Halloween Party...

Tonight we went to an awesome Halloween party. Halloween has kind of snuck up on us this year so we weren't really prepared with costumes, luckily the kids aren't too picky so we used some old costumes from the other years.

Kaysha decided she wanted to use my costume from last year and be "Sally" from Nightmare before Christmas.

Gage thought it would be fun to be a "Nerd". He put this costume together by himself. I think he did such a good job!

Zane couldn't really decide what he wanted to be (doesn't surprise me) and I didn't feel like going out to buy just anything at the store so he decided to be a "smartie pants". He might decide on something else by the time Halloween comes.

Jace fell in love with Zane's old "spider man" costume the second he saw it. Here he is bored waiting for everyone to finish getting ready.

Cyra found Kaysha's old "Pegasus" costume a couple of weeks ago and decided that was what she wanted to be... that is until we were at the store today and she saw all the other cool costumes...

This is the ONLY picture I got of her the whole evening. Oh well, hopefully I will do better on Halloween night.

Here is MY "Edward"...

I think this was the funniest costumes of the night. Here are the "Simpson's" a.k.a.The Lowrys. Take a look at Russ... Jace was scared of him most of the night.

M"Auggie" is going to kill his parents for this!

There was a pumpkin carving contest. Well, it's not really a contest when James is involved. Here he is trying to hurt himself.

1st Place pumpkin skull head

Gage taking after his dad...

Gages cannibal pumpkin

Zane carving his pumpkin...

Zane designed and cut this all by himself. I think James is going to have some competition in a few years.

Kayshas pumpkin

In order from left to right: Jacob, Bella, Edward. Yes...I WAS dressed up!

Jacob and Edward fighting it out over Bella...

He got over it when he set eyes on this beautiful girl. It was love at first sight...

(Beauty and the Beast)

Thanks for the fun party! Can't wait for next years.

Birthday season...

Between birthdays and the holidays this is the time of the year that we seem to be having one party after another. We love every moments that we get to hang out with all our friends. On Wednesday it was J-RADS (a.k.a Jared) birthday, so of course we had to throw him a BIRTHDAY party.

While he was at work we snuck down into his place and decorated it with balloons, streamers, signs and treats. The kids we so excited that he was going to have a party down there...that is until we told them it was a grown-up only party.:(

You can't have a party without sour patch kids, peanut butter M&M's and chips/salsa...

Here is Darin demonstrating to Jared how he should be wearing his new gear...

For dinner we met some friends over at the new Olive Garden that just opened up a couple of days before. We expected it to be so crazy there, being opening week, but it was great. It was so fun and relaxing, even though poor Darin and Darcie had frozen lemonade spilled all over their table, and Jared didn't get his meal until everyone was just about done eating...it was still a fun night.

After dinner we planned to go back to Jared's for cake and ice cream but that didn't happen since we were forever at Olive Garden (we got there at 6:30 and left at 9:30). So only a couple of us went back to his place to watch the new Brian Regan DVD (This guy is hilarious... if you don't know who he is look him up!)

Since we didn't eat the cake and ice cream Wednesday night the kids all got to go down to Jared's Thursday after dinner to sing Happy Birthday to him and eat the cake... (oh yeah... and drive him crazy as they all ran around!)

Jace waiting patiently for cake...

Cyra eyeing the piece she wants...

Happy birthday to you....happy birthday to YOU... Happy birthday dear Jared...happy birthday to YOU!!!

You're awesome Jared! Thanks for being such a great friend to all of us and for all that you do!

We love you!

The Jensen Gang

HaPPy BiRthDaY ZaNe...

Better late than never... Zane turned 7 Years old on Saturday Sept. 13th. Zanes personality is such a 3rd child, he always seems to go along with whatever is happening. Hardly ever will you hear him complain about not wanting to do something. When he giggles it is so contagious, there is no way you can not laugh along with him.

One thing that I will always remember and love so much about Zane... This started when he was just little (maybe 3 years old) He would be watching a show, or playing outside, or playing with toys... he would stop whatever he was doing, come up to me and say "mom... I love you". Sometimes it would be follwed by a big hug but most of the time he was in the room just long enough to say he loved me then run back to whatever he had been doing. This would sometimes happen 5+ times in a day. It was the best when he would come all the way from outside just to tell me that. It has slowed down some as he has grown up but he still will occasionally stop what he is doing to tell me he loves me. It melts my heart every time.

So... since he is such an amazing kid his birthday kinda snuck up on us. (the other kids are usually counting down for their birthdays and reminding us DAILY) We were such slackers when it came to planning his party. It was Wednesday when I told James "we really need to plan SOMETHING for him." When we asked Zane what type of party he wanted he couldn't decide...it was a toss up between Star Wars or Transformers, so we did Star Wars.

I looked online to find some ideas for his party. I read about someone that taped up black garbage bags around the whole room to make it look like space. It sounded like such a great idea that we had to do it. James informed me AFTER he was done that he will NEVER do that again. It did look cool though, and the kids just loved being in there.

James putting up the garbage bags...

View from the kitchen...

The kids put up a ton of white sticker dots all around the room to make it look like stars, then we used our black light from Halloween to make everything glow. It doesn't look as cool in pictures as it did in person.

I know...LAME cake, but Zane thought it was cool.

Gage was in charge of the Jedi Training. He put together an obstacle course for the kids.

Here they are using their Jedi mind powers trying to figure out what the other is doing...

...and of course you need to practice you fighting skills if your going to become a Jedi Master.

Zane and his Buddies!

We had no idea what to get him this year. We were out shopping Thursday when we spotted this electric scooter and knew that was the gift. It took him a minute before he realized that it wasn't a regular scooter... after that all he said was "Awesome...awesome..."

Happy Birthday Zane-Man...We LOVE YOU!!!

HaiR CuT dAy...

I was so tired of Kayshas hair always looking scraggly, so we decided yesterday that it was time for a hair cut. I have been mentioning it to her for the past few weeks to prepare her for this time. She really wanted to grow it out, but finally changed her mind after I showed her pictures from the last time she did it.

Look at this Hair!!!!

Cyra loves any opportunity to go out, so she came along on our girls "bright" out (according to Cyra it can't be a "night" out if the sun is still out, so she decided it must be a "bright" out) to watch Kaysha get her hair cut. Well, right before we left Cyra decided that she also wanted HER hair cut. I talked with James about it, as we were walking out the door, and he left it up to me to decided. The whole drive there I kept asking her over and over again if she really wanted to do it. I told her it would take a while to grow back and once she did it she couldn't change her mind. Each time I asked she insisted that she wanted her hair done too. We get there and I continue to ask her if she is sure, she always says yes. She did want Kaysha to go first though. So they get started on Kaysha and are about 2 minutes into it when Cyra tell me she doesn't want to do it anymore... 1 minute later they call her back to start on her hair. I ended up having to drag her to the chair, with tears starting to form in her eyes, when I sit her down she tells me she is afraid of the lady COMBING her hair. She is such a silly girl....

Before:

During:

After: (with thier HannahMontana/camp rock posters they got from the salon)

Cyra after:

Kaysha After:

They both LOVE their new hair. Cyra didn't want to go to bed last night because she didn't want to mess up her hair, plus she didn't want it to be long again when she woke up. :)

First Day of School...

Today was Cyras first day of school! Last year at this time she had such a hard time going to school. Each time I had to bribe her with something and she would still cry, after a couple of weeks she finally got use to school and never cried again. It is so funny, to this day she still tells me how it was so silly that she use to cry at school. So this year we decided since she loved that school so much we would send her back to the same place. All summer long she would ask if it was a school day. She was so excited this morning to finally learn that TODAY was the day.

Cyra just LOVES clothes and shopping... so it was a hard decision this morning when she had to decide which outfit she wanted to wear today. She loves to wear dresses and skirts, but is very particular about what they look like. They can't be plain, they must be fancy... they need to flow when she swishes side to side. If I would just let her wear tutu's life would be so much easier for the two of us. :)

Jace and Cyra are so funny together... On their "good" days, he is really going to miss her while she is at school.

And thanks to Aunt Cyndi for all the fancy flowers for her hair... Not a day goes by where she doesn't want some type of flower for her hair.