The Rest of October...

Allison's dance studio had a "Bring a Friend Day". She invited her friend Keira. Precious little ballerinas.

 We had a sick little fella. Vapor bubble baths at 5am sure help baby boys feel better though. Is there anything we won't do for our little ones? Nope!

 During our weekend get away to Park City Benson stood up (by himself, over and over again) for the first time and Alli loved going swimming in the great hot tubs (all 6 of them, constantly changing, um, it was cold always getting out!). I should remember to write a post about our whole adventure up there. Later.

 The kids had their pictures taken at an apple orchard in Alpine. I was beyond excited to go to this location. It's kind of been a dream of mine for a while and lucky me, I won a photo session at a Relief Society "talent" auction. All the sisters either made something(like bows, jewelry, cookies), auctioned skills(computer training, tutoring, making homemade pizza), or bought something to be auctioned(goody baskets, Great Harvest bread)....shopping is a talent after all, and many other items. I love that I won this session because we will be able to have these treasures forever! Thanks to our fabulous photographer. How cute are these two kids?! We love them SO much!

Halloween Hullabaloo

Our Halloween Hullabaloo started the Saturday before Halloween with our ward Halloween party. 

 They had a children's parade. The costumes were all adorable! Allison and her friend Stephanie walked together holding hands. It is wonderful to have nice friends at church and these girls are so dang cute together!

 My {maybe} favorite part of Alli's costume was the little heart on her bum. Love it. Made me smile every time I saw that tooshie.

 They did a fabulous job putting on this activity. Plenty of games, candy, and even some magic.

Not to mention, some pretty awesome decorations!

 The next day we had a Halloween party with Dave's family. Costumes included Giants fans, care bears, witches, studs, and the casuals. The girls brought desserts/treats and Papa made chili. We chatted, watched baseball, carved pumpkins, and ate and ate.
We love spending time with our family and we all love Halloween!

 Finally, it was actually Halloween! And you know what that means......Trick or Treat! The kiddos were all ready to go; so off we went, enjoying the 70 degree temperature. They had a blast. Allison was a champ at ringing doorbells. Kim and Lacy came down to see the kids so they went around with us for a bit. We went out early so we could be back to pass out candy at our house. We made pizza, watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman, and passed out a lot of candy. Both kids loved going to the door to give out candy. It was so exciting and Allison loved choosing which candy pieces to give out. She is so funny.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and we had a fantastic Happy Halloween! Hope you did too!

Cookies!

Last night after Benson was in bed we let Alli stay up and decorate Halloween cookies. She is so creative and knows exactly how she wants things to be. She was great at giving us directions about what to do and then taking over from there. Truthfully, we pray that she can always remain the little leader that she is. 

Cornbelly's

We were amazed at all the fun October/Harvest/Halloween fun they had there. 100% though the winner was Pumpkin Princess Playland. We spent a lot of time there. Allison loved that they had a sparkling horse drawn pumpkin carriage, princess dresses for all the little girls (and more costumes for the boys), a stage to dance on, a little market, a castle bounce house, and more. She was in little girl heaven! There were so many other fun things to see and activities to do, too. Benson loved all the slides and horse swings. If it hadn't turned so cold and if Allison was not terrified of the giant scarecrow wandering around we could have stayed for hours more. 

Pretty sure we have a new tradition to add to our list. 

Pumpkin Patch

 Alli was quite nervous when we had her sit by these scarecrows. It didn't help that we started walking away and told her they were her new parents. Mean, maybe too mean, she is afraid of scarecrows now. We are sorry little love. 

Love them.

Basket o' Fun

September

 

 Every year the State Fair happens in September and every year we love to go. I am a believer in keeping traditions and this is one of our favorites. It is fun to see lots of animals, eat "fair food", ride ponies and, our favorite, the big yellow slide.

 Allison loves taking pictures. This day she asked to take my picture and wanted me to make funny faces. We took turns taking pictures and made funny faces, kissy faces, sad faces. This photo shoot ended with her request of a picture of her dancing. She is a beautiful girl. I love playing with my best friend.

 We had a Labor Day/end of Summer party at my mom and dad's house. It was a great day full of new toys, lawn games, swimming, water fights, and yummy barbecue. Oh, and the highlight may have been my 6 foot 5 inch brother climbing in and hanging out in the wading pool with his little girl Eva. It was quite the sight!

 The kids and I asked Labu Phillips to go on a date with us to the children's museum Discovery Gateway. This was Benson's first time there and there was a lot of exploring and playing to do, for both kids. It seemed Allison's favorite thing to do was to pick up the mail from all the different mail boxes and then re-deliver them. She did this over and over. But she said her favorite thing was playing in the house. You know, the house she spent the least amount of time in. :) Guess we can't read minds. Benson loved the helicopter and both of them loved the Chinese Dragon that came through while we were there. Alli just needed a little reassurance and an explanation from Labu.

At Thanksgiving Point they had The Harvest Festival or as we like the call it, The Pumpkin Party. We watched a bit of the giant pumpkin weigh off, met the Pumpkin Princess, ate lunch, got faces and legs painted, and took a lot of pumpkin pictures before heading through the rose garden and over to The Barn. We visited with the cows, horses, goats, llamas, turkeys, and ducks. Then we went on a pony ride and a wagon ride. It was a very fun day. I consider this to be our official kick-off to Fall and to the holidays. I don't know about you but I include Halloween in the "holiday seasons" because, well, it is my favorite. This is my favorite time of year!

August

 Grandpa Sanders turned 93! It was nice to get together with some of our family and have a birthday party. My mom thought it would be cool and easier to use glow sticks instead of candles. I loved how it looked with all the lights off! And Grandpa didn't have to wear himself out trying to blow out 93 candles! Do you think that many candles would fit on a cake? Happy Birthday Grandpa, you are wonderful!

 Our adorable little sweetheart started her second year of preschool. She loves going to school. Her teacher is Miss Dawn. Allison's two favorite things at school are playing kitties on the playground and playing up in the loft.

 After her first day at school Aunt Kim took Alli to the zoo to celebrate her birthday. Benson and I tagged along. Thanks, we had a great time!

 The new Rocky Shores exhibit opened and wow, we loved it! The seals and sea lions were really fun to see but the polar bear stole the show. He would start on his big rock, dive down under the water and then pop up right in front of the window. It was so exciting! "Oh hello, Mr. Polar Bear." He did this over and over and over and we watched him for a looooong time.

These pictures break and warm my heart at the same time. Our little girl no longer needs to stand on her tip-toes to get a drink. Oh, Alli Bear, we love that you are healthy and growing but feel free to linger at these stages a little longer. No need to rush this growing up business.

Random from January and February

Couldn't let these pictures just waste away in my computer files.

 Allison's Preschool Class

 Handsome Ben

 Cuddle Time

 Sleeping Child Transportation

 A Cute, Tiny Baby Girl

 Hi Mom!

 Painting in the Tub

 Beautiful Ballerina

 Exploring and Playing

Sunday Nap