Halloween and Prize winning chili!

BOO!
Our Halloween festivities were tons of fun this year.
We started things off the morning of the 30th by getting Samantha all dolled up for her school party. I'd braided her hair in seven little braids the night before and so it was good and "crinkly" (as she puts it) the next morning for her Ariel costume. We'd borrowed it from her cousin Maryann at 9:30 the night before. (Loooooong search for a costume with 3 of the 4 kids in tow. So not fun. I gotta get more organized!) Samantha was darling and had fun, fun, fun, at school. They had a parade, a party, lots of Halloween activities and even read by flashlight!


That night we went to our ward party at church. It was a chili cook-off and pumpkin decorating contest. We went to the chili cook-off last year and thought to ourselves that if the ward did it again we'd have to remember to make our Creamy White Chili recipe. So we did! Ross whipped up a batch and I decorated the pumpkin with some permanent markers and a clown wig I bought the night before.

As always, the kids had fun running around. There was a family that came in some darling costumes, including this little boy, Spencer, who was dressed up as a Jedi. Logan "battled" with him the whole night! This picture is a little blurry, but it's funny to me because the fact that he didn't actually have a light saber was not a problem! Imaginations are the best!

Our pumpkin won the "Most Colorful" prize. We were the only ones that didn't carve ours, but that was fine with me!

We enjoyed lots of yummy chili that everyone else had made and even a bowl or two of ours just because we enjoy it. We sat and listened as the sister in charge gave out prizes for the chili like "So mild you could serve it in a rest home", "Most likely to put hair on your chest", "5 alarm chili", and so on. She got to the "Best of Show" prize and much to our surprise, WE WON! We thought maybe it would win in one of the other random categories, but it won the overall award. We got a kick out of it and so did the kids. Our prize was a bowl full of beans glued onto a pedestal and spray painted silver. We also got an official certificate (printed off someone's computer only hours before). ;o)

Here we are posing with our prizes! (Sigh. This was the worst picture and angle of me, but the only one where everyone was facing forward.)

The next day on Halloween we lounged around the house. Not really. Rebecca and Logan had both thrown up during the night, so we were watching them carefully all day. Luke had been really sick like that a couple of days earlier, so we were worried Logan wouldn't be up to trick or treat. Thankfully he was just fine to the point of bouncing off the walls!
The kids played all day and then that afternoon I got busy working on carving our pumpkin. At 5:00 we set off for the Trunk or Treat at the church. (Oh, how we love the ease of the Trunk or Treat!)

Bumblebee and Optimus Prime were there!

But really it was just those cute boys, Logan and his cousin Isaac.

Here's the darling Princess Liana (AKA Olivia) and Thomas the Train (AKA Luke)!

Samantha and Maryann as a BYU cheerleader and Ariel the Mermaid

This was a fun picture to take. We had to take about seven to get one where all 3 one year olds were smiling, but it was worth it. Aren't they adorable? Rebecca is Boo from Monsters, Inc. Brady is Luigi from Super Mario Brothers. Hyrum is a Puppy Dog.
My other nephews (Brady's older brothers) were there too as a football player, ninja and Mario, but they are almost 12, 8, and 6, so they were running around getting candy and were harder to pin down for a picture.
We decided to go to the Helena mall after the Trunk or Treat was over. Uh, lame. That's only word for it. It was only 5:30 and the two stores that actually seemed to be giving candy were already out of it.

I had no idea what to do for Rebecca's costume until the LAST minute. I suddenly remembered that I could easily do "Boo". We already had jammies and Sully and Rebecca certainly looks just as much at 18 months like Boo as Samantha did at 16 months. See?

Boo -- 2009

Boo -- 2003


Grandma and Grandpa Lay briefly stopped by with a baggies of Halloween treats for the kids and brought lots of hugs and kisses with them too.

Here's my creation on our doorstep that night. Yes, I carved the pumpkin this year! I was going to flip the pumpkin around to the side opposite our drawn-on clown face and then decided that I'd just carve the face out instead. I even figured out how to keep the general look of the mouth. Yes, I was very pleased with myself!

Cute, huh?

At about 9:00 that night, all the kids were in bed, the house was quiet and we were enjoying it. The doorbell rang. It was, of course, teenagers. Ross gave them his best gruff adult voice and said, "Really, you guys? It's nine o'clock. Really?" But then he turned to get the bowl of candy, saw that we still had a ton left and ended up giving each kid 3 or 4 pieces each, to which one kid replied, "I thought so." :o)

It was a fun little holiday this year. Look forward next year to a darling Little Red Riding Hood because I got an adorable costume for Rebecca at the clearance sales!

Logan Dennis, 5 and counting

In his primary class Logan is literally a head (and sometimes shoulders) shorter than the girls in his class who were born at the beginning of the year. For whatever reason, he's just our little shorty right now. We're pretty sure he won't always be that way, but just because he's not very tall now doesn't mean that there's not a whole lot of energy, personality, vocabulary, and cuteness packed into him!
Logan turned 5 a few weeks ago and we had a very fun day celebrating him. We got up and gave him his new Star Wars t-shirt so he could wear it to his party. He was so excited that it was hard to tell him he couldn't put it on until after I'd given him a bath!
Grandma and Grandpa Lay picked up Logan and Luke and took them to McDonald's for lunch. They played and played on the playground there and Logan got a new Transformer and some matching cards from them. Here's Logan holding up "Sideswipe" in front of Grandpa Lay's face. Good thing we can tell it's Grandpa by the reflection in the mirror. :o)

I kept cleaning and cooking while the boys were gone and then as soon as Samantha got home from school we waited for the guests to arrive for Logan's party! Living close to cousins is like a party all the time, but it also makes for good party guests. Caleb, Jacob, Maryann, Isaac, Olivia, and Hyrum came to have a blast at Logan's Stars Wars party.

Here's our awesome little dude making a very cool Star Wars pose. Notice the sneer curling on his lips. He must have The Force.

The kids played a game in two teams where they had to stick stickers on planets and spaceships worth different point amounts. It was the boys (The Empire) against the girls and Luke (The Rebellion).

And here's the winning Empire team!

On to the presents! Logan obviously enjoyed this part a lot.

He loves the new Thomas the Train puzzle which Luke insisted for days afterward was his.

This is a great plush Mater that came with a soft brown blanket on the inside. Logan loves it and even started insisting that the Winnie-the-Pooh blanket he's loved since he was tiny was "old" and he only wanted the Mater blanket now. My little boy is growing up! Sniff.

Love this grin. We found a Bumblebee Transformer costume for cheap and Logan was thrilled to get to use it for Halloween.

The party guests minus Rebecca and Hyrum, and also Luke who had been in this shot until about 3 seconds before I took the picture. He wouldn't hold still. Sigh...

I racked my brain the night before the party trying to come up with how to do a Star Wars cake. I searched for pictures of R2D2 cakes online, made a weak attempt at drawing him, checked blogs of people I know who have done Star Wars parties and I couldn't come up with anything.
The next morning Logan said he wanted R2D2 and "that gold guy" on his cake. I started wishing I had an applique like I did for Samantha's cake. Finally, it dawned on me that I could just print a picture off the net. Success! I even found a bag of candy stars in my cupboard left over from our gingerbread house last Christmas. I picked out the white, yellow and blue ones and because I was of course running late during the party again, my mom and sister-in-law Celeste helped me throw the cake together. It looked FABULOUS and Logan was very happy with it. Why do we mothers freak out about things like this? I could have killed myself off trying to make something extra cute to impress everyone but the one who mattered most: the Birthday Boy!!!

See how happy he is? (Not to mention adorable?)

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM and cake!

We took the whole family to Applebee's for dinner that night. We were put in a booth, so there was no room for a high chair because the aisle was so narrow. We put Rebecca in a booster seat and she wiggled and wriggled and managed to dump her entire bowl of macaroni on the floor. Next time I will wait until a table is available!!! Aside from that little mishap, Logan loved the waiters coming to sing to him and getting his very own special dessert. (Notice Rebecca's funny face in the background and the fact that she's NOT in her booster seat.)

I realized that I hadn't gotten a picture of Logan in front of the game he was so excited about, so when we got home and he'd already put on his pajamas I made him put his shirt back on and pose in front of it. Yes, there's a glare and no, I'm not a good photographer. Someday I'll upgrade my camera, but since the subject matter is so darling I'm good for now.

My brothers used to get me to make this face every time my parents would try to take a photo of me. Logan does it well!

This is just us playing around that night. It's a horrible shot looking straight up my nose, but I love the fun, crazy, giggly feel the picture has.

We gave Logan a few more gifts before he went to bed. He'd been asking for a toy called "Tractor Tippin'" from the Cars movie. He asked everyone he saw that day if they present they got him was "Tractor Tippin' Fun" and so we had to get him on video when he opened it. He loves to talk and you'll notice I have a hard time getting him to stop. Again the lighting is poor, but it was still worth taking because he was so funny on camera.

He crawled into bed that night and said, "That was a REALLY great day!!!" and Ross and I were once again grateful to have been blessed with our funny little talkative short guy. Emergency c-sections can be worth the end result.

Three years of Luke Blaine

What a fun ride we've had so far! We celebrated Luke's 3rd birthday last week. It's fun to get kids to this age because they are so much more aware of what their birthday is. I got him talking about his day coming up and how old he'd be and much cuteness occurred in his answers. :o)

Our Helena cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Lay came for the party. It's been nice weather (up until today!) so all the cousins ran straight for the back yard when they arrived. It's so nice to have a yard! Two years in this house and I'm still thankful.



Rebecca was putting on the cute that night so she made it into a couple of pictures!

Luke got a rug from G & G Lay that has a picture of Radiator Springs from the CARS movie on it. He and Logan have been having a ton of fun running their cars around it!

This present was a big case full of play tools and a hard hat. I love that you can't even see Luke in the picture! Just his little foot.

We took the kids to the Dollar Store to get little gifts for Luke. Logan gave him this 25 piece Mickey Mouse puzzle. Luke LOVES it! He has been playing with it constantly since his birthday. He loves to "scwamble" it up and do it over and over again! (And isn't this a great pic of the top of my head!)

I found this idea online for his "cake". The one online was a little more elaborate and had colored frosting, but I love how my version turned out. (Samantha thought that the chocolate frosting meant these were coal cars!) I used Sour Patch Kids for the "people" and was thrilled to find the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" toothpick candles for added decoration. It helped to already have a Thomas Train that was just the right size for the graham cracker cars.

Here's Rebecca stealing the shot with all her adorableness again.

My friend Kim posted pictures of her kids through the years which I thought was so adorable. So because I'm only creative enough sometimes to imitate others, here's my darling boy's life so far:

Newborn (My "little" 9 lbs 7 ozs baby!)

One year old

Two years old

Three years old with all his birthday loot!

Sunday in the sunshine

Aaaahhh...
The weather here in Helena has been so nice the past few weeks and my kids looked so adorable yesterday that I decided I needed to get out the camera and take some pictures to capture these precious moments. (I know. Cheese for ya. Right there.)
The previous owners of the house did a lot of landscaping in the backyard and while we don't really love some parts of it, it does make a nice backdrop for pictures. (Plus the kids love to hide in all the trees and bushes.)
So here's some of my favorite shots from our pleasant Sunday afternoon:


Our beautiful Rebecca

I've loved this dress since it was Samantha's. Rebecca seems to be dancing for the camera in this one!

Someday I'll get a more natural smile from this pretty girl. It comes out every once in a while, but I think with all the sun and her awareness of the camera yesterday this is as good as she could give me. Funny little face!

Samantha took this one.

Love the expression on Logan's face here. I'm also glad that Samantha's hair fell between her legs in just the right spot...

More kisses

Rebecca was a very tired girl by the time I took this one. I'm glad Luke was able to follow my direction to kiss her cheek though!

Luke Blaine in the sunshine

Logan loves to talk and I'm sure that he was talking to me when I took this. :o)

Sweet Logan

Photography by Logan

I begged Ross to tighten his tie up and come outside for a picture. He wasn't thrilled, but he did it and I'm glad. Happy wife, happy life, right? ;o)