All Hallow's Eve

I'm loving Halloween more and more with my kids! It's so fun watching them decide on their costumes and be so excited about everything!  Addy knew she would be Elsa. Because she got the special Elsa dress from Uncle Beannie, grandma didn't have to make hers this year.  Liam knew he wanted to be Emmet from the Lego movie. Grandma did an awesome job creating his vest.  It was so cool! And then we decided Finn needed to be Olaf. He LOVED his costume and made the cutest Olaf you ever did see. We did our annual Trunk or Treat at the church (which I went to after work so I didn't get any photos).  And then it was wonderful that Halloween was on a Friday AND it was NV day so everyone had the day off from school.  We went to GG and Grandpa-Great's (GG made the girls the perfect scarves for their costumes), and then to our annual stop of Brent and Elise's. Addy fell in love with their new granddaughter.  Then we got to go on our hay ride!  It was wonderful that it was a day off because Nana and Papa got to join us. This year I was prepared and packed every single type of asthma and allergy medication we have. I made sure we did a breathing treatment before the hayride and everything went off without a hitch and no ER visits! Hooray! Finn stuck with those big kids trick-or-treating. He thinks he's a big kid or something. ;)  He refused to let ANYONE carry his bucket for him.  If daddy tried, he pulled it back.  He also may or may not have eaten fully wrapped candy. We had a very fun and successful Halloween!

Addy's First Primary Program

It seems that our primary program always follows the kids' birthday parties which is awesome. Nana has been able to be at every single one of our kids' primary programs which is so special.  This was exceptionally a special day because it was Addy's first primary program. Addy had been very diligent in practicing her part. They let the kids have a say in their parts. Addy decided to say, "I feel love from my parents when they take me to the park." Liam's part was "Prophets of old set examples for us to live by today. Jesus was baptized by John the baptist like I was baptized by my dad this summer." Liam sang in a quartet beautifully. Addy did fantastic on the sign language they did for one song. Primary programs are always such amazing times for me. I'm pretty sure I beam from ear to ear the entire time watching my littles shine. I'm so proud to be their mommy.









I think Daddy was chasing Finn while we were snapping photos so we didn't get one with Daddy. :( but he was there!

Earrings

For months, Addy had been telling me how she wants an earring collection and to get her ears pierced.  When I was little, my mom made us wait until we decided we wanted it done for ourselves, and then she allowed us to get them when we were four.  I felt like that was reasonable, so we did the same.  I made sure to prepare Addy that it feels like a shot,etc, and what  exactly would be happening. She stuck firm to her decision that she wanted to do it and told me "mom! it'll only hurt for a second. shots only hurt for a second."  So Nana decided that they would get Addy's ears pierced for her birthday and would start her earring collection. Izzy has had her ears pierced since she was a baby, so she wanted to come along to hold Addy's hands which I thought was the sweetest thing ever.  We went right after their Frozen party, so we took the two Elsas to the mall and everyone oohed and aahed over their beauty. Even the women at Claire's loved their dresses and took their photo for the official Claire's Instagram. If I had a dollar for every person that asked where we got the dresses I'd be a millionaire!  Addy chose little pink flower earrings that were darling. As they were getting her set up Izzy whispered to Nana "I hope I don't cry." It was so so cute how concerned she was about Addy. I also got a little nervous and didn't want to watch!  Izzy was such a good helper and held her hands the entire time. They were both so brave. Addy didn't make a peep, but when the whole thing was over she put her face in her hands and cried for a minute. I think it was a combo of the anticipation, the stinging and the loud noise. But the tears were soon over and she was THRILLED with her earrings. She has done really awesome with them as well. She always reminded me to clean them every morning and night.  She LOVES changing them almost daily now and there is never a fuss about any of it.  It was a really fun girl afternoon. And I can't believe my girl is big enough to have pierced ears!

 

A Very Cool Party

We decided to go ahead and do Addy and Finn's birthday party combined again this year. At this point, they have a lot of the same friends and it's still super fun for them to have a combine party- and less stress for me. So win-win.  The theme was easy to decide. Finn has been pretty much obsessed with Frozen since this summer, and of course, like any four year old girl, Addy was in love with it as well.

Back in April, I had been trying to find an Elsa dress for Addy.  She was very specific that she wanted the ice blue Elsa dress. Well, at that point, so did every single child on the planet. You couldn't find anElsa dress anywhere.  I enlisted Uncle Beannie's help thinking he may be able to find one at Disneyland. No luck. A few weeks later he called me and told me that a friend of his who worked at a Disney store said they were getting shipment of Elsa dresses.  He went down and was entered into a raffle to win the OPPORTUNITY to purchase an Elsa dress. I'm telling you! He was the last name who got drawn and he was able to get one for Addy!  I decided because it was such a special treat, to wait until her birthday to give it to her. Her reaction did not disappoint. She was thrilled to pieces with it!  My friend Natalie even did her hair in a special Elsa braid to complete her birthday party look.

The cakes were more simple this year, but I still love how they turned out. I tried to recreate the scene from the movie where they finally make it to the ice castle. All of the kids loved the cakes. I'll never get tired of my kids being so excited over their birthday cakes.

We had lots offriends and family join us for their party. We played old fashioned party games ( ie, the clothespin and cotton ball games from my childhood).  The kids had a blast playing together and enjoying each other's company. It was fun for me to have so many little princesses join the party as well!  Finn loved running around like a crazy man and especially loved the balloons and his new car from Nana and Papa.