Trick-or-Treat

 

We decided awhile ago that we were all going to be characters from “Annie”, this year.  Elle was going to be Annie, Dylan was Daddy Warbucks, Kent was an elephant, and I was a maid.  I know the elephant is a stretch, Miss Hannigan rode it at the end of the movie.

 

Kent was not thrilled to be dressed up.  I know shocking.  I am glad to say that I honestly did not get a picture of Dylan or I.  Everyone said that Dylan looked more like Bishop Stewart, because he was wearing a shirt,  tie and a bald cap.

Before trick or treating we went to the Trunk-or-Treat at the church.  There were a lot of very funny costumes this year.  I regret not getting a picture of Nick Young because he was creepy and almost unrecognizable.

Elder’s Quorum President Tim Hogue and Tabi Hogue

Kelly

Josh Thompson, Julia Minor,  Ginny Thompson

Adam and Luke Alfred, Kacy Bunting, Taryn Kent, Emily Stewart, and Ed Bunting

Elle and Darla

Weston Hyer

The Bunting Girls

Hannah and Tylee

Morgan Young

Luke and Adam Alfred

Probably the only time Kent wasn’t whining!

After the Trunk-or-Treat Dylan took Kent home because he was exhausted.  Elle and I went with a group of kids and did a little trick or treating.  We honestly made it down one block and Elle was done.   Then we went to Jenny’s for some hot chocolate. 

When we got home I was trying to get Elle to bed and she said, “Mom, I don’t want to be Annie anymore, please wash my hair.”  We washed it and her hair only had a slight orange tinge to it in the morning.  We washed it a second time and it was all gone, thank goodness.

Birthday Party

 

Jenny had a party for me before all the Halloween festivities.  It was geared towards the kids.

 

Elle wanted to be Snow White for the party, so we didn’t argue.

 

Kent didn’t wear his costume very long,  he was eating chips and we wanted to keep it clean.  He was definitely glad to remove it!!

Elle and the boys were really enjoying the floating eyeballs in the drinks.  Elle was a little concerned by it.

 

The pinata was great.  The kids loved hitting it.  Elle took some coaxing but when she got into it she was loving it.  Jenny helped Kent some, but he was not interested.  Adam and Luke love wailing on that thing.  It took forever to get it open.  Jenny was very smart, she filled it with fruit roll ups, fruit snacks, and bouncy balls.

 

Jenny then read the kids some scary stories and they were enthralled, it was very amusing to watch.

The kids then bobbed for apples in the bathtub.  They were a little lost at how they were going to get the apples out.

 

They all got one though!

I was a really fun party.  Thanks, Jenny!!

Playgroup Halloween

 

For playgroup the Hyer’s had a Halloween party at their house.  It was mini carnival. 

We had a little game of throwing the balls into the caldron.  The kids thought it was fun but they wanted the candy more than anything.

Payton Lujan

 

Jayda the cat

 

I was trying to get a picture of Jayda but Elle wanted to be in the picture too.

Bria read a book about pumpkins to all the kids.  Elle was loving sitting on Mitzi’s lap with Jaden.  He was eating a sucker and Elle was eying it.  She said to him “Can I have a little lick,” and he held it out to share with her.  They were going back and forth taking turns licking the sucker, it was very funny and cute.

This pretty much what Kent did the whole time, we are struggling with the crankys right now.

Adventures in St. Kitts 2009

We started our adventure with a Red Eye from LA. I don’t really recall sleeping but the kids did and that was what was important. Kent slept so well that he even slept a couple of hours on the airport floor. My mom tried without much success.

Elle kept trying to talk with her and snuggle her…poor mom.

The majority of our group was on our Red Eye and all the rest of the group met us in Miami, including Dylan’s parents. Our group was huge this year, it included: My parents, Jenny, uncle Howard, Dylan’s parents, the senior and senior Bushlings, the Ellis family, the girls from my dad’s office, the Romines, and the girls from Kern River Tours, totaling about 25 people.

We had the opportunity to do a lot of different things this time because we had so many helping hands. We got to dive, go on sight seeing trips, go zip-lining, thanks to a lot of helping hands: Marcie Bushling, Sybil and Clinton, and my mom and dad, and aunt Jenny.

While my mom and Jenny watched Kent we got to go to the fort on St Kitts. It had a beautiful view.

Elle loved exploring all the rooms and walking up and down all the interesting stairs.

More than anything she loved watching Tayah and following her around.

After our visit to the fort we all congregated at a local restaurant called “Sprat Net”. I got to share pizza with the kids. A lot people had fish and they thought it was great!

After dinner we headed to the “Shiggidy Shack” were there was supposed to be a fire dancer. Everyone was excited to see a cool show…until the show started.

All it was, was a greased up dude that rubbed fire on his body.

It was cool when he spit the fire, but besides that, it was pretty silly.

This trip should have been deemed the trip of the lobster. Zach and Emily worked hard on every dive to ensure that they came home with some lobster. We, I mean the group, ate fresh lobster on 2 occasions. Everyone thought it was so good!

This is me holding a trunk fish in my hand. It was so little and cute.

We got the opportunity to go to church, which was fun. It was a little embarrassing walking into sacrament 10 minutes before it was to end, due the incorrect start time on the website.

We got to go on a zip-line tour over the rain forest. It was beautiful and surprisingly not really scary.

The worst part was definitely the smell of the helmets…YUCK!!

John is a very lucky man!!

Elle and Kent got spoiled with love and attention,

and desserts.

Kent enjoyed play time from Grampy Clinton

and even snuggles from Zach, Tayah, Trey,and Jayda’s Grandpa Ellis

They loved to play at the beach,

at the pool,

but more than anything Elle loved playing/being with Jayda. Thank you Jayda and Marcie for making Elle’s trip so much fun.

Sybil got to experience scuba diving in the pool. And she officially earned her nickname “Snorkel Syb”. She went snorkeling 3 different times and I think she really enjoyed it too. Too bad we couldn’t get Clinton out there too.

Dylan and Sybil also went deep sea fishing, where they didn’t catch anything, but Ken Sr. caught an 8 lb mackerel.

Kent and I took a lovely bath together where he decided to take a giant poop. Thanks Kent!!

The last night we were there Elle got 13 braids in her hair…nothing compared to Tayah’s 98.

All in all the trip was great. We had so many great friends to spend time with. The food was great and the friends to help and share it with were even better.

The only damper on the trip was the flight home. Elle had a conniption on the plane. She woke up and had a melt down. She was inconsolable. She would not eat candy or stop crying for anything. My dad had to take her and confine them in the bathroom. My dad had her wiping up water in the bathroom to calm her down. It seemed like it took forever until she finally fell back to sleep.

Disney on Ice

We took Elle and Kent to Disney on Ice. 

 

Elle is obsessed with princesses, so she was very excited.  When the show started Elle didn’t want to watch it, she just asked over and over where Sleeping Beauty was.  Finally Sleeping Beauty came out and all was right in the world.

Kent was really good for the first half, he just sat there mesmerized. After the intermission Kent wanted to run around, he even started to touching a little boys hair in front of us.

Observing Dance Class

I got to watch Elle dance in September and it was a very fun experience.  She wanted to be front and center in class.  She was on one red dot in the front and then they made a line and had to come back.  She headed back her way onto the dot and someone else was standing on it, and she muscled her  way onto it.  The other little girl proceeded to cry and complain.  I wanted to stay out of it, and the teacher asked who was there first and they both didn’t respond.  The teacher moved the little girl somewhere else. Sneaky little Elle, has won.

Besides that she listened surprisingly well.  They did the hello and goodbye song, practice their ballet positions, and they danced to the “mighty jungle” song, where they danced around like different animals.  Elle got sad during this dance, I am not really sure why.  We also got to do the “Hokey Pokey” together.

FILES

We recently had a visit from Dylan's brother, Dyrk and his daughter Braelyn.  Braelyn is about 1 month younger than Elle.  Elle was very excited about her cousin coming.

We swam a lot. Braelyn  wasn’t very confident the first time we got in, but she got braver as the days went on.  She was even jumping and going under the water in the hot tub, without the jacket on (I was there at all times).

The girls loved playing on our dirt pile in the backyard.  They would get on top and slide down and throw dirt.  Filth was the only real thing that was ever accomplished.  And we learned that Kent has no problem walking barefoot all around our backyard. Crazy child!!

 

We had a lovely tea/chocolate milk party.  Where the girls loaded up on lots of chocolate.

 

The girls  had a hard time in the car…well mostly Elle had a hard time. She had a hard time keeping her hands to herself.  Braelyn started yelling “FILES” while we were riding in the car one day.  We have no idea what she was talking about but it was hilarious.  So the whole trip the two girls were squealing “FILES”.

The kids played together pretty well.  Braelyn loved Kent.  You could tell that she has a little brother too.

 

Braelyn didn’t want to wear her clothes, every day she would ask if she could wear something of Elle’s.  Here they are in their PJ’s after getting their nails painted.

We went to Disneyland.   The girls had a lot of fun riding the rides.  I think they loved the Carousel the most.  We were shocked considering last time Elle refused to go on it.  I think the fact that Braelyn was doing it helped a lot. Besides it being the 1st time Elle rode the carousel, it was the 1st time Elle got stung by a bee too.  She was playing in the flowers, and she got stung on her finger.  She surprisingly only cried for a couple of minutes.  It swelled a bit, but she was fine!!

  

The girls wanted to see the characters,  but Mickey was the only one Braelyn didn’t get shy around.  I think Elle loved  Chip and Dale the most.  They were super cute!!  We didn’t see any princesses because the line was an hour long.

Much to my surprise they have a petting zoo, which the kids loved.  Kent loved it the most.   He was following this little black goat around.

For me the most amusing part of the day was seeing Dylan after he got off of Splash Mountain, man was he wet.  It was a hot day but when they got on the sun was starting to set, so Dylan spent the end of the day wet all the way to his wallet.

I think the highlight for everyone was the fireworks show.  I know it is kind of cheesy, but there was something magical about it.  While sitting in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle the kids were getting ansty, because we survived he day with minimum napping and it was 9:30pm.

The fireworks were awesome but the best part was getting to see Tinkerbell and Dumbo fly over the  castle.

 

The girls loved Tinkerbell.  They kept asking where she had gone.  Each time she came out they were thrilled.  When we got back to the hotel Elle chose to lay down and go to sleep, on her own.  Crazy, because that never happens.  She was exhausted like the rest of us!!

The next day we went to Seal beach to let the kids play in the water.  The had a great time.  The water was a little rough but they got enough of it.  The highlight for all of the adults, but me, was watching me fall flat on my back in the water.  I was standing there on the shore, looking towards the sand, watching the kids and Dylan, and the next thing I knew I was on my back.  The boys thought that had to be a pretty big wave to knock me down,but in actuality it was a boogie boarder that ran into me and knocked me flat on my back.  I was stunned for probably a full minute.  Once Dyrk realized I was okay, he said it was the funniest thing he had ever seen and he wanted to see it again...GREAT!  The girls loved playing in the sand.  I made the girls into mermaids, and they loved it.

Kent loved throwing sand and trying to steal other kid's toys.  The only downside to the excursion was trying to de-sand the children in an outdoor, freezing cold public shower.  Can you imagine the squealing/screaming that went on.

We ended our visit the best way possible...In-N-Out burger.

We enjoyed having Dyrk and Braelyn coming to visit.  I think the only thing Elle didn’t like, besides sharing, was uncle Dyrk’s need to kiss her a lot. I just didn’t enjoy the smell my house took on…