Rachael at the Ward trunk-r-treat

Rachael dressed up at Aerial this Halloween. She LOVES The Little Mermaid and is borderline obsessed with anything that has to do with it. You can tell by her happy face in these pictures that she was perfectly content in her role as the princess of the sea.

Our ward trunkertreat was AWESOME and the weather was absolutely perfect!! Rachael found some of her friends and immediately started dancing to the music.

There was a stray pumpkin lantern hanging down from one of the poles in the pavillion. This eventually became part of her costume.

Naturally when it "came off" the pole, she wore it on her head and danced around.

Hilarious Rachael. You are once again the star of the show.

As a side note, I was so impressed by all the costumes of the adults!!! Next year I am SOOOOO dressing up!

Pumpkin carving

One of our family traditions is that the Monday night before Halloween, we always carve pumpkins. Some years are more creative than the others, and this year we didn't have a lot of time (Hello 9:00 fhe- We don't seem to have enough TIME here in Texas!!). But, Mark took his usual role of getting this pumpkin party started, so we did it despite the late night (thanks daddy for being so awesome!)

We did discover a couple of things during this "activity": In our move we have misplaced our really cool pumkin carving tool set and so we had to settle for my dull kitchen knives and permanent markers. We also discovered that the inside of pumpkins totally gross out Jonathan and he didn't want to touch it (ew!!! was over-heard several times- Mom to the rescue) And last but not least, Austin LOVES anything dirty, gross and challenging. Just look at his huge smile on his face in this picture and then look at the other boys. They are SOOOO over it.


















Look at that cutie. I can't believe he will turn 7 this year. He has been begging us to carve these pumpkins since I bought them last week. (note to self: do not buy pumpkins until the Day of the carving)


















Here is Austin trying to look like his pumpkin. Good job!



















And here is Rachael making a face without realizing that it looks EXACTLY like the pumpkin we made for her. Happy pumpkin carving everyone!!!

An Austin-ism

The prayer that Austin said right before we left for church on Sunday,

"Dear Heavenly Father,

Please bless that church today will only be 1 hour instead of 3.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I sometimes feel that same way, Austin. I love you!