Carving Pumpkins
We always buy our pumpkins and our Christmas trees from Mast-Roth Farms in Gilbert. This year we didn't even buy the pumpkins until 5 days before Halloween...and even worse, we only carved them the day before Halloween:( Unfortunately for those of us in Arizona, the pumpkins rot if we do it much earlier:( Everyone got to pick out there favorite pumpkins...I especially loved Hunter's choice (it was by far the cheapest!!!). At school this day, Ashley's class had read a sad little story about the littlest pumpkin that was never chosen by any little kids one year. Ash had every intention of finding the smallest pumpkin in this patch to take home, but she didn't last too long once she saw all of the big, fat nicely shaped pumpkins.:)
The lot attendant was nice enough to take a family picture for us...we don't have very many of all of us:(
On the night before Halloween, the kids and Rob all carved the pumpkins. Sadly I had a meeting for the activities committee in my ward:( At least I was lucky enough to come home and Rob had cleaned up all of the mess and the kids were all nicely tucked into bed...Thanks Rob!
Rob loves to decorate for holidays! Halloween is no exception. Unfortunately you can't hear the thunder that he has going, nor can you see the fog that fogs up my front patio. Last year there were many little kids that would not walk up to my front door to ask for candy:(
Halloween Night
Rob's dad drove these blow-ups all the way from Las Vegas to help with decorations in my front yard. The kids loved them and they helped many families have a nice photo op while trick-or-treating.
This year I decided to do a Halloween party since Rob's parents were in town. I did Halloween themed food. This year I was obsessed with buying cookbooks at the checkout stands in grocery stores. I picked the easiest looking recipes to make. The "witches brew" is always a favorite! Too bad I bought way too much dry ice and it totally
disintegrated in my freezer.
These are the mini-mummy dogs. They look simple...but they are very tedious and time consuming!!! Luckily it was worth it...next time I need to make a hundred more! They went the fastest!
These eyeball deviled eggs look cute, but who in their right mind likes green olives?!!! These were the least favorite of all the food!
Rob and I dressed up as vampires again. This year Rob invested in a wig and fangs because last year someone at our ward's trunk-or-treat thought he was dressed up as Joseph Smith...uh, not quite!
All of you that live in states with seasons may have beautiful colored leaves and crisp fresh air for Halloween...we are lucky enough to have 80 degree weather so we actually spend the night sitting outside. Our neighborhood usually sets up camp on their driveway (although a lot of people weren't home this year:(
This is Hunter and I sitting with "Reno 911". I have no idea who that actually is on
tv, but this is my crazy brother-in-law who really thought he was "Reno 911". He never went out of character the whole night. You should have seen him directing traffic out in front of my house. The best part was a lady in my neighborhood came up to me and said, "I heard that your husband is dressed in a cop uniform walking around the neighborhood." I quickly corrected her and pointed to my sister-in-law and said, "no, it is HER husband that is wearing that costume!!!" Sorry Ryan, I won't be claiming you any time soon!
Since the Great Pumpkin visits my house on Halloween, my girls actually have more fun handing out the candy that they do collecting it. For those of you who are not aware of the Great Pumpkin, I will clarify...On Halloween my kids are allowed to pick their favorite 10 pieces of candy out of their buckets. The rest they leave by the door step and that night the Great Pumpkin visits our house to take their candy and leaves a little present in return. It is nothing big, but my girls absolutely love it. And, we don't have candy and wrappers lying around the house for the next month.
If you ever want to see an Alexander transform into a crazy person, dress them up in a costume. My mother-in-law was a hit in the neighborhood and kept us all entertained the entire night. You should have seen her laugh and talk like a witch to all of the trick-or-
treaters. I was a little nervous when I got back from trick-or-treating with my kids and she informed me that someone in my neighborhood said, "Amy, you are a great witch." What???...and Jeanne didn't even tell them it wasn't me. We've got people in our neighborhood thinking Rob is some perverted policeman, and others thinking I am a crazy witch...I may have to put a FOR SALE sign out in front of my house!!!
Our favorite part about trick-or-treating is our neighbor that makes cotton candy for everyone that trick-or-treats at their house. We get crazy amounts of kids in our neighborhood and I think this is one of the reasons:)
This is the whole family dressed in their costumes. We had such a great time!!!
Every year Rob's company hosts a symposium for their clients. They always do an incredible job and it is one of my favorite trips to tag-along on. This year we stayed at the Grand Floridian in Orlando. It is a GORGEOUS Victorian style hotel on Disney World property. Rob and I extended the trip by 2 days so that we could have some time alone and hit one of the parks.
This is a real gingerbread house that is in the lobby of the hotel. I took this picture from the 2nd floor balcony. It was incredible!!!
Apparently these are the chefs that baked and assembled all of the gingerbread. This was the 10th anniversary of the gingerbread house, so they had a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday. The ONLY reason I even attended this event, was because I was waiting for Rob to get back from golfing with his clients...I was able to break away from reading my book for just long enough to take this picture and buy some pins for my girls. The book I'm reading is "These Is My Words"...I have heard so many women tell how good it is and I am finally reading it...LOVE it!!!
For one of the client dinners, we were bussed into MGM through a back gate, and this is where we ate dinner. It was in the stadium where the motorcycle stunt show is held. The food was fabulous and the ambiance was great! They even had character artists there that drew every one's picture that was interested. After Rob reminded our table that all they do is accentuate your bad features (i.e. big noses, big ears, etc.) none of us dared to have our pictures drawn.
This is Rob doing some "cork" trick at the lounge. You'd think that since he and I were two of the only ones not drunk, he would've been able to figure this trick out:) I was able to do it (with a little help from one of the ladies that already knew how:)
This is Rob's client Sumeet...it was his birthday on the night we ate dinner at MGM. When the waiter brought his cake out he kept calling out "Suweet" instead of Sumeet...very funny! I was glad to finally meet Sumeet so that he could see that Rob only had one wife...and that I don't wear prairie clothes or my hair in a long braid. He still couldn't resist asking me "which wife are you?"
It is definitely not as fun taking pictures of ourselves at an amusement park as it is taking pictures of our kids...nevertheless, these are the few we came up with. Epcot's ground are gorgeous! We were lucky that they had already decorated for Christmas. 
I am ashamed of our intolerance for cold weather. It was probably 52 degrees this night at Epcot and you'd think Rob and I were in Alaska by how cold we were. Rob had to capture a picture of me freezing while we waited to see the video of the history of France. I enjoyed seeing all of the neat videos of the different countries...I was lucky to have Rob with me because he has been to almost all of the countries that are represented at Epcot...he was able to give me a more in-depth history lesson:)
Rob took this picture on our way out of Epcot...very cool!
The Epcot Christmas tree 
Rob and I are so lucky to have moms that will babysit our kids so that we can go on vacations together. This time was my mom's turn. We don't have any pictures during the time that we were gone, but I got a couple once we got home. This was my mom making M&M turkeys with the kids to take to their teachers at school. The girls always love making crafts and having cooking class with my mom...Thanks for babysitting mom...and cleaning my house...and doing my laundry...and cleaning my carpets...and helping me put up my Christmas decorations!!! 
Only a grandpa would let a 1 year old play with the kitchen faucet:) Grandpa Clark was nice enough to take all of the girls to see Bolt last night while Grandma, and Rob and I did Christmas decorations...Thanks Grandpa!!!
Hunter was definitely more interested in eating his Cheetos than playing on the playground with Ash. Within minutes of walking into the zoo, at about 9:45, Ashley was already complaining that she was hungry. The 2 of them downed 2 Lunchables and then still ate a kid's meal from the zoo cafe. All of this while not caring too much about any of the animals:( except for the two turtles that Ashley says were "kissing". I imagine these were the same 2 tortoises that her friend Hannah said were laying on top of each other...at least that is what she told her kindergarten class the day that I helped a couple of weeks ago...did I forget to tell you Sarah?
