Halloween

 All our kids are really into Jake and the Neverland Pirates right now. They will ask me if they can watch "a Jake" and because I am busy taking care of a baby they usually do get to watch a couple episodes a day on Netflix. Sometimes I try to get them to watch something else, but they won't have it (except Camden who now likes Go Diego Go a lot as well). Anyway, so near the end of September on one of the many times they were watching "Jake" it occurred to me that that would be a perfect theme for their Halloween costumes since it's one girl, two boys, and I think Micah and Camden even look like Jake and Cubby. And they all thought it was a great idea!

I "made" their costumes, meaning I bought clothes that look like their clothes (or found stuff that we already owned) and modified them in some cases. Mostly no sew except some buttons and Cubby's felt patch. Just cutting, gluing, and even some taping- the yellow border on Jake's vest is yellow duct tape ;) .

 Some of the things we did for Halloween weekend:

We went to a Halloween party that a real estate agent in our ward put on with her team. Camden came home and immediately lined up all his candy to check out his goods. Oh boy, that was just the beginning of the candy deluge.

Micah is just a sweet, happy boy, who loves cotton candy.

Camden was scared to ride in the train car so Dad got to ride on the back of the locomotive and hold him. Camden is a crazy three year old, but he always surprises me by how cautious he is.

 We also went to a Halloween carnival at Micah's gymnastics. Games, snacks, decorating cookies, but our kids mostly liked just running around the gym and bouncing around.

We carved our pumpkins with my family the night before Halloween.

Camden did not like the slimy texture of the pumpkin guts, but he was as willing scooper.

Micah and Julia did their own, then drew on their faces and Robert cut it out with his power tools. So much easier that way!

I went to Micah and Camden's preschool for their Halloween party. Lincoln dressed up too. We had originally thought of making him the parrot from Jake and TNP, but i decided not to put that much effort into a costume we probably wouldn't wear all that much. So we went with the cute, traditional first Halloween Winnie-the-Pooh

Micah and Camden both performed a dance to Thriller with their own classes. After a couple seconds of not dancing Micah started dancing along. Conversely, after a couple seconds of not dancing Camden shook his head and ran off the stage to me.

 He looks like he's dancing, but he's actually just really excited to see Lincoln.

Trick or Treating at Dad's work

Trick or Treating around the neighborhood

 All our Winnie the Poohs

Christmas 2013

Yes, that's right. Tonight I am ignoring the pile of laundry and sticky floors and getting around to posting pictures from Christmas two years ago. It was our last Christmas in Claremont. The next day we drove to San Francisco to go to a BYU football game and then drove to Sacramento to visit Robert's Grandma and Aunt Debbie's family. On the drive back from that trip is when Robert got his new job offer and we decided to move to Utah. So once we got home we went straight into packing mode and I never got around the blogging, and then we packed up the computer and I couldn't get to the pictures.

We decided to stay in Claremont and have Christmas on our own for the first time. Now I am glad we did because it was the only and last Christmas we had in our Claremont house. The night before we acted out the Nativity.

 Then Julia slept upstairs in our room on a mattress on the floor because she was afraid she would wake up when Santa came and be scared. And we were afraid she would wake up when Santa came...

Morning time with little Micah and little bitty Camden.

 Coming down the stairs.

Julia got her guitar, and an arm chair full of other gifts.

 Micah got a train set and that Dodgers hat in the background that he loves.

Two weeks later all those toys were packed up and we didn't see them again for almost nine months. It was like Christmas all over again when we finally unpacked since they didn't really remember what they had gotten.

We also visited the Los Angeles Temple with Steve and Wendy's family. We miss our L.A. relatives and will miss palm trees covered in Christmas lights and jacket wearing weather for Christmas.

 One of their last pictures in our Claremont house.

Saint Patrick's Day

Everyone is this household is in some stage of sickness. Julia is just getting over a cold, and everyone else is getting it. So we spent St. Patrick's day at home. Luckily we had some stuff to entertain us, like building leprechaun traps.

Julia was proud of her trap, but we caught no leprechauns during the day. Must be because of all that noise in our house!

 She made a ladder so the leprechaun could climb up to the trap since we needed to keep it high enough for Camden to stay away.

 Micah was feeling sick, so he slept in until 10:30, but he woke up just as active as ever.

Camden in his St. Patrick green.