Boo!

Halloween-y!

Lucy and I played around with some editing effects of this picture with the plan to make it spooky and zombie-ish. But Lucy has a love-hate relationship with Halloween. She loves to talk about it a but today all of my talk of the Great Pumpkin leaving her treats, talking in a zombie voice and trying to make this picture spooky has resulted in a few tears.

It's the last day of October and with all of the spooky fun we've had I feel like the big day has passed. But tonight is trick or treating and the final wrap up of our favorite holiday...which seems has been going on for three months.

Heading out for the night...someone needs to stay home and pass out candy and watch Dancing with the Stars.

Earlier today we hit the foothill village trick or treating with the Baruas. Such perfect weather (probably the last nice fall day) and always good company. Sweet little Lennox didn't make one peep...just happy to be along for the ride.

A few weeks ago we did our annual breakfast with the witch at Gardner Village with Angie and Dakota. The Great Pumpkin always seems to treat us right with perfect fall weather, good little girls and yummy fudge!

monster mashing

home of the best pumpkin pie fudge

We love, love this day with these girls!

We ran into one of Lucy's friends Ari at the pumpkin patch in Farmington. A quick stop for pumpkins turned into a good chunk of the afternoon of these two running, playing and dancing amongst the pumpkins.

On Friday Lucy had her very first Halloween party at preschool. But she bolted from me the minute I dropped her off so I didn't get any pictures of her and her class. Later that day we met Blake at work for trick or treating in his office. After she loaded up on candy she only wanted to be with Blake. Again, I'm left in the dust. The one who spent over an hour straightening her curls to be Alice; she couldn't get rid of me fast enough.

Saturday night... the annual Worthen Halloween costume party!

Tweedles

solo Sabrina (Nick was working)

Buzz & mob boss

I have a whole new love for Blake because of this pose.

Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter & Alice

Wonderland!

Lis & Steph - spookies

I don't think you're supposed to look this good on halloween.

cousin Eddie & Catherine (love this!)

Phew! Kind of a jumbled post but when you cram all of October in one that's what you get. It was a pretty spectacular month of activities and now the countdown is on for...Disneyland!

it's fall y'all

For a few years I've had this dream of having a harvest party. Not a summer bbq in the heat or a Christmas party in my little house but an outside, crisp harvest party during my most favorite time of year. Every year I see pictures of similar parties in my Sunset and Better Home & Gardens and it seems so simple...good friends, good food and some cute sweaters.

Well, this year my party dreams came true (although in my dream it was about 20 degrees warmer) and just over a week ago we had our first annual harvest party.

We had all the ingredients: a group of fun friends, cute kids to take pictures of and a fabulous array of yummy food (none of which I made!). The biggest stress of the party was the weather. A half an hour before the party it was sprinkling, freezing and dark but literally just as the party started the sun came out and we had some blue sky. Everyone was still bundled but it added to the whole "fall crisp"... or that's what I'll tell myself.

Of course it's easy to come up with the plan but I couldn't have done it without help. First of all to all our friends for bringing their favorite dish to share, my mom making the cute pennant banner that reached across the yard, my sister for taking these great pictures and of course, the best ever Blake. He went along with everything with no complaints. Hauling dozens of pumpkins in the backyard, picking up straw bales and telling me the heat of 50 or so people would of course heat up the back yard.

A couple of crafts & games for the kids and good food for the adults is pretty much all you need.

Donuts!

And if you think watching all these kids was fun...look at all of their cute (and proud!) parents.

I've always wanted a pinata and dammit, I'm 33 and I got one!

(I'm pretty sure Lucy didn't get hit in the head but I was pretty excited about the pinata so I'm not sure)

We have the best friends and they have the best kids. I've said it before but I don't know how we got so lucky to be surrounded by such funny, friendly, amazing people. We are so appreciative that everyone gave up one of their Saturday evenings to hang out with us and we hope that they might want to again next year (and we'll try really hard for some warmer temps!)

See ya!

amber anthem

If you haven't yet...

go for your fall drive.

We did ours a couple of weeks ago along with my 3rd annual fall playlist. We dropped into the Heber valley area and it was bursting with orange. Blake couldn't contain himself and had to pull over and go leaf-collecting.

We stopped at The Homestead for lunch with this ragamuffin and she was overwhelmed with all of the picture opportunities.

Notice that couple in the background? They were excited about the photo ops too. I let Blake and Lucy climb to the top of the crater thing while I watched this couple pose with the halloween props. I don't know which is worse, grown adults seriously posing with scarecrows or me creepily watching them?

This is probably the last really great weekend to spy leaves; get some tunes and go!

Taylor!

We've been counting down since spring and finally got to see Taylor Swift a couple weeks ago!

Lucy was beyond excited and Taylor did not disappoint. It was such a fun show with so many set and costume changes. This concert wasn't just for Lucy though - Caitlin and I knew EVERY word and at one point were so into the concert we didn't realize Lucy had fallen and collapsed herself into her folding chair...oops.

Nothing but love for Taylor.

So all of the hype, lights, screaming girls and fireworks was a bit of sensory overload for Luce so more than halfway in she opted for a power nap.

But we got her up when Taylor made the rounds on the floor and was literally just a few feet away from us.

At the end of the show Taylor sang "Love Story" and circled the arena in the air. It was an incredible show...

first dentist

I might regret this post...

first of all because Lucy going to the dentist is really only noteworthy to us (but this is my only form of scrap/memory keeping) and I'm pretty sure this appointment was about two years overdue according to most dentists recommendations...oh well.

Last month Blake took Lucy to her first ever dental exam. I have an extreme dentist fear and I guess that is why this appointment was so delayed. The thought of the smell of a dentist office and being the brave mom was a bit more than I could handle.

Blake has raved about his dentist for years and they accept child appointments so the two of them had a cute little dentist date. I got to avoid the whole event by being at work but told Blake to make sure and capture the event with pictures...and he did.

Blake said she did amazing. She loved the tv in the ceiling, the dentist and picking a prize. And lucky for her no cavities!

I guess now it's my turn to go.

11 years!

Eleven amazing years with my bestie!

Blake brought home pretty fall flowers for me. And just because he's that great of a husband and daddy he brought some home for Lucy too.

We had a family date night out to dinner and to the Bakery for desserts outside. Such a beautiful fall night. We told Lucy all about our wedding - how it rained but stopped long enough for outside pictures, our wedding cake that would have been taller than her (or two of her) and how we went to California for our honeymoon. She was pretty disgusted we didn't stop at Disneyland. Then she asked, "was I just a tiny baby at your wedding?"

Earlier today I got probably the coolest gift from my friend Angie. She left a sweet happy anniversary message for me and mentioned an Earth, Wind & Fire song that has the lyrics "Do you remember, the 21st night of September". I thought it was some obscure song but cool that it had our wedding date in the lyrics. When I looked it up on youtube....seriously?!!?! THIS is the song?! I've had many a shimmies to this song and never did I know (and no one EVER told me) it had these lyrics! Seriously, the best news ever. We drove home tonight with the windows down rocking out to this song. Now I want to renew my vows just so we can have a dance party and bust this out along with some Redbone. Thanks Ang - this kind of made my day!

*try not to have a seizure watching this video.

Blake,

'I thank my lucky stars, that you are who you are'.

I love, love, love you so much.