Halloween Festivities!!
Our halloween fun started the weekend before halloween with our annual Christianson party. It wasn't quite the same without my parents here, but we still had a fun time!!
This is the only family shot we got all week and it was right before the party.This is one of my favorite pics of the week. Brad is so fun and I smile every time I see this picture!

Burke was Superman for the party, but we soon discovered that it was way to big so it was only worn once. Thank goodness for back up costumes!

Ashton was thrilled with his batman costume which was a last minute purchase. He didn't stop smiling the whole time he wore it.

Ellie was a witch for the party and doesn't she look scary??

Braxton was a ninja for the party but was Indiana Jones for trick or treating. This was a popular costume and Burke was a ninja for trick or treating.

This is Mandi and Tyler. They looked so great! Tyler always puts up a fight about dressing up and then he always looks fantastic!!

This is the majority of the grandkids. They were so excited they ran around like maniacs for the first 45 mintues of the party. It was cheap entertainment!

This is Mandi, Rebecca and me. We are not a complete set without Molly and my mom though.

The Heaps clan.

Mason was so cute I had to throw this picture in. He is so smiley and happy!

A few days before halloween we found the coolest halloween activity! There is this family who sets up this sweet train ride called the Nightmare Express. It was free so we thought we'd check it out. It was so worth it!

This was a little booth set up on the way into the waiting area. You can smell the fear can't you?

While you wait for your train they have this theater set up in this big garage. They have halloween cartoons playing. It was so neat. The kids sat wonderfully!

Then when you train is almost ready they take you out under a tent where they have lights set up singing songs; the best part is that it is all disney themed-we all know how our family feels about disney right?

This is the little train. Is it so cute? I didn't take any pictures while we were riding, but it was themed from the movie Nightmare Before Christmas and they had a Pirates of the Carribean room. I recommend it to anyone next year.

One of my favorite activities this year was carving pumpkins. Ricky's brother was here from Montana with his family and they came over and Ricky's parents. It was spur of the moment really and it ended up being really fun. I think we carved 10 pumpkins all together. It took all afternoon and evening. Ricky and Ryan are pretty intense carvers, and their pumpkins took forever! They ended up awesome though!

Ryan carved Walt Disney and you can see it was great! These pictures were blury and I was bugged, but what can you do?

Ricky carved Albert Einstein and looked really good as well.

The kids all wore their costumes to school for their parties on Friday and were so excited! I didn't get a picture of Brax and Burke before they left, but Ash and Ellie were more than happy to pose for pictures.
I have to say that I loved Ellie's super girl costume!

Brad and Briar wore their costumes to watch the kids in the school parade. They were so cute!

This year I helped with Ellie's class party and it was fun. It is always fun to go to their classroom and see how things work.

Saturday was our big celebration day since halloween was on Sunday.
We went to Hee Haw Farms for some fun. They have this huge slide that was the kids favorite activity I think.

These big go cart thingies were also a favorite.

They are pretty hard to pedal so the kids needed help here and there.

Paityn and Amy ridin' the slide!

This is Ellie jumping off the hay jump! She worked up her courage to jump off the very top. She is my fearless child!

Group shot on the trick or treat hay ride.

This is the animal train ride. The kids were having so much fun they wouldn't look at me. Bradley has been watching the movie Balto and he howled like a wolf the whole ride. It was quite funny!!

This is classic Ashton. His faces are the best!

Ellie, Briar, Bradley and Paityn being silly.

Briar loved the horse ride. She is such a cutie!

Bradley also loved the horse ride and howled like Balto the whole time, again.

Brax, being a farmer!

The best part of the day was the pig chase at the end. All the kids took their turn trying to catch a pig. We laughed and laughed!

Ellie won her age and got free popcorn. The best was when Ricky and Ryan paired up and had to catch a pig and wheelbarrow race the poor thing in between them. I filmed it but couldn't get it on here. I thought for sure I was going to pee my pants! We were dying watching them with this poor piglet being drug around the pen! If you want to watch a video, go to youtube and look up rick and ryan pig wheelbarrow. It is slow at the beginning, but you can get the idea.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of trickortreating because it was pouring rain and we were soaking wet!

Mickey's Trick or Treat Party
We went to Disneyland last week and were able to go to the after hours trick or treat party. We had so much fun!! As you can see we all dressed up for the occasion!
Ricky's parents came with us as well as his brother Ryan, wife Leah and little Briar. It was so fun to go as family. The kids always like to have cousins with them at Disneyland.

We had three pirates who were oh so scary!

Bradley went as Pluto but slept through the getting ready phase. He was worn out!

Three witches! Ellie and Briar looked so cute! This is before the rain washed away all of our makeup.

Me and Ash. He could hardly wait to go and collect his candy!

I was so glad Ricky dressed up this year. It is much more fun when he participates!

This is all of the kids as we came into Disneyland. Ashton had his map looking for candy stations.

Brad was so cute in his Pluto costume! He hopped around happy as could be! After awhile he took off the head and everyone thought he was a pumpkin. I guess that works to.

Ellie fell asleep around 9:00. She was done. After the fireworks Ashton sat in the stroller and fell asleep in about 2 seconds. The rest of us toughed it out until 11:00.

Briar and her daddy! Ryan bought a mad hatter hat that was AWESOME!

This is my favorite picture from the night. These bags are FULL of candy! The way it works is that they have stations where you get candy. There are three stops at each station and they give you handfuls of candy bars at all three stops. Well, Bill and the boys went around to every station five or six or seven times. Brax and Burke literally could not carry their bags of candy. We came home with, for reals, 35 pounds of candy. This will be one of my favorite memories forever!!

Bake Sale!!
About a week and a half ago we had a bake sale for the kids to earn spending money for Disneyland. They have been waiting for this for months, so I finally got my act together and got baking. It turned out so well!! We had lots and lots of people come and got to visit with friends we haven't seen in a long time. Thank you to all our friends and neighbors who made this a great success!!

Trip to Rochester, NY
So on Friday the 13th of August Ricky and I decided to drive out to visit my parents on their mission. We left Saturday morning super early and headed east. It is about a 30 hour drive to get there so we had all kinds of fun. We stopped at my sister's in Kansas City for a night and then drove and drove! We stopped at Carthage Jail and Nauvoo on the way there.Carthage is a very sacred place as it is where the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum were killed. They gave their lives as a testimony of the gospel. I love them dearly and loved taking my family there. The kids enjoyed being there. This is one of their favorite stories and it was great to take them there where it actually happened. This door is the door that bullets came through and shot Hyrum in the face and killed him. You can see the holes in the door-this is the door from the martyrdom. The upper window is the window Joseph jumped from and was shot as he fell.

Braxton and Burke were named after these two hero's of ours. Braxton's middle name is Hyrum and Burke's middle name is Joseph. We wanted a picture of them with this statue of their names sake.

This statue is right in front of the Nauvoo Temple. It represents Joseph and Hyrum as they looked over the city on their way to Carthage. It is one of Ricky's favorite statues.

This is the Nauvoo Temple. It is one of the most beautiful temple's on earth!

This is where Joseph, Emma and Hyrum are buried.

We didn't get to spend much time in Nauvoo as we were in a hurry to get to my parents as quickly as possible! We will come back though, someday!

Peter Whitmer Farm
This is the first site we went to with my parents. You can tell from this picture that the kids were a little wired. This is the day we arrived and had been driving for 3 days. They were thrilled to not be cooped up in the car.The Peter Whitmer Farm is where the church was organized on April 6,1830. This is the front door. Red is so my favorite.

We had to wait a little while to go into the home so the kids did some exploring. Burke is such a collector. Everywhere we go he collects things. This day it was acorns. He had all is pockets full of them. He cracks me up!

While we waited, Ellie gave us a few lessons and bore her testimony. She sounded just like the sister missionaries. I loved it!

The Whitmer Farm is beautiful! It is so green and lush. I loved sitting on the benches under the trees while we waited. It was perfect!

The Whitmer Farm is an opperating farm and the kids thought this corn was neat. Burke told me he was hungry and wanted to eat a piece of corn. What a nut!

My dad giving us a lesson about the Whitmer Farm. He and my mom are so in their element here in the mission field. I love listening to them teach.

This is inside the home in the room where the church was organized. It is an awesome room!

Log Home and Sacred Grove
This is just a cute shot of the kids eating popsicles on the back porch.Tuesday evening we went to the Log Home and the Sacred Grove. We went after hours so we were able to be taught by my dad. This is the main room on the bottom floor in the log home. We talked down here and then went upstairs. The upstairs is a sacred place. This log home is reconstructed, but it is the very same air space that the original log home was built. Upstairs is the room where Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith as a boy-it is the very air space that he appeared.

This is Ashton listening to grandpa tell the story of Angel Moroni coming to Joseph Smith. We all felt the Spirit and then bore our testimonies. It was a unique experience that I will never forget.

This is my mom bearing her testimony. These are moments that will not be forgotten.

By the time we finished in the log cabin it had gotten dark. We walked through the Sacred Grove anyway, even though it was dark. It was still peaceful.

Ellie couldn't get enough of grandma and loved being with her!