Halle Turns 6!

Halle turned 6 this week. I cannot believe that she is getting so big. She is our middle child and such an angel. We need her to keep us balanced and keep the chaos in perspective. She has such a tender heart and such a ready smile. All she wanted was a bike and so of course we pretended that we didn't have one for her...she just thanked us for the things that she did get and went on with it. When Morgan brought the bike out it was just a bonus to an already great day. We got to take a poster to school and she was just so thankful for it and so excited about how cute she thought it was (it was really cute, but of course I didn't get a picture). I usually try to make a fun theme cake, a castle, a crown, a dinosaur... Halle didn't care what she got as long as she could eat it with Nanny and Poppy. We had plans to go to the Brick Oven for her birthday dinner, but when she realized that Nanny and Poppy wouldn't come back to Payson after she decided to go to Wendy's instead (much to her brothers and sisters' dismay). We had a great party. She wanted a craft party, late over, movie night, with popcorn. So we did our best. We made bracelets and bead designs, played kiss the prince, and watched the new Tinkerbell movie (with popcorn of course). I think the hit of the party was "heavy, heavy hang over..." We used to play this as kids and it was new to most of the kids at Halle's party, but they laughed so hard when Halle made them a silly wish and when they got to bonk her on the head that I thought for sure there were going to be wet pants. I just have to say that we love this little angel. Some days I wonder if she is just too good to be true ( I will print this and keep it for when she is 13). Thank you Halle for being in our family and helping us to smile every day.

Before the first snow

A couple of weeks ago I made the kids humor me for a few portraits. I was experimenting with my new camera and I had a lot of fun. Warning: A lot of pics to come! As you can see some of the kids were a little more cooperative than others. Notice in the group shot that there is a little fluff of hair in the bottom corner representing Avery. Thank goodness I didn't wait a week or we would be taking snow pics.

Fairies and cowboys and magicians OH MY!

As you can see I have not yet mastered the habit of taking fabulous pictures of everything we do so we had to pose a few. I did think of maybe staging a few trick or treat pics, but that would be CHEESY! Kindof like finding some cute scrapbook embellishment and then taking pics to match. Oh wait, I've done that too. Carving the jackolanterns. Halle's is the heart face (crying), Jaxon wanted Spiderman, Brock made his scarey and Shelby tried for details. Brock spent the day as Charlie Bone...Who? That's what most people said. He is a character in a series of books that Brock has been reading and really likes. Our little candy fairy. She loves wearing the tutu, I am not sure we will ever get it off of her. Giddy up!! Jaxon spends half of his life dressed as a cowboy so we just added a mustache (just like Poppy) to make it a "costume". Halle was the light fairy. Halle could not get enough of all the parties, parades and trick or treating. She definitely worked the wings and thought she was fabulous! Shelby started the fairy thing. She has been reading Fablehaven and wanted to be a dark fairy so we made a tutu and accessorized. It was fun and she was very proud of the tutu she made. I almost forgot our favorite tradition. The meal! This year we had dead man in worms (spagetti with meatloaf shaped like a...dead man) with a side of monster toes and ghostly pudding. We cannot have Halloween at our house without the monster toes! Oh, and I am not staging this one, you'll just have to use your imaginations.