Halloween Pictures

This year, our ward did a Halloween Parade, but we were not able to be there, so Cooper's cousin, Hunter, took him to a Trunk or Treat up in Logan. They got lots of candy and they had fun spending time together.

While Cooper was at the trunk or treat, Bryce and I were at the Alpine Halloween Party. The past two years, they have brought a hypnotist to the party. This year, however, it did not work on anyone and it was lame. But, it was fun to see some friends and eat good food.

Every year, we have a man in our neighborhood who has lots and lots of inflatable decorations. His yard is covered for Halloween and Christmas. He has a little haunted house and I think we stopped there 5 or 6 times in October so Cooper could run through the decorations! This gargoyle was a new addition this year!

October "Octivities"

October is such a fun time of year and there seems to be so many exciting activities going on in the month. The crisp, cool weather seems to refresh everyone and its just an exciting time because the Fall leaves are beautiful and the most favorite holidays are around the corner!

I wanted to put some more pictures on here from some of the events we did this month. We went to a pumpkin patch out in Hooper to get our pumpkins. The deal was, "$5 for an armful". Cooper helped me pick out 4 pumpkins, I stuffed them into my arms, gave the farmer $5 and off we went....that is, after Cooper and Clayton played in the onion field!
Last week the weather was near 40 but the kids wanted to go and play for a few minutes. We got them dressed in warm clothes and spent a few minutes outdoors. It was freezing, but the boys had a good time playing with each other. Clayton just started wearing shoes, so he has a hard time walking in them. Cooper was nice and decided to help him walk down the sidewalk. In mid October, all the local elementary schools had a fundraiser. They brought in big inflatables and the kids had a great time playing on them. Cooper ended up going to Reese and Jaxson's school and they all had so much fun getting their energy out!

Halloween Party

This past Thursday, Cooper's Kindergarten class had a halloween party and the teacher asked me to come and help. It was so much fun to get to meet some of his classmates and to help them make funny little spider hats.

The kids also got to eat a doughnut off a string, play a bean bag tossing games, make candy bracelets and play "halloween" bingo. One of Cooper's favorite things, was when Ms. Clark made the "witches brew" or root beer. The kids loved the smoke that came out of the pot!

Carve it Up!

This year we went over the Gabrishes again to carve our pumpkins. The dad's always help carve the pumpkins and pull out the "insides" with the kids. This year, Cooper actually helped pull out the guts.

It reminded me of when we were younger and Tyler was just barely walking....anyway, Shayne, Sean, and I were carving our pumpkins in the back yard and Tyler was walking around just in his diaper with his big belly sticking out...a perfect target for pumpking guts. We threw it on his stomach and he started dry heaving really bad....it was so funny!....something we will never forget!

Clayton just sat on the counter looking at all the pumpkins. He picked up a slimy pumpkin seed and just looked at it. After they were carved, he thought they were pretty cool, because he could put the lid on and off the top of the pumpkin.

PuMpKiN WaLk

Every year, North Logan has a pumpkin walk for the community. It is free and such a fun family activity for all different ages. They have different companies or individuals who sponsor each section of the "walk". So, each section has a theme, usually based off a movie and they will decorate it using mostly pumpkins.

Cooper's favorite movie right now is "How to Drain Your Dragon", so when he saw "Night Fury", he had to get a picture with him. He talks about night fury all the time and wants me to show him this picture over and over again.
It is exciting to see how creative the different sponsors are each year and to see what can be made out of pumpkins and squash. Cooper ran from theme to theme yelling out what movie it was. Clayton just sat in his stroller pointing to the different characters.
Each year, there seems to be more and more sponsors that join the "pumpkin walk", so it gets longer and longer. At the end of the walk, there is a witch sitting in a little building to greet you and you are given a cookie.
They also have these character "cut-outs" that kids of all ages, even myself, love to put their faces in. Its kind of funny to see how they turn out. Here are some of my favorites:

Owl Cookies

Once again, we were able to make Owl Cookies with Cooper and Hunter this year. Grandma Douglas did all the hard work (she made the dough and cooked the cookies), so we could have all the fun! It is such a fun family activity for Halloween!

I even joined in the fun and created my own kind of owl, which actually turned out very cute! I also enjoy eating the dough, but prefer the cooked cookies when they are fresh out of the oven. This was Clatyon's first year to "kind of" participate.
Cooper had such a great time and he made a whole cookie sheet full of Owl Cookies!

Lunch Time

When mom was up visiting in the first of October, we went out to eat at Chilis. Clayton thought he was such a big boy because I did not make him sit in a high chair. Instead he got to sit on the bench next to me. Aunt Jocie kept giving him some of her Dr. Pepper and he thought it was wonderful! Of course, he thought it was wonderful....he is a Douglas/Hatch/Cooper....and we know they all love Dr. Pepper. Anyway, Jocie had to leave a little early and he got a hold of her drink.

Addey shared all of her food with him. He sat there like a big boy and ate cheese, corn, and french fries. He also kept giving everyone the meanest looks (he can furrow his brow really well) and then he would smile.
I love this picture of Grandma Cooper and Cooper. He climbed under the table, sat next to Grandma, and said, "Do you know why I came to sit by you? Because I love you so much." That made her day and my day! I love it when my kids get to spend time with their grandparents!

Old Eph's Grave

Last week, Bryce and I spent a few hours riding 4 wheelers up Logan canyon. Mom watched the kids for us while we got away for half a day. It was so much fun to spend time together doing something we love. The scenery was so pretty especially since the leaves have changed colors.

We went on a 24 mile ride up to Old Ephraim's Grave. For those of you that don't know, Old Ephraim was a huge bear that was killed up Logan canyon many years ago. We are standing by a statue that is as tall as the bear. They now have Old Eph's skull in the Smithsonian Institute.
As soon as we got to the grave, it started to down pour. We spent just a few minutes there, and then headed back. It poured hard for a few minutes, plus we were going about 30 mph, so it was pretty cold and wet. But, it stopped soon after and we made it back to the truck without getting completely drenches and muddy. It was so pretty and I loved to watch the golden leaves fly in the wind as we rode down the trails. Most of the trees were yellow, but now and then there would be a patch of red and orange. Just another reason I love the Fall....perfect for 4 wheeling!

Brothers

I took some pictures of Clayton while we were up in Logan for the past week babysitting Steph's kids. He is wearing one of my favorite shirts that I bought for Cooper when he was 12 months. I decided to pull up some old pictures of Cooper and I can't believe how much they resemble each other. I still have people tell me all the time that they think Clayton looks more like Cooper than like Bryce or myself. What do you think?

American West Heritage Center

When mom got into Cache Valley on Saturday, we met her, Tawni and Ty at the Heritage Center out in Wellsville. Every year the kids love to play in the hay and enjoy the fun activities there. This year we had some of the teenagers with us, but they didn't stay long...not really for the kind of fun they were looking for...the ended up going over to the Haunted Corn Maze.

Anyway, the kids had a great time playing on the two new pirate ships that were made out of hay. We bought each of them a wooden butcher knife(not sharp) and they played pirates for a long time. They also enjoyed the little slide and jumping off the large hay bales into big piles of hay. The kids also got a chance to ride on the little chetlin ponies and take a loop on the little red train. The weather was perfect and the cousins had such a great time spending time with one another.
Clayton enjoyed the rocks and dirt. He did not appreciate the hay at all....too itchy and scratchy. Tawni took him down the slide a few times and he seemed to like that.

Fall Family Pictures

Yesterday, we went out to Porcupine to take our annual Fall pictures. This year the leaves were not very vibrant and colorful. I don't know if it is because we didn't get much rain, but the leaves were not at bright as I would have liked. Anyway, we had mom come and take some pictures of our family. The pictures actually turned out pretty good considering Clayton doesn't like to sit still at all and Cooper forgot how to smile. I have to admit, it was a little frustrating at times, but in the end, we got some good pictures and nobody left crying.

Bryce and I took a picture on this exact rock 10 years ago this month for our engagement pictures. So here we are, 10 years later, 2 kids later, "many" pounds heavier, a few more wrinkles, alot wiser, but couldn't be happier with where we are in life.
We actually did this same pose 10 years ago as well, but we are probably alot softer now!