The Harris Family

Halloween was a busy time for us.  The kids had so many activites.  Since they were getting to wear costumes so many times I let them switch and wear any of their dress-ups that they wanted to wear, but only bought them one costume this year.

 

The week before Halloween was Jace's pre-school Halloween party.  He went as a superhero.

 

Callie was a snow princess.  This is a dress that her Grandma Harris gave to her when we was 18 months old and she was finally able to wear it this year!

 

 

Carving pumpkins.  Callie is mad because Jace is sticking his hand in her pumpkin.

 

Nate helped Jace carve his and I help Callie carve hers.

 

We made pumpkin shaped rice krispie treats and let the kids decorate them.  Jace made a pirate pumpkin.

 

Callie made a pumpkin saying "boo"

 

This is how Callie's pumpkin turned out.

 

Here is Jace's pumpkin

 

Callie with her monster teeth.

 

Callie was a cowgirl for her Halloween party with her friends.

 

Here is Jace at his Halloween party with is friends sprting his cowboy costume.

 

I love going all out on Halloween so on top of the candy we hand out, I also make treats and give out hot chocolate and hot apple cider.  Below are some of the treats I made this year (I also made broom sticks that are not pictures)

 

I made these pumpkin rice krispie treats (the stem is a stick pretzel)

 

Witch hat cookies.

 

 

Here are most of the treats.

Callie was a cowgirl for her school Halloween parade and Class Party.

 



 

On Halloween Night Callie was Winter Belle and Jace was a cowboy.

 

Here is the set-up in our garage.  For years I would leave home on Halloween just because I didn't want to pass out candy.  I thought it was annoying having to get up and answer the door all the time.  Now I love it because I just set-up in the garage, listen to Halloween music and visit with neighbors as they stop by.  I also love hearing the kids say things like "this is the coolest house ever!"  I had neighbor kids asking about it months prior making sure we were going to do it again.  We had a great Halloween.

Callie begged me for weeks to let her sew her own pair of pajamas.  I am not sure where she got the idea in the first place.  She wanted to sew a nightgown, but I talked her into buying a pattern for pajama pants and that way Jace could make some too.  It was a team effort. 

 

I pinned the pattern on the fabric and let them cut, warning them to stay away from the pattern paper, and then I fixed them when they were done.

 

 

I was the one to guide the material through the sewing machine, but they worked the peddle and the reverse switch themselves.

 

 

And here are their finished products.  They turned out pretty good and the best part was that they were entertained for 2 full hours while making them!

 

Nate and I bought an orphaned strip of land that was next to our lot.  We started working on it towards the end of July.  One thing we always wanted, but felt there was not room for, was a patio with a fire pit.  With this new piece of land we were able to put one in.  The picture below is the first fire/BBQ we had with our friends.  It was a lot of fun.

 

I love these pictures of Jace in his dance class.  The picture below is him practicing some of his break dancing moves.

 

And this picture is of them working on isolation moves for hip hop.  It is so cute watching him dance (when he actually does participate)

 

 

Here is Jace giving one of our family home evening lessons.  We have the bound book of gospel art and the kids love it.  When they give their lessons they flip through the book and find a picture that they want to talk about and they teach us what they know about it and it gives Nate and I a chance to teach them a little bit more.  It is a great way for us to find out what they know and what we still need to teach them.  I love listening to their little tidbits of wisdom. 

Callie had her last soccer game in October.  It was fun to watch her all season long and see her improve.  She turned out to be a pretty good soccer player.  In this last game she scored 4 goals and was easily one of the fastest runners out on the field (she is taking after her momma).  We had her race with another little boy from her team who was also a fast runner to see which one was fastest.  Callie beat him by a hair.

 

  

 

Callie with her medal.  So proud of my little tom boy!

In the month of September Callie and Jace both started dance classes.  Callie was not a fan of hers which was a ballet/jazz combo class and Jace enjoyed his hip hop/break dancing/tumbling sometimes when he is not clinging to mom.  We really need to work on that.  Callie continued to play soccer and loved it. 

 

Over the week of Labor Day we took the kids on a trip to Southern California to visit with their cousins who live there.

 

Jace and Callie absolutely love the beach and the ocean.  They wanted to stay there all day long.

 

Playing in the ocean with their dad and cousin.

 

Jace only stayed buried long enough for us to take this photo.

 

Bianca, Haylee, Callie and Jace in their sand fort

 

We saw many beautiful sunsets and you just can't beat a sunset on the beach.

 

These two were like best buddies.

 

My sister Maureen and her family live in a community that has many pools.  The kids love the chance to jump off the diving board.

 

I just love this photo!

 

Cousins!  Haylee, Bianca, Callie and Jace

 

My brother-in-law Bryan helped to build this Genie.  It is entirely made out of cans of food.

 

We took the kids to Sea World.  It was such a hot day I wished we wore our swim suits.

 

I had to go with the kids on the spinning rides because they make Nate sick.

 

Callie petting the sting rays.  Jace refused to touch them.

 

Jace was really impressed by these shark jaws.

 

We loved watching the Shamu show.  We didn't sit low in the splash zone because I was worried about my camera getting soaked, but then I felt bad because the kids were disappointed.  They were dying of heat and wanted to get really wet.

 

The dolphin show was also fun and the kids were able to get more wet at this one.

 

While on our trip we went with my sister and her kids on a harbor cruise in Newport.  They took us out to where these sea lions take a rest on this bell.  We loved being able to spend time with our family and were sad when we had to leave.  We had a great time.

 

Apparently the only other exciting thing that happened in September that I took pictures of is that Callie got her ears pierced.  She didn't even cry and barely flinch.  So proud of my brave girl.