Birthday, Halloween, Birthday

It's that time of year again. Where we make ourselves sick with sugar. First with Aaron's birthday:

Then Halloween, then Annie's birthday. Cake, candy, then more cake. The kids got so much candy. We had our ward trunk-or-treat. Then it was raining on actual Halloween, so there were fewer trick-or-treaters, so they were getting handfuls of candy from each house. And I've been listening to this podcast that's all about food freedom--give yourself permission to eat anything you want and you'll find that you actually don't always want to eat stuff that's bad for you. Your body will actually crave good things. That's the philosophy. I'm digging it...but I'm really not sure if it applies to kids. I've given Annie and Scotty their food freedom, and I think they're skipping meals because they are already full of candy.

Anyway, we had a pretty great Astrid costume for Annie this year. And Scotty was a ninja which was great because it was a $4 costume from Saver's. It's a good thing his was easy so we could devote all of our energy to Astrid. We made it ourselves with minimal sewing and some hot-gluing and some hope-it-stays-on-for two-hours-ing. The kids are trying to look sophisticated in this picture. Astrid doesn't smile on demand! Ninjas aren't happy.

Until their mom arrives with the scariest/funniest costume ever! (Running Out of Toilet Paper) Get it? I can count on one hand the number of people who got it at our ward party. But I'm in my thirties now. I can do embarrassing things without getting embarrassed. Scotty was only a little bit embarrassed.

The kids also carved pumpkins for our pre-Halloween FHE. I had to include this picture because look at their legs. Those are teenager legs! How can my little babies have such long, lanky legs?!

We didn't have any friend party for Annie this year. I needed a break after years 7 and 8. Her birthday was on Sunday, so we had cake and ice cream that day and then went to Rudy's on Monday. At Rudy's there were a couple of guys right behind us visiting from Massachusetts. So it was their first time. It was fun to be the old, experienced Texans at the BBQ. Annie even requested Texas sheet cake. But when I recently said, "You're a Texan," she said, "No I'm not!" She still considers herself a Utah girl, through and through.

She wanted a momma and baby turtle with a tank. That was more expensive than I thought it should be. But we also got her a new alarm clock since her old one didn't actually keep time.

Annie is 9 years old. Doesn't that seem old to you? She's getting so smart and mature and interesting. And she finished reading the Book of Mormon for her first time ever on her birthday. She started when she was probably 7 years old. But she got more motivated last year when she got scriptures from Grandma and Grandpa Dennis for her baptism. We were proud of her for finishing! She didn't report any particular spiritual feelings, but she was happy to be able to say she'd done it.

It was good to get through our six weeks of sugar. Now we'll take a five minute break and be right back at it with pie fest and Christmas. Food freedom!!