Week 21

I lost 2 lbs this week which means I made my first goal! I made it to the weight I was before I got pregnant with Aubrey! It's so fun to reach a goal!! My total weight loss is 37 pounds!

I am so proud of my weight loss this week. Chocolate candy is my biggest weakness and we have been surrounded by it this week. Usually I am not strong enough to keep away from it, but I am happy to report that I didn't touch a single piece of processed, store bought chocolate. I did this weekend finally break down and make some homemade clean candy so I wouldn't feel too left out of the Halloween festivities - which is pretty much revolving around candy! And I'm excited to make my clean eating donuts this morning!

Now I am off to my next goal - my high school weight. 40 more pounds to go! That would also make a total of 100 pound weight loss starting with my original weight loss goal before I got pregnant with Aubrey. I think that would be a pretty fun accomplishment.

Carving Jack O Lanterns

 I LOVE holiday traditions! Life would be so boring without them. I believe it is so important for family bonding to have holiday traditions. I love how my girls get so excited for them. Aubrey now remembers all of our traditions from last year and excitedly tells Brooke all about them. And Brooke gets so excited for the newness of them! At the beginning of the week I told the girls we would carve Jack O Lanterns on Saturday. Brooke literally asked me a few times every day if it were Saturday yet - she was so excited to carve Jack O Lanterns!

 A few days before, I got the girls on the Internet to pick out our Jack O Lantern patterns. Brooke immediately found the Snow White pattern and was excited to make that one. So, Aubrey of course, wanted Strawberry Shortcake to match her costume as well. I searched and searched the web and could not find a Strawberry Shortcake template. So, I decided to try and make my own. I was excited to try out my template to see how it would turn out.

Here are my cuties with their completed Jack O' Lanterns!

Carving off the top.

I gave the girls the important job of fishing out the seeds, since they are not quite big enough to use the big knives.

They took to their job and went to town!

Then we turned on "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and poked out our templates.

The cutest little poking buddy around!

Brooke was so excited to use the poker tool!

Daddy's cutest little helper!

Yay we finished!!

Those girls are just delicious! And our Jack O Lanterns turned out pretty cute as well!

Matchy Matchy costumes and Jack O Lantern's! I'll have to get a pic tomorrow with the girls in their costumes and their matching Jack O Lanterns.

Daddy's did a great job with Snow White!

And I was very pleased with how my Strawberry Shortcake turned out.

I took a few more pics once it got dark. Here are our masterpieces!

 

Now the girls can't wait to trick or treat tomorrow!! And I can't wait to try out my clean eating, baked Donuts!

Strawberry Shortcake Jack O' Lantern Template

My daughter really wanted a Strawberry Shortcake Jack O Lantern . . .

. . . to match the costume I made for her.

 

Since I couldn't find one - I made my own. I thought I'd put it out here on the internet, in case anyone else is looking for one. It's a pretty intricate design and not a quick and easy one. But, I thought it turned out pretty cute. Click on the image below to make it bigger and then right click on it and select "Save as". (or something similar to that, all browsers word it a bit differently.)

Happy carving!

Pumpkin Patch, Haunted House & Primary Choir

 We've had a fun weekend. Friday morning we went to a free Pumpkin Patch that I heard about from a friend. It was a smaller one but still fun. I forgot my camera, so no pics. They had a petting zoo area that included a baby kangaroo. They also had a huge corn box and a hay maze. Aubrey and Zoe had a blast crawling on top of the maze. You can't beat fun and free!!

I got an email Friday morning about a Family Friendly 3D Haunted House located not too far from where we live. Aubrey has been asking and asking to go to a Haunted House. So, I was so excited to get to take her to one. Plus we got a fantastic deal, the tickets were only $2.50!! Aubrey was soooo unbelievably excited when I told her she was going to a Haunted House!

Summer, Beckham, Esther, Bryan and Isla came with us.

Here we are getting ready to go in!

 Our whole crew.

It was really cool for kids. We all got 3D glasses and our own flashlight to shine on the walls. It was in dark buildings with all of these bright 3D Halloween type figures. Brooke absolutely loved it. Aubrey, who is afraid of the dark, was scared the whole time. But, she didn't cry and walked through just fine. I wish I had known what it would be like so I could have prepped her. My cautious little Aubrey needs to know what she is getting into in order to feel comfortable. Today however she decided it was actually fun and told me that she wanted to go again!

Stake conference is tomorrow and they are having a Stake Primary Choir sing 3 songs. Aubrey is part of the choir and is very excited to get to be on the stage and sing. Here is the group at practice this morning.

My cute Aubrey singing away with all of the big kids! She told me that the big kids singing helps her remember the words.

They are singing, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", "I am a Child of God", and "Teach me to Walk." She wasn't familiar with any of them, except the first verse of "I am a Child of God", so we had to work on them together. She fell in love with the song "Teach me to Walk", so I took a little video of the choir singing the first verse.

We're super excited to see Aubrey sing in Stake Conference tomorrow!

A Halloween Day

On Thursday the girls got to celebrate Halloween all day. 

First we went to Story Time at the library and it was dress up day.

This is one of Brooke's story tellers,

and here's her other storyteller.

Aubrey goes into this room that they recently built this castle facade around it.

Here's my princess at the castle!

Aubrey showing off her story time room.

Then we went to Esther & Isla's house to drop off a Halloween costume for Isla.

The outside of Esther's apartment was covered in fallen leaves - so I had to take some pictures.

Aubrey put her hat on Isla - too cute!

Isla loved Brooke's tiara,

and Aubrey's hat.

After naps we met Daddy at his office for another Halloween Party.

This one was for all of the University and not just Daddy's department. Volunteer students put it on for all of the kids. I think that's really cool and wish I knew about it when I was a student.

Cosmo with our clan!

This is Casey, we don't know if she's Cosmo's sister, cousin or wife. But, she's cute and the girls loved her.

They had tons of games that the girls loved!

See the orange ring on the spider, Aubrey tossed it right on.

They loved the big slide.

And the bouncy house is fun too!

The animal science museum brought a snake to pet.

Gator golfing.

The girls loved firing the nerf gun at the target.

  This ramp game was really cool. At the bottom of the ramp was a cupcake pan. You rolled down balls and tried to get a tic tac toe.

Making some Halloween bags.

Brooke either has no fear or did not notice the tarantula. See the red circle on the tank, that's where the spider was, and Brooke's hand is right next to it!

Aubrey made the basket on the second try!

They even got a coloring book.

 Hangin' with the jugglers and stealing their ball!

Aubrey getting a juggling lesson.

Then the costume parade began.

 

All of the cute kids getting a pic. with Cosmo!

What a fun party! I sure do love celebrating the holidays with my girls!