Halloween

Halloween...oh if Chad and I had been thinking we would have dressed up as zookeepers!  Rylee was our elephant, Sawyer our zebra and Cassidy our lovely ladybug.  We had been fighting colds so skipped the down town trick-or-treat in lieu of naps this year and hoped for a break in the weather during the Halloween party that night.  We were rewarded and had a great adventure that ended all too soon

 The wild animals were not very cooperative to stand still for photos...

Ahhh, sweet containment!

The trick-or-treating crew; Maddie, Sawyer, Claire, Jolee, Cassidy, Rylee, Daniel

So on about the 4th house, our ladybug decided to cut through the yard to catch her friends and met a very mean branch that not only tripped her up but banged her up.  Thankfully she missed the edge of the sidewalk by about 2 inches that I thought for sure was sending us to the ER as I scooped her up and ran for ice.  Poor lil' ladybug was very sad and tearfully asked "Am I all done trick-or-treating?"  And through the swelling and blood I said, I think so baby.  After some clean-up, ice and chocolate cake she was ok, but this was the next morning... 

I did manage to arrange for a few co-workers to be open for trick-or-treaters the next night and the whole crew got dressed up again and off we went.  I think Cass got more candy than if she'd stayed out on Halloween as every house we went to seemed determined to give us all the candy they had left...UGH!
This was the first year Cassidy got to do pumpkins and was totally into it, especially the spooky faces.  Unfortunately, because of the eye you can tell that Mom was a little late and we actually carved the day after Halloween, but hey like we say, better late than never!

Definitely a year to remember!

Hunting

Per tradition, the second weekend in October found us making the trek over the mountains and through the woods to go hunting.  Chad and Howard both had good luck opening day despite a little rain, and yes, we had to take this redneck picture!

Trying to get both twins to look cute at the same time with the pumpkins proved to be too much but we did get a few cute ones (with a little cropping)

Sawyer

Where's Rylee?  Good thing it's pink camo!

Sawyer sharing

Papa and Rylee



Papa's big girl, riding all by herself

I LOVE this picture...my favorite cowboy and cowgirl together

Chad and my special time...at least we could talk!

Cass was very interested in the whole hunting thing this year and even wanted to go out.  She was a little unsure of the blood but really wanted to be involved.  Since I didn't get my deer opening day (or any other day for that matter, thanks to my great shooting) she even got to go out a few times on short hunts.  She still is looking out for deer for me to "catch". 

The twins providing entertainment

Bobbie and John made a special trip up just to see the girls

Another great trip and more meat for the freezer.  Thank goodness Chad is a much better shot than me!  Maybe next year I'll have a little more time to shoot before hunting starts...maybe

September and October Fun

September and October were a little crazy busy with me starting back to work part time, Cassidy starting a new school and all of us adjusting to a new schedule where it feels like Chad and I are two ships passing in the driveway!  Chad gets home and I'm off to work while he watches the girls in the morning and when I get home he's off to bed and then up and back to work.  It's worth it though being able to keep the girls with us and me getting a little balance in my life.

Here are some of the highlights...

Cassidy's first day of pre-school

Cleaning up some of our garden harvest

A special visit from Aunt Sue and Uncle Wayne

Cassidy still finds time to ride Ziggy and her new favorite is to drive the 4-wheeler....look out, she's a speed demon!  She also has mastered the hula hoop...much better then both me and Chad! It's amazing she learned with us as her teachers!

Some of the girls' antics have been quite entertaining...I swear what one doesn't think of the other does and they are great cheerleaders for eachother

What I get thinking putting the baby gate up to make it easier to unload the
costco run...I guess they didn't like that idea much!

Rylee thinks it's great to scale Cassidy's bunk bed ladder

Rylee pushes one of the chairs over to be able to climb up and get into the
great stuff on Cassidy's red table

Pretty sure Sawyer led the charge on this one...front and center

Teamwork!  Sawyer pushing Rylee

Cass and Rylee

We got to go up to a horse expo and Cassidy was in haven...she loved watching the vaulting and I finally had to pry her away from the cowboy challenge race as it was 8:30 pm and every one else was done.  It was really fun watching her and dreaming of all our horse adventures to come!

Brady's birthday up north and the twins provided the entertainment

Aunt Mary teaching Rylee bad habits!

Cassidy and I got very into using the apples up over at the barn and got pretty good at making "Horse Barn" applesauce.  I have to say the peeler/corer that I bought was some of the best money I've spent lately.  Cass could get an apple ready for the pot in about 30 seconds, grinning the whole time, and it's pretty funny seeing the horses with spaghetti apple peels hanging out of their mouths!

Another great adventure was G'ma Kit treating us to Disney Princess's on Ice.  Cassidy was so excited and was spellbound by all the costumes and skating, not to mention getting to be with her cousins and G'ma...oh yeah, and Mom

It did seem like we battled colds most of October which did lead to some nice snuggle time with our other wise way too busy girls.  Here's Chad taking advantage of Sawyer needing some quiet time