grade eight: October Part I

This is by far the busiest, craziest, (and best!) month of the year for our family. We have five birthdays in my immediate family alone, plus there is Halloween, and all the other awesome fall festivities.

Yeah, we kind of go M.I.A. in October. You pretty much won't see us unless you're family. We're that busy. Here's what we've been up to:

Celebrating my/Stephie Lynne's birthday and going to see Steph perform in "Into the Woods."
My birthday is the 11th and Stephie Lynne's is the 15th, so we usually combine parties and have one big celebration at home base with the fam. This year, we ate delicious french dip sandwiches and fresh apple crisp -- the perfect fall meal. After presents and singing, we decided to take a trip to Gardner Village. We wanted to see the witches and cute decorations, but mostly Stephie Lynne and I wanted fudge :) The only downside was the weather. It was drizzly and a bit chilly. Hence, exactly one photo from the entire night. Oh well. Chase is cute when begging for candy.

That weekend we were also able to go see my amazingly talented sister perform in "Into the Woods" in Salt Lake. She has been in about a billion productions and it is always a blast to go see her in her element. For those of you not familiar with the play, it is basically all of the fairy tales mashed up into one thought provoking, lesson teaching, witty, musical. It was a lot of fun. Especially when you're related to the star of the show.

Enjoying the beautiful fall weather with Chase.
I get to play with Chase-man every day and it is pretty much my favorite thing. This particular day, we spent a lot of time playing in the leaves. He had me laughing and laughing at all his hilarious poses.

Things calmed down a little after that as we picked some dandelions (or dan-dee-yii-yahs as Chase calls them) and pondered the meaning of life.

Hosting a Pre-Halloween party with Court and Ariel.
Getting together with our little cousins Courtney and Ariel and having some sort of spooky themed party is sort of a tradition for Steph and I. We eat creepy treats, tell terrible tales, get spooky manicures, and make awesomely magical crafts. This time around, our DIY project was Harry Potter wands.

You take regular, old chopsticks, build them up with a lot of hot glue, and then roll them in beads and things to add texture. Once everything is nice and dry, you paint them. This project was a ton of fun and they turned out pretty cool!

Celebrated Chase turning three!
My favorite little nephew turned three years old on the 22nd. His mom, Stephie Lynne, asked Chase what kind of party he wanted and without hesitation he said, "the balloon house." Chase LOVES the movie "UP" and has seen it about a billion times.

Stephie Lynne and I made him this awesome cake and he absolutely loved it!

Not only did Chase get a balloon house made out of cupcakes, but he also got the real deal! He about died when he saw grandma's creation.

For our present, Christian and I made Chase a hinges and latches board. We bought a wooden board, spray painted it Chases's favorite color, then screwed in all sorts of hardware. It's like the ultimate little boy puzzle :)