Happy Halloween....

Halloween is SOOO much better when you have kids to spend it with!!! In the afternoon we carved pumpkins with the kids. Audrey and Lisa, Dave and Carter and Jaden and I carved pumpkins together. The kids did a really good job on picking out their own faces for the pumpkins. They turned out really cute!! Jaden and I had the smallest pumpkin to carve. I am all for the smaller pumpkins from now on...it is sooo much easier!!!

























After dinner, we got all the kids in their costumes. Shauna and Doug are out of town this weekend for a wedding Shauna is in, so we took the kids trick-or-treating. Audrey was a witch, Carter was a Ninja Turtle, Jaden was Spiderman, Bradli was a flower and Brady was a lion. They all looked so cute!!! I wore my USC jersey to try and be festive!!!



























My parent's neighborhood doesn't have hardly any kids, so we just went nextdoor and to one other house. Then we headed out to Wagon Wheel to the street where Dave and Lisa are hoping to move to. It was packed with kids and all the houses were decorated!! It was a lot of fun and the kids got tons of candy!!!!





































I was glad that all the kids were here this year. I had forgotten how fun Halloween is!!!! Hopefully we can all be together next year too!!!!

I did feel like something was missing tonight. For the past few years, we would go up to see my cousins and grandparents. We would go to my Aunt's house and have soup and then head out to Sierra Madre to look at the cool pumpkins in this one neighborhood. I think that knowing that my Grandpa wasn't going to be there made it seem not as fun this year. I guess that is how a lot of things are going to feel. I sure miss him!!!

Celebrating Carter's 4th Birthday at Disneyland

Today Carter celebrated his 4th birthday at DISNEYLAND!!! The day was PERFECT. There was hardly anyone there and the weather was AWESOME!!! Doug flew in last night, so he was able to come too. Shauna, Doug, Jaden and Bradli headed out earlier then the rest of us because they were the only ones who had to pay for a day pass. The rest of us (who have annual passes) showed up around 2. The first thing I did was take Carter to City Hall to get his birthday button. I thought that was all he would get...but he a got the best surprise. The man who gave him his button told him that there was someone on the phone who wanted to talk to him. When Carter picked up the phone, Mickey Mouse started talking to him and wished him a Happy Birthday!!! I was SOO JEALOUS!!! He was soooo excited!!! Then the man asked Carter what his favorite ride was. Carter told him Buzz Lightyear and the man gave us two passes to go right to the front of the ride!!! The man gave Audrey an Honorary Guest button to wear as well!





We met up with Jaden and I took the kids to Tom Sawyer's Island. The kids had never been there before and I knew that they would love running around...especially the boys!!! They have actually changed the island to a pirate theme. We went in some of the caves and on the bridges. We even ran into some pirates!!!! We played around for about a half and hour and then headed back. Then I took Audrey on the Haunted Mansion, while Shauna and Doug took Jaden and Carter on some other rides. When we met back together, we couldn't believe what rides the boys had been on!!??? Carter went on Thunder Mountain (we were all shocked due to how he handled Toon Town roller coaster!!!). Jaden went on the Matterhorn!!! They loved those rides!




























We then met up with the whole gang. Dave was able to come after work. We also met up with Aaron and Stacey and the boys. We then headed to go on the Buzz Lightyear ride. They wouldn't let us use the pass, so they said we could use it on any other ride we wanted. The line was only 5 minutes any ways!!! We ended up using the pass on the Nemo ride. I hadn't been on it since it opened because the line is ALWAYS SOOOO LONG!!! We went right to the front of the line!!! It was a cute ride and it was pretty long, but not what I had hoped for. I was glad that I didn't stand in that long line!!!











We then headed to Fantasyland and I took Carter and Dahl on the teacups while Lisa and my mom took Audrey on Alice in Wonderland. Afterwards we headed to Pizza Port for dinner. It was nice to sit down and relax. It was getting close to closing time, so I took Carter on one last ride after we ate, Star Tours. He LOVED it!!! He really thought we were fighting the "Bad Guys" in space!! Ever since he became a "Jedi", he is really into Star Wars!!! It was fun watching him shoot with his pretend gun!!! We then met up with everyone on Main Street. Lisa had brought some party horns and she gave them to all the kids. They just ran around blowing the horns for the next little while!!! We then headed home.

















Carter had a great birthday!! I can't wait until it's my birthday so I can get a phone call from Mickey Mouse!!!!!!