Halloween with 4 kids

We were so happy that Grammy & Grandpa drove up from Houston for Halloween weekend. The kids adore them and love spending time with them. They got to enjoy the beautiful Fall weather with us, Alexa's soccer game, and our ward's Fall Festival (including a chili dinner & Trunk-or-Treat).

Alexa's 1st grade class went on a fieldtrip to a pumpkin patch and she chose the smallest pumpkin there. I couldn't figure out why she didn't want the biggest (that's what I would want) but was soon grateful when she got the assignment to decorate her pumpkin as her favorite storybook character. She quickly came up with the book "Pinkalicious" and Dallin, Alexa & I put on our thinking caps and collaborated with the end result pictured above. Not only is the book "Pinkalicious" a fun book but it describes Alexa quite well. Although now she's moved on from loving everything pink to loving everything red. (I admit that I may be an influence there since my new laptop is red, cell phone is red, digital video camera is red, case for new digital camera is red - but camera is blue since it didn't come in red, curtains in living room and my room are red....you get the picture! :))

All four kids ready for Trunk-or-Treat (and since actual Halloween was on Sunday, we just did Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday night).

Dallin the Magician with tricks to boot

Alexa the Cheerleader

Lance the Firefighter

Lance's serious firefighter pose

Kiera the Ballerina. She had a cold that day so I'm amazed that these two pictures turned out.

Kiera's 1st Halloween (9 months old)

It took some serious shopping to find pink shoes that fit the ballerina. :) My sister Ashley and I made the tutu.

Are you ready for pictures from the Johnsons?!?

This may be the reason why it's been 9 months since I last posted. One: we're barely keeping our heads above water trying to keep up with just the basics. Two: We're tired most of the time. Three: baby. Need I say more! :) But we're happy and doing great. Now here's just some of the pictures I took in October. I won't even attempt to catch up (since I don't have the time right now). We did get a new camera this summer and so the picture taking (and the quality) have increased. Yeah for awesome pictures!

Centuries ago, I used to be a young woman and tied this blanket in Young Women's. However, they left it up to me to bind. I never knew how. But I finally 'winged' it and figured it out....16 years later! It turned out fabulous.

8 months old and crawling

Lance's first date with Daddy....

...to feed the ducks....

...and eat icecream. Yummy!


Creativity just explodes with these kids. They are constantly creating something! Lance and Alexa did watercolors while listening to General Conference.

All girls should be jealous of those long eyelashes. I certainly am! Lucky boy!


Standing by herself (and falling a lot too).

Baby. Croc. Shoes. Need I say more. And they even have pink flower gems in them too.

Typical Dallin. This is what he 'spends' his school bucks on during an auction at school! He gets thrills out of being silly (and that includes his new whoopee cushion not pictured). :D The disguise is going to be part of his Halloween costume too.

Alexa resisted going to get her pearly whites cleaned. Stubborn. Finally she made up her mind to go, and she loves it. She also likes the "date" with Mom to the dentist and all of the toys she gets out of the treasure box.

My baby doll. Love her! I'm so grateful for such a fun, adorable, little GIRL!

Now you see her....
now you don't!

Date with Dallin to teach him photography and eat at Mimi's Cafe. Heavenly food.

Finally a date with my sweetheart. Dinner. Frisbee golf. Walk around a lake hand-in-hand. Such a nice break!

After several days, it dawned on me that Lance had an ear infection. However, I figured that out on a Saturday. But it was easy enough to go to Urgent Care and they verified what I thought. He had an infection in his left ear (first one, I think) and a few days later it got better.

This sweet baby is clapping since she has lots of hair (according to my standards).

Both girls, exactly the same age, same outfit, almost 5 1/2 years apart. How much do you think they look alike?

Picnic. Dream come true for these kids.

Dallin. Love that boy!
Alexa's first year of soccer. She loves it but really loves the focus on her. She has a strong need to be the center of attention. So she just loves that all of us come to watch her team. After many games, they still remain undefeated.

Alexa is on the left in front of the ref, 2nd from the left running.

Typical Lance carrying his water bottle and little doggie.

Jared spent hours weeding our backyard flower bed and now it looks beautiful!

Kiera, nearly 9 months old. My how time flies!

First tooth at 8 months old, just like her three other siblings.

Lance adores Kiera and is always so kind to her.

Alexa is in 1st grade and this is her class shirt. Can you get more photogenic than her?!?

I took Lance on a date to Chuck E Cheese. It was his first date with me. He loved it. What a sweet boy he is!

And my baby boy is now 3 years old! This is probably my favorite age. Lance loves trains, trucks and cars so it was a no brainer for me to make him a train cake.


My first 3D cake. It was fun but scary to make. I was pleased that it turned out great. Lance loved taste testing the frosting as I was making it. He kept saying "Yummy. Mommy this is sooo good!"

Alexa, as mentioned before, always needs lots and lots and lots of attention. So she insisted in taking a picture too.

So we forgot to put candles on the cake until we had eaten some of it. Lance had NO idea how to blow out the candles (check out how his mouth is still closed in the picture). The rest of us ended up helping him out. :)

Check out the birthday gift loot. Lucky boy. He loves his new Plasma car, Thomas the Train set, dumptruck and fire truck.

If you made it to the end, congratulations! And thank you to all of those many people who encouraged and asked me to do a blog post. It was about time! Until next time....