Hallowe'en 2010

BOO!
Our Halloween festivities for 2010 included attending the Helena 3rd Ward Halloween Party on the 29th. It was also a chili contest again this year. Ross whipped up a batch of our Creamy White Chili that won the "Best in Show" award the year before. We even brought back the silver spray painted trophy that had been kicking around our house. We were looking forward to passing it on to another deserving family. (To be honest, Ross was totally frustrated I'd kept it for so long. The bowl kept coming off the pedestal and really, where do you keep a chili trophy???)

We were surprised when a woman in our ward stopped us as we came into the gymnasium at the church and asked if we'd brought the same recipe this year. I guess it was memorable! (We know we love, love, love it!) The judging happened and then the announcement of the awards. There were different judges this year than last, and despite of or maybe because of that, our yummy chili won the top honor for the second year in a row! We laughed. We'd just wanted to share our good food again, but I guess a delicious recipe stands out. ;o) Much to my husband's chagrin, the silver chili bowl trophy came home with us for another year.

After dinner, it was time for the kids to get into their costumes and participate in the Halloween carnival and trick or treating put on by the youth in the ward. Sadly, Samantha and I realized we had left her costume at home and we'd need to leave the party to get it. Happily, we only live about 6 minutes from the church.

Rebecca and Luke having fun trick-or-treating door to door downstairs in the spider hats they made with the big kids.

I take a lot of pictures of my kids saying, "LOOK AT THE CAMERA!!!" And still this is often the best we get. Cute kids though. (The cute little boy in the back is Lukey's friend Jed. He was Underdog. I love it!)

My "costume"
I was silly enough to run out that day and buy myself a black maternity shirt and some orange electrician's tape. Then I spent way more time that I should have cutting letters out (not as easy a task as you'd think) and sticking them on the belly. It was pretty much worth it, however. It got some laughs and probably deterred a few people from asking me how much longer to go or commenting on the size my huge pregnant belly. (For the record, I was then 8 days from my due date and 17 days from actually having my baby.)

Ross got as dressed up as putting on his Superman t-shirt and his fake glasses. I'm pretty sure he's about to fly Logan right up the basket here.

Our whole family
Logan is holding our trophy. It now resides in a place of honor on our storage room shelf! Ha ha.

The next night we went to the Trunk or Treat at the church. There weren't as many people there this year because most of the people in our ward were at a Halloween Party at the Montana City school, but it was lots of fun to see the 1st ward folks including my brothers and their families. I wore my t-shirt again and the kids loaded up on candy.

We had some repeat costumes from years past. That's a nice thing when the kids want to do that. Cheaper is usually nice, right?

Super Girl Samantha

Bumblebee Logan

Thomas the Train Luke

Little Red Riding Hood Rebecca

I think our Halloween day activities included going to church and answering the door for trick or treaters that came to our door that night. It was a fun few days of dressing up and gorging ourselves on candy. Happy Halloween 2010!

Logan turns 6!

It's been a fun ride with our little Logan. He had his 6th birthday and we all had a lot of fun celebrating this wonderful boy. He got a new Superman shirt and had a great day at school. He was also so very, very excited when I showed up with chocolate chip cookies for him to share with his Kindergarten class!

We gave him his presents from the family that night.

He got some new clothes and a Transformer and this Alvin toy he was pretty excited about.

The next day there was no school and so we had his friend party at our home. He loves, loves, loves to read our Calvin and Hobbes comic books. He jumped at the idea of having a Calvin and Hobbes party!

This sign greeted guests as they got to our front door. (I found a downloadable Calvin and Hobbes font! Score!)

For party games, we decided to play the old favorite, "Stick the tail on Hobbes". :o)

He is also a very BIG Super Mario Brothers fan. This was one of his favorite gifts.

Here he is with his fun cake. I love easy. It occurred to me that I didn't have to draw on Calvin & Hobbes with frosting and that tiger stripes to represent Hobbes would be darling. My talented sister-in-law Kathy did a quick decorating job for me and it turned out so cute.

He was so happy throughout all the celebrations. It's been a lot of fun to have him in our family.

These are some of my favorite baby pictures of Logan Dennis:

My tummy before I had my little 6 pound 12 ounce baby boy. Yep, he was my smallest baby, but somehow still the baby I had to have a c-section for. (Silly knot in his umbilical cord!)

Our sweet sleeping newborn

He was all of 6 days old here when we took him to the Monument Valley High School Halloween Carnival to be Sully to Samantha's Boo from Monster's Inc.

My purple lipped boy thanks to a thrush infection and the Gentian Violet we had to use to treat it. :o(

On his blessing day in California

I posed him for a picture in the doll cradle that my Grandpa Lay made me in 1978. He probably wasn't very comfy, but it does make for an adorable picture!

Logan with his cousin Isaac. They are cute little buddies.

Bath time!

The outfit Logan is wearing here used to be his daddy's. I loved it when Ross's mom gave me all these old baby clothes. They are awesome!

My Aunt Arlene bought this shirt for Logan when they visited us in Monument Valley. MVHS's school colors are purple and yellow, so we put Logan in the shirt for a football game even though it was a size 2-4. The funny thing is that it fit him well enough to wear to school this year on a day they wanted the kids to wear purple or pink. He's still little!

Somebody got into Grandma Lay's cereal cupboard....

Love that sweet face!

Birthday #4 for Luke!

Happy 4th Birthday to Lukey!

He started off with a birthday lunch to Burger King with Grandma and Grandpa Lay. Here they are back at Grandpa's office.

I never know what to do for birthday cakes for my kids. I'm all about simple, but cute. Found inspiration for this one online (gotta love the internet for ideas!) and whipped it out without too much hassle. Hooray! We just used Luke's Thomas toy (very cleaned up first) and a few plastic trees and rocks from our toy animal set. No big deal for Mommy and one happy little boy!

Presents, presents, and more presents!
We invited the Helena Lay cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Lay over for a fun party that night.

Luke was very excited for his birthday card and money from Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins!!!

My personal favorite present that we gave Luke was a BYU t-shirt. He'd been saying all summer long that Samantha was going to 3rd grade, Logan was going to Kindergarten and "I'n goin' ta BYU!"

And now, a few of my favorite baby pictures of Luke:

Me the day I went into the hospital to have a 9 pound 7 ounce baby boy
I've posted this one before, but I love his beautiful open eyes here.
On his blessing day in his daddy's blessing outfit
Babies eating toes is seriously one of my favorite things ever!
Bathtime
Just after we moved into our house

Firsts and Favorites

To start things off:
Samantha started 3rd grade! It was so much fun to see her transition to the big kid side of the school. My favorite thing was the fact that she is in the same classroom that I had 3rd grade in. I had a male teacher and so does she. It's a silly thing to be excited about, but I love it.

Just about to walk into the classroom on the first day


It was raining that morning so we got her "off to school" pictures after she'd already come home. I don't remember why she'd switched into her black pants instead of her jeans. Odd...

The next day our little Logan finally started Kindergarten! He was beyond excited. He looked so grown up and handsome. (And as another silly side note -- he is in the same room I was in for 4th grade. Yay!)


The sun in the eastern sky was a little too bright that morning!


Samantha jumps in the picture for fun. (I need to work on my photography skills and make sure my shadow isn't in the shot.)


I got to take him to his class and get him settled. How adorable is he?


I LOVE THIS PICTURE. "I'm ready to take on the world!!!"


These other pictures are just a few of my favorites from that same time. Luke was invited to his buddy Jed's birthday party and Rebecca got to come too. (Again, there I am in the reflection of the door. Gotta get myself out of the pics!) ;o)


On their way to their first birthday party!


Rebecca has been so much more difficult to deal with when it comes to doing her hair than Samantha was. This was the first time she'd sat still long enough to let me braid her hair. I love how tiny and cute the braids are!


This is a favorite picture of mine because it shows imagination. While I was pushing my little kids on the swings one morning, my 2 year old Rebecca said, "Look, Mom! Birds!" I looked up in the sky and saw no trace of a bird anywhere. Then I looked closer at the sky itself. Can you see it? :o)

Finally, a short video. (And sadly I had to edit it to get it to even load onto the blog! That also screwed up the picture quality.) We attended a baptism for our friend Kaden and then went to his family's house afterward. Rebecca went to play with all the big girls and I got this fun moment of the girls playing beauty shop with her. They were all so cute!

A Hairy Hobby

I put these pictures up on Facebook, but just for the fun of it, they are going on the blog as well. So if you've seen them before, enjoy them again! (Some of the comments on the hair-do's were copied straight from FB. I'm not feeling creative enough to change them much.)

I started looking at a hair-do blog sometime in the late spring of 2010. With a leisurely summer and plenty of time to try them out, Samantha allowed me to fuss with her hair. Sometimes I put my own spin on the hair-do, but most of them are not my own idea. Most of these pictures are from that time. I don't always have time to do something fancy before she needs to leave for school, but most days I try a little something.



Star braids with crazy buns
I wish I'd gotten a better picture of this one. She was in her pajamas here and had taken the red ribbons out of the buns already. It absolutely took a while to do, but we did it for a big church party and to match the stars on her red, white, and blue sun dress.


French front wrap around ponytail

French front wrap around ponytail, side view


The "Y" braid
I varied this one by doing a fish bone style braid.
We like to think this one represents our undying love for BYU. GO COUGARS!

The "Y" braid side/top view


Pretzel bun
Samantha's hair is so long right now I had to do a little more wrapping than was shown on the hairstyle blog. It worked thankfully and stayed in pretty well.

Peeking at the Pretzel bun


Twistback into ponytail twists

Twistback into ponytail twists, side view


Bundled braids

Bundled braids, side view


Knotty ponytail


Squared parts with flipped braids
I didn't take this pic until the end of the day and it shows. We'd taken a day trip to Great Falls that day, so she'd also been resting her head as we traveled.

Squared parts with flipped braids, top view (Go ahead and notice the mess on the bedroom floor. Then tell me your kids always have clean rooms.);o)


Wrap around french braid to side ponytail
This was also a day I didn't snap a picture until the end of the day. I think this one will look better with a little practice on my part.


Flip heart braid
This is one of my favorites! I've done it a lot because it's so easy. The outfit Samantha is wearing has hearts on it and so she often requests this hair-do to match. Lots of fun and very cute. I did it once with the fish bone braids as well.


I didn't do this one until Valentine's Day of this year, but I wanted to throw it in since it's such a crazy, fun one. X's and O's ;o)

Lots and lots of fun to fancy up my little girl.