Trunk or Treat

On Wednesday our ward had their annual Trunk or Treat party. Jacob and I had so much fun last year we made sure we had everything ready so we could attend again this year. We also wanted to keep up with tradition and we invited the Gilmore's and Austin to come. We also decided to mix this up a little and invite the Brewer's to come as well.

The first Kiddo to arrive was Austin. His costume seriously cracked me up for some reason. I think it is because it is just too perfect for him!

Jacob passing out the candy. While Debbie and Papa keep him company.

Mamo with our little Pumpkin.

Kadee and Stephanie.

The first Ninja is Logan and the 2nd one is Ethan. It was so funny because they both picked out the same costume and didn't even know it. Also they both picked out the same weapons!!!

Marisa and Aly went for the scary look.

This is Molly Pratt. She was one of our CTR 5 children when Jacob and I were teaching in primary. She is such a sweet little girl we enjoy her so much. Her Elmo costume was the best!

Another picture of Logan and Ethan. Here they are waiting to fish for a prize.

Nana and Papa Cece even made it to the party.

Confession time...

I spent a lot of time pondering what costume to get Eli. After a while I realized I spent to much time thinking about the costume and I had to buy one right away. Since I waited so long the choices were pretty slim. Also I wasn't too big of a fan of the costumes for the babies. I was walking by the costumes for the dogs and I realized that they were the perfect size for a little guy and the pumpkin one was so much cuter then the one for the babies. So I think you know where I am going with this... That's right I got my baby boy and puppy dog costume.

Fall Festival and More...

On Friday night my parents ward had a huge fall festival. Jacob and I were originally going to go on our date, but decided to go to the festival instead. We are so happy that we went, not only was it fun, but it was free too.

When we first arrived and parked our car i noticed that the first 5 cars I saw were all from our family! I was really excited because whenever our family gets together we have a really good time. The Brewer's were there with my uncle Doug.

Here is Brett and Nikki.

This is Jesse and her Grandpa Brewer (uncle Doug to me) She is having fun with him here and giving him kisses!

Aly, Steph, Eli (sleeping away) & Jesse

There were games there you could play and if you won you received a prize. Jacob won smarties so he gave them to Aly. My dad was near by so I had him jump in the picture too.

Eli looked so cute sleeping I couldn't help but to get a picture.

Here is Marisa getting her face painted.

They had a cake walk and I was more then happy to play the game, but by the time we got to it there were too many people and I didn't want to wait because I was worried Eli would was getting cold. So I convinced Jacob it would be ok to take/steal me a rice crispy treat. Then while he was in the middle of it I took a picture of him and the flash went off...it was hilarious because it was like I pointed out what he was doing wrong.

While we were there I ran into my dear friend Sharisa who just had a little baby boy. Isn't he super cute?

Here is Merrick up close...look at all that hair! Also I am glad to say Merrick and I share the same birthday

They had more music, dancing and food. Austin and his troop also preformed a song. As always my parents ward threw an amazing party. We had a wonderful time.

On Saturday night we received a call from Elliott Caldwell and he offered us some tickets to the ASU game. Jacob was really excited because they were box seats so after convincing me to go. We called up the Gilmore's to see if they could come with us. They said yes so we met up at my parents house. While we were at my parents house we were talking to Lee and found out he was going to the game as well. He also informed us that where our seats were they gave us free food and drinks! I was really excited so we headed out to the ASU game.

Jacob and I just relaxing during half time.

We snuck down a little bit so we could get a picture of the feild behind us.

Steph and Jerel cuddling up next to us.

I have to admit the even though I wanted ASU to win Oregon KILLED US. I also have to admit that I enjoyed their mascot which is a duck much more then our mascot. So I got a picture of him doing push ups after one of their many touchdowns. Thanks for the tickets Elliott and Cami.

Poor Sick Eli

During Tuesday night I noticed my little guy was having a problem breathing and that he seemed to have a very small cough. Being the new mother that I am I got up Wednesday early called the doctor and got Eli in 1st thing in the morning. I am sure this office thinks I am completely crazy! I could not find my car keys and so I decided to take the Mazda well in all the confusion I left my diaper bag in front of our house which had my wallet and spare diapers!! So needless to say I looked like a lost puppy dog yet again in the doctors office. Eli was again a little champ at the doctor the nurse said it was obvious my little guy didn't feel good, but he was so cute because he just kept smiling and playing with her. At one point the doctor even had me pin down Eli. He didn't like what the doctor was doing but he never cried. Both the doctor and the nurse told me what a good little baby I have. After the doctor looked at him he basically told me that Eli had a small cold, but was too little to receive any medication. I was sent home with a lecture to watch him closely.

I watched him very closely yesterday and although he never really napped and didn't eat as much as he normally does. He seemed ok. I went to my trainer and left him with my mother. When I got home from the trainer I stayed and visited with my mom and then headed home around 9 O'clock. Eli started getting fussy and was pretty up set with me. I could tell he was not feeling well. I put him to sleep and was surprised that even though he wasn't feeling well he slept until 2:45 am (I thought for sure he was going to wake up every hour). When I pulled him out of his crib I felt that he was extremely warm. I pulled him over to the changing table and checked his temp right away. I was so freaked out when it said 100.7. (the doctor always told me that I needed to take him to the hospital if he temp ever reached 100.4 or above) I quickly woke Jacob up and asked him to call this nurse 24 hour hot line that our insurance has. After talking to them I asked Jacob to give Eli and blessing then I just rocked and comforted him for a while. He ended up falling asleep and so I let him sleep in our room so I could keep an eye on him.

When Eli woke up this morning I took his temp again and it was 100.2. I decided I could get this down on my own and the doctors really can't do much for him when he is so little. I grabbed this Vicks vaporizer I have and went into our bathroom. I turned the shower on as hot as it would go and it got the room real steamy. Eli seemed to really love it and just cuddled on me. It was cute because Eli's hair got really curly (hmmm I wonder who he got that from). I am not sure if we are out of the wood just yet, but ever since noon today his temp has been back to normal. Eli is such a sweet little guy because even though he is sick he is still all smiley and playful. I just love my little man.

Here is Eli doing some tummy time today.

I just love those big eyes and droopy cheeks.

Naps & Laughter

Lately for some reason I have been getting extra sleeping and dying for some naps. So on Saturday Jacob was a sweet heart and he took Eli for 2 hours while I took a nap. It was an amazing two hour nap.

Today my sleep deprivation again caught up with me so Eli and I took a nap together on the coach. We snuggled up and slept for another hour....it was great.

Here is my little guy catching some zzzz's

Remember how I couldn't catch Eli laughing well I have finally succeeded in my mission!

Austin's B-day Party!

Austin Lee Kartchner celebrated his 9th birthday on Saturday. Eli was invited so he attended his first birthday party. It was a Halloween themed party and we had so much fun.

They decorated pumpkins and had a contest.

Jacob and I were the judges and it was very tough. I mainly let Jacob choose because I was worried about hurting some one's feelings. Jacob handled the pressure very well.

This little guy won the funniest. I actually chose this one I loved how his ears were sitting.

This guy won scariest. Seriously that things face still freaks me out!

Austin really wanted a pinata so we got him one. Here are the kids rushing for the candy. They also played bingo, decorated haunted cupcakes and played dodge ball. It was such a fun party. Happy b-day Austin!

Pumpkin Patch & Rawhide

On Friday October 17th Jacob and I had a very fun Halloween activity filled day. We woke up and I told Jacob I was going to take the kiddos down to the Pumpkin Patch before we went to Rawhide that night. Jacob informed me I could not go to the Pumpkin Patch with out him. Jacob rushed to the office got all his work done then hurried home so he could go with us. While Jacob was at work I recieved a call from my cousin Brett and he was wondering if we could watch his two youngest children that afternoon. I of course said yes...I love every minute with those Brewer babies. Once Jacob got home from work I informed him that instead of 4 children we would have 6 today. As we loaded up the car I looked back and I said to Jacob (who wants 6 children) this is our future and today is our test. So off to the Pumpkin Patch we went.

We started off with a little photo session with the pumpkins

Aly and Ethan

Austin, Aly and Ethan

The Ash Family

When I was about a year old there is a picture of me sitting on a pumpkin I of course had to get one of Eli. (he is such a chunky monkey in this picture I love it)

Laney and Jesse

**Editor's note Laney and Jessee did not get their pictures taken with the pumpkins because Jesse did not want to and they were in strollers so we were not going to fight them about it.**

After our little photo session we went into the park and played on the toys which included a jumping gym, some blocks and a play house. We also picked out tiny pumpkins and each child decorated them There was a petting zoo, which for me was really gross because everything seemed so gross and dirty. I guess the dirt does not bother the animals so I guess it can't be that bad. After the dirty stinky animals we went on a hay ride. Since Eli was asleep ever since we started decorating the pumpkins and Layne was afarid of the tractor, Eli, Layne & I stayed back and did not go on the hayride.

Here are the kiddos and Jacob getting ready to go.

Here they are all finished with their fun ride.

After the hayride it was off to the maze. Aly was very serious about this part. They did get through very quickly, but there was also a time when they seemed lost for a second or two.

After the maze we thought we had enough of the heat and dirt and it was time to head home. I must say it was nice to go and have fun, bu this place is really for really small children. As for Jacob and I with all 6 children we did great and Jacob still thinks 6 is the magic number for us, I think the jury is still out.

Rawhide

After the pumpkin patch we met up with the rest of the Gilmore's (minus Chase) & the Navarro's (including Aunt Cyndi Porter) at my parents house and headed off to the western adventure that is Rawhide. Stephanie said that I-10 was really bad because of an accident and was closed in some places. We figured the 202 would take us around this problem. The 202 worked great except it started to catch up with the bad traffic from the I-10. since I was familar with this area (I coached out here) I told them to drive forward. That seemed to work great only for a short while because other people seemed to have the same great idea as me. Then I noticed that middle wall on the freeway was down and we could easily change directions and get on the I-10 with no waiting. So we did it!!

Once we got to Rawhide right way we started to enjoy everything that we saw. I was excited to see the headless horseman so we took a picture of him. Immeditally I noticed all these little spots or orbs around him. During Halloween last year John Jay and Rich had people send in pictures of these scary orb things saying they were ghosts. After looking at my picture and thinking of this it totally freaked me out!!

This is our scary orby picture. We thought it was our camera at first so we took another one.

2nd Scary orby picture. I then thought no maybe there is something wrong with my Camera so I took a picture of my sister Stephanie.

Hmmm no orby scary things...so then I thought it was just my camera and we went back for another picture.

Ok now I am sold there are crazy ghosts at Rawhide. Look at me in this picture I look a little scared. Now at this point we are all wondering if there are scary orbs around us. So Tobi asked me to take a picture or her.

Nope no crazy things. Oh wait is that one in the corner? Jacob sees this and wants to make sure nothing is floating around him. So of course a picture of Eli and Jacob was taken next.

I don't really see as many as before but there is one in the top right...yikes

Now for Jerel and Ethan. Oh my goodness!

After we were finished with a fun pictures with scary creepy orbs we decided to go see what else Rawhide has to offer. We bought passes for everything and we were off. We started the night with some Donkey riding.

Austin's Burro was named Bert. So whenever we would get seperated we would call one another. Most the time the person would say, "We are over riding Bert."

I am not really sure what Ethan is doing in this picture, but it is still funny none the less.

There was also a hunted train ride, a mechanical bull and a stage coach ride. I did not get pictures of the train but here is Noah, Cyndi and Eli on the stage coach.

We went in the two haunted houses they have there and we had a blast. In the first one there are all these black curtains you had to walk through and all the sudden these light black clothed people would jump out at you. One of them figured out my name (curtisy of Jacob) and it was so creepy because the whole time each one would keep saying my name. In the 2nd house I accidently said Jacob's name so in the 2nd house they kept saying his name. Oh yeah and the 2nd house was super creepy because there were these clowns. My sister for sure didn't like that so she tried to get away from them but the scary clown on stilts chased after her. Also at the end of each haunted house there was a chainsaw. We knew they were there so we all were confident that we would not be scared by either one of them...NOPE we were wrong. Each haunted house we came out running very quickly. It was so much fun!!!

**Editors note Ethan at the small age of 5 went in the 1st scary house, and Aly at only 10 went in both.