Happy Haunting

Halloween has come once again and I find myself oddly relieved to have it almost over. I really look forward to dressing up and dressing my sweet boys up, but I'm so ready for a change of scenery around my house. I think my Christmas decorations might come out of hiding a little early this year.
I really struggled deciding on a theme for our costumes this year. Originally I had planned on doing Wizard of Oz characters, but there are just too many cute costumes and I don't have enough kids. Maybe in a few years. I finally decided on Peter Pan.
Tanner was Peter Pan. And he was a darn cute Peter Pan-if I do say so myself.
I made his costume last month and was so excited when I tried it on him and he hadn't outgrown it.
On Thursday we took Tanner to the "Kids Bash" on the ASU campus here. He had fun walking around and watching all the kids play. We dressed Tanner up,


but didn't wear our costumes. We met some friends there and walked around with them. Tanner loves to play with other kids. He is in serious need of a sibling to play with.
We had fun for a while, but then it started to get cold and we had to get Tanner home.
We had a really fun Halloween "Trunk-or-Treat" at our church building yesterday. There was a great turnout and lots of yummy food.
Tanner at the ward party


Here he is...off to fight Captain Hook


I was Tinkerbell and Chris was Captain Hook.

The Herb Family- Halloween 2010


I have to tell you what an awesome sport Chris is. He dresses up without too much complaining and wears the costume all night. He's so awesome. This year his costume was really involved. He had a wig, mustache, hat, sword, hook, coat and pants, ruffly neck thing, belt, boot covers and even an earring. It was awesome. And he looked great. So THANK YOU to my sweet awesome husband, for NOT being one of those lame guys who won't dress up with his family.
After we ate there was a costume parade.

I walked Tanner around because he wouldn't stay with the group. The parade lead around the church and then outside to the parking lot to "Trunk-or-Treat"

While Chris passed out candy out of the back of our car, Tanner and went "Trunk-or-Treating" He didn't really understand the concept but he enjoyed carrying his pumpkin bucket around.

Trick or Treat?


Then Tanner got his face painted. He held fairly still- I was surprised.

Then we headed home. There was a HOGS game on and we were missing it.

Here are a few others from the night.
Peter and Tinkerbell



Captain Hook and Pan

Family shot after "Trunk-or-Treating"

Tanner roaming the halls of the church after he got his face painted.


Also, my two younger sisters flew home from BYU with my sister Sarah's new boyfriend to surprise everyone. Well I knew about it, but no one else did. My parents and brother and sister-n-law flipped when they came in the door. It was so fun. We had a wonderful weekend with them.

I hope everyone had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Now to start getting excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas. YAY!

Grandma Herb Comes to Visit

This week has been crazy!
On Wednesday Grandma Herb came down from Oregon to visit. We are thrilled to have her here and we've been trying to pack our days full of fun activities.
Before she got here we got the house all cleaned up and even carved a few pumpkins to make things more festive. Tanner really liked carving pumpkins this year. He kept sticking his entire arm inside the pumpkin and pulling out handfuls of seeds.
Then he wanted to eat what he pulled out.



Wednesday we went to eat Dinner together and then I had to go to a primary meeting. But Grandma and Dad put Tanner to bed and then just hung out at the house.
Thursday we went to eat at this restaurant overlooking the White River. It was a delicious meal and a beautiful fall day. We then took Tanner to play at the park next to the river. He loved walking around the playground and going down the big boy slide (all by himself). He's really into exploring lately- so the park was a lot of fun.
Tanner in the swing

Going down the slides



And then he got stuck...hahahaha


On the way home Tanner was pretty worn out and fell asleep.
Then we packed our bags and took off for St. Louis that afternoon. Its a 5 hour drive and we were all tired when we got there. It was about 10 when we checked into our hotel room. Tanner was asleep when we got there, but by the time we got into our room- he was WIDE awake. He was totally wired. He ran around our room and we had to give him a second bottle in order to get him to lay down long enough to fall asleep. He was CRAZY.
Here is Tanner watching t.v. on our bed. He did not want to go to sleep


The next day we woke up and got ready to go to the temple. Grandma volunteered to watch Tanner so Chris and I could go do some sealings together. We did initiatories and sealings and it was so nice. I love the peaceful feeling in the temple. Although I missed Tanner, I still had a wonderful time with my sweet husband.
While we were in the Temple, Grandma and Tanner played on the Temple grounds. Here are a few cute pictures Grandma took of Tanner.
Tanner by the bushes- such pretty fall colors

playing on the stairs


Then we went to JoAnn's and to Macaroni Grill for Lunch. We headed home about 4:00 and got in around 9:00. We were exhausted and Tanner slept really hard that night.
Saturday we mostly chilled at home. We ate breakfast with my Uncle Joe and his little family. He had made biscuits and gravy and invited us over. It was delish!
Then we took Tanner home for his nap and Grandma and I did a little shopping around town. We listened to the Hog game at home and played in the leaves.
Tanner loves to play with the leaves. He pulls them apart and throws them in the air. Its so funny to watch.



He doesn't really know what to do when he's trying to walk and there is a leaf in his way. Or in this case- a ton of leaves. He just stares at them and then cautiously tries to walk over them.


Later we went back to my parents house to have dinner with Uncle Joe again. Nanny and Papa were still in St. Louis. We dressed Clark and Tanner in their matching Razorback sleepers in honor the HOG victory yesterday. Tanner loved having Clark lay on his arm.


He loved digging his fingers into Clark's eyes even more. Stinker!


Today was just the normal church stuff and we made some pumpkin bread. Dinner with the family later...
We've only got a few days left of Grandma's stay. I can't believe how fast it's flown by. Tanner loves his Grandma. They do this think where Grandma says "I'm going to get you" and Tanner sticks up his finger gun with his thumb and pointer finger. Its so cute. I want him to learn to say "stick 'em up" but we'll see. haha

We're so grateful to have Grandma take the time and money to come all the way here to visit. Its been fun and we can't wait to go out to Oregon at Christmas. I'll post more after she leaves- I just wanted to get a few pictures posted now, so the post isnt too long later.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Today Chris and I took Tanner to a local pumpkin patch. It was so fun!!!
The owners of the pumpkin patch were having their "Fall Festival" so we got to go on a hayride, stop at their petting zoo, go through a corn maze, play on their "fun" mountain and pick out our pumpkins in their pumpkin patch. It was quite the fun-filled afternoon.
The hayride was pulled by a tractor. Despite the loud noise from the tractor Tanner enjoyed himself on our hay ride.


Our first stop was the petting zoo. Chris took Tanner over to meet the ponies. He was a little shy about it.

Then completely unsure how he felt.

Then he was excited and he stayed on that pony for 10 minutes.

Then we went over to the "fun" mountain. Which I guess for kids it is pretty FUN. Its just a big pile of mulch and saw dust. Tanner had a blast trying to climb up the mountain and then just sitting and playing in it.

Mom and Tanner on the fun mountain.


Yes- I was covered in mulch and sawdust.
Then we got back on our hay ride and went to play at the corn maze. If you can believe I've lived 23 years and never been in a corn maze.
Before we enter the maze.

We made a couple wrong turns but we made it. Tanner spent alot of time on Dad's shoulders. Otherwise we had to stop every two seconds so Tanner could play with the corn.




After that we got back on our hayride and went to the pumpkin patch.

Dad and Tanner chillin' on our hayride.

He loves hangin' out with his Dad.

Tanner had a good time picking out his pumpkins. We got a bunch this year because they were pretty cheap. Then we pulled them back to the little country store to pay for them. Tanner got to ride with the pumpkins in the cart.

I took some in B&W for fun.




The fall colors are so pretty though.

"Thank you God for the awesome pumpkins" hahahaha. This kid is so enthusiastic!


We took one last family picture on the hay stacks and called it a day. We were pretty tired by that point anyway.


We had a lot of fun and I'm excited to carve our pumpkins and catch that fall fever. I'm so ready for it to cool off some more. I'm really looking forward to some fall weather and more fun activities.