Happy Halloween

Halloween was a pretty big deal at our house this year.

I think it's because everyone is growing up and can get excited about it.

We had a great time getting ready and a great Halloween.

Milo changed his mind a few times, but ended up going with a Ninja.

Even better, he called himself a Minja, which is so much cuter.

Lillie was the cutest Bumblebee EVER.

We found this darling costume and I convinced her it was perfect.

The antennae were so darling.

Noah made a very handsome Capt. Jack Sparrow.

He had some awesome braids we glued to his chin, but they fell off during recess.

We put his costume together and after looking online for a hat, I opted to make it.

Not the easiest thing I've made. Luckily for me, a squashed, lopsided hat just looked more authentic.

Chloe was a pink pirate.

She had a very specific idea in mind for her costume. She even drew me pictures so I'd know exactly how she wanted it. I'm not great with a sewing machine so I had to change a couple things, but in the end she was very happy. She and her friends did a 'silly face' picture for me. She has made some cute friends at school.

Milo and I helped in Lillie's classroom for their Halloween party. Lincoln Academy does Halloween pretty big. Everyone dresses up. Even the Jr. High kids. Every single teacher, all the office staff, everyone. It's so fun. They have a big parade and class parties at the end of the day.

Our cute cousins came up to trick or treat with us in our neighborhood.

Lexxy was a pink pirate too!

It was such a warm, beautiful day. We hit every house in the neighborhood. Noah decided to go with friends this year (is he already that old?!) and then helped with a 'haunted woods' in our cousins backyard. Everyone had a great time.

Now I need to start sneakily throwing all the candy away! :)

Happy Birthday to You! and you and you and you...

Did you know that my four kids all have birthdays within 3 months of each other?

From mid April to mid July I feel like we are in a constant party.

And not only do they have friend parties, but family parties too.

And often, a family party for each side of the family.

By the time we're done, I'm tired, I've gained weight and I have crepe paper stuck to the bottom of my shoe.

So this year, I'm lumping all the birthdays into one nice little blog post.

Thankfully, Lillie and Chloe's birthdays are only a week apart. So we had a joint party this year. We rented a bouncy house/slide and a cotton candy machine and invited 27 little girls (and one very brave little boy!)

It was awesome.

We have a tradition of waking up our kids on their birthdays.

We come into their room singing Happy Birthday with a cupcake and a candle.

We video it all. It's pretty fun and I think they will be fun to look back on when our kids are big.

Here's Brian making cotton candy as fast as he can.

Here's Lillie at the bottom of the slide. Everyone played hard.

My darling little girls. They are so wonderful and add so much love in my life.

Chloe is 8 and Lillie is 5.

In June, we celebrated Noah's birthday.

He's 11 now and is such a great kid.

He chose to invite a few friends and go to 7 Peaks water park.

They had a great time and stayed until it closed.

But big boys are hard to get pictures of and this is my only one.

Just this week we celebrated Milo's third birthday.

He is growing up way too fast and I instantly tear up when I think about it.

Here he is with his Birthday donut. (the boys want donuts instead of cupcakes)

I made him a CARS cake and we threw him a little water party with 3 of his closest buddies.

So there you go! Cahoon kids birthdays. They are growing so fast and I try to remember to cherish their littleness everyday. They are the greatest blessing in my life.

A Busy Summer

Well, not really.

Some summers I feel like we are way too busy and I regret scheduling so much.

But I've kept it pretty simple this summer.

I love being able to get up in the morning and

say, "What do you guys want to do today?"

Lots of water and sunshine and family.

We've been very busy. ;)

Blue John Canyon

A few weeks back Noah and Brian went on a slot canyon hike in Southern Utah.

Here's the group, lots of cousins and uncles and grandpa Cahoon.

They chose to hike the Blue John slot canyon. And if that doesn't ring any bells,

here's a clue:

It's the same slot where that poor guy, Aron Ralston, got his arm stuck behind that rock and had to cut it off with his pocket knife. That's Brian near the spot where he was stuck for 127 hours.

Not my first choice in hikes, but I'm just the mom and I don't have any say. :)

There were 3 places where they had to rappel down.

One of the drops was 80 feet into the slot.

Down into the darkness, these kids were pretty brave.

It took a while to send everyone down each rappel,

here's Brian rigging up Noah.

Brian and his brothers are very cautious, and I'm very glad.

Noah unearthed a scorpion,

can you see it on the rock?

I'm not sure why, but Noah brought this Lego clone along for the adventure.

Funny kid.

Everyone had a great time. There were no injuries, besides scraped up elbow and knees.

I'm grateful that Brian takes Noah to do these kinds of things.

They make great memories!

Chloe's big day

My sweet Chloe Priscilla was baptized last Saturday.

She was beautiful and happy and thoughtful.

The program was lovely, Noah spoke about Baptism and the kids sang.

After the baptism we invited family and friends over for

lunch at our home.

It was a lovely day.

We love our Chloe and are so grateful for her and her sweet smile

and fun personality.

Dear Tooth Fery...

Last night, I crept into the girls' room to do a little

Tooth Fairy business for Chloe.

As I rummaged around under her pillow I found her tooth,

a dollar, and this note:

So apparently Chloe is tired of 'munee' and she thinks that

the Tooth Fairy takes requests.

So darling.

Also, so inconvenient.

I can barely scrape together enough cash to cover for the Tooth Fairy,

but to come up with a toy at 11pm? That's a tall order.

She got a $5.

I told her to go buy her own toy.

I wish I was tired of 'munee'.

A day at the zoo

Our kids had the day off from school today,

so we gathered up some cousins and friends

and headed to the Hogle Zoo.

We spent a lot of time in the Great Apes house.

This sweet little orangutan was very interested in the kids.

(The orangutan is the one on the right :)

I'm pretty sure Milo wanted to put that

little guy in his pocket

and bring it home with him.

Here are two of my own sweet little orangutans:

Chloe took a couple of spills while we were there and

nearly knocked a baby tooth out.

It came out when we got home.

Drama.

We had quite a bit of rain, but we decided

that we would rather deal with rain and

have the place to ourselves,

than have it be hot and crowded!

Lillie and Milo were thrilled Aunt Kim

brought her wagon train.

Cousin Spencer was a champ and pulled

these three the entire time!

I'm glad we braved the weather,

we all had a great time!

Science Fair Part II

This week Noah got to compete in the Regional Science Fair

at Utah Valley University. It was a long afternoon/night and a very

exciting experience. The best part? Granpops volunteered to

be a judge! It was such a treat to have him there with us.

(No, he did not get to judge Noah's project :)

Here's Noah in front of his display during the Fair:

And here he is after the Fair:

Yes, he's managed to win. Again.

The only kid from his school.

Trust me, Brian and I are totally scratching our heads.

But not Noah, he's all smiles.

Next he competes in the Central Utah Science Fair at BYU.

Here we go again!

Cinderella

We had a fun girls' day with our cousins and

Muppy and Pops.

We started with lunch at Dear Lizzie's and

then went to BYU to watch the Cinderella Ballet.

After the show we had a yummy dinner at Magleby's,

complete with chocolate cake.

Here are the girls with the Fairy Godmother:

We all had a lovely, girly, sparkly time.

Thank you Muppy and Pops!

Family Ski Day

We took our family up to stay at my sister's house

for Presidents Day weekend.

The big boys went night skiing Friday night and

then we took the whole crew out on Saturday.

Here they are, all geared up and ready to go!

Noah, Chloe and Lexxy are pretty comfortable on the slopes,

but it was a first for Lillie, Ady and Milo.

The little girls were amazing and everyone had a great experience.

Of course, after skiing the 'bunny hill' for a couple of hours, we had

to upgrade Milo's ticket so he could go on the big lifts.

Brian took him to the top 4 times and he yelled

"This is awesome!!" and "I love Kung-Fu!!"

as he skied down the mountain. He's quite a kid.

He outlasted the two little girls and he threw a major fit

when it was time to go home.

I didn't think that we would be skiing as a family for a few

more years, but here we are!

These kids are always amazing me.