The costumes:
Darth Vader, Wizard, and Witch
The witch and her cowboy dad
Bumblebee
Getting ready to carve pumpkins
The torture I go through to cut onions for the ward chili cookoff... (I won the best green chile chili if that's any consolation.)
The finished pumpkins (Spencer wore goggles so that he didn't get any pumpkin guts in his eyes.)
At the ward party- right before they went trunk-or-treating. So, in my attempts at being a more creative mom, I have spent more time on snacks. Usually, snack time in our home consists of "grab an apple" or if they are really lucky, they get a bowl of cheerios. Yep, I know- Mother of the Year hopefuls have nothing on me.
But through some wonderful examples, I have decided to start planning my snacks a little bit better. Hey, they are only kids once and I need to have more fun with them. So here are some pics of my feeble, yet sincere attempts at being a better snackster.
She already ate the eyes of her fabulous Halloween Spider.
We are making zucchini bread together. (I might add that with one HUMONGOUS zucchini that my parents brought, we made 4 loaves!)
I've seen these on many-a-blogs and decided it was a must try for the kiddos. 
We went up to Paako Ridge golf course this week to check it out. Supposedly it's rated like number 30 in the nation of best golf courses. Anyway, it WAS really pretty.
We also did a little fall-time in the mountains. Here are some fun pics of the kids.
Kami, this one is for you. ;) Kyle's sister and her family came down to see us this last weekend. We attempted balloon fiesta again and this time it was a success. Phew. We had so much fun with them and can't wait for their next visit! 
It was the special shapes day. Here are just some of the hot air balloons.
No Balloon Fiesta is complete until you have a breakfast burrito with green chile. Here is Parker enjoying his.
Cute Sydnee watching the balloons.
The boys.
Spencer with one of the crew from the Darth Vader Balloon. Definitely a highlight for most in our group.
Kami with a bunch of balloons. Doesn't she look happy to be there? :)
These two pictures sum up our feelings about the Balloon Fiesta this weekend....
This is a picture of the balloons taking off without us. We were heading back to ABQ after getting our breakfast burritos.
This is a picture of all of us crammed into the minivan for a couple of hours. We got to know each other better than we had planned.
Another brave mom and I decided to take the trek to Dixon Apple Orchard with all of our kiddos. It was a loud drive, but we had fun (and so did the kids). It was a "fun" challenge to juggle all the kids, push a wheelbarrow with about 150 lbs of apples in it, and keep everyone happy, but we did it... I need a nap!
The kids posing for a picture. It's so hard to get five kids to look at the camera at once. I don't know how professionals do it!
A cute picture of my little man.
Carly had tumbling today too. She LOVES it and LOVES her teacher!For Labor Day we went on a fun day trip to Pecos N.F. It's just northeast of Santa Fe. We had a lot of fun!
We went with 3 other families which made it more fun. The kids LOVED having the other kids there to latch onto and we enjoyed having other adults to talk to.
After hiking we let the kids play in the cold water.
Some of us adults braved the cold water too.
At one of the mission church ruins.
Ruins again.
Some of the kids
The family.
