Halloween 2014

I have never been a huge Halloween person - I don't dress up and I'm not a party thrower, but my cute friends at the gym begged us to dress up for our workout - so I gave in. 

I do, however, LOVE the costumes my girls come up with. I wish we were a theme family, but they are all so independent with their likes and ideas that it would almost stunt their creativity!

Tyleigh wanted to be the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz.

Camryn wanted to be a pirate girl - peep her awesome lashes!

Carsyn found this half cheerleader - half football player costume. 

They all crack me up! I love them!

Cam's

I know I am a little biased when I say this, but all three of my girls have such amazing talents!

The latest fad at our house has been duct tape. It seems to entertain for hours, and the creations are endless.

Camryn got a great idea to make duct tape Tom's.

I have to admit I didn't think it could be done . . .

but she proved me wrong over and over again.

She has now made seven pairs total . . . all BY HERSELF!
Grandpa says she needs to market them as "Cam's" instead of Tom's!

Good job, Miss Creative!

Road Trip

We love Moab. It is seriously one of the coolest places in Utah.

We decided to take the girls on one last road trip before the weather wouldn't let us play anymore!

The weather was amazing - perfect for hiking . . .
but what would an adventure be without a little drama?!

Poor Carsyn had a tummy ache the whole way there. I thought for sure it was
an over-exaggerated attempt to get a soda, or maybe a case of being bored in the car.
The worst case scenario had to be car-sickness.

No such luck. It was flu.

She was devastated. We were devastated.
She begged to hike Delicate Arch anyway.

Against our better judgment, we agreed to let her.

She was such a trooper, especially considering how
delicate sage brush is as toilet paper!

We made it to the top, and as always, it was gorgeous!

It was a LONG hike back down,
(just ask Rod after carrying Carsyn half way down!)
but we made it, and at the end of the day,
we had a lot of fun in spite of it all!

We didn't make it to any other hikes, but we did go see good ol' Hole in the Rock - which is a unique adventure in and of itself . . . worth seeing ONCE in your lifetime!


Can't wait for the next adventure!

Pumpkins, pumpkins and MORE pumpkins!

It was a never-ending month of pumpkins, pumpkins and MORE pumpkins at our house!

The insurance company that Rod now works for owns 1000 acres of farmland in Green River.

They grow delicious watermelon, cantaloupe, other cool and yummy melons . . .

AND PUMPKINS!

They are very generous to their clients - and friends - and every other random person in the world - and give all of their melons and pumpkins away for FREE . . .

Which means that we got to be part of getting the pumpkins and melons where they needed to go! While we were more than ready for the month and pumpkins to end, we had a great time
being a part of the whole experience!

The pumpkin festivities started with the girls' school. The Banasky's (Rod's employer) donated pumpkins to every child at the elementary school (as well as several other schools throughout the state). Rod and the girls got to help pass them out to every kid . . . on the only day it snowed in October! Poor girls! They were FROZEN!

The kids were given the opportunity to take their pumpkins home, decorate them, and bring them back for a pumpkin decorating contest.

Our girls had a great time coming up with ideas for their own pumpkins,
and they turned out SO cute, but unfortunately because Rod and I were involved in the contest, their pumpkins couldn't get picked to win.



This is just a small glimpse of what the pumpkin contest looked like! There were over 460 entries! Rod and I could not pick because there were so many creative and fun entries - so we eliminated ourselves as the judges and assigned the job to others at the school that day!

One of the sixth grade classes came up with the idea to do a theme as a class. Each of the kids decorated their pumpkin as a character from Angry Birds. It was pretty creative . . . and it won them a pizza party!


Rod and I wanted the girls to see what the farm looked like with all of the pumpkins, so we took them on a little trip to Green River and Moab. They had a blast picking pumpkins and gourds all day, and would have been content doing nothing else for the rest of the weekend!


We brought several pumpkins home with us, and then decided that it would be fun to have Rod's boss drop off even more so we could have a pumpkin party at our house!

We had no idea just how many pumpkins we would actually end up with!
We had a great turn-out of friends and family and have decided to make it an annual event, so if you missed us this year, come join us next year!

I'm sure the neighbors thought we were crazy!
We were amazed that not one pumpkin got smashed until Halloween night!

We joined Rod's boss and his wife at the local rec center for a Halloween Extravaganza. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but we gave away NINE pallets of pumpkins to anyone that came! It was amazing - and who doesn't love free?!

Are you "pumpkined-out" yet?!?

We almost didn't carve any of our pumpkins because we were definitely getting "pumpkined-out", but we decided we couldn't break tradition and did it anyway!

The girls did most of it on their own, and they did a great job!

Carsyn's pumpkin

Tyleigh's pumpkin

Camryn's pumpkin

Thank Heavens Halloween . . . and the pumpkins are over . . . until next year!

Pumpkins!

It's so much fun to see these cute girls get more and more creative with their pumpkins each year . . . and we're happy to report that no one's pumpkin got stabbed to death this year! (See Here)