OCTOBER WRAP-UP

First of all:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Although, I'd be lying if I didn't say I have already easily transitioned into the warm, grateful goodness of Thanksgiving...perhaps laced with a little Christmas cheer.

My goodness, October was busy! In some ways it went by so fast and in others--it went by oh, so slow. Because of it's busy state, I wanted to make sure I hit the high points that I lacked the time to do so before.

Phil's case competition in Nashville, TN! Below is a picture of him and his talented team. They worked very hard and spent a lot of time preparing for this. They did an awesome job and I'm very proud of him (and very happy to have him home and a little less stressed :)

The complex inner thoughts of brilliant business minds at work.

Phil did get a week off from school this month (due to everyone interviewing and attending job conferences) so what did we decide to spend our extra time doing? Getting Ryder off of his binky and getting Penny sleeping through the night!!! Don't envy me and more importantly, don't judge me :) We had great success on both accounts. For Ryder we held a "Bye-bye Binky" party, which was a smashing success. Penny Rae, I believe has a 6 out of 8 track record for sleeping a full 12 hours thru the night. We are so proud of both of them. (And if I'm being really honest, I'm proud of Phil and I too :)

We did our annual run to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point...oh wait, no we didn't, because it was raining cats and dogs. But since we were already there, we went to their Dinosaur museum instead, which was still pretty stinkin' fun. And all Halloween spirit wasn't lost because Ryder got to make a hat with a boingey pumpkin hanging off of it.

I feel like the expression on P's face is a good representation for how she feels about my 1000 kisses/day

Every year the MBASA (BYU MBA Spouse Association) throws a Halloween Party. It's typically one the bigger events of the year, which is saying something if you know this group. Being usually totally lame in participating in such things, I turned over a new leaf this year and joined the family committee. I'm still pretty lame, but I'm making small improvements in the right direction. Well, for our Halloween Party I was in charge of getting the candy for the carnival games and coming up with the prizes for the costume and pumpkin carving contests. This had to be done for approximately 400-500 people all on a budget. Compared to the ladies in charge of this,  I had the easy part. I purchased as much candy I could given our bugdet (about 21 lbs)  and made these "spooky" little prizes for the winners.

The Apple Cider and Root Beer labels I got here.

Finally, Halloween Night, or that Halloween Eve Night! Our theme for the kiddos this year was "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz!" Ryder was Buzz Lightyear and Penelope was a Bumble Bee, or as my dad called her, a PeneloBee. We went to my sister's house in Eagle Mountain to trick or treat because it's a rockin' residential area perfectly designed for such festivities. Plus, it allowed the cousins to go trick-or-treating together. Despite wind and rain, this little Toy Story threesome (with the help of their cute dads) came back with a very respectable haul. The girls (minus Gracie, plus my dad) stayed inside answering the door and sipping hot cocoa :) It was a very fun evening filled with cozy, holiday fuzzies and good company. Just how I like 'em.

 Isn't my sister's house cute? More on this later.

 Enjoying the spoils of his victory, as any respectable Buzz Lightyear would.