Happy Halloween (2 days early)!!!

Tonight we went over to the Morman chuch (where Stratie and Tina attend) to get some candy, as some places were doing the Halloween thing tonight instead of Monday. Everyone was very very excited about the prospect of getting lots of treats. We plan on going trick-or-treating again on Monday on post. Rumor has it that lots of people from Mexico come up and trick-or-treat in our neighborhood and last year people were having more than 250 kids come to their door, so we plan on not being home Monday evening.

This year we have (left to right) Haley as Jessie from Toy Story 2, which gets her one step closer to fulfilling her dream of someday becoming a cowgirl, Owen as a NASCAR driver, and Ashlyn as a 50's sock hop dancer.



































Ashlyn proudly displays her tire, um, record.




































We bought some red hair dye spray from Spencer's and braided Haley's hair so she would look exactly like Jessie.




































Owen rode in his Big Red Car (not pictured) to make his costume more authentic.

Trunk or Treating

Trunk or Treating is where you go to a parking lot and people back their cars up, sit on the bumpers, and hand out candy from the trunk. Tonight we went with Brandon and April to Stratie and Tina's church and got lots of candy. Ashlyn did great but Haley was still a little skittish around the scary costumes. Taylor was pretty much against the whole thing until she realized she was getting candy, and after that she was a champ. Owen, who could possibly win the prize for the biggest chicken ever, rode in his car the entire time and only collected candy from the last three cars.

It's the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Tonight after Trunk or Treating we stopped by Jamie Roy's house. He's in class with Scott and was having a Halloween party. He had a giant blow-up pumpkin that the kids couldn't get enough of.

Arden the duck

This is Arden the duck in San Angelo. I thought this was adorable so I borrowed/stole it from Amber's website. She is with her daddy, Joe, who is currently a Drill Sergeant but who will soon become one of the army's finest butterbars.

Getting ready for school

Before school this morning. In the third picture Owen is showing everyone that he is having waffles for breakfast.

Scott's Mini-Me

On the weekends Scott picks out Owen's clothes to match his. Sunday they both wore jeans and tennis shoes, blue shirts with darker blue trim and blue hats. Owen loves to wear his hats. This one is a Rusty Wallace hat that he will also wear on Halloween, when he dresses up like a NASCAR driver...because after all, if you want them raised right, you have to start young...




















Notice Owen's belt. I can't even describe how awesome he thinks he is when he gets to wear his belt.

Spin, spin, fall down

Lots of times the girls put on dresses and then spin around so the dresses fluff out. This is very exciting for them (and yes, I do take them out of the house occasionally). Anyhoo, Owen watches them spinning and laughing, so his new thing is to spin around and around until he falls over. He thinks this is funny for the most part, except for the time that he spun right into the closet door. That wasn't good, that was more along the lines of tragic.

Just the 3 of us

Poodle skirts

Joan and Rebeckah sent the girls some poodle skirts to play in and wear for Halloween. One with a record, one with a poodle, and one with a rock star on it. We got them about a month ago and they run around in them all the time. Ashlyn is going to a Halloween/Birthday party next Friday and she is wearing the red skirt. Today after school she put it on and she was saying how none of her friends knew what a poodle skirt was so she couldn't wait to wear it. I said "Okay, so you're going to wear the red one?" and Ashlyn said yes. Then I said "Wait, which picture does that one have on it?" and Haley said "Oh, the red one is the one with the tire." Maybe Haley isn't as kooky as we originally thought...maybe she is actually brilliant...hmm...

Good Morning

This is about all the excitement you can drag out of Haley in the mornings.















All Owen does is eat nonstop until it's time to take a nap. He is also a great morning person. He wakes up and is always immediately in a good mood (as long is there is food around).

"Battitude"

This morning we went to Target to pick up a few things. I left the list in the car, so we just kind of hit and missed around the store. Owen was terrible, but Haley was excellent, so she got a Halloween shirt. It says Battitude, but you can see Haley is all smiles in the picture. But have you ever known anyone not to smile when eating Ben & Jerry's?

Patience is a virtue

Patience is a virtue that Owen simply does not possess. Lately Owen has taken issue just about every time he sees you put food in the microwave. He wants whatever type of food it is right then, not a couple of minutes later. This is especially true with frozen corn on the cob (his favorite food of all time) and chicken nuggets (his second favorite, or maybe third favorite behind fruit chews). I guess because the food mostly looks the same after it comes out he sees microwaving it as a waste of time, but this is probably just because he's not allowed to touch/play with/throw the food before we cook it so he doesn't realize it's cold to begin with.

Apparently 3 minutes is entirely too long to have to wait for Easy Mac. Owen thinks that maybe if he scales up the side of the microwave stand and puts his nose on the glass the time will pass quicker. FYI-Haley is showing the correct position to stand in when microwaving. You never stand directly in front of the door because...well, I'm not sure why exactly, but I am pretty sure I read that someplace.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Owen and Arden playing in Arden's crib. The toy hanging on the side is not the fish tank thing Owen has, but one with birds in it. It's the Flutterbye Dreams Lullabye Birdies Soother and plays all sorts of nature sounds and has a moving picture on the ceiling through a projector in the top. I think I know another baby who may enjoy this and get one for Christmas...















Owen loves to kiss people. Here he has crossed the line and cheated on Taylor, making Arden the "other woman".

McDonalds - We're lovin' it!

Arden and Owen had a dinner date and shared a Happy Meal. They are both food lovers. Here, Arden is grabbing as many fries as she can and Owen has run out of hands and is hoarding food with his mouth.















This is interesting dinner conversation. Arden has asked a question, and Owen is contemplating his answer.















Arden is glad Owen is visiting because she usually does not get Happy Meals.















Owen, who is generally a chicken nugget man, has switched to fries, and Arden is continuing to try to stuff as many as possible into her mouth.















Owen, as you can see, is taking no chances with the nuggets. He has taken a bite off each one and is holding them all at once so Arden cannot get them. Arden is deceptively quick when it comes to food.















Ever the gentleman, Owen offers one of his nuggets to Arden. (this was after much coaxing on my part).

Arden

Arden is about 10 1/2 months old. Her birthday is December 5th, which is also Haley's birthday, so Haley feels Arden is part of her family.
















Arden and her ever present broken cell phone. Her favorite part is the antenna.

Buckethead

We spent the week with Amber and Arden in Texas(Joe, oddly enough, was in Sierra Vista for the week). Arden has a bucket in her room that usually holds small bears. Owen found a better use for it.

Owen and Max

Max runs after Owen all day long. When he gets Owen's attention, he immediately lays down and rolls over onto his back so Owen can pet/hit him on his stomach. Owen has also started attempting to pick Max up by the neck...lucky for Max his body is so long that his back feet stay on the ground when this happens.

Owen, the girls and I will be out of town all next week, so we won't be posting anything new until next weekend. Scott will be home by himself, enjoying watching the baseball playoffs with no interruptions, so feel free to call and bug him as much as you want to.

Sick Sick Sick

Owen was sick and threw up on Tuesday afternoon. This morning both Haley and Ashlyn threw up. So Ashlyn stayed home from school and now they are both in their room laying in their beds drinking sprite and eating saltines and acting like the world as we know it is over.