Halloween Fun

We had a very fun and busy October. For Halloween the kids dressed up as Elizabeth Swan, Captain Jack Sparrow, and "Will Turner" from the Pirates of the Carribean. We watched the first movie at the beginning of the month and they were hooked! They were all super excited about their costumes and fortunately they got many opportunities to wear them, from the ward party, to Taylor's school, and Chase's little preschool party, to birthday parties and pictures to Halloween night. We had a very eventful and fun October.
Here's the kids at a neighbors playing some fun Halloween games.

On Halloween day, I took the kids up to this little grove by our house to take some pictures of them all dressed up. Here's a couple of my favorites. Of course, they weren't that into the pictures, but I think we still got some fun ones.


And here's Taylor at school during her school parade. She loves a good parade, especially if she gets to be in it.

Chase and Talan at the ward party. I was shocked that they both left their costumes on, hats and all.

Chase getting ready to go to preschool. And then again at his cute preschool party. Chase thought the pinata was so cool, especially when his mom broke it open and all the candy spilled out.


All three right after trick or treating. Cort took them out this year with some friends and I stayed home to hand out candy. Even Talan went and loved every minute of it.

When the kids got home they immediately dumped out their bags and started ruffling though the candy. Talan was in heaven, he gets his love of sugar from his mom.

I think it's safe to say that Halloween is definitely Talan's favorite. Here he is walking around the house with a sucker in his mouth and then if you look close he has one in each hand as well. I wish I could of known what he was thinking. Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.

pre-preschool

Our Chasers started a little neighborhood pre-preschool a couple of weeks ago. And he is loving it and doing so good! The night before our first day we went and got him a backpack, he was bursting with glee. He picked out a Spiderman one and kept telling me thank you over and over. Us moms and kids doing it, met a few weeks prior to us starting, to discuss what we wanted to do. Well, later on that day after we met me and Chase were playng together, just the two of us, when out of the blue Chase said to me "thanks mom for having all my friends over." He was so sincere. It was one of those special mom moments. I know I've said it before, but this kid has my heart, as do Tay and Tally. Here's a couple pictures of Chase on his first day of pre-preschool. The first one is of him checking to see if his friends are here yet. Love him.

As promised....

Here are the pictures from our recent trip out to California, It was a great little getaway. Hopefully we will get to do it all again super soon.
For the first half of our trip we stayed in good ole' Porterville, Cort's old stomping ground. I got to go to the Relief Society broadcast with Cort's mom and Grandma, our first night there. All of the speakers talks were so good. But it was President Uchtdorf's remarks that really got me thinking. one of the things he talked about was happiness and how even in tough times we can find happiness. One of the things he said that really stood out to me was at the end of his talk when he said "In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance." Thanks Luann and Ann, I really apprecioated going with you.

Here's some of the other fun things we did while we where there.

On Sunday we had a barbeque with Cort's family and the Farmers, some of Cort's old friends from back in the day. They have a boy and a girl about Taylor and Chase's same age, so that was fun for them. I love how kids can just get together and it's like they play together everyday.
Here's Chase and Easton.

and here's Taylor and Maddy

Talan got really good at walking while we where there. It's so cute to see him go. He kind of does a little swagger (is that a word) when he walks. It totally makes me smile and a little nervous. I keep thinking he's going to fall, but he usually is pretty good at catching himself. When did he get so BIG?

Here's Tay with her grandma watching a movie together in their pjs. These two really do have a special relationship. Tay just beams when she's with her Grandma.

After a couple of days in Porterville we headed for Disneyland. The first day down there we decided to stop and let the kids play at the beach. We were told about this really cool beach at Laguna Beach, so that's where we went. (Thanks Buchanan's for the tip.) When we first got there it was a little chilly, not bad, but definitely NOT swimming weather. We got out of the car and started walking down to the beach when Taylor and Chase started begging us to let them put their swimsuits on. I couldn't believe it. They are such die hards. The water was quite chilly and no one was really getting in....expect our kids, oh and the surfers with their wet suits on. Taylor and Chase had a blast, wading in the water, and splashing around. It was such a fun spot, it had these huge tide pools, with hermit crabs, everywhere, and seashells, which was Tay's favorite part. We originally thought we'd only be there for like a hour tops, but I think we ended up staying there for at least a couple hours, if not longer.



Chase was loving the seagulls. He chased them all over the place.

The next two following days we did Disneyland. The kids were so excited. The first day there I couldn't believe it, we were WALKING ONTO THE RIDES!! I think I was more excited about that then the actually rides. We had such a good time. Cort took the boys back to the room around 3:00 that first day, so me and Tay got to spend some quality time together just the two of us.

Talan was such a trooper the whole time. Here he is in the carrier fast asleep taking his nap.

Taylor kept calling all the little rides like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Snow White, roller coasters. She had no interest in the real ones. Here we are on the teas cups. The one thing that she said she HAD to do.

Our second day there Cort's parents drove down to join us. Thanks grandma and grandpa. We did Finding Nemo, Pirates again (one of my personal favorites) and the Haunted Mansion with them, among others. Chase was so funny both times on Pirates. We decided before we left that Chase was going to be Captain Jack Sparrow for halloween. Well, everytime we saw Captain Jack, Chase would scream out "there me!" We also took turns with grandma and grandpa, going on two of my other personal favorites Indiana Jones and Tower of Terror. Chase was soooo bummed out that he couldn't ride the Tower of terror with us. He just didn't meet the height requirement. We had to promise him next time for sure when we was a little bit taller. He just kept saying "I biggeer."

A highlight for Taylor was when we stumbled upon the princess hair and make-up salon. We had them do her hair and paint her face. She was in heaven. When the lady asked her what color flowers and ribbon she wanted in her hair she said "yellow and red," her favorite. Well, the lady then assumed that, that's what she wanted on her face as well, well Taylor was quick to tell her that she wanted her brothers favorite colors green and blue on her face. What cute kids. They are always thinking of one another, it melts my heart.


When we asked Chase who he wanted to meet he said only Goofy. I didn't even know that he really knew who Goofy was. Well, we are all about making dreams come true in the Welker household, so here we are in Toon Town with good ole Goofy.

We got to meet a lot of the charaters and Taylor got a lot of their autographs. Here's the gang with Minnie all dressed up for the holiday.

So sad when it was time to go, the kids actually shed many tears as we were packing up Friday morning. I am so grateful for times like these, being with family is just simply the best.

For all you Twlight fans

How fun is this! And just in time for Halloween. Which Twilight character are you?
I am....

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!
You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and appreciate the kind way you always handle things.
Take the quiz here
http://twilightersanonymous.com/Quizzes/Find-out-which-female-character-you-are.html

and then for fun leave a comment saying which character you are. I think it would be fun to compare.

Naptime?

I think we seriously wore this little guy right out last week! We took a big family trip out to California and had such a fun time. (Stay tuned pics soon to come). We got home way late Friday night. Well, Saturday morning we got up ate some breakfast, hung out for a bit, and then I got Chase in the bath. I got him in and walked in the other room for a sec to check on Tally came back and this is what I found.....Chase snoring fast asleep in the bath tub! Sigh. I almost died when I saw him. What a stinkin' cutie.

These two....

crack me up! Seriously could they be any cuter? I'm sitting in the family room this afternoon when I hear these two little rascals just giggling as they came bee-bopping down the hallway. I smiled so big when I saw them come around the corner. Oh, how I love these kids! After we took a much needed picture, they both decided to perform for me. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

Kasey's Big day

Well, it's offical my little sis got married last night. She has always been such an important part of my life and I love her dearly. Thanks so much to everyone who helped make her day so special. She looked amazing. It was a fun time, and now we have a new member of our family.
Introducing Chance and Kasey Noyes..........

Everyone had such a great time too. Especially the kids, my kids just live for this kind of stuff. Here's Taylor in all her glory. She was sooooooooo in her element. Seriously, getting her hair all done, wearing lip gloss, carrying flowers, wearing a beautiful dress, dancing to her hearts content, this is the type of stuff Miss Taylor lives for. She was in heaven. Her, Riley and one other little one where in charge of getting the gifts and Taylor really took her job seriously. I went to check on her at one point just as some people were arriving and I heard Taylor say "oh, a customer!", as she ran to greet them.


Little Chase had a good time too. He worn his little suit that we got for the ocassion the ENTIRE time. I was shocked! I orinigally thought 20 minutes TOPS! Ahh! This kid melts my heart. He was all about the chicken dance, (see pic) I wish I had it on tape, and of course the chocolate dipped strawberries. YUM!


And here's Tally Wally doing what he does best, looking so darn cute. He loved the dancing too (see pic below). This kid is just the sweetest.

And here's a couple fun random shots.



Cort and Talan dancing

the fam.


And here's one of all the flowers from the reception that we took over to my mom following the reception. We did this for my wedding and Whit's too. It's always so fun to go and do this with who ever is still around. I know my mom just loves this. And we love doing it too.

One last of Talan on the way home after a long day of fun. All three of the kids crashed hard on our way home late last night. We really wore them out.
Congrats again Kas and Chance, love ya both!