Claire is 3

We've had 2 straight days of birthday celebrating around here. It started off yesterday morning with "birthday donuts" and Claire's first present (notice the birthday banner in the background). The present was "Cinderella". It's been on almost constantly since.

After we got ready for the day, we did a little photo shoot. I really wish I were a better photographer. There's only so much a nice camera can do. Can you see her sticky mouth from all the Halloween candy she's been scarfing down?

After a delicious dinner of goulash (which nobody complained about! and everybody ate!) and death bread, Claire got to open the rest of her gifts (with quite a bit of unnecessary assistance from her big sister). A great set of books from Usborne (of which my sister Chelsea is a consultant) and a couple of adorable dresses from Honey and Papa. 

And then her gift from her mom and dad. A wooden castle that's been a huge hit (it costs way less on Amazon)

And it fits the little plastic Disney princesses perfectly. Remember this? We still have them all. Although Cinderella's head fell off today :(

And then we sang happy birthday and ate cookies because we were saving cake for . . .

. . . today at her princess party! I didn't take very many pictures, but we had some neighborhood and ward friends over for a little princess pizza picnic pinata party. The weather was gorgeous so we had a picnic in the backyard.

And a pinata (full of toys since Halloween was just 2 days ago) in the garage.

And then cupcakes!

I love this face right after blowing out her candles.

When the last guest left, Claire looked at me with sad eyes and said, "Mommy, why is my party over?"
 Indeed.
If only parties would last forever, then no one would ever have to clean up. :)

Halloween

Last Year:

The Candy Corn Witch and her little black cat.

This Year:

The peacock costume from Paige's first halloween was the perfect size for Grant, and so we decided to just go with a bird theme this year. I think my 3 little birdies are pretty dang cute.

I purchased the girls' costumes because I was feeling unenthusiastic about making them myself.  Daily life with 3 kids is so busy that most evenings (the only time I'd have to work on costumes) I find that I just want to sit and stare at a screen.  I did however carve all 3 of those pumpkins by myself (with two very interested supervisors) on Monday night.

Our neighbors put together a little block party out in the street before we all took our kids out to collect massive amounts of candy. It was pretty cold out but the food was yummy.

A few action shots of trick-or-treating

And here are a couple from the ward Halloween party last Friday night.  

Man, Claire just cracks me up!

Pumpkin Patch

I took Claire and Grant on an outing about 30 minutes away to Roberts Family Farm today. We ate our picnic lunch, played, saw a pig, took a hayride, and picked out a pumpkin out in the field. I even got out my real camera and snapped a few pictures.

Fall in KY has been beautiful so far. The leaves are changing, the mornings are crisp, the afternoons lovely. I had a great time spending the day out with these two cuties. Outings (other then quick visits to the park down the street) don't happen much lately because we have to skip naps to do something like this, but it was worth it today.

I can't ever get her to look at the camera

He is the sweetest boy

 Yes, Claire is crying in the background. She's too "yittle". She just tried and failed to get her pumpkin up on the bale of hay on the tractor by herself.

 

Me and my little clones.

 It's the best we could do :)

First Shoes

Although walking is likely a long way off for Grant, the mornings are getting chilly here and he was in need of something to keep his little piggies warm. Socks are too slippery to army crawl in on the hard wood floor. I think these moccasins are so cute on him.

Field Training

Ben is the chaplain for a field artillery unit and when they head out to the field to practice, he goes with them. They were out there for a week last month and they let Ben pull the firing lanyard on one of the howitzers. Ben's stand-in chaplain assistant (Ben was waiting for his actual assistant to be assigned at the time) took this video. This video makes me laugh. I love Ben's huge grin at the end.

Sorry about the image quality. I couldn't get blogger to upload a bigger file.

A Quick Trip "Home"

We got to make a trip to Salt Lake last week for General Conference and Chaplain Seminar. We had a wonderful time, but it was too short and too jam packed and exhausting. I'm sorry if we didn't get to see you or spend time with you. We hardly had a minute to spare! We left the girls behind in the care of Grandma and Grandpa Reed (THANK YOU!) and Grant came with us. He was an angel, as usual. We arrived on Friday in time to change clothes and head to a dinner for all the LDS Chaplains. Saturday and Sunday were spent attending General Conference, and Sunday evening we had a family dinner and Coco's birthday party in Heber.  Monday and Tuesday we spent all day in Chaplain Seminar before flying home early Wednesday morning (7:09 am!). We did manage to squeeze in lunch at City Creek with family and Judy on Saturday in between sessions, dinner in Salt Lake on Monday night with family, and Cafe Rio on Tuesday night with a quick chat and hug for Kendra, Miles, Owen, and their sweet new baby, Elsie Jane. My wonderful parents and sister Noelle helped with watching Grant so I could attend meetings with Ben, and my arms could not have been more grateful.  This is something we get to look forward to every year now. Hopefully next time we can stretch it out a few more days, bring all the kids, and make it more of a vacation!

Love At Home

 I just had to snap a few pictures with my phone the other day when all three of my children were playing nicely together with Grant's baby toys. I think this lasted for about 20 minutes. Mommy heaven!