October 2018

October started with Kaleb getting all of his bugs out of my freezer and turning them in for his biology bug collection.

October 1, 2018

We celebrated Olivia's birthday and she was so excited to open her presents when she woke up.

October 4, 2018

She really wanted the Barbie Pizza Kitchen for her birthday that uses play dough to make pizza.

Olivia danced at the high school football game halftime show after a mini dance camp with the drill team. It was cute to watch.

October 5, 2018

Snow and changing leaves on the mountain.

October 7, 2018

Matt was helping to finish a small room under the stairs at my brother's in-laws house and one night Olivia went over to watch/help.

October 8, 2018

The kids always love going to the free skate night at Classic Skating that the school does every year. This was as they were closing so most people had left.

October 10, 2018

Olivia had her Halloween Dance Camp and wore her costume. Originally she wanted to be Merida from Brave but changed her mind to Violet from the Incredibles.

October 13, 2018

She came home with lots of goodies and dress up stuff after camp.

Olivia had been planning her Mermaid Birthday Party for months. She had a clipboard (that she painted) full with lists of what she wanted to do, have and things we needed to do. It was really cute how involved she is with stuff like this.

We lucked out and it was really warm the day of her party so we moved everything outside which gave us more space and it was easier to contain the mess.

They started by decorating their own mermaid paper dolls.

October 13, 2018

I didn't get many pictures before the party but the gift bags had a mermaid tail necklace, a mermaid sequined notebook, mermaid pencil and a mermaid ring.

We played pin the tail on the mermaid, had a seashell piñata and her brothers put together a treasure hunt with clues that led them through the house to find treasure.

They wanted to do presents on the trampoline.

After we had mermaid juice boxes and decorated sugar cookies that were mermaid tales and sea shells.

After singing to Olivia the kids played in the backyard until their parents came to get them. Olivia had a blast and was so happy the whole time. I wish I had a picture of just her in her mermaid shirt and pants with her starfish headband. She loves themed everything!

That night we went with some friends to an escape room. It was our first time and we had a blast. We even made it out with 15 minutes left, almost a record but not quite.

October 13, 2018

I found this picture on Matt's phone. After church we ran up to the cabin to shut off the water since the temperatures were going to be colder than normal and we didn't want any pipes to freeze. I'm not much help other than driving so I sat by the space heater where it was warm while he did everything and ended up falling asleep.

October 14, 2018

We spent the weekend at Matt's brother's house in Colorado for one last get together before his parents left on their mission. The boy cousins are too alike when it comes to video games. The younger ones are always jumping up and down at the exciting parts, simultaneously and they all have to stand right in front of the tv instead of sitting down as if they can't see well enough. Even at our house where the couch is really close they'll stand in front of the couch to play the Xbox. :)

October 18, 2018

We drove over to Estes Park, CO and walked around the Stanley Hotel. This was a lego model they had of the hotel and it even had lego ghosts around the building.

October 19, 2018

Olivia was being a good mom to her baby she wanted to bring with.

The boys thought these masks in the gift shop were pretty cool.

The scenery all around the hotel was really pretty and it was really nice weather when we were there.

The next day we had an early Thanksgiving dinner. The kids played at the park while the food was being prepared.

October 20, 2018

After dinner we went to a park to take some family pictures. There wasn't very good shaded areas to use but we did the best with what there was. Olivia's cousin did her hair in braids for her.

These are all of the grandkids on the Snell side minus one who wasn't able to be there.

It was impossible to get everyone to look and smile at the same time but there were some good funny pictures.

We stayed at the brother's house but we went swimming at the hotel pool where Matt's parents were staying because they had a water slide and splash pad areas so it was more like a water park. Olivia and Ashton would go down the slide together. We definitely wore them out.

Olivia playing in the leaves after Sunday dinner with her cousin Christian.

October 21, 2018

And a couple days later there were even more to rake up at my parents house. Olivia didn't mind if it meant another pile to jump in.

October 23, 2018

It had been a couple years since we went to the Haunted Woods that Murray does which is a short haunted trail through the park perfect for younger kids. There were even Disney princesses there to see. Olivia had part of her donut in there mouth since you get a donut and hot chocolate after. We've learned to get there early to avoid a really long line.

October 24, 2018

This girl loves all things crafty! She painted a pumpkin by herself to look like a cauldron with bubbling brew and so naturally we had to make a dress and hat for her barbie to be a witch.

October 25, 2018

Matt and I LOVE the white chocolate pecan bread that our local grocery store Harmon's sells. I decided to try to make it myself and this was my first attempt. Obviously the second loaf was a little over done but it actually tasted pretty good. They were flatter due to the fact that my cast iron dutch oven is 7 qt. so for Christmas I got a 4 qt. dutch oven and I'm going to see if they work better in that. Then they won't be so flat.

October 26, 2018

Olivia had a birthday party at Gardner Village and it was a Fairy Party so they came dressed as fairies.

October 27, 2018

Our ward doesn't do a trunk-or-treat so we usually go to my parents ward that they are missionaries in.  Ashton is a guy from Fortnite Dark Voyager (I had to look that up), Kaleb picked out a mask he liked online and added items to complete his look and Olivia was Violet.

October 27, 2018

Walmart had a cheap deer costume so Matt decided to be a hunter. It was cheap and easy but it was still fun to dress up too.

It was at a small church so there wasn't very much parking but there were a ton of people there since it was a stake trunk-or-treat.

We had to borrow candy from my parents because there were so many people this year.

The kids ended up with a good amount of candy when they were done.

I was picking up my grandpa after work one day and I stopped to take a picture of the sunset right as Matt was calling me to tell me I had to go outside to look at the sunset. He knows me too well!

October 29, 2018

This tooth fairy note had to be documented since it was the night Matt may have "ruined Ashton's childhood" as Ashton put it. First off, it's cute he was thinking about his sister but he knows there's no way the tooth fairy was going to leave a $30 gift card no matter who it was for. Second, Matt went up to put the money not long after he went to sleep and I told him he was probably still awake. Matt assured me he went in there and Ashton was out. The next morning Ashton confronted Matt and said he knew that we were the tooth fairy because he saw dad come in and put the money in his room. Then after telling us we ruined his childhood he said, "At least I know Santa is real because I know you guys wouldn't buy me all that stuff!" :)

October 29, 2018

We went to see the kids in the Halloween Parade at school. Olivia's wig kept coming off her head since she had so much hair under it.

October 31, 2018

It's fun to see different art work lining the halls that the kids do.

Olivia's class combined with the morning class for this day so that they could be in the parade too.

The kids were excited to go out trick-or-treating. Matt's always good to go out with Olivia while I had out candy. They all found friends to go with around the neighborhood.

They ended up with quite the haul of candy. Kaleb always gets through his first, he has a major sweet tooth. Olivia and Ashton aren't big candy eaters so theirs lasts a long time and we just threw away the rest of Olivia's candy this week (mid-March) that she hadn't finished.

Someone in the neighborhood shared this picture that Olivia was in. The local police stopped around the neighborhoods to hand out candy to the kids and his K-9 was dressed up as a donut. Overall we had a great Halloween and I couldn't believe how fast the month flew by.