Happy Halloween!

Sorry this is so late!

We had such a great Halloween. I've been hiding Madison's costume for a month because she wanted to wear it all the time! She was so excited to finally be able to wear it. And she looked so cute, but I know my opinion i s a bit biased. We went to a party in Gilbert, the ward Trunk-or-treat and then of course Trick or treating with my sister. Madison got so much candy, we have to store it in two buckets! She LOVED trick-or-treating though, she kept saying "I said trick or treat and I got CANDY!" It was so funny! She also loved to tell everyone who she was dressed up as. "I Tinker Bell!" and it was so sweet of her to tell everyone "my mom made my shoes" after getting compliments on them.
Cute side note: When Grandma Newton brought over this costume and showed Madison she was so excited about the wings. She had been watching Peter Pan and Tinker Bell (as well as a fairy Barbie movie in which a fairy gets wings and can fly) and said she wanted to fly so Mahlon picked her up and "flew" her around the room. When he put her down she said "I fly by myself!" and stood there, waiting to take off. When I explained it was just pretend, that she couldn't fly by herself her little face dropped, she was so disappointed, I felt so bad! She has now accepted it and realizes that Daddy has to be home in order to fly! She also insists on putting on her wings and "flying" up to anything that is out of reach, rather than have me pick her up or get it for her. She's so funny!
Also note, now that Halloween is over Madison has put her costume on nearly every day since.

Posing, making a funny face!

All the loot!

The shoes I made to go with her costume!

Halloween Happenings!

We've started out Halloween celebrations early this year. I guess I'm just overly excited, but Madison and I have been filling our days with Halloween crafts and activities. I am really enjoying getting ready for Halloween this year, usually I'm not this excited until Christmas but Madison is so excited I think it's rubbing off on me. We've decorated the house (complete with lights and spider webs), made paper pumpkins, I bought some foam crafts- a ghost and a pumpkin at Micheal's that we made and today we built a Haunted Candy House. I have plans to make still Halloween cookies, paint faces on pumpkins and of course carve pumpkins. I've also started baking goodies early, which means I'll probably be as big as a whale by Christmas, but I can't stop myself! Anyway, here are the pictures of out Haunted House. I got the idea from a friend at church and since I love making gingerbread houses at Christmas I thought this was so cute I had to do it! I was probably more into it than Madison (she liked to eat the candy) but we still had a good time.

Starting with just a graham cracker house


"Tasting" the decorations


Adding the final touches. (Yes, she did change dresses, and yes that is her Halloween costume from last year, it's the only thing that keeps her from wearing this year's costume every day!)


The finished product



This past weekend we also went to Schnepf Farm with Mahlon's mom and sister. Its way over in Queen Creek but it was so fun! They had little carnival rides; Madison's favorite was the Carousel, she rode it about 5 times. They also had a train ride, a roller coaster, corn maze, petting zoo, pumpkin patch, marshmallow roasting over a fire, live music, go carts, a play ground, a dog show and lots of yummy food. It was so fun! It wasn't crowded, even on Saturday (perhaps because it was so early in the Halloween season) but we didn't have to wait in line for anything. We'll Definitely be going again next year!

Riding a pony all by myself!


The carousel with Daddy


Happy Halloween!


In the Pumpkin Patch!


Waiting for the Train ride to start.


Look at the enormous bag of Kettle Corn!


The Air Plane ride!


Petting the goats.

September Update

So I don't know what happened to September, but I honestly feel like it didn't happen. One day it's the first and before I knew it it's October! Actually, I do know what happened, it's just crazy how fast it flew by. My sister came to live with us with her two children to await the birth of her third. She lives is Prescott Valley and because she had a C-section for her first, she has come to Phoenix for her second and now third delivery in order to do a V-BAC (Vaginal birth after Cesarean) -they won't do that in Prescott. Also, her husband is serving in the military and is on his second tour over in Kuwait. He left in March and will be gone through Next April. SO...she didn't want to wait for labor to start to come down so she came early and stayed with us. It was a bit chaotic having three adults and (two pregnant women) and Three little ones ages four, two and 18mo. running around. It was pretty much damage control all day! I didn't get much of anything else done.

Tanner Brian Smith was born Saturday September 19. While Selina (mom) was in the hospital I had all the kids myself for two days. Whoa! I'd just like to say that its a good thing children come one at a time (usually)! Selina's husband was given 15 days leave to come home after the baby was born so since he was flying into Phoenix that coming Thursday Selina came home with baby to our house. It was fun to have a new born to cuddle and hold to remind me of why I'm pregnant. Unfortunately seeing the "after birth recovery" of my sister gave me lots of reasons to wonder why I got myself into this again! It was mostly good though.

Thursday everyone left, including us as we were off to Lake Powell for the weekend with Mahlon's family. It was such a great weekend get away, but too short. No one wanted to come home Sunday. The weather was great and we had a great time.





Now, we're back and it's October. I'm looking forward to the upcoming holidays!

And the girls have it!

That's right, not only did "girl" win by a vote of 5 to 3, but today's ultra sound showed girl too! We're very excited to do all things pink once again!

Boy or Girl?

I don't know how to do a cool vote box so I'm just doing it the old fashioned way. We're finding out what the sex of the baby is in one week. Any predictions? You have a 50/50 chance to be correct!

San Diego!

So I'm finally getting around to posting about our recent trip to San Diego. It was so great to get away for a few days, but it was definitely too short. We had so much we wanted to do and so little time, but we tried to get in as much as possible in the three days we were there.

We had a great hotel in Down Town San Diego which made it possible for us to walk around to shops and restaurants and we had a pretty cool view from our room of the Harbor.


Hanging out in the hotel



We spent a day at the beach. Madison didn't like the water at first and thought the sand was too hot. We finally got her playing in the sand by cooling it off with some water and Mahlon took her out in the waves and she loved it! She said she was "swimming like Ariel!"



By the end of the day we were all completely covered in sand, but we had had fun!



It was fun to have Kara and Hallie hang out with us on the beach and to see them while we were there, even if it was just a short visit.
Note: This was just before Kara and Hallie left , after Kara had cleaned and changed Hallie out of her swim suit and into a clean diaper, but this was the only time Hallie and Madison were close enough together to take a picture.

Mahlon and Madison flying a kite!


The next day we went up to LaJolla Cove and explored the tide pools which was cool!

Mahlon caught a little crab.




We then headed over to Birch's Aquarium to see some other sea life. Madison loved looking at all the tanks of fish. They had some tide pools with lots of cool things and Madison got to touch a real star fish!



We defiantly want to go again some time and see some of the attractions we missed this time but it was a great way to say good bye to summer!

Independence Day 2009!

Our Fourth was pretty uneventful-we spent it at home but we did go swimming and go out for dinner. The fireworks were being set off just across the street from our complex so we drove (which we later regretted doing because traffic was so bad coming home) in the Best Buy parking lot nearby and watched the fireworks from the sidewalk. It was nice because we didn't have to wait too long but as I said earlier we should have just walked there because traffic was a mess! It was Madison's first fireworks show and she kept talking about watching the fireworks, even though she had no idea what they were. She was totally in awe once the fireworks started, but after a couple went off she suddenly burst into tears saying she was scared and we almost had to go home! I got her settled down by pointing out the colors and shapes and she finished watching the show quietly while holding my hand. By the time they were ending she was getting into them and saying things like "whoa, big one!" Now when she see's fireworks on her movies (Aladdin) she gets very excited and has been coloring fireworks in her pictures ever since so I'm glad to say she's not totally traumatized. We were very glad, however that we opted out of waiting hours in the heat to see them from where they were shooting them off. Maybe we'll try that next year! Hope you all enjoyed your Fourth!

Passing the time playing with the camera.


Waiting with Daddy for fireworks to start


Happy: Pre Fireworks!


This was Madison's reaction to the fireworks, just before she started to cry! You can see the slight concern on her face.