Cornbellys!

We finally made it to Cornbelly's this year. We had so much fun last year that we wanted to go back again. The kids literally have a blast, there is so much to do that you can't get it all done in one night, we didn't even make it to the cornmaze. I can't believe the Halloween season is over, I love this time of the year and I feel like it has just slipped by.

MOooo!

The slide that the kids loved! I tried it out and actually got a little nervous towards the end. It really gets you going.

Costumes, soup, breadsticks & more...

Monday night we had our Halloween dinner with the Richards side of the family. Holly made 3 different kinds of yummy soup, delicious bread sticks and some real fattening donuts. All the kids came dressed up (and me) and they had a blast.

Bode the "lil stinker" and my "beautiful butterfly."

The awesome table decor.

Holly made little Halloween gift bags for all the grandkids. They had fun going and finding them in the dark with their flashlights. They were filled with so many fun things.


Thanks Holly and Charlie for the great night, we all had a blast and were very full by the end of the night.

I'm a Esme!

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Pumpkin Patch

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch, and thank goodness there were still TONS of pumpkins to choose from. Cooper kept on picking out little pumpkins for Peiton, I think she ended up with like 4 pumpkins when we were all said and done. Bode's favorite's were the rotten ones....yuck! He kept picking them up and putting them in the wheel barrel and I would quietly throw them out when he wasn't looking. They loved running up and down the pumpkin rows and running threw the corn maze. When it was time to go, I was loading Peiton in the car and Bode was still in the wagon (so I thought) I turned to get him and he was GONE! My heart sunk, I could not see him anywhere. I told Coop to run around and see if he could find him, I ran back to the pumpkins couldn't see him, there was a busy road (it was rush hour) right there and I couldn't see him there, and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw this man bringing Bode over to me. He had ran over to the tall corn stalks and was going on an adventure of his own. I was so scared, he runs off a lot, but usually I have him in the distance and know where he is, not this time and it scared me to death. I thanked the nice gentlemen that brought him and back and lectured Bode in the car as he looked at me with a daze on his face..."what did I do wrong mom?"

Coop picking out his pumpkin and Peiton's pumpkins

"Which one will it be?"...Ignore the crack:)

"Perfect!"

Riding the tractors

I am a child of God..

Today was our Primary Program in sacrament meeting. It was darling. I always look forward to the primary programs each year. I think it is probably one of every one's favorite sacrament meetings. First of all our primary presidency is so amazing, they love each and everyone of these kids and care so much about them. The program was so well put together and you felt the spirit so strong.
Bode was able to participate in the program this year. I had no idea how he would do when they started practicing. But, to my surprise he did great. During all of the practices, he stayed on the stand and just kind of sat there and did his thing. Today he was a little thrown off (he likes routine, and if he is off routine he isn't quite sure what to do and he gets pretty frustrated). So when we got there, he wasn't sitting on the stand like he had practiced, he was sitting down on the seats until it was the primaries turn, he didn't like this and thought it was his chance to run free around the church (we fight him with this EVERY Sunday). But, when the program started he went right up and sat in his seat, he was darling.
Anyway Cooper and Bode both had a part and Cooper did great, he said it clear and he sang darling (well what he sang, he sang darling...once again, not a big singer). Bode had a a little part and you know he still can't talk, so he needed a little help. Before each child said their parts, they were to say their names and then say "I am a child of God." One of the counselors that was helping Bode stood with him and said..."This is Bode Richards, and he is a Child of God....the tears came to my eyes, and they do again as I type this. It hit me again, right then, I thought how lucky I was to have this special Child of God, that brings so much joy to my life and then on the other hand he brings so much stress but I am so grateful for that because it teaches me patience, and you need it with this little guy. I am so blessed to be his mother and my family is so blessed to have him in our family, we couldn't imagine our life's without this little guy. He then continued by holding up a Book of Mormon and a big ole' Bode smile, which is to die for.

Like I said before, we have an amazing presidency. They have been so good with Bode and so good to take him off our hands and teach him the gospel and let him participate like all of the other children in the ward. I know they love him and want the best for him, even though they loose him every now and again...j/k:)

"Witchy Party"

A couple of year ago I was talking to my cute Aunt Sherilyn and she was telling me how she had a witch party every Halloween. I thought it sounded like so much fun! So this year I finally was able to put one together. I had a blast planning it and even more fun throwing it.

Here are the invites to the party. As you know, I am not the best rhymer, so bear with me on all the want-to-be rhyming.

All the fun, wild and crazy witches!

We had so MUCH food! We had over 30 people come and everyone was assigned, soup, a salad, finger dessert or drink...we had oodles and it was all so good!

The goodies were darling, look how creative people are, so much fun!

For one of the games I thought a road rally would be a blast. We were all in our witch costumes and we had to go out in public to show them off and this was a perfect thing to do. I went along in a car just so I could see everyone out and about and it was so fun to see all the witches running around the area and just trying to figure out the clues. Everyone did really well, they finished a lot faster than I thought they would.

Here are the clues. See if you can guess some of them.

I assigned everyone a team and a team name. The names I used were either witch movies or witch television shows.

After the road rally the teams were given a garbage bag that had a bunch of props in it and an assigned song they needed to karaoke with. The whole team had to participate and everyone did a great job. I was tempted to put the videos on my blog, but thought I probably shouldn't.

Here are the teams with their karaoke get-up on. Everyone got into it and had fun ( I hope they had fun, I had fun watching).

We then had a donut eating contest. There were some pretty fierce donut eaters...Stacy and Marcy:)

When all was said and done, the winning team was "Bewitched" and of coarse it had Stacy, my sister on it...who wins EVERYTHING! Good job ladies, you rocked! You all rocked!

I hope everyone had a great time, I sure did. It was so fun to see all the fun costumes and everyone just get along and have fun. I am so lucky to have such fun, happy (and a little scary) people in my life.

Happiness is being in the first grade....

Cooper had his 1st grade program on Thursday night. It was a really cute program. They sang some of the cutest songs, one being named "Happiness is..." they had actions, props and everything was so well put together. I did realize that Coop isn't much of a singer, I don't mean that he can't sing (he is just like his mother and has a beautiful voice...ha,ha,ha) he just doesn't like to sing. I think he maybe he sang 10 minutes worth of the 45 minute program, but he did sing and him just standing there, was to die for.

Collin and all the grandparents had special needs mutual so they weren't able to come, except for Grandpa Charlie, he sluffed special needs and came to see Coop, Coop loved him there.

Aren't they the cutest? This is Cooper's good friend Aly. They are in the same class and such cute friends.

My friend Lou lou, watched Peiton for me, I don't know what I would have done with her there. It would have been a nightmare. So thanks Lou for keeping the "little princess."

I still can't believe Cooper is in the 1st grade. He is such a big boy and growing on WAY to fast, I am not liking it at all. He is at such a perfect stage right now and I want to cherish all the fun times and the cute things he says right now. Love ya Coop!

*As we were driving to the performance, this is one of I and Cooper's conversation...

Coop: "Mom how far away are we? How much longer?" (I get this quite often)

Me: "We are almost there, about 5 minutes."

Coop: "Is it the long 5 minutes or the short 5 minutes?"