; eat, sit around, and hug on the little babies.

 Jonesy shared some fun Cowboy poetry with us.

 

 

 He had a good audience.

 

 

 Ellen made sure to get a lot of pictures!

 Well, hello Kylan!

Thanks for coming everyone! It was a fun party....can't wait until next time!

The Soccer Star!

Jeff is a soccer player! He's on a competitive league and is really dedicated.  We get to see him play once in a while and this was a great game!

Showing his skills before the game...

 Grandpa Jonesy was in town and we got to hang out with him during the game.  He was resting his foot that got smashed by a horse.  It's mostly better, just gets sore.

 Action during the game...

Action on the side lines...

Jeff does a really great job!  He's fast, he hustles and loves to play!