Our Halloween Story

I was excited about Halloween this year because we were actually going to get to go door to door in our neighborhood instead of just doing a Trunk or Treat. Hayden is at the age now where she can have fun and understands how it works. But for a while there, I didn't think trick or treating was going to happen for us for a couple of reasons:

1. Remember the last post about BYU's Halloween fun? That night ended with us putting Hayden down and her waking up about 1/2 an hour later vomiting all over her room. That is seriously my worst nightmare. Anyway, our little Hayden was sick. I don't even think it was an "I ate too much candy" kind of sick either, because she didn't eat that much. I'm not sure what it was that made her sick but I thought our weekend was over. Luckily, she was better the next day. Trick or treating was still on for Saturday.


2. Saturday came along and the forecast called for some rain showers. No big deal right? However the forecast changed to thunderstorms. And a doozy of one at that. But we didn't know about it until we walked outside to start trick or treating with Robyn and Lincoln.

Carl stayed home to pass out the candy to trick or treaters. We even went out early to try and beat the "rain showers", still unaware that a storm was fast approaching. We went to the first couple of houses before we looked to the south and saw this:


then the next house was this:

then this with some lightening:


then this with some lightening and thunder:
until we finally decided we needed to make a run for it. And I'm so glad we did, because then this happened:

hail storm from Devin McCain on Vimeo.

It was crazy!! I'm usually totally on top of the weather situations going on but this time I was completely blind sided.

This is hail, not snow, even though we had snow here earlier this week.

The rainbow after the storm.

Our trick or treating was put on hold for about an hour. But the rain finally led up and we made a second attempt at getting delicious candy. It was great and so much fun to see Hayden having fun.
Walking along on our second attempt. I love her outfit with her big coat...it was cold!

Trick or treating with Lincoln.

Her own stash
Our pumpkins. We even had dry ice going on in Carl's pumpkin but it's hard to see in the pictures.


Happy Halloween! We hope everyone else was able to get out and have some fun!

Trick or Treat!

We went to BYU's Halloween get together tonight. Hayden was cute as ever!
Afterward we carved Hayden's pumpkin to get the festivities going.

Halloween 2010 from Devin McCain on Vimeo.

Happy Halloween!

Another Year, Another Gray Hair...

This is my 200th post and it was my birthday yesterday.
Win-Win!
I won't lie, I usually milk my birthday month for all it's worth by exclaiming how it's my birthday allllll month long and what not, but this year I kind of felt different. I didn't want to accept that I'm getting older. But I am and that's okay. It's just a little harder than I thought it would be. Wah wah wah.

But here's where it gets good and I stop whining.
Look:

How can anybody be bummed about a birthday when they can have endless amounts of donuts at their reach!! That's what happens when you have the greatest husband and the amazing Robyn on your side. They didn't plan this, but they both knew how much I love donuts that they both got me some for my big day. They are so thoughtful. Robyn's were even homemade and incredible!
For real.

Speaking of Robyn, she was even kind enough to make homemade stir fry for dinner! YUMMY! She said she felt bad because I had to sit out in the FREEZING cold on my birthday (to watch the girls cheer at a football game) but I think she just wanted to win the best neighbor and friend of the year award. Did I mention she and her hubby also watched Hayden for those 3 hours I was gone in the freezing cold? Yea, she totally wins for being awesome. Thanks, Robyn!

One of the highlights of my day was when I had walked in from said football game and the house had been decorated in streamers(which Robyn had also helped with. Told you, she's amazing); The look on Carl's and Hayden's faces while yelling "happy birthday!" when I walked in was sooooo priceless. They were so genuinely excited to see me that it made me feel so loved and so blessed to have them in my life. I wish I had a picture of them at that moment. It was perfect.

This picture is solely documentation that Carl does, in fact, know how to wrap presents. He just hates doing it. He usually wraps them in towels or hides them under a blanket and has me reach my hand under and pick something out. Which is fun and saves on wrapping paper. But this year I requested he actually wrap them up. So he did. What a good man :)

My friend Alice the fairy even stopped by to help me open my presents. She's great.
I guess it's not so bad to get older when you are surrounded by nothing but cuteness.

I am so grateful for my family and friends. I feel blessed on a daily basis for the amazing people in my life. I'm thankful for a husband who had been sick for the 3 days before my birthday but on my birthday he made sure that I was comfortable and relaxed. That's love! I hope I can be as good a friend and spouse and mother and person as those people in my life.
:)

Some Random But Happy Times

Hayden makes me laugh.
A lot.
She is such a sweet blessing and comical relief to our little family.
So this post is all about her.

Last night(Sunday) was spent playing lots of fun games with daddy. I love watching them together. Hayden LOVES her daddy!
Here is a picture of them playing with play dough and flattening Mr. Bill.

This picture makes me laugh every time. Partly because it's just funny to me........

.....and mainly because she is making this face in it:

And here is a sneak peek at her Halloween costume.

You may recognize it from a Memorial Day Post earlier this year, but it is too perfect to NOT use as a Halloween costume. She is Alice the Fairy, for any of you familiar with David Shannon books
After I had her try it on tonight, she ran around the kitchen and living room about 83 times in a row yelling "I'm Alice the fairyyyyyyy!" and each time she passed me she whacked me on the head with her fairy wand. It was magical.
Needless to say she is very excited to be Alice the Fairy for Halloween.

And lastly, there is a new cartoon on Playhouse Disney in the mornings called Timmy Time. Hayden really likes it, but mostly she loves singing the theme song. See for yourself:

"Timmy, it's Timmy. He's a little lamb with a lot to learn."

Yep, she's cute.

Pumpkin Patch

We made it to the pumpkin patch this year. Hooray! I love this little farm we go to and this year it came with a petting zoo (with a kangaroo!), and play box made of corn and a little corn maze. Hayden LOVED it.
This year we had two attempts at going to the patch. Friday night we tried, but by the time we got there it was too dark to really have a good search at looking for the best pumpkin, so we pet the animals and let Hayden play for a bit and decided we would try again in the morning.

We discovered that Hayden is now a pro (in my books) at going potty in the toilet. So much so that she was even willing to go in the out house the farm provided, in the dark, due to a dire emergency she had. I'm so proud. So much so that I got a picture of her.

Here is our second attempt on a beautiful Saturday morning.

The corn sand box

Playing in the hay

Finding the perfect pumpkins

The daddy pumpkin, the mommy pumpkin and the baby pumkin. Not too shabby!

Here is a cute video of Hayden with the kangaroo and playing. It was so cool to see a kangaroo!

Pictures and the Potty, But Not Together...

Everybody poops...even Hayden!

I think I can say that Hayden officially has this potty training business down. We are on at least 7 days straight of pooping on the toilet. Hooray! When did pooping on the toilet become such an exciting thing? Apparently it's the highlight of my life right now.
Is that a bad thing?
I think not.
My girl is growing up. Is that a bad thing? Yep. It's bad. Very bad. I don't think I can handle it. But I won't think about that. I'll just keep cheering on my little "big" girl while she grunts her way to relief:)
Way to go, Hayden!

On another note, we had some pictures done by my dear friend Robyn Gillespie. I think she captured some pretty nice stuff. Here are some of my favorites:

Thanks, Robyn! I'm loving your new camera:)

A Hike, Slurpee, Cool Painting, and an Award.

A couple weeks ago we went on a gorgeous hike up the mountains by our house. The leaves were changing, the weather was perfect and the company was ca-yute!

Our house is down there in the valley. Isn't the view pretty?

There is a reservoir tucked away in these mountains. It's a cool place to go fishing or let your kids fall in the water. On Accident. (Sorry, Robyn) ;)

I love getting out and exploring our neighborhood:)

I also love this kid!

Seriously, look at that face. We have discovered whenever she drinks a slurpee she goes CRAZY, and we like it. It's the best kind of sugar rush:)

Also, check out this cool painting that our friend Jethro made for us. It's our little family and I LOVE it!

Jethro is an art teacher at the local high school, so he does this stuff for a living and he's so good at it. If anyone wants a hook up, let me know! :)

And lastly, my cute friend Amy gave me this award:

It's my very first blog award! haha pretty cool. Thanks Amy! Check out her blog if you want to see some cuteness!
I'm supposed to write 7 things about myself so I figured I could link you to this post I did a while ago, because I can't think of anything interesting at the moment:) And you score because you actually get 10 things about me if you read that, instead of just 7. Lucky you:)