Halloween

This year we decided to do DC characters.  I thought it would have been fun for one of the boys to be Batman and the rest of us be Batman villains but I was having trouble finding the girls costumes.  Blair's was the only one I could find so she ended up being the only villian.  Easton really didn't have an opinion this year so I decided he would be superman since we already had the costume.

The whole crew

Superman

Harley Quinn

Night wing

Wonder woman

Batgirl

I found this flash shirt at Walmart for about $8 in the boys section and made this my costume.  I thought it was funny that this is the same size Easton is wearing so I actually gave Easton the shirt after Halloween.  I guess I can start stealing some of Easton's clothes if I want!

Since Nathan was gone on deployment I had to step up to the plate and carve the pumpkin this year.  I think I did fairly well for my first attempt.  I actually video chatted Nathan almost the whole time to make sure I was doing it correctly.

This is one pumpkin I just carved 3 different symbols into it.

Random picture of Blair!

Pumpkin Patch

The Parks asked us if we wanted to go to the pumpkin patch with them.  We had to travel just over an hour to get there but it was worth it to go to a real pumpkin patch on a farm.  The kids had a blast!

Blair and Ellen in the corn box

Ainsley, McKinley, Blakely and Dyer

Blakely dumping corn on McKinley's head

Easton buried

McKinley

Blair ziplining

Easton

Dyer

Blair and Ellen

Blakely, Callen, and Ainsley

Going through the maze

Tractor ride to the pumpkin patch

We ended up getting a really big pumpkin (probably bigger than the one Blakely was trying to get at her pumpkin patch) for $5.  Much better deal than $30+.  I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of it.  Probably because I was the one that had to carry it.

Boys on the spider web

Dirty face girl!  She had a blast in this playhouse.

Blair

Blair and McKinley

Train ride-Girls

Train ride-Boys + McKinley

Gulfarium

Dyer's class was having a field trip to the Gulfarium so I decided to take the girls there and meet up with Dyer.  We really only saw Dyer briefly at the sea lion show but the girls had a lot of fun.

Looking at the penguins

Sea lion show

Dolphin show

Blakely

McKinley wasn't happy that I put her in her stroller and wouldn't let her walk.

Preschool pumpkin patch

McKinley and I joined Blakely's class to the pumpkin patch.  The pumpkin patch is actually in the overflow parking lot of Blakely's school.  This is one thing that I miss about California...is actually going to a farm for the pumpkin patch.

Blakely's class

planting sunflowers (I think)

McKinley

McKinley and Blakely

I had to laugh because Blakely was told that she would be bringing home a pumpkin.  She told her siblings that she would get the biggest pumpkin she could find and bring it home so they could carve it.  As soon as her teacher told her they were going to pick out their pumpkin Blakely went running to the biggest pumpkin she could find, picked it up, and lugged it over to me.  I should have got a picture or better yet a video of her trying to bring the pumpkin to me.  Little did she know they had a specific area where they could choose a pumpkin from.  The disappointment on her face when she saw the size of those pumpkins compared to the pumpkin she was lugging over to me was classic.  I felt bad for her but not bad enough to shell out over $30 for a pumpkin.  I don't think so!

Hurricane Michael

It was very nerve wracking leading up to Hurricane Michael making landfall.  I wasn't sure if we should stay or go.  I felt good about staying and chose to stay but once it was basically too late to leave the news report kept shifting where they thought the hurricane would hit and it seemed like we might be close to the center.  I was getting really nervous that I made the wrong choice.  Eventually it started shifting East which was good news for us, but then the hurricane kept intensifying.  It was supposed to be a cat 3 with us just outside the rim and that is why I decided to stay.  As it was getting closer it jumped from a cat 3 to a cat 4 and I believe right before it made landfall it jumped to a cat 5!  In the middle of all this McKinley was running a 103 temperature and throwing up.  Luckily my ministering brethren were kind enough to come over earlier that morning before things got crazy and give McKinley a blessing!

  

All she wanted to do was cuddle.

This is what it looked like in my backyard when the hurricane made landfall:

 I was expecting a lot more crazy weather but we definitely lucked out and I felt very blessed.  We were only 1 1/2 hours (about 70 miles) from where the hurricane hit and caused a lot of damage.  For about a month straight members from our stake went over to Panama City every weekend to help clean up. 

What the?!?

Nathan meant to take his planter boxes apart before he left but he never got around to it.  A few weeks after he left I decided to take care of it.  I wanted the grass to hopefully have time to grow back before our house went on the market.

One down and one to go.  

I was only able to get one planter box apart that first day but about a week later I went out and started working on the other one.  The boxes were falling apart in pieces because they were so rotted. When I pulled up part of the wood from the second one I found this....

It freaked me out so bad!  At first I thought it was a cottonmouth but as I was backing away I noticed that it wasn't moving like a snake but rather more like a worm.  It was so weird!  I ran inside to grab my phone so I could take a picture of it and send it to Nathan.  After doing some research I'm pretty sure it was a type of eel!  Do you see all those eggs?!?  GROSS!  I refused to go outside and finish picking up for a couple days.  Eventually I got enough courage to go out and finish the job.

McKinley

McKinley by far is my best napper!  She is generally more than happy to go down for a nap-bedtime however is usually a different story.  If she is tired and I haven't put her down yet (usually 11 is her nap time) she will either climb in bed herself or I will find her randomly on the floor.  Usually we have our routine down so this isn't generally a problem but she definitely likes her naps (for now). 

Learning to count!  This is when she should have been in bed sleeping.  If you say "night, night" to McKinley she will say, "No!" and usually start crying.  She hates bedtime.

I've been trying to get her laugh on tape but I can't ever seem to get a good belly laugh.  It's more forced when I try to get it on tape.

Sleeping babies are always the best!

Blakely preschool pics

Blakely's preschool pictures turned out really cute!  It's just too bad that they cost an arm and a leg!