Halloween

 the tight rope walker:

the clown:

the fierce lion (you know, the one that the lion tamer has to face and stick her head in it's open mouth):

(with her daddy's kitty pumpkin that he made especially for her!)

the stunt man:

(see that BIGger, adorable lion in the background that is handing out the candy??  Look how happy Coleson is about the cannon his daddy made for him...)

  that actually shoots out of the cannon:

 (You can almost see all of our decorated pumpkins on the porch behind him.  Addellyn's is the witch, Makinzie's spider is to the left of the witch and Evaleigh's self portrait pumpkin is to the witch's right--the stem was her funny ponytail :), and Coleson's is a one eyed monster on the ground)

 Ready to trick-or-treat through the neighborhood with the Wallins! 

Evaleigh rode in the stroller for about 2 minutes until she discovered the joy of trick-or-treating.  Surprisingly, she didn't love it for the candy, she LOVED the attention.  She wanted to go to every door and hear all about how cute she was! Funny girl! 

Family Fun

For her birthday party she wanted to just take one friend to the corn maze and hay ride place outside of town, rather than invite lots of friends to the house for a traditional party.  BUT, on the day of the "party" it was FREEZING cold and it was raining.  So we took her friend to a movie and pizza instead.
THEN, the next time Tyler had a day off from work, we headed to the maze and pumpkin patch--it was much sunnier and well worth the wait!

The hay ride went around a beautiful farm and creek.

Then it dropped us off in front of the corn maze:

A woman that had been on the ride with us offered to take our picture, and I am so grateful to her for being so kind. 

(I am grateful for snapshots like these, all of us in one picture together--at this point in my life I have a REALLY hard time taking official "family" pictures.  We know we want to look back at snapshots of our kids at these moments in their lives because they are changing soooo quickly, and a day may come that we will pay for a photo shoot, but because it's not our WHOLE family, it just feels so wrong and painful to pose for the camera on purpose and call it a family portrait.  

But, it is nice to have moments captured of all of us and the time we do spend together, enjoying our moments here on earth recognizing the beauty of the world around us and how lucky we are to have and love each other.  And, perhaps, that little ray of sunshine shooting down through the photo is a reminder of our special boy that is smiling down from heaven, happy that we are spending time together and warming our hearts with more compassion and appreciation for each other.)

Evaleigh really wanted to keep up with the big kids.  They were all so happy and excited to be wandering through the corn--they were NOT very good at having a sense of direction though--haha, we were in the maze for quite a while!

And then we each picked a pumpkin to bring home and decorate.

Though the decorating had to wait for another day because we had to build a cannon and make muffins for the party:

We had fun bringing our family circus to the ward trunk-or-treat.  And thanks to a sweet sister in the ward, whom had her husband hurriedly pull over in the parking lot so she could jump out and grab the camera from Tyler, we were able to get a picture of the entire crew together!

It was a pretty great family day!

Makinzie is 10

She's so grown up.  It makes me a little bit sad (and it makes me feel like I'm getting old), but we are sooo happy that she is such an awesome little lady!  She really is beautiful and smart and creative and constantly helping and worrying about what she can do to help and be a friend to others, she's such a blessing in our lives!

She was beyond excited to get this watch!  It was (and is) PERFECT!

There are actually several pictures from the past several months where Evaleigh runs and says "I see" while I am taking the picture...so they look like this; it's kind of the ultimate photo bomb because you can't even see what the original picture was intended to be.

Kinzie got lots of clothes and books and jewelry (per her request).  She also got some body spray--which, don't tell her, but I admittedly divided it in half and then watered it down, so it was pretty much a 2 for 1 deal and now the smell doesn't completely devour the house--and she got some lip gloss (these have both been HUGE hits).

I also made lime-coconut bars for my first time.  Which I will alter a little bit next time to have a bit less crust  to filling ratio, but otherwise SHE thought they were a huge success and that is what matters!  Happy 10th Birthday Makinzie!

October

What better way to mourn your parents leaving and not living on the beach and enjoying carefree days with your kids and husband than getting a tooth ache and going to the dentist the day you get back from the beach  only to find out a week later that it was actually a brewing and terrible cold (which causes your family to miss the ward camp out that everyone was so excited about because you and the baby are sick and dad was working anyway) and then becomes a horrible sinus infection (that lasts until the end of October after going through 2 rounds of antibiotics)?? 

I'm good at mourning in style and feeling sorry for myself!

But, life went on (in between the naps I took with E and the constant painkillers I was on)

 So I made cupcakes for the baseball treats that we were signed up to bring...and Evaleigh figured out how to cleverly move the stool while I went to clean dishes up in the sink.  She made sure to get the one with the most frosting an sprinkles and then quietly eat it (so PROUD of herself!)

 While I cleaned up the cupcake mess she just made she managed to get out every possible toy/cord/piece of exercise equipment in the family room AND to unroll all of the toilet paper in the bathroom.

See that blur?? It's because she is ALWAYS moving! :) If I hadn't been so sick this might have been as funny then as it is now--I knew it might, that's why I snapped the pictures.

 We somehow got this kid to every game and almost all of his practices (I had to let a few balls drop during the month, especially on nights when Tyler was working late).

 I did make it to Walmart once to get some serious essentials (along with a box or two of crackers that made this little one happy the entire trip as she held them tightly in her lap and even happier when I let her open them on our way out to the car)

I did "put up the tent" for Conference and we all "watched" every session (Evaleigh was a bit distracting, ok a lot distracting, especially the times that dad wasn't there to hang on to her so that the kids could snack and work on their worksheets without her "help")

 There were a few incidents, like this one, when I went out in the garage to get a new box of kleenex and came back to find her on top of the table with homework supplies in her hands--YIKES!

Or when she decided to climb up on the couch and then randomly see if she could throw herself back with all of her strength against the cushion--she could--but she was light enough that the cushion threw her back forward, flying off of the couch and into the edge of the red table with the side of her nose.

Sometimes, ok lots of times, she takes me by surprise.  My mind just doesn't churn like hers because I can't usually see what's coming next.

 But I did keep her fed, and dressed (usually).

 She got better and better throughout the month at using her own spoon.

 She also got a bit tired of hanging out in the house and refused to come in after walking the kids down to the bus stop a couple of times. (poor kid!)

 So we tried to go on a few short walks a few times a week.

 The best walks were the ones that we ended up seeing an animal during.

 ESPECIALLY if it was a kitty!

 So she got better and better at entertaining me--like making me all sorts of noodles and juice concoctions in her little kitchen.

 and then, THE packages arrived in the mail!

 Grandma is always GREAT at sending exactly what each kid wanted.  Can you tell they're thrilled??

 Evaleigh ran around the house for days pretending to be a lion.

And looking at this picture at least once a day of grandmas kitties.  "OOOH, meeeeow, meeeow. MUh! Ahhh." She would say (in a really whiny, I feel sorry for you sort of voice--not sure why this is the voice she uses when she thinks an animal is cute??) as she kissed and hugged the picture of the kitties.

Everyone survived mom being sick for a month and things actually went pretty smoothly considering...

Miss E at 15 months

 I attempted to take pictures that would work on Christmas cards and for grandparent's walls...

 she thought I was hilarious for even trying :)

 such a funny and STRONG personality

 every shot is blurry because she NEVER stops moving

 which isn't too noticeable until you want to blow them up to send to grandparents

 she knows what she wants--ALL the time--in this case, the swing set and not to be taking pictures by the gate

 she can give some pretty fierce dirty looks--but they almost always have a hint of smirk behind them (which isn't good when you're trying to be serious and tell her no or not to do something)

 still hates to touch grass

she is always moving so daintily...she even walks like a princess!

 still pulls the cabbage patch every now and again--even with a mouth full of teeth

 always scanning the area to see what else she can do to cause mischief

 she really loves to be outside, even on her sad days the outdoors will put a smile on her face

 she can talk your ear off...she talks a LOT for her age.  She makes about every possible animal noise and calls the animal by the sound they make (other than puppy and hippo), she asks to watch a "show" if she sees an electronic device (anything on the iPad or a phone or clips on the lds site are all considered shows), she will talk on the phone to Papa, Nana, Daddy, or Grandpa (sorry grandma, I guess your name is harder) for a very long time, she asks for things to be "open" or "a help pease," she sings the alphabet song with vigor though only a few letters are recognizable, "sunbeam" is her favorite song, she could sit and read books all day--she even asks for books by name based on what they are about "mama ook," "moo moo ook," "meow cat," "puppy pease," "one ook," and the list goes on and on.  She requests "noonles," "cackers," "juice or gulk," "apples" (which refers to all fruit other than "nanas"), "nanny" (thanks to the kids she loves candy!), "ookie" (those free cookies at Harris Teeter are never passed up), and lots more foods.  She likes to say the prayer--it's pretty adorable. This is how she folds her arms:

 She always asks for a "rare" when something is "hot-hot" and then she'll fold her arms like this and start saying one.  And she says much, much more...

 so silly--she has figured out things that get a pretty hearty laugh around here, like: showing your belly button and saying "bed-dy" and then chasing the other person saying "bed-dy" and trying to lift their shirt, making any noises with your tongue or blowing raspberries on people, tooting, burping, repeating anything that one of the kids say (especially inappropriate words like "butt"), and the list goes on and on...

 it started to be a bit too sunny and her squinty eyed smile came out...

we love this VERY active, sweet, lovable, HAPPY, opinionated...little girl