Trick or Treat at Daddy's School

A lot of little munchkins showed up for the annual trick-or-treating at the school.  It was fun to see all of the kids in their cute little costumes waddling around.  There were some cute, creative, and fun costumes.  We took a little stroll around the school and the kids got a good portion of candy.  All of the little ladies that work there thought all of the kids were just so cute.  Isn't it fun when people you don't know adore your children?

Fire fighter Andrew and Kinnie Rapunzel

Andrew, Kinnie and Addy

Hallie, Kinnie, and Andrew

Some more of the gang

I promise Landon was happy walking us around.  Sometimes I don't have the best timing taking pictures.  And I should learn to take more then one. 

FHE Pumpkin Carving

Landon and Kinnie planning out their pumpkin.  Kinnie chose to do a happy face.

Kinnie and Andrew did not want to stick their hands in for the dirty work.  At least they touched the slimy seeds to see what they felt like.  Andrew kept plugging his nose and saying "inky" (stinky).  Kinnie just enjoyed the whole activity and loved every second of it.

Landon's and Kinnie's is the cute happy one.  When I asked Andrew if he wanted to do a scary one or a silly one he chose scary.  That is my lame attempt at a scary face.  

Primary Program

Kinnie had her first Primary program yesterday.  She was pretty excited about it and she said she was "curious."  I don't think she quite knew what it would be like to be up on the stand with a congregation full of people.  She did a great job and said her part all by herself, she was so brave! The Sunbeams even had a verse of "I Love to See the Temple" to sing all by themselves and she did great.

I only wished I could have sat and watched her the whole time.  I had a good experience though playing the piano for the program, and it is fun to be in Primary with Kinnie (even though she sometimes forgets I am the one playing the piano).  I was REALLY nervous to play for the program.   I don't play in front of people very often.  When I got my calling as Primary Pianist I was even nervous to play in Primary!  It is kind of ridiculous, I hate how nervous and anxious I get about things.  I couldn't go to sleep the night before and a had a nightmare that I messed up every song and everyone kept giving me looks of disgust.  I was so glad when I woke up!  I ran through a few songs before we left for church which was helpful.  When we got to church 10 minutes early there were already so many families and friends there to watch.  Then the 2nd counselor in the bishopric asked me to play prelude music.  I really didn't want to but I told him I could and then realized I would be playing the hymns too!  It actually ended up being a huge blessing that I was asked to do that (and that I said I would) because it really helped me feel comfortable up there in front of everyone.  I could feel my heart beating my whole body at first!  Everything turned out great though and I was thankful my nightmare didn't come true!  The children did such an amazing job and the Spirit was felt so strongly throughout the meeting.  It was so neat to be able to feel the difference of the Spirit during the actual meeting compared to the practices.  There were so many people in the congregation who were visiting and I am sure they were touched by the sweet spirit that was present. 

Two Thumbs Up!

The day after my parents left Landon's Fall break started.  We didn't have any big plans.  We knew we wanted to paint our stairway since it looked really bad from when we had pulled the carpet up.  And we thought we would just hang around and maybe hit the zoo and do things around Omaha.  Wednesday afternoon I got a LivingSocials offer in my email for a one-night stay at a indoor water park hotel in Des Moines that included dinner, breakfast, and wristbands for the water park.  It took us about 10 minutes to decide that it sounded fun and we bought the deal.

We had so  much fun!  We checked in, got our goody bag filled with pirate eye patches, snacks, treats, pirate tattoos, and got our suits on and went to the water park right outside our door.  They had two 2-story slides where the kids could sit on your lap.  Kinnie and Andrew loved going down the big slides with Landon and I and Kinnie got really brave and did some of the other slides by herself.  She even learned how to jump off the top step of the pool into the water without anyone catching her.  That was a big step for her!  After swimming for awhile we ate our pizza in the room and went to the arcade room.  Landon and I let the kids drive the cars while we played the games :)  But hey, we did it so we could get tickets and buy the kids those cheap toys.  I think we had a little too much fun there.  We did some more swimming that night.  We went to the hotel grill for breakfast and swam some more!  It was a quick trip but a perfect 2 hour drive and enough fun for all of us.  We would definitely do it again!

My Parents Visit!

I have decided it is a perfect time of year for visitors.  I am so glad my parents were able to come out for their first time and experience some of Omaha.  We stayed pretty busy and did some fun things.  My kids were in Grandma and Grandpa heaven and enjoyed every second being with them.  Kinnie was so excited when the day finally arrived for their visit.  It was a long day for her due to a flight cancellation (and a long day at the airport for my parents).  But they finally lucked out and got a flight in only arriving a few hours later then planned.

Some of the things we did:

The Zoo

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

Landon and I had heard how awesome Vala's was but had never been.  It was such a cool place.  I can't even describe how big this place was and how many different things there were to do.  We didn't even get to do everything because there is so much going on.

Waiting for the pig races to start

Andrew could have spent a couple of hours on the tractors

And Kinnie could have gone on a few more pony rides

The train ride

Kinnie probably could have jumped all day on these things.  I should have gotten a picture of the whole bubble because they were huge.

Andrew sat down on the sand gaining up the courage to go and jump with Kinnie

The Missouri Riverfront

We had a lot of fun being with my parents.  I think we wore them out but I know they had a lot of fun.  We also visited the Mormon Trail Center and showed them the Winter Quarters Temple.  We made a visit to Landon's school and showed them around and went down to the Botanical Gardens.   It is nice to know that they can picture where we live now and were able to see the things that we see.  Andrew cried when we dropped them off at the airport and I told him to say goodbye.  He cried and kept saying "Wanna get out Mommy!"  I think he thought we were getting on the airplane with them.  Thanks Mom and Dad for visiting and for such a great time!