BOO!!!!

So, I know I'm a little slow in posting these but better late than never!

The ward party was on Friday and we had a great time but I took no pictures which is sad because Ashlynn's wings broke so she didn't have her real costume for Trick or Treating!  No big deal though, they all had a great time!

Maryn and Cayden had a Halloween Party at a friends house Saturday afternoon and had a great time!  Cayden got very into it and wanted all the make-up for his costume!

Ethan was an old time gangster, Cayden was a Pirate, Maryn was Sleeping Beauty, Gwendolyn was Cinderella and Ashlynn was the fairy god mother, until her wings broke!  Then she was going to be a 50's girl with a poodle skirt but she didn't like wearing the skirt so for Halloween she had her tutu on and a little white shirt!  It worked!

We were kind of slackers and never picked up pumpkins to carve so instead, I made sugar cookies and the kids got to frost them!  They had a blast using the decorating tips and bags!

Pioneer day celebration!

Our Stake had a great pioneer day celebration again this year! 

We went a little early so I could help with a family history display and this is Cayden as we waited for the dinner to begin!  

It didn't help that each table had a basket of yummy rolls and a jar of honey sitting on the table! :)

 Ethan and Cayden were my helpers and Travis drove around a bit outside because the babies hadn't taken a nap before we came.  The drive was just about enough to let them get enough rest to not be too cranky!

After dinner they had fun activities for the kids!

 They made string yo yo's again and Ash and Gwen liked to play with the colorful buttons they had!

 They also had a station to put beads onto a small stick so when you had two of them you could rub them together and make music (or noise!) with them!

They also had a great couple teaching different types of folk dances.  It wasn't too popular with most of the adults but Ash and Gwen found another little girl and had fun dancing to the music!

 Maryn watched the dancing while eating her giant plate full of desserts!  She didn't end up eating any of them but oh well!  They had so much dessert it was kind of crazy!

It was a fun evening and the best part was that we were home in time to put the kids to bed at a reasonable hour!  I'm glad we got to go and celebrate our pioneer heritage!

Independence Day fun

Our ward had a pancake breakfast early Monday morning to start off the festivities!  I figured it'd be a great chance to try out my new camera.  Well, the pictures ended up mostly over exposed and not very good.  It's going to take me a while to figure it out but I'm still excited!

After breakfast they  a bunch of kiddie pools filled up outside which were a hit with all the kids.  They had squirt guns and all sort of water toys but as you can see the girls thought their hands were the best!

We had to keep the girls from jumping all the way in multiple times!  

They also had a parade and the girls found our neighbor's bike and decided to play with it!  They were so cute!

 They had a game where a bunch of dads held an empty water bottle on their heads and kids had to fill cups of water and carry them on their heads and fill up the dad's water bottle!  I took a bunch of pictures of it but they didn't turn out!  It was great fun watching the kids "miss" the water bottle and get the dad's all wet!  

Thankfully I did not get too wet but everyone else was completely soaked!  Good thing we have leather seats in the car, or they would have walked home! :)

I love the timer setting on my camera and the tripod we had for the video camera works great too!  I also think I got the exposure problem figured out.

Playing with my camera during the fireworks was fun!  Here are some of the pictures I took! I might want to get sparklers next year just for fun pictures!

This heart one was a fun one!