Halloween 2010

Well this year since Halloween fell on a Sunday everybody went Trick-or-Treating on Saturday night. We went to Grandma Moon's and Grandma and Grandpa Nye's for our big family Halloween dinner on Halloween day. This is our family all dressed up. Curt (Killer Gumby), Kaylee (Hermione from Harry Potter), Shelby (Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas), Austin (Spiderman), Kirsten (Witch...only because I have never been a witch) and Carson (Darth Vader). This was at Grandma Moon's house in her backyard.

This is a picture of Shelby the night she went Trick-or-Treating. This was her last year doing that so we let her go with her friends instead of with the family. She had a great time and with all her make-up on she looked kind of creepy. At school on the Friday before Halloween she was voted the scariest costume. I thought that was kind of cool!

Here is Carson. Curt was glad that he wanted to be Darth Vader. Too bad his light saber was a little bent! He enjoyed it though.

Kaylee had so much fun with her costume and was practicing how to do spells with her pretend wand ( a pencil) for days before Halloween. I guess it helped that we HAD to watch all the Harry Potter movies before Halloween. It gave her more spells to practice.


I thought Austin looked so cute in his costume. The only bad thing was that HE WOULD NOT even try on the mask. That was a definite NO! Other than that he liked his costume.

Here we are just being goofy...as always. Curt wanted the Gumby costume but then it was Halloween so he had to add in a sword with fake blood on it. I don't know where he gets these things but I'm always glad he comes up with them because life is never dull with him around!

This was at Grandma and Grandpa Nye's for the annual Halloween Dinner. This is with all the cousins dressed up in their costumes and then Grandma Jeannie is always there as well. It's great to have pictures with her!

A new tradition that was started last year is the making of the Witch's Brew (rootbeer) with Katie and Brad. They do such a great job and the kids love the fog!

Also started last year was the new annual pinata break. They go in turns from youngest to oldest and since Porter can't do it yet Austin was first.

Here is Carson swinging away at it.

Now it's Kaylee!

Now Shelby. She should be the one to go last since she is the first grandchild and the oldest but last year she didn't get a chance to hit it because Kaedan was so strong that he broke it before she could get to it. So this year she went before Kaedan since we all knew that Kaedan would break the thing apart. She came close though and then Kaedan finished it off.

This is what the table looked like inside Grandma's house. She always goes all out and it's so much fun. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Nye!!!

Pumpkin Carving Family Night

So for Family Home Evening last night we decided to carve our pumpkins that we got on the hay ride with Curt's brothers Jeff and Troy and their families. It was a lot of fun although I will admit that carving pumpkin night is not high up on my list of things to do. I have always hated getting my hands dirty especially in slimy, stinky, yucky pumpkin guts but once I get in there and get used to the smell (of course after I gag a few times) then it's not that bad and I start to have fun.

Curt got the job of cutting the tops off of all the pumpkins mainly because I was busy and he's just better at it than I am. There you go...I said it. He's a better pumpkin carver than I am (no big surprise there!)

This was Austin's first attempt at carving a pumpkin or at least being included in it. Can't you just see the mischief in those eyes?

Of course Shelby's a pro and she loves it!


Carson decided last year that he was NOT going to clean out his pumpkin. So this is a big step for him to do it himself this year...although I had to help him at the end. He did a pretty good job though on his own.


Austin stuck his hands in for a couple tries but then thought he wanted no more to do with that. If you look closely you can see pumpkin juice running down his arm. He was happy when we washed his hands off.

Kaylee loved all the pumpkin guts. She would put her hands in the box that held it all and smoosh the guts through her fingers with pure enjoyment. Truly, it made me cringe. She's not like me at all in that regard!

Curt was the Master Pumpkin Carver this year...as with every year. He bought a new tool that's like a mini saw for pumpkins and was so excited to try it. He helped Shelby with the mouth of her pumpkin because it was a lot of little cuts and this was the ultimate tool to use for that job!

Kaylee did her pumpkin all by herself. I drew the pattern on for her but she cut it out. I helped her get all the pieces out so that it didn't break the pumpkin but she was a one-woman show!

I did Austin's pumpkin since he was no longer interested in it but he loved the end result. I didn't want his to be a scary pumpkin...so we made his a scared pumpkin! It's awesome!

Curt also helped Carson with his...okay, Curt did Carson's for him because Carson chose a hard face to cut out. But he was happy with it and loves to take credit for it!

These are all our pumpkins. From left to right they are Kaylee's, Curt's, Shelby's, Carson's Austin's and mine.

Shelby did Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas. She wanted to do that one because she is being Sally from that movie for Halloween. We thought it was fitting. We also think hers is the scariest! Good job Shelby!!!

This is Curt's puking pumpkin! We loved this one because it is so funny. It's also more of a daylight pumpkin since you can't really see the throw-up in the dark!

This one was mine. I did my face on an angle just for something different.

This is Austin's scared pumpkin. I think it's funny!

This is Carson's pumpkin! That's a lot of teeth!

And here is Kaylee's pumpkin. When you see it for real it's kind of neat because her pumpkin kind of sits back a little bit so the face looks like it's looking up at you.

Happy Halloween everybody and happy pumpkin carving. For me, I'm done until next year!

Austin Turns 2 Years Old!!!

Well it's official...our baby is not a baby anymore but is now a toddler. On Saturday, October 23rd Austin turned 2 years old. Isn't he a funny boy?!!!

Right now he LOVES trains and gets so excited when he sees them and loves to play with Thomas the Train and have that playing in the background since he doesn't really watch TV that much, but he gets mad if you turn it off. So we decided that we would take him to the Union Station in Ogden to see the trains and go through the train museum.

When we got there he saw the trains and immediately wanted us to know they were there by saying, "Choo-choo, Choo-choo, Choo-choo," over and over again. He was so excited!!! This was the first train that we saw and it was HUGE!! It was a steam engine that was built back in the early 1900s. We thought it looked like the Polar Express. I couldn't believe the size of the wheels and you can't really see them but up higher there are some nuts that are the size of the palm of my hand. It was unreal!

Of course it was hard to get Austin to stand still long enough to get a picture but eventually we got one.

It was a cold day and kind of rainy but you can never resist a picture in front of a fountain no matter where you are!

Here is the birthday boy sitting in a replica of a caboose. He was all smiles the whole time we were there. It was so fun to see.

In one room there was this toy train that of course he had to see but surprisingly he didn't fight us when it was time to move on...probably because he was as excited to see what was coming up next as much as we were.

I love this picture. Aren't they cute?

This was his ABSOLUTE FAVORITE part of the whole museum. They had four model trains that were running on tracks and he loved to watch them over and over and over and over...well you get the idea. There was even a time when we moved on to see the Browning Guns museum and he wanted no part of that. We had to go back down and watch the trains again until everybody else was done.

They also had a classic car museum. This one was fun to see because the cars were absolutely pristine. They looked brand new. I couldn't believe how pretty they were. Of course Austin tolerated this part because he just liked the trains but the rest of us enjoyed it, especially Curt.

After Union Station we wanted to ride Front Runner down to Salt Lake. We were surprised how long it took us to get down to Salt Lake, about an hour but we were still glad we did it.

Austin was so happy once the train started moving. I love the look on his face!

When we got down to Salt Lake we went to the Gateway and had some lunch. Then made our way back to the train to get back home. By the time we got back to our car it was about 4:00 p.m. and he was exhausted. This is what happened on the way home.

He was so tired that when Shelby tried to get him to wake up by opening his eyes he was so tired that there was nothing behind his eyes. He was still asleep but with his eyes open. We laughed so hard! It was the funniest thing we've ever seen!

Later that night we had Grandma and Grandpa Nye and Grandma Moon over for cake and ice cream and to open presents. He got some more Thomas movies...

a remote control Thomas the Train...

some tracks for the train, some additional freight cars...

some PJs, some clothes, a talking Spencer train...

and a Thomas Flashlight.

Here was his cake. Of course it was a Thomas the Train cake. He loved it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

As for his growth:

Height: 36 in. = 93rd percentile

Weight: 29.3 lbs. 63rd percentile

He's as healthy as he can be and the doctor is very pleased with how he's growing and so are we!