October 2011 Events

So here we are in the middle of November and I'm just now getting our October pictures posted! Oh well...that's how I roll!!

I finally got my kids yearly pictures taken! I actually got them all three taken in September, but getting them posted now. Kayley's 6 year picture...

Cora's 4 year picture...
Rex's 1 year picture...it amazes me how much he changes in only a few months! He looks completely different to me now! But he'll be taking his 18 month picture very soon at the end of December!
And, October brought about my brave-ness. I finally let Kayley start riding the bus! This has always been a big fear of mine, but I finally broke down after her begging me for a couple of weeks. She only rides it on the way home as she would never be on time if she rode it in the morning. She loved it for the first couple of days, but then begged me to start picking her up again...but I quickly became accustomed to her riding it as this means leaving Rex (and sometimes Cora) asleep in their beds to finish their naps! Ahhh...bliss to me! But now she told me the other day that she does really like riding the bus and being a car-rider because she gets to do both and most of her friends have to one or the other.
I also got to go with Audrey for her "grandparents/special person" day at her school. It was so fun for me to go and let her show me everything at her school. She's the same age as Kayley so of course school is as exciting to her as it is to Kayley. They sang some fun songs for us, I ate lunch with her, we took pictures together, and then I even tried to teach her how to play teether ball on her playground. It was a lot of fun!
Then we also got to head down to Arkansas to meet our newest nephew, Jonas McKay Hufford. So cute!! Cora got her fill in with holding him....Rex won't hold still for her when she holds him now or at least when she tries to hold him, so she loved being able to hold him. Nick got some cuddle time in too. It was an interesting weekend with our hotel stay though...not the greatest, but we did get a breakfast...err I mean food in the morning! But there was a pool, or an oversized hot/cold tub that the cousins got to swim in together. I'm just glad that our girls are old enough now to not really have to have an adult to swim with them...it was freezing! I think the kids had more fun afterwards taking a bath together in the big tub at the house Michelle and Cassie were staying in. I took pictures, but decided it might not be good to post those pictures!
Kayley has been loving school and continues to do so! In fact tonight she was talking about how she wanted to stay up late so she could stay by me longer. I told her she'd be cranky for school the next day if she did that. She said she wouldn't because she loved school as much as she loves me. It made me melt a bit. But anyway, here is a picture of her in her class with one of her "book buddies"...an older kid who comes and reads with them or does activities with them. Here she is building an edible fire truck with her book buddy. And also take note of the boy next to her. This is Jack....she has not admitted it to me, but I think he think he's her boyfriend. The 2nd day of riding the bus someone asked Jack who his girlfriend was and he pointed to Kayley. She talks about him a lot. It's cute, but seriously...already in kindergarten I have to start worrying about this!?!? Oh...and she's really not that much taller than him, he's just sitting in a chair and Kayley is standing! There has been another boy in her class that says he wants to kiss her, etc. I've asked her what she should do if a boy tried to come kiss her...she didn't know and got all embarrassed. I've been teaching her to RUN, RUN, RUN!!!
Kayley also had her Kindergarten music program a couple of weeks ago. Cora, Rex, and I were able to go to the daytime program and then Sarah and her girls joined Nick and I and the kids for her evening program. Kayley was so excited to show Audrey and Lauren her classroom and wanted a picture to mark the event! She did so well in her program. It was so cute to watch her do all her hand motions...she knew everyone of them...and of course she knows all the words...she loves to sing. It was a program with all the nursery rhymes songs. It was cute! Note in the bottom left picture...she's standing by Jack...again!
And what is the month of October without a visit to the pumpkin patch!? The month of October was so nice weather-wise, but of course the one day that works for us to go with cousins to the patch it's freezing cold and the coldest day of the month! Oh well...they had fun anyway! The highlights were being able to be there with their cousins and play on the playground equipment and of course to ride the hayride to the pumpkin patch...or the field with all the pumpkins thrown in it! Rex was cute trying to pick up some of the big ones!
Audrey turned 6 in October so she had a very fun birthday party. Sarah always plans fantastic parties and they are always so much fun! We are excited to go to Lauren's! Audrey's theme was the very hungry caterpillar. So the kids pinned the feet on the caterpillar and had yummy cupcakes!
And of course one of Sarah's parties isn't complete without a fantastic piñata! I'm always so impressed with her piñata's...she seriously should sell them! It took a lot of hits for this one to be busted...then once a tiny hole was opened, Andrew helped the rest of the candy fall out. And if you notice on the bottom right, Rex even got to hone in on the piñata action! It was cute! But once he realized there was candy inside of it...he was ecstatic!
Then the weekend of Halloween was a 4 day weekend for both Kayley and Nick, which almost never happens so we took off to Branson for some Silver Dollar City fun and some relaxation! With it being the weekend before Halloween I tried to find some fun halloween activities for the kids to do since we would be missing our ward's trunk or treat and of course I always want to let the kids wear their costumes as much as possible. I had seen on Bass Pro's website that they were having this huge halloween event with crafts, trick or treating, picture with Charlie brown and the pumpkin patch display, and other fun stuff...so I was so excited to go to the bass pro at Branson Landing to let the kids have fun while Nick shopped! Note to self...call the Bass Pro beforehand!! Apparently they weren't a participating Bass Pro! So we looked pretty silly walking in with our kids in costumes. At least they were still cute and they are young enough to not be embarrassed!

But, I redeemed myself the next day with crafts at the condos that they kids loved doing and then the City of Branson had a Boonanza at their recreation baseball fields. There was trick-or-treating, hayrides, bounce-houses, pumpkin carving, haunted house, cotton candy (Nick's fav!), and other fun stuff! And it was only $2/kid to get a punch card to do 5 of these events. We bought only 2 punch cards and the kids had a blast and actually got quite a bit of candy! It was very well organized for as many people were there and it was fun!

A funny thing Cora did this weekend while in Branson was hold up a hand weight and said "look, guys I'm 'weighting'!" And then we were eating ice cream at Andy's frozen custard. We were leaving and Nick started to the car with Rex following him without holding our hands going for the road. I told him to stop and wait for me and he did. We got in the car and I told Nick just how impressed I had been with Rex's ability to listen to us and understand our receptive language to him even though he's not talking very much yet. Then Kayley says to him, "You sure are a good a thinker, Rex!" My kids are funny!
Then trick or treating was fun this year! As you can see Rex was Mike Wazowski from Monster's Inc. Cora was Boo from Monsters Inc, but she wouldn't wear her hood except for a few pictures so most people thought she was a glow-worm or something else. Kayley was Barbie of Swan Lake. We went down 3 cudlesacs and got tons of candy! Then I thought we would go down one more culdesac but Kayley was dying to get home and hand out candy to other kids. She kept saying, "I've always wanted to see what it was like!" So we went home and put some candy in a bucket and let them hand it out. Sadly it was towards the end of trick or treating so there weren't very many trick or treaters left. We told the girls to hand each person a couple of pieces of candy. Some kids came up and Kayley accidentally gave one girl only one piece of candy. They left and Cora yelled at the girl and starting chasing her to come back...she came back so Cora could give her the other piece of candy. They also kept singing "we are hear to trick or treat, trick or treat, trick or treat! Come and get some candy!" It was funny!