Trick or Treat, Smell the Rain

Trick or Treat!

We made a few comments early on about how many times the little ones would trip while trick or treating and they far exceeded the guesses.

It's just so hard to eat candy and walk at the same time.

Here's a few of our cute next door neighbors before we went out.

Our immediate neighbors really get into decorations. There are 4 boys -and the decorations are gory and yucky...limbs, heads, skeletons. ugh:)

Yesterday we had soccer games, a birthday party and a baptism.

Ben was on a call.

We dropped Cody off at his game and ran to Macey's party.

Cody had a few shots on goal but no luck this time. I love watching his games and was sad to miss this one but Ben made it there after his call to see it.

One of the things I love about Mackayla is that she is so unassuming and sweet. At the party all the kids were in there choosing what animal, outfits and accessories they wanted and she never even asked about getting one, just carefully drew a cute little picture and happily hung out. She's not too young to know what's going on, she's just content with what she has. Certain other children that I know measure and want everything to be even and fair...and it's exhausting and frustrating. and i love them. But can't we all just not be jealous?

Now - how to teach that??:)...

Such a good quality in her.

Macey, Macey, Macey - 

she is so thoughtful

In her daily interactions she pays close attention to what specifically makes others happy and makes careful mental notes of them.

Also lately she has been getting up early and drawing us pictures with candy taped to them. These are a few days' worth of them.

She has been cracking me up lately...

Late at night she will sneak books up in her bed and read.

She loves reading.

I caught her!:)

One of her latest favorite books is Little Black Sambo.

I have mentioned before that we have had very open discussions about all the details of having babies

and today after seeing a commercial about pregnancy tests she told Ben that she couldn't wait until she got one of those. Ben was sure she understood that was AFTER she got married, etc. ha!

She was cub of the day and in the spot where they ask what you want to be when you grow up she put "Be a mom!"

Cody also asked the other day how the hospital decided which baby to give to parents!:)

*****

Hopefully not too disrespectful, this was completely innocent and hilarious!: 

Fridays at the kids' school they wear their school colors for spirit day. 

Macey was wearing a navy blue shirt and asked me "Is this my god wear?" 

Not sure what I heard I asked "What?"

She kept going, "Um, is this my spirit wear?"

:)

*****

Let's talk money because it's tacky and I can.

We have spent about $4,000 on our lovely van in the last few months.

It's just getting older and needs maintenance, but every time I hope it's is the last thing and it's not! I'm on a first name basis at the shop.

We keep saying if one more thing breaks, we'll sell it, but it's just so nice not having a car payment. It seems like really unnecessary debt. And vans are so cool. :p

I do think about all the money that could have gone towards a new car...but still. no payments.

It was shaking sooo bad on the freeway the other day so I took it into the shop thinking one of the things they had fixed broke again.

They looked out the window at it and said, "Are those cords?!?"

Sure enough, my tires were all ticking time bombs waiting to explode on the freeway.

Strange because we just had the tires rotated last month and they said they were about half worn through. Obviously not!

Tires are one of those things that have to be replaced regularly. dang it.

Feeling blessed we are safe.

 Another blessing

RAIN!

This is maybe the fourth time in over a year it has rained, and the first in months and months.

This might sound funny, but I was grateful it came on Halloween!

Halloween gets a little wild here where all the adults forgot it's a children's holiday and jello shots and wine tables are all set up to be passed out like candy.

We're not in Utah anymore!

Anyway

There was a beautiful rainbow the next morning.

Today our bishop encouraged us to fast for a full 24 hours.

This is a great resource for learning more about fasting.

I love the phrase "Calling down the powers of heaven"

Happy Sunday

All Things Pumpkin and Candy. and other ideas...

Happy Halloween!

We were in charge of our ward's trunk or treat party.

This is only like 1/8 of what we bought. Mackayla was buried.

 We made centerpieces by spray painting tree branches in mason jars

 and with Orange Jello Popcorn in mason jars

and this way cute photo booth a friend made that I'm dying we didn't get pictures at.

Our kids were mostly homeless that night but weren't too concerned since everyone was giving them candy.

Ben took a picture of us only because he thought I looked ridiculous BUT it was 90 degrees that day and I didn't want to wear pants. (I brought them but never put them on.)

Macey and Mackayla are My Little Ponies and I am Ben the horse vet. haha. (I brought a stethoscope) I do look odd, isn't that perfect for Halloween?

Macey invited her friend to our primary program and she came and watched, then they invited us to their church's Halloween celebration.

It was pretty amazing. If I didn't know the Book of Mormon was true I would probably go to this church. Just saying.

Other genius ideas at the Crosland home:

This isn't my idea or a new idea, but it's brilliant: write letters with highlighter and have your three year old trace them.

Mackayla begs me for homework every day when the others do theirs and this is the perfect solution. I always have her write her name a few times and the abc's.

Well, This is NOT a brilliant idea, but we tried it anyway.

Ben has always had back pain come and go and he decided to do a little electroshock therapy. I squirted some gel on his back and he turned it low and I shocked away. It was a little intense and loud.

This machine is for HORSES not people but apparently Ben decided it would still work. haha!

The jury is still out since he really can't move all that well two days out.

(Well it's out for him, I pretty much think it was a bad idea.)

We carved pumpkins tonight. 

The kids each designed their own face.

Mackayla actually just ended up designing her pumpkin and not wanting us to carve it.

 I was going to make this dessert tonight with my pumpkin but my visiting teachers brought us Krispy Kreme donuts instead! But make this sometime this year, you will thank me.

 Think Pumpkin Pie - but Pumpkin Pie Cake.

  Macey can't have Halloween without Pumpkin Seeds (from our best bites)

 and I love fresh pumpkin (like canned pumpkin...but more fresh...and more time consuming:p)

Lots of excess energy tonight:)

Bubblegum for Breakfast

Just as soon as we dropped Ben off for his conference in SLO we headed to Bubblegum Alley in town

 It's tucked in a little alley right off this road: 

 and was perfectly quiet in the early morning hours

 Mackayla's gum was stuck on first

{ Love Macey's reaction }

 (Cody wanted his documented too)

Bubblegum walls are so disgusting

but I'm pretty glad we went
even with jammies and poofy hair-
This was a perfect adventure for the morning.

SLOing down

Ben had an ultrasound conference in San Luis Obispo and he let us tag along.

Right off the coast in Central California, it felt like the perfect mix of Oregon and Southern California

with great weather and a slower pace.

 It was a pretty drive there, and I think if it weren't the end of summer/fall and California weren't in such a severe drought it would have been beautiful.

 Our first stop was the pier at Pismo Beach

The next day Ben was at his conference all day and we went and saw the town.

It's charming.

They love their dogs there.

We went to the famous Madonna Inn and got a treat.

Their cakes are so pretty - for $50 they better be:)

I fell in love with the buildings and found out each hotel room is a different theme.

Ben was pretty impressed with their horse facilities:

I would totally go back just to stay there!

 We went apple picking after that!

Braeburn apples - interesting looking apple trees.

Then we went to a pumpkin patch, then the park. 

Actually I think the whole town had gone to the pumpkin patch, it was a crowded place!

 We went through the little maze and the big maze 

 and then went on a long walk through the property-lots of farm land

 

After that day, I was pretty surprised when Mackayla stayed awake the whole way home, finally getting there around 10 pm.

Getting up for the primary program the next day wasn't so easy though;)!

It's fun to have a change of scenery every once in a while!