~Thanksgiving~

Our Thanksgiving weekend, or I should say week, was jam packed with fun family get togethers, and lots and lots, well, WAY too much food! Mike's sister Jenae and her family were here from New Mexico for the week, so we got together lots to spend time with them! We had so much fun, but the week went way too fast!

For Thanksgiving, Mike and I decided to make our very first from scratch, homemade pie! Yes, we've been married 10 years and have been too afraid to attempt it all this time, but after making it we realized it wasn't that hard! We made this apple pie using my brother's wife Sarah's family recipe - my favorite! Oh, and on a side note, I got to take all of our Thanksgiving pics with my early birthday/Christmas present, my first SLR camera! I am in love with it, but have a lot to learn, which I'm excited about! Anyway, back to the pie! :) Not completely perfect, but we were excited we actually did it.....

On Thanksgiving, we got together with Mike's family at his sister Mindy's house. I didn't pull out the camera during dinner - I didn't think everyone would like getting pics stuffing themselves! But, we had a great meal with everything you can think of, and then the kids all went out to play outside! We had the best weather I can remember having here during Thanksgiving weekend, and we were loving it!!

We have the cutest little boy nephews in the world! They are only a few weeks apart in age and are so much fun, but it is so hard to get a pic of the two of them together! Here Mike's bro Kurt is trying to hold them down long enough to get a shot.....it was only partly successful!

Then it was pie time! I love how Mike's family does dessert for Thanksgiving. We all bring at least a couple of pies, so we have tons and try to sample all of them! (I don't think this pic even shows half of them!)

Ashton enjoying his pie!

We finished the night playing a fun game together, and here's Mike ending his hard day of eating with an after Thanksgiving massage! His sister Kara is a massage therapist....it's kind of nice to have one of those in the family!

She Finally LOST IT!

Last night Brayden finally lost her first front tooth, which is only her 3rd lost tooth in total! This one has been a long time coming, I swear it's been loose for like a year. Ashton knocked into it and made it bleed at Disneyland and we thought she'd lose it then, but here we are 3 weeks later and it took Ashton and her goofing off and him knocking into her again last night, and it finally came out! She doesn't look that different because she has always been a tooth grinder and grinded her baby teeth down to little stubs, (a reason it's taking so long for her teeth to come out!), but to me she still looks so cute without her front tooth! And now she matches her little brother with his missing tooth of 4 years! :)

Her tooth was so tiny I put it in this bag so she wouldn't lose it!

The toothfairy gave her $4!

~H~A~L~L~O~W~E~E~N~

Since we had our long trip at the beginning of the month, most of our Halloween fun had to be squished into pretty much 1 week! It's been a little crazy, but fun!

The night of Brayden's baptism we had our annual neighborhood party! I love dressing up, so I always look forward to our fun adult party! Thanks to the McCann's who hosted this year! This is us before the party.....

At the party.....

I love seeing what costumes everyone comes up with every year! So much fun!

It has become tradition that whenever my parents babysit for us for our party, they do pumpkins with the kids! My parents love having the kids to help them keep up their tradition of doing pumpkins, I love it because I don't have to gut or carve any pumpkins, and of course, the kids just plain love it! It's win-win for us all! :) Brayden took pics with her new camera - they had a blast!

Brayden's zombie princess pumpkin missing her arm.....

Ashton's creepy pirate pumpkin.....

Then of course there's the traditional sugar cookies! The kids don't let me forget about that!

The kids both have dance class on the same night, and last week they got to dress up and have a little Halloween party in each of their classes!

Every year Brayden's dance class does a little Halloween dance for the parents. It's always so cute! They do great! Here's her class...

Saturday we went to a couple of haunted houses with my parents - one was in their neighborhood, and another was in a neighborhood by the kids' school, both free. I forgot to get pics, but they were really fun, and perfect for the kids until they are ready for the real ones! On Halloween I was sick, so it sucked I couldn't enjoy the day more, but the kids both had fun at their school Halloween parties. Later, as soon as Brayden got home, Mike was ready to take her and Ashton to his work for trick-or-treating there where they always get more candy than when they do our whole neighborhood! Here they are at Mike's work!

I thought the kids might be okay with passing on trick-or-treating at home since they already had too much candy, but they decided they still wanted to, so off they went! This is the first year we let Brayden go off by herself with her friends, and Mike took Ashton around. Here the kids are ready to go!

I had to get a closeup of his makeup...he made me put it on him as soon as he got home from school at noon. Somehow it lasted until bedtime, with just minor touch-ups!

Too much candy!!!

Ashton wanted me to take a pic of him looking surprised at how much candy he got! Ha ha!

Okay, I'm tired. I need a long break before the next holiday, but I have a feeling it will be coming on fast!! :)