Halloween 2015

October 30, 2015

The Halloween party at school was the day before Halloween.  I sent Isaac and Grace off with a Halloween themed lunch that day.

When I got to the school that afternoon to help at their party they were so excited to tell me how much they liked their lunches.  They couldn’t believe I would send bat poop and ghost poop!  I was glad I could be at the party with my eagle and Army guy.

They ate treats, played games and made cute crafts.

It was super hot in their classroom so the eagle had to shed some of her costume, but here she is with two of her besties.  I’m bummed I didn’t get any pictures of Isaac with his friends.

They have a fun class.

October 31, 2015

The next day was a super wet, rainy Halloween.  But rain can’t stop Oregonians.

This year we had Deb from Napoleon Dynamite.

She looks the part doesn’t she?

We had our cute eagle.  Grace loves birds and decided all on her own that she wanted to be an eagle.  I had fun making her costume.

When Isaac came home from Utah with Grandpa Harold’s canteen he knew he wanted to be an Army guy for Halloween.  I lucked out at the thrift store for his costume.

Our ward party was actually on Halloween this year, so we went there first for a chili dinner.  Lee, Emma and I looked pretty dynamite.  ;)

We got a lot of pretty good laughs from our costumes.  Although there were a ton of people who didn’t know that it was me under that Napoleon costume!  We got a kick out of that.

(Thanks to Alyssa for the costume essentials, but I was most proud of my garbage bag moon boots.  Ha!)

After the party we braved the rainstorm for some trick-or-treating.  Oh man, it was wet!!

It was very weird to not have the haunted house this year.  Lee and Peter were just too busy and were still tired from the year before!  We disappointed a lot of people by not having it, especially our kids, but it was nice to take a break.  And it was really nice to be able to take our kids trick-or-treating at a normal pace instead of rushing back home for the Halloween night rush.  Not to mention it was also really nice to have a non-trashed house!! The Sunderland’s went trick-or-treating with us and we discussed plans for next year. (Actually Lee and Peter discussed haunted house plans for next year all of September and October and more than a few times were sorry they weren’t doing it this year.  Brenna and I had to keep reminding them that they promised a break!) Peter and Brenna were darn smart to bring their beach umbrellas.  Kept them completely dry and several kids could fit under there with them!

The kids were DRENCHED by the time we were done.  But they were as happy as could be!

This was the scene in our house after the costumes were taken off.

Emma and her friend Ashley manned the door at our house.  They passed out candy and watched movies.  It was a fun night!

P. S. Some outtakes for your viewing pleasure… :)

Emma’s Family Birthday Party

November 1, 2015

I’m skipping ahead a little, but we did celebrate Emma’s birthday with her traditional Halloween birthday dinner.  (Too bad it was actually November and the day after Halloween, but that’s ok!) 

She chose to have the same cake she had a few years ago.  Can you imagine why?

Isaac and Grace were so excited to give her their gift of a thermal bottle for Emma’s hot chocolate. 

They love their sister.

Emma was genuienly pleased with all of her gifts.

But I’m pretty sure she was most excited about finally getting her own set of the Harry Potter movies. 

Lee asked Emma out on her first date in a very creative fashion.

He wanted to take her out and show her out it’s done.  He’s a good dad.

Oh how we love our Emma Mae.  I had to include all these pictures because the progression made me laugh. It accurately shows our relationship.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Sweet Sixteen!

October 29, 2015

This beautiful girl of ours turned 16!! 

She got to open one present in the early morning of her birthday before she was off to seminary. 

It was a necklace that represented different things I wanted her to remember now that she is 16.

When she went out to the car she got quite the surprise as her friends were hiding in the car waiting for her.  It was pretty awesome.

I made Emma’s favorite treat that day so she could take it to the pool to share with her friends there.  I texted her a picture in the middle of the day to get her excited.

Ma and Pa Isom sent flowers that were waiting for her when she got home. 

We celebrated with our family a few days later, and a few weeks later (Emma has a busy schedule right now!) we took Emma and several of her good friends out to a movie.  A few days before her birthday Tenley took Emma to Saturday Market for her birthday.

Emma really wanted to get a cartoon picture of the two of them, so they got one.

They also fell in love with the Chinese name paintings. 

So they got those too.

I love Tenley and Emma’s relationship.  Thank you Tenley!

Now we just have to get used to Emma being so old, beautiful and good.  She is so fun to be around and is a joy to have in our family.  She speaks fluent movie and book quotes, loves superheroes, sappy movies, and Harry Potter.  She is a hard worker and a good student and very responsible.  We just love her and are so proud of who she is becoming.  Happy Sweet Sixteen Emma Mae!!