Kids, Costumes, and Candy

This "Halloween Week" has been quite an eventful one! Monday night Emma and Jackson had their annual Halloween piano recital which is always fun. The children dress up for this recital which is nice because it forces me to have Halloween costumes ready before the day of!! It also gives us a practice run to see how long it will take to get everyone ready!! We actually made it to the recital on time. Yea for us!!

Here are the older 4 at the recital. We didn't dress up Calvin and Chloe for this one. Not because we didn't feel they needed to be, but because we still hadn't figured out their costumes yet! Jackson is Harry Potter and Emma is a beautiful Victorian Lady!

Gracie is a witch and Ruby is a Fairy Princess... not just a fairy, but a fairy PRINCESS!

Ruby had her Halloween party for preschool this week. There are some very nice ladies in our ward who wanted to do a little preschool together where we all take turns teaching one week a month. I told them that Ruby would not be able to do that this year because there was NO WAY that I would be able to take my turn teaching with new babies and that I couldn't gaurantee that I could have Ruby at their homes by 9:30 in the morning! They wanted Ruby anyway and are now taking turns being in charge of the week I would teach, and they pick her up and bring her home! There are special blessings coming their way!

Here is a picture of Ruby with a few of her preschool friends, Kenidi & Wyatt...

Thursday was our ward "Trunk or Treat". This is always a great activity. We spent all day Thursday making chili and pumpkin cookies to bring. Sean had a great idea of making tombstones for everyone and putting them in the back of his truck for when the "trunk or treaters" came to get candy. So, on top of the chili & cookies, we were also painting tombstones. Can you say "messy house"?

Here are Cal Pal & Chloe all cozed up....

We did decide on costumes for them... a bee for him and a flower for her!

One thing I have noticed with twins is how difficult it is to get them to smile at the same time! But we did it.... after I don't know how many tries!

We had originally wanted Calvin to be Charlie Brown because of his big bald head, but we couldn't find a Lucy costume for Chloe. And since we already had a bee costume from when Jack was a baby...


a flower would be perfect!

Friday finally came and it started with a Halloween parade at the kiddo's school. Here is Gracie with her class. She is on the right in her witch costume...

The kids got out of school early and we headed to the grandparents' homes for some trick or treating! This whole week was quite busy for Ruby, so when it was time for the Halloween picture she was completely zonked out!

But she did eventually wake up and was all ready for some fun trick or treating!

All in all it was a fun week with kids, costumes and candy! But now it is nice to have the kids clean, the costumes put away, and the candy hidden! So, until next year, Happy Halloween!!

I Know It's Been A While...

So, here's what's been happening since the last post...

Gracie had her last soccer game :(... She is in the white shirt on the right. Don't you love her hair flying in the wind!?

Ruby had been sick and was not able to go to preschool on Monday (very devastating). But, she was able to go back on Wednesday, and both she and I were VERY HAPPY!

Gracie's 1st grade class went to the Pumpkin Patch for a field trip. Sean was able to have the day off so we were able to go with her. Nothing says Fall like a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

Chloe slept through most of it!

Gracie is in the back to the right. Her teacher is Mrs. Pachner! We really like her.

And lastly, I went on my first official walk with the babies! All I can say is something had better be toned after these walks... it took FOREVER to get all 3 of us ready and out of the house. Here the babies are all bundled up...

Calvin was NOT very happy about all of this!

I know that there was nothing very exciting to report, but all the grandparents care about are the pictures anyway!!

It Runs In The Family

So, how did Sean and I end up with twins anyway?

Well, I read somewhere that if your father is a fraternal twin then he may pass that gene onto you (the daughter). It just so happens that my father IS a fraternal twin!! His mother, Betty Quayle Orchard Cunnington, gave birth to my dad, Dennis Orchard, & his twin brother, Doug...

How could I not post this picture?!

However, I never did think that twins would be a part of our family... especially after the struggles we experienced in getting the other ones here! And especially after we had 4 children already! 6 kids?! Who knew!!

But it sure is fun having twins (after they have been fed and changed and are both completely content!!)! Having a boy and a girl has been especially fun because you can dress them alike, but different...

Doesn't it look like they are holding hands?

They were given these cute little onesies as gifts...

The cutest part is on their little bums...

Don't you love their rolls?

So, Sean and I ended up with twins because of Grandma Betty... and what a wonderful blessing it has been!

Grandma Betty with her Great Grandchildren, Calvin & Chloe

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN!!

Sean and the kids at Boise Ranch Golf Course, where he got his Hole-In-One!

(July 2007)

Yeppers... today is Sean's birthday! So, in honor of SEAN we are going to celebrate some of his favorite things!!!! Here they are in no particular order:

Being With His Family
Boise State Broncos
Tomatoes
Homemade Tomato Soup
Salsa
Pollo Rey (in particular the green salsa)
The Presidents of the Church: Insights into Their Lives and Teachings, By Truman Madsen
Golfing
Watching Golf On TV
Happy Gilmore (and other Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell movies)
The Natural
Snowmobiling
Baseball
The Red Sox
Boston (where he served his mission)
Fox Sports NFL Football Theme Music
The Hymn, "Be Still My Soul"
Jackson Browne
The Color Blue (and orange!)
April 16th
Thanksgiving
The Office (the tv show)
His Kiddos Walking On His Back
Trucks
Watching His Kiddos Play Soccer, Basketball, Baseball, etc.
Autumn
His Feet Rubbed (by me!!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Snow Ghosts

Wow!! Here it is, October 10th, and it is SNOWING!! Because I am usually asleep by the time the weather portion of the news comes on, I had no idea that there was a chance of snow, or rain for that matter. When it did start raining the kiddos and I took some pictures:

I am glad that we started with the rain, because now we can see the evolution of the rain to snow:

We had just recently put out some Halloween decorations:

Poor little ghosts!

These ghosts gave my children an idea: SNOW GHOSTS!!

So, here they are getting ready:

And now, time to create!:

Emma was the only one who stuck with the task of building her "snow ghost". The other kiddos went into the backyard to play. Emma is on the deck, which is right off of our kitchen. On the other side of the deck is our backyard. While Emma was building her "snow ghost" Jackson was in the backyard throwing snowballs over the wall trying to hit Emma! It really was hilarious to watch through the sliding glass door and see these snowballs coming from over the honeysuckle!

She survived and was able to complete her snow ghost!:

After the kiddos were done they came in with cold hands,

and cold tummies! So we made some hot cocoa and cranked up the Christmas music!

Our October snow day had worn out our Little Ruby! She went upstairs and put herself to bed!:

Here is the aftermath of our "snow day":

In the meantime, while all of this had been going on, the snow had given Sean other ideas!:

Happy Snow Day Everyone!