Trick or Treat!

I felt bad that we didn’t really hand out treats last year, so this year I decided to send Lennard out with the kids while I stayed home to hand out treats.  The kids were SO excited to go trick or treating, but I didn’t manage to get a few pictures before they took off!

 

I don’t love Halloween (sorry to those who do).  I definitely don’t go all out getting costumes for our kids either.  I went through the dress-ups that we’d been given and found some that fit the kids… hence… Ben was a horse and Emma a lady bug!  (I did buy the lady bug costume at a garage sale for $10). 

 

I laugh every time I look at this picture of Emma.  She was being so silly.  They don’t look too excited to head out in this picture, but they just weren’t very happy to have to wait while I took pictures of them!

Off they go!  Lennard took them to a few homes to people we know who live close by and then after about half an hour came and got the truck.  By then I had only passed out candy to about a dozen kids, so I went out with them for a bit.  It was fun to watch their reactions.

We went to the community party at the high school for a few minutes afterwards, but it wasn’t anything too crazy.  We headed home and they got to see what they’d got for treats.  We’ve definitely got more candy than we need in this house!

Primary Halloween Party

The Young Men and Young Women of our ward put on a party for the Primary age kids and their families.  It was so much fun!  The kids had a blast!  There were all kinds of different booths: Mad Scientist touchy feely things, bite a donut off a string without using your hands, decorating a pumpkin, basketball, bean bag toss, helium balloons, cotton candy, ‘digging’ for apples, face painting, fish pond, spook alley, etc.  There were also hot dogs, chips and water for refreshments. 

Emma wouldn’t try the donuts on a string, but Ben got right in there… he just grabbed the donut with his hands and took a big old bite!  It was hilarious to try to explain to him that he couldn’t use his hands.  He just kept grabbing the donut and getting another bite. 

The kids got to ‘dig’ for apples in shredded paper… each ‘apple’ was a bag filled with goodies for them – vampire teeth, plastic bug, etc.

The fish pond was a hit.  Each kid got a popcorn hand with a whole sheet of stickers.  Emma thought the stickers were the best part of the night!  Ben wouldn’t get anything on his face, but Emma got a pink and purple flower on her cheek (Thanks, Micah H.)

There was a great turn out and I was very thankful that the youth did such a good job (and that I wasn’t in charge of everything!).  We had a lot of fun as a family! 

Had to laugh at how many people didn’t ‘get’ our costumes… The ‘Nichols’ really know how to dress up!

FHE – Halloween Edition

We were given a few pumpkins this year (thanks Deb!) and the kids were SO excited to get to carve them.  We decided that we would carve them as our Family Home Evening activity and then copped out and only carved one of them!  Oh well… the kids had fun. 

They weren’t too impressed with the slimy insides, but pretty soon got right in to scraping them out.

 

The final product.  Nothing too crazy, but good enough for them!

Happy Halloween!

Snow!

  

Both Emma and Ben LOVE being outside.  It doesn’t matter what the weather is – they want to be out in it!  They just about jumped out of their skin when it started snowing and snowing and … snowing!  It was their dreams come true!  We couldn’t get them dressed up quick enough.  Ben spent most of his time shovelling the snow ONTO the sidewalk, while Emma wandered around ‘snacking’ on the snow!

Tales for Tots

I’ve always seen things advertised at the library for kids, but after one attempt at attending at Easter time, I wasn’t brave enough to even think about going again for a while. (Up and down, getting in to things, not listening, etc.)  I finally decided to see how the kids would do again and went to the Tales for Tots at the library. 

Even though there were some rough patches, it went a lot better than last time.  Maybe because it was a smaller group, or it might be that they are just a bit older now… who knows.  Ben didn’t want to participate in the story time and wanted to go home until they announced that we could go do a craft and then he had a lot of fun.  Emma wanted a snack five minutes after we arrived, but after a bit of whining, she settled down and did pretty good.  They had fun learning about the letter L and the color yellow and then got to paint leaves to add to the decorative tree.  They loved playing with the eye droppers full of paint!

 

The pictures aren’t great (taken on my iPhone), but it’s better than nothing!

This evening as we were waiting for Lennard to get home from work I had a bit more time to let them ‘help’ make dinner.  We got in some practice with ‘knife-skills’!  Thanks, Debbi, for the kid-proof knives!  They loved being able to cut up the hot dogs all by themselves!

 

Family Home Evening

For FHE tonight we decided to do a short lesson outside while we got a fire going to roast marshmellows.  The kids did pretty good sitting for our five minute lesson on being nice to each other and then we switched gears and let them play.  We got quite the show put on for us as both kids would climb the stairs on the deck and sing at the top of their lungs.  (I’m sure the neighbors enjoyed our FHE too!)

The fire finally burned down enough to get a few marshmellows roasted (burned).  The kids loved it and that’s all that counts!

Ben kept hiding every time I tried to take his picture until this one… then he posed for me.  So funny.

As you can see… Emma enjoyed her marshmellows!

After the lesson, singing, roasting marshmellows, jumping on the trampoline with them, etc.  Emma looked at us and asked, “Are we going to do anything fun tonight?”  Not sure what her definition of fun is… but I guess we didn’t make the cut tonight… better luck next week!

Happy Birthday!

After Stake Conference today we had my parents over to eat dinner with us.  It just happened to be my dad’s 62nd birthday too, so we made a ‘party’ out of it!  Emma was thrilled to sing to Grandpa and was disappointed that we didn’t pull out the party hats!

 

Don’t you just love the fancy ‘cake’ we had?!  I feel blessed to live so close to my parents and that my kids get a chance to see their grandparents so often.  Love you, Dad!  Happy Birthday!

Note:  We wish Grandpa Nichols was closer so we could see him more often!  (hint! hint!)

Snow!

After the beautiful weather we’ve been having, it was a shock to the system to see snow coming down this morning!  The kids were THRILLED!  They immediately wanted to go outside.  I managed to keep them inside for a bit, but once breakfast was done, they were ready to go out and enjoy the first snowfall of the year.  I bundled them up in their new winter coats and boots and off they went. 

It was so fun watching them shovelling the snow off the trampoline.  They had so much fun.  Although, Ben found out that snow is cold… especially when it ends up down your neck!  (Wonder how it got there?!)

When they got too cold to continue outside, they came in and got changed into dry clothes.  Emma wanted her pajamas, so that what she put on!  Can you tell what they had for a snack?  Yup… chocolate pudding!

Emma was being so silly as I tried to get a picture of her… I never did get a good smile out of her, but I still laugh whenever I see these!  Ben just looked at me and smiled.  What a funny boy.

Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving by inviting my side of the family over for dinner!  We missed Dave & Nysha and Mike & Melissa as they had other plans.  We still fed 30 people!  (Would have been another 8 with them!)  Rachel had their exchange student, Laura (from Spain), with them as well.  With that many people to feed I totally wimped out and pulled out the paper plates.  I know some people are gasping in horror right now… but until you come volunteer to wash dishes… yup, the paper plates stay!  We had turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, macaroni salad, pistachio salad, squash, roasted carrots & parsnips, orzo, rolls, devilled eggs, pickles, olives, pumpkin pie, and apple pie.  Yum! 

We made a buffet line and everyone filled up.  We had two tables in the dining room and one in the living room and managed to have enough seating for everyone!

          

It was Roger’s birthday as well, so we made one of the apple pies into a ‘birthday cake’ for him!  We also sang to Dan and Matt who’s birthday’s were a few days before and to Dad who’s birthday is in six days!

 

We all hung out afterwards and visited… at least until most of the guys decided to go try out Roger’s new gun that he got for his birthday.  Lennard pulled out his guns as well and they all went shooting for an hour or so.

 

Cub hung out at the house and kept Lucas entertained, while the rest of the kids played outside!  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect.  The kids played outside most of the afternoon and, for the most part, got along really well.  I love this picture of Emma in mid-air!

I am truly grateful for the amazing family that I have.  We may not get along all the time, but when it comes down to it, I know that they will always have my back no matter what.  Some of my very best friends in this world are my mom and sisters.  I don’t know what I would do without their friendship and love. 

This past week Lennard has been away in Ponoka for a live-line course for work.  It has made me even more thankful for him and all he does.  I am definitely not made out to parent alone!  I am so thankful that we are going through this life together.  Emma and Ben are the icing on the cake.  They make me laugh (and groan) more than I could have ever imagined.  They make me stop and see the world through their eyes.  What an amazing gift we have been given to be their parents.