Happy Halloween

We had a pretty nice Halloween. Emily picked out her costume this year so that was exciting for me. :) She was very picky about what kind of princess she wanted to be! Allison was a flower. It was a hand me down costume from Em. They both looked cute and had fun trick or treating. When Em's bucket was half full she told us she was done because she had enough- so grown up!

Pumpkin Patch

Who knew Colorado had so much farmland?? We live right on the edge of the plains and there are a lot of farms in our area. One family turns their farm into a big pumpkin patch with lots to do. The kids had so much fun! There were a ton of animals, a homemade slide down a hill, hayride, jumping castle, and more. We took Michael's dad with us and he enjoyed himself as well. It was one of the neatest pumpkin patches and I hope to make it back next year!

First Snow of the year

Having only lived in warm climates we were anxiously awaiting our first snow in the new house. We got a nice snow storm in mid-October and it was as fun as we'd hoped! The roads were cleared pretty fast so we could get out and drive. And the snow melted in 2 days time so we could enjoy it and see it go! The girls had a great time playing in it. I will admit I don't like bundling them up every time we leave the house- it adds 10 minutes to my already running behind schedule. So far, we are fans of waking up to a snow covered yard and I hope that we have lots more days of snow! :)

 It was a little too cold out for Allie so she watched Em play from inside the house.

Celebrating Rachel's Birthday

While we were in Destin, we celebrated Rachel's 5th birthday on Oct. 9th. It will always be a hard day for us. It's always a reminder of everything that we've missed with her and how much of a hole she left behind in our family. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a 5 year old. Sometimes I feel like we treat Em like she's so much older than she is because we've been at this parenting thing for 5 years and our oldest child is 2. I wish more than anything that we could have seen them all together at least once. We'll never be able to replace her or share her with her sisters. We'll always wonder what she would've been like and how different our lives would be if she was still here. We try to make her birthday a fun event for the girls. It helps them know Rachel and it helps us get through the day. We kept the kids very busy and we all had as much fun as we could for her. I hope that Rachel can see us celebrating her and that she gets some entertainment from her sisters and cousins.

I dressed the girls in matching little sister outfits

We spent the morning at a little amusement park called the Track.

The kids had a blast but Michael and Travis had just as much fun!

We walked on the beach in the evening. We had planned to let

some lanterns go but it was too windy. We flew a kite instead. Trav really enjoyed that!

Bryson ran so fast he didn't even leave a complete footprint!

We had to have a cake! We sang "Happy Birthday"

and the kids blew out the candles.