Halloween 2023- A Football Game

So I let the kids mostly plan our Halloween theme this year and they came up with this cute idea. It all stemmed around Tanner wanting to dress up like part of a marching band and then the rest of the kids found ideas that went along with the theme. 
So without further adieu, our 2023 Halloween theme- A Football Game

We have a quarterback, the football coach, a referee, a cheerleader, a marching band member and a fan. 

It was pretty fun and my friend Maleah met us at the high school Stadium to take our group picture. 
I love how it turned out and I'm so grateful to her.

Before we took our group picture, I went ahead and snapped a few of each of my kids in their costumes. 
Benson was the cutest little quarterback ever. 

Bailey was a cute cheerleader. With her past experience with cheerleading, she felt pretty confident in her costume. However, despite the freezing temperatures, she didn't want to wear leggings. Crazy girl!

 

Tucker was such a perfect ref. He took it seriously and even let me teach him a few signs. It was pretty cute. 

This may have been one of Tanner's favorite costumes of all time. 
He absolutely cannot wait to join the high school marching band next school year- so he was so thrilled to wear a marching band uniform. It was pretty cute!

Then tonight, on Halloween, we trick-or-treated our neighborhood and the kids got a surprising amount of full size candy bars. So ridiculous! But of course they were thrilled. 

This year Bailey also met up with her friend Olivia and they went off on their own trick-or-treating. They had a great time. 

We also ran over to Andy's frozen custard to get free sundaes. Any kid in a costume got a sundae so the kids were so happy. 

Then it was back to our house to pass out more candy and to sort and trade. 
It's always so cute to watch the kids sort and trade their candy. This year was no exception. 

We had an awesome Halloween. I feel like Halloween snuck up on me this year because I have been so focused on preparing for our family cruise in November. Well now tomorrow is November first and we leave in just a few days for our cruise. Crazy. 

Anyways, Happy Halloween! 

 

Halloween Fun

We are doing our best to enjoy all the fun Halloween stuff. 
I helped put together the kids' class parties and we had the best time. This year the class parties were the Friday before Halloween. 
Tucker really loved decorating Halloween cookies! He's so artistic  and I love watching the different ways he shows it. 

I don't know what part of the party Benson liked best but he loved having me there. 

I bet his favorite part was the food. He loves snacks so much. 

Another night we did our "Trail of Fears" minivan ride to go look at all the Halloween yard decorations and lights. I made the kids "candy corn hot cocoa"

Unsurprisingly, it was super sweet and almost too much to drink. 
But the cups were so cute with the floating ghost mallows in them. 

I made Tanner and Bailey matching skeleton pjs to go with Tucker and Benson's pjs that I found at Rhea Lana. I love when my kids where matching pjs and they seem to think its not very cool. 
What do they know- they look adorable!

After we finished our "trail of fears" we stopped by our neighborhood clubhouse,  Members of the POA put together a "haunted clubhouse" and it was free with a canned food donation. It was so cute. 
The kids loved it and we went through it a few times. 

Now Halloween is in two days. I can hardly believe it. Stay tuned for our family theme reveal!

Father & Son Hunting Trip

Tanner and Chris just got home from a hunting trip to Utah. 
Chris and Brad had planned this whole trip and they had a wonderful time. 

They were gone for about 5 days total and they were blessed with really mild weather. 

Sadly, because the weather was so mild, the animals weren't as stagnant and lazy so they weren't able to get much. Only cousin Paul got an elk. But Tanner still said he had an awesome time. 
He really loved the quality time with his Dad and he enjoyed hunting.  

We are happy to have them back and it was so fun to listen to all their stories. 

I'm so grateful they are safe and that they had this time together. 

Serving in the Bentonville Temple

Over the last month we have been blessed to serve in the temple multiple times. 
Somehow we managed to snag the first slot for youth baptisms. So Tanner and Bailey were in the first group to do proxy baptisms in the Bentonville Temple. 
It made for a pretty special evening. 

It seems crazy that in just two short years, Tanner will be able to perform baptisms not just be baptized. 

We had a wonderful evening in the temple. 

Chris and I also got to serve and worship in the temple during an endowment session. It was such a great evening at the temple. 

One thing that is so cool about our temple is that when you walk inside you see so many friendly and familiar faces. Many of the temple workers are from our stake and so we know them. 
I've never experienced that before and it was so fun. 
But I think the best part of the night was being in the celestial room after our session and watching so many friends and familiar faces walk through the beautiful doors to join us. I kept thinking, "This has to be what heaven is like". It is one thing to attend a temple session with friends and sit together and then enter the celestial room together. But it's something entirely different being surprised as the doors open and friends walk inside. We had so many sweet little reunions and so many happy smiles as we all celebrated, worshipped and gave thanks for our beautiful temple. 

We came outside after dark and I just love the light of the temple and the beacon that it is for our community.

Shortly after our first visits to the temple, it was time for general conference. 
Talks about temple service or temple and family history just hit a little different now, with our temple so close and conference was wonderful. 

The kids did pretty great listening and they really loved my "conference charcuterie boards". 
Charcuterie boards are always a good idea, but they are the best during conference!

We all enjoyed just snacking on and off while listening to talks. 

General conference was awesome and we really enjoyed having Dad home with us. 

The following weekend Nanny and Papa came over to visit and attend the temple for the first time. 
We were also able to get an appointment for Bailey and Tanner to do baptisms with them after their endowment session.

Their baptism appointment was in the evening and they both enjoyed getting to serve in the baptistry with Nanny and Papa. 

The next day we hung out with Nanny and Papa at our house. 
We watched a Halloween Movie , the new "Haunted Mansion" and we made caramel apple nachos. 
It was a yummy treat. 

Nanny, Papa and I also got to do proxy sealings at the temple the next morning and it was so nice. 
The wording for the sealings has changed recently and the promised blessings were so sweet. 
I felt so grateful to get to serve in the temple with my parents. That is something that I will forever cherish. 

Another week I had the coolest experience. I spent many hours researching and doing family history. I found an ancestor on my Dad's paternal side. Her name was Monique and I learned so much about her life during the process of my research. 
I was able to find her  last name, then her parents, two more of her spouses ( she was married three times) and so I was able to do all this work for her. I spent 4 days in the temple, one day after the other doing one ordinance each day for Monique. It was a very cool experience. I felt so happy for Monique and I loved learning about her life. She was a very neat lady. She endured a lot but spent many years serving in her community on different charities and after her death, she designated that her body be donated to science. I think that is rad.

I had an incredible 4 days in the temple and it was just so cool that we have a temple here now and I could do something like this. 

We are looking forward to many more visits to the temple with Nanny and Papa. We feel so incredibly blessed to have a temple and that Nanny and Papa have even more reason to come to Bentonville now!

We get to see them even more!