An Incredible Halloween

Even though the big move threw a wrench in my usual Halloween extravaganza of a month, I still managed to wrangle together some costumes.  I knew my time & supplies were limited due to the move, so we decided to re-use one of our previous costume themes & just add a few more to it.  I knew I could make 2 or 3 costumes, but there was no way I'd be able to do 8.

So, as a family we decided to be The Incredibles.  It was the 3rd time we'd done this theme, but it never gets old.  It's just too much fun.  We reused most of the costumes & I just had to update 3 of them: Lorien's Violet costume, Taya's Edna Mode costume, & Craiger's Frozone costume.

Canyon wore the costume I made almost 10 years ago for Cadence.  He was Baby Jack Jack this year.

Bladen wore Lorien's costume from 4 years ago & became Dash.

Unbelievably, Cadence fit into the costume I made for Tylee 4 years ago.  I can't believe my little girl is wearing my size clothes now.

Taya was Edna before & we wanted her to be Edna again because of her spunky personality.  She IS Edna Mode.  I found an old leather jacket of Lorien's to put on her & then I made her a shirt & skirt to go with it.  I also bought a black wig & cut it into Edna's hairstyle.  She turned out absolutely ADORABLE.

This year was the first time we added Frozone to the mix.  Craiger couldn't wait to become Frozone.  His costume was the hardest costume this year, but it was a fun challenge.  I think it turned out a lot better than I thought it would.

I ordered a Violet costume online for Lorien.  I was running out of time & knew I couldn't finish her costume.  She was excited to be Violet.

We spent Halloween at our friend's house & trick or treated around her neighborhood in Smithfield.  We did stop by our old neighborhood to say good-bye which was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.  I miss my friends so much.

We also enjoyed being the Incredibles for our church's trunk or treat Halloween party as well.  It was a great year.

Happy Halloween.

It's Time

I'm still in shock over this move.  This was not supposed to happen & came so suddenly that I still am having a hard time realizing it's actually happening.  I'm really excited about moving back to the West Coast to be near family, but what I didn't expect was to fall so much in love with VA.

Our house was beautiful.  It was the first house we ever bought.  It was in the perfect neighborhood, in the perfect schools, in the perfect ward, with perfect friends.  I have never had such a difficult time leaving an area.

But, the moving truck had to come & it was time to say good-bye.  We were SO blessed to sell our house in less than a month.  I count my blessings every single day.  And it reassured me that CA is where our family is meant to be now.  Heavenly Father places us where we need to be & obviously we REALLY need to be in CA.

Moving day is always the hardest.  The kids don't like seeing all of their belongings packed up on a big truck.  The little ones just don't understand what is happening.

However, it is kind of funny to see what mysteries lie beneath the furniture.  Under Taya's bed was the worst.  I found a 3 year old twinkie under there.  THAT CHILD!!!!

Once everything was packed up, we had to move out of the house so that the new owners could move in.  We still had 10 days in VA so a dear friend let us move into her house for 10 days.

Each day I'd drive the kids to & from our old bus stop so they could have some normalcy for those last 10 days.  Both Bladen & Lorien finished out their last few soccer games just days before we left.  Lorien helped her team get to the semi-finals & I hear their team won the championship game a week after we moved.  Yay.  Lorien played an exceptional season in soccer.  This was Bladen's first season playing & by the end he was finally picking up on all the rules.  He was so cute out there.  We're going to miss the soccer program in VA.  Its was SO good.

Taya Adds Some Sparkles

For weeks, no months, I've been asking Taya if she wanted to get her ears pierced on her baptism day since both of her sisters did.  The answer was continuously NO over & over & over again, so I dropped the subject.

Well, after Taya's baptism, all of a sudden she started talking about getting her ears pierced.  I had not planned on getting it done & didn't know what to do.  But she insisted that she wanted it so off to the mall we went with Mimi & Baba.

She was super excited until she sat down in the chair.  Then she didn't know what she wanted.  The lady at Claire's gave her a teddy bear to hold & she was ready to get it done.  I was really surprised.

The lady that pierced her ears was incredible.  She went SO fast that Taya couldn't even think twice about the second ear once the first one was done.  I swear she did both ears in 3 seconds flat.  It was amazing.

Taya got beautiful multicolored flowers in her ears.  They look so cute & cheery just like Taya.

Yay, so all 3 of my girls now have pierced ears.  SO MUCH FUN.

Taya's Baptism

Well, I'm a slacker.  It's December 2nd & I'm 2 months behind on my blog.  That's what a crazy hectic move across country will do for you.  But here I am, somewhat settled in CA now, & I can get back to catching up on my blog.

October 3rd, 2015

Taya made the decision to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  My mom & dad were able to fly out for the special occasion. 

It was such a beautiful day.  Taya looked angelic in her white dress & did SO well the entire morning.

Everyone in the family got to participate in her baptism program.

Lorien & Bladen got to say the opening & closing prayers,  I led the music & Mimi played the piano.

Baba got to give the talk on Baptism, & Cadence gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.

All the Potter kids sang their favorite primary song: Gethsemane,

and Trek got to baptize & confirm the Holy Ghost on Taya.

Taya was SO excited to get baptized. 

And she looked beautiful in her white dress afterward.

The highlight of the whole baptism was having Taya's school teacher, Mrs. Operaji at her baptism.  Taya loved her & was thrilled she was there to support her.

Congratulations my little ray of sunshine.  We are very proud of you.