Trick or Treat

The kids got tons of candy at the ward Halloween trunk-or-treat on Friday. The boys finally settled on their costumes that afternoon, and we worked like crazy to get them done in time. Thankfully, Claire decided against being the Earth like she had originally planned (that would've been tough to make!). She already had a Snow White dress, and all we had to buy was a Snow White tiara.

Coming home from trick-or-treating last night

Our cute little bunny!

the lovely Snow White

Yes, there's only one way--Scott's way.

I don't know how Tyler came up with this idea, but it sure was creative! With his speed, it's hard to pass him anyway.

Pretty in pink

The girls' first matching dresses! Meet Claire and Claire Jr :)

Lil' Lily

Our Lily's gone through many milestones just in these past couple weeks! She's eating rice cereal, sitting on her own, and even starting to crawl! How did this all happen so fast?

One big happy family

We love our crazy kids! Here are some random pics from the past couple months. Tyler earned enough money to buy a new bike (we paid for half of it)! He earned a big chunk of it on our trip home from Colorado, entertaining and taking good care of Lily.

We finally checked out the splash park at The Woodlands Waterway and rode the free trolley

Hangin' out with Lily at the splash park

Claire made me a donut Scott loves swimming now that he knows how to move around fast with a floatie

When Lily's really happy, she stretches her mouth open really wide--it's so adorable!

Lily's blessing

We blessed Lily while we were in Colorado, which was in July. We were grateful that my parents and my brother David (who just got home from his mission!) could come down to Tim's parents' and both sides of the family could be a part of Lily's special day!

It was pretty funny when my parents and David got to the Chartrand home (it was their first time there, and they happened to come during an exciting day in the country). A bear had been lurking around the property for the past few days and gotten a hold of most of the chickens. So a ranger had come out and set up a big bear trap, complete with a deer heart covered in chocolate syrup. Well, the bear took the bait and got trapped just before my parents arrived. Imagine my dad's shock when they were greeted inside with, "We're on our way to see a bear that we just caught! Do you want to come with us?" My dad opted to stay inside, although he still didn't quite feel safe, especially when he asked, "You lock your doors, right?" and we all burst out laughing. Tim's mom's reply was, "We keep MOST of the doors CLOSED, except for the mud room!" I'm sure it didn't help when she told him that she had seen a bear on their porch a few days ago trying to open the front door. Anyway, when all the excitement had settled down and people needed to use the bathroom, we had to inform my family that there was NO WATER, so we needed to keep track of which toilets had already been flushed once, and we had to use storage water jugs to wash our hands. Tim's dad is the one who built their beautiful home, along with their own well, and it had been acting up for the last couple days. On top of that, when Tim's dad finally made it home, he was covered in spackle from head to toe, having just finished spackling his mom's house. I could tell that Tim's mom felt bad, but everyone was having fun, and it made for an exciting weekend! It made me realize how much of a part of Tim's family I feel now, and how much we love them, as well as my own family, as different as both sides are. We had a lot of fun spending time with our families, and we were so glad that we had our families there when we blessed Lily.

Our Lily's growing

This was Lily on April 23rd & 24th.

And this is Lily one month later, on May 23rd.

I can't believe how fast she's growing! She's such a good baby. She cries for maybe one minute total every day. We finally got ourselves an angel baby!