Fall Update

I've been catching some flack for not posting frequently enough on my blog... which is probably right. But hey, I'm a buy mom with a busy church calling. That's my excuse anyways.

So I'll kick off this fall update with Halloween. Jared's parents and his sister Leanne came out this year to help us celebrate all the candy eating. Of course the girl's cousin Jacob was there... but there were some extra guests too! Leanne brought her boyfriend Gus and his two cute kids Gus and Noellia. The kids all got along great and had a blast.

For some reason we don't have any pictures of that... Jared is the camera-carrying guy in the family so I blame him. But all of us had a great time swimming Friday night, and then Saturday we went to the church's fall festival that I was responsible for planning. There were games, prizes, more candy, a cake-walk, and a chili cook-off that Jared was to help judge. I made chili for the first time in my life. I don't like chili. I don't eat chili. But my chili won an award. Now some may argue that was because Jared was helping to do the judging. But I think after having to eat more than 13 flavors of chili he could care less who won. He just wanted it over with. He and the Bishop were literally sweating in the kitchen taking bite-after-bite.

Family had to leave Sunday morning so it was just us for trick-or-treating. Ella did have a friend Nicole join them as they made their way around the neighborhood and picked up their goodies.

So... maybe a little weird, but this year Ella didn't want to be a princess or a ballerina. She wanted to be a vampire. Truth is, she saw the costume at the store and liked the dress. This is her best impression of being a scary, blood-sucking creature. That smile isn't fooling anyone.

Abbigail was the adorable Jessie from Toy Story. Now every time she watches the movie or sees the commercial for Toy Story 3 she screams, "That's me, that's me!" She was very cute, though the only boots we had for her to wear were rubber, pink, polka-dot rain boots. Yes, we live in Texas. No, we don't own boots.

This is the group that the girls went out with, including some dads. Abbigail, Ella, Nicole and Ashlyn. Four very cute girls.

And of course, there isn't an event that doesn't involve some sort of tears from Ella. Dad accidentally bumped her with his flashlight. As you can see... Abbigail is already enjoying a sugar rush from her stash that is now well out of arms reach on the top of the refrigerator.