Birthday!

 

 Mason learned how to use the camera, so he documented some of my birthday.  We had the Christmas tree up by then, but no ornaments.  We had glo-sticks, which were a hit with the kids.

This was one of my favorite gifts--a Nutcracker snow globe--David is taking me to the Nutcracker ballet some time this month as a birthday present. Yay!

 I picked up some pizza for an easy dinner and easy cleanup. I also picked up my favorite cake--carrot cake, and ate some of my favorite ice cream--Cold Stone cake batter batter batter (with cookie, cake, and brownie batter.  H-E-L-L-O)

We had just gotten back from a long travel day from Declo, ID to KC the previous day, so my kids gave me a great gift by sleeping in on my birthday and also letting me take a long nap that afternoon.  (Kate took a nap and I just gave Mason the ipad to play with . . . ) David gave me a great gift by cleaning the house and doing the laundry for me so I could just do some Christmas shopping on my birthday instead of doing the cleaning/laundry.  I am sooo grateful for my sweet little family--I love being a momma and a wifey :)

It was a fun day!  Thank you everyone for the happy birthday wishes and texts/calls/posts.  Love to you all--

Halloween!

Our ward had a trunk-or-treat on the Friday before Halloween. Mason went as a football player, Kate was a cheerleader, I was a fan, and David was a replacement ref.  But we only got pictures of the kids. :(

 

In our church building there were several stations with games.  Mason was a little perturbed by all the costumes but he appreciated the candy and prizes!  We did a cake-walk, a fishing game, got some witches brew, and did a donut-eating contest.  Mason just marched up and grabbed the donut to eat it.

 

On Tues, Oct 30 David didn't have to work so we made a Halloween-style dinner.  Monster apples, witch fingers, mummy dogs, blood and bones, apple brew, and dirt n' worms.  All ideas were from ourbestbites.com.  Love that website!

 After our spooky dinner, we carved pumpkins.

 I tried to carve Skellington Jack on the hill of Nightmare Before Christmas . . .

 On Halloween day we had a playgroup and I painted the kids' faces.  Mason as zombie and Kate as a kitty.  Halloween night we waited for David to come back from work to take the kids trick or treating, but Kate fell asleep so David just took Mason, who wore a Frankenstein mask.  We only got 3 trick or treaters!  What??  I bought $20 worth of candy.  What are we going to do with it all??

Left to right pumpkins: Mason's, Heather's, David's, and Kate's.

Hope you all enjoyed Halloween!  Can't wait until next year!

St. Louis

We went to St. Louis overnight this week.  The weather was rainy and windy and pretty cold, but we had a blast!  We got a hotel that was within walking distance of the arch and the Cardinal's stadium.

 

Here are the kids on the way there--Kate taking a nap and Mason on the ipad :)

The Arch and Westward Expansion Museum

 

 Such a BEAUTIFUL time of year there.  The colors were amazing.

Mason wasn't sure what to think of the talking wax figures in the museum, but he liked the bear :)

 Mason and David LOVED it at the top!  Kate started crying on the way up and continued the whole time we were up there--I think she had an earache, but possibly she was feeling the same way I did 14 years ago when we came to visit with my family--THIS IS WAY HIGH!  Get me down!

  Walking through the city--I love that everyone has an unobstructed view of that amazing arch all through downtown.

We visited the St. Louis Zoo because it is FREE ADMISSION!  Can you believe that?  Since we didn't have to pay to get in or park, we splurged and bought tickets to ride the train.  All aboard!

 It is a beautiful little zoo that is easy to walk from one place to another--perfect for kids.  We loved their penguin, elephant, and sea lion enclosures especially.

  

"An Elephant!"  he says.

A highlight of the trip--we got dinner from Dewey's Pizza--some of the best pizza I have Ever Had.  The parking lot was PACKED but we only had to wait 5 minutes.  The place was family-friendly so even though our kids got loud at one point or another nobody minded.  We didn't have to wait too long for our pizza, and while you were waiting you could look into the kitchen and see them throw the dough up in the air and spin it on their hands and put all the toppings on--it was pretty cool! They made a mistake on our order (forgot the spinach) and they made us a new pizza and only charged us for our drinks that night!  Talk about good customer service!  We tipped them $20 :)

Family!

I am always SOOO excited to see family.   Last week my parents and brother Derek actually merged on visits to come see us and we had a great time with everyone! 

 Seeing all the fountains and shops at Country Club Plaza, and eating at Jack Stacks BBQ--I would say it is my current favorite BBQ place to eat at in KC.  It was SO good.

 Kate was a little shy at first but quickly warmed up to Grandma and "Opa." :)

 Derek, Mom and Dad, and us.  We visited a few church sites--this is Far West.  We also visited Historic Liberty Jail (and enjoyed Liberty Days--we got some good corndogs and polish sausages mmMmm), and Haun's Mill (which took us quite a while to get there because the roads were not meant for our Civic or Accord and we kept getting lost but we eventually got there--it is beautiful.)

 Mason especially had a good time at Haun's Mill--running through the woods and finding sticks to drag around, etc.

 Cute Kate at Haun's Mill.

 We couldn't pass up visiting Worlds of Fun!  We got there as soon as it opened on Saturday and Derek and Dad were able to get on all the roller coasters without waiting.  Sad story--the first ride Derek went on he lost his phone :( Services later found his phone and we picked it up . . . but it had had a nasty tumble from The Patriot (roller coaster) and was all cracked.

Riding the Grand Carousel,

And the Viking,

 And Tour-de-Taxi

 A special treat--I got to go to the Women's Conference with my mom!  I always miss going to the RS broadcast with her, so I was so happy to get to this time around.  This is a shot of the new KC temple at night--it is so beautiful.

We had such a good time with everyone.  We can't wait to see more family soon in November for Thanksgiving, as well as seeing future visitors to KC!

Halloween . . . are you ready??