October - Grandma & Grandpa Bentz visit, & Halloween - Lots of pics

 Grandma brought presents just because! Gold shoes, matching outfits, crafts and more yea!!!

 Rachel learned how to hit the blocks with a hammer at 9 months. That seems a little early to me.

 Crafting with Grandma. Grandma brought several crafts and they finished all of them by the end of one day of General Conference.

 Snuggling with Grandpa during a Packers game with the Packer blanket. She also has her Packer's shirt on, but you can't see it in the picture.
We spent the first two days watching General Conference and hanging out at the house. The girls kept us all busy.

On Monday we went to the Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. The weather was absolutely perfect. We had lunch in the park, saw a puppet show, walked through the zoo, rode some rides, pet goats and the petting zoo, and Andrea got her face painted. A fun day.

 Face painting! A beautiful butterfly. Andrea held really still the entire time.

 We gave Rachel a box of Whoppers to play with while we got dinner ready. She gnawed at the box long enough that she got it open and was eating Whoppers in the other room where no one could see what she had gotten into. I realized she had been pretty quite for a while so I went to check on her. This is what I found. She was so proud of herself. :-)

On Tuesday we went to the Santa Cruz Area by the ocean, but we stopped in a section of the Red Wood Forest called Roaring Camp.  We rode an actual Steam Train. It was pretty awesome!  It was by far one of our favorite places we visited during the week.

 A Picture of us just before the train left. As it pulled away from the station we all had to keep tradition and wave goodbye to all the spectators (workers). :-)  Look at all that steam!

 The conductor came and inspected all of our tickets, so Andrea got a picture with him.

 Here's all of us. Steve had to work the first part of the week.

 Look how big that tree is.  That is the Grandma tree all the rest stem from her.  Actually all the rest really are part of her.  The tree spreads it roots and then that same root system with pop up and grow another tree. She grows what they call the fairy circle all around her, so she is surrounded by a circle of trees and then many more beyond that.

 No you can see how big the tree is.

 Having fun at the shops after getting off the train.

 We went down to the ocean at Santa Cruz and ate lunch on the beach.  The seagulls were crazy, the got within inches of us and kept creeping up trying to get food. It was a little chilli, but still so beautiful!

 I love this picture! The people and the scenery are beautiful!

 Grandpa playing little piggies with Rachel's toes.

Wednesday I taught dance and all my piano students, so we stayed home and played.

Thursday we went to San Francisco.

 Here is a picture of the bay bridge as we were driving into the city.

 The Trans-America building while driving through San Francisco.

 They had a collection of old school arcade games at the pier, so we stayed and played for a little while.

 Come on Steve!!! This will forever remind me of Princess Diaries. :-)

 Go Andrea! You can do it. This game was completely mechanical. No power was need to run the game, only for the light over head.

 We ate lunch at the Aliotos restaurant at Fisherman's Warf. It was fantastic service and food. They were so good with the kids despite how loud and messy they were.

 A picture of our little family with the pier behind us.

 The head waiter had a crush on Andrea. He talked to her every time that he walked past. We had to get a picture with him.

 We stopped at Boudin's Bakery and got some bread bowls. While there Andrea got to see how the bread was made and talk to the baker in the background. I believe her name was Sarah. She had just finished making the Crocodile to the right and was in the process of making little turtles.

 The Golden Gate Bridge! It was quite chilli up at the top of the hill. The clouds rolled in just as we got up there, but still really neat to get a picture by the bridge. Rachel was asleep in the car, but here is the photoshopped version Steve made with Rachel in it!

 Andrea and Rachel while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge.

On Friday we went to Monterey. We stopped at Dennis the Menace park and played for a while. It was definitely one of the coolest parks I have ever been to. The girls loved it.  

 This slide was awesome!! There's Grandma, Steve, Andrea, and Rachel all at the same time.

 Andrea is getting braver. She goes down the big swirly slides now. :-)

 We had a lot of fun on these slides too. Lots of races. Andrea is winning.

 Family race down the slide.

 Really nice picture of Mom and Dad!

 All of us in front of the ocean at Monterey.

 What an adorable  2 3/4 year old. She will tell you if you ask her. I am two and three quarters. :-)

 We made a yummy vegetable chowder and put it in the nice soup bowls from Boudins. Andrea got a Turtle.

 Just about to eat our yummy soup and soup bowls.

 Rachel's first hair cut already. She is only 9 months old, but she has tons of hair, especially in the back.  I took off about 2 inches. I was reluctant to cut it because I thought it was so neat that she had that much hair already, but it does look a lot better cut.

On Saturday we went to the Pumpkin Patch and Grandma and Grandpa bought Andrea a Sports Climber for her birthday. It has climbing steps on one side and a slide on the other, plus a a basketball hoop, and places for a football and soccer ball. We got a ton of adorable pictures at the pumpkin patch. It was a really nice pumpkin patch.

 Andrea and Grandpa playing with the bunnies and goats.

 Andrea picked up that pumpkin all by herself. It had to of weighed at least 5 pounds. Look at all the pumpkins in the background too. So beautiful!

 What a cute baby! She's 9 months old.

 I love this picture!

 Having fun with Daddy on top of the hay stack.

 Grandma and Grandpa with their girls.

That night Grandma and Grandpa took Steve and I out to dinner at Johnny Garlic's. It was a Guy Fieri restaurant. I loved it. I thought the food was wonderful.

 This is a picture of Steve's Jalapeno Jelly Salmon cooked on Apple Wood I believe.  Or some sort of wood. :-)

Sunday we went to church and celebrated Andrea's 3rd birthday before Grandma and Grandpa had to leave and fly back home.

 The girls in their matching dresses just before church.

 Uncle Mooker gave this princess matching/memory game to Andrea. This was her absolute favorite game. We played this game for days and days afterwards.

 Andrea's birthday cake. She's the birthday girl.

 Daddy turned the box into an awesome play house. The box was just as fun as the Sports Climber.  We had a blast with you Grandma and Grandpa. Thank you for coming to visit. It was so fun for us to be able to have family come and stay with us here in California. We love you. Thanks for a wonderful week.!

 Andrea's adorable hair.  Eating a Panini.

 This is what a typical day is like with Rachel. We call her the octopus because she grabs everything and is in to everything. She is so curious and has no fear. She climbs up things and falls and then climbs up another thing. Cuts and bruises don't stop this girl! :-) Yes, this what she did to the fridge and you can tell she is so proud of herself! :-)  This happened while mom was making homemade pizza for dinner.

 This also happened while making homemade pizza for dinner. Andrea helps mom make everything!  So, that means we make a little more of a mess, so this is Andrea vacuuming up all the flour that fell on the ground.

 And this is what the counter looked like. We love homemade pizza, but somehow I'll have to figure out how to make it without the mess. :-)

I had a Halloween Dance class just before Halloween. The girls came dressed up in the costumes and brought treats to share. We danced to Halloween music such as Monster Mash, Adams Family, and Thriller. I had several ghosts on the mirror, which you can see in the background.  The girls each got to pick a ghost and it told us which activity to do next.  The girls loved it.  We also had little spiders made from gloves, pom poms, and eyes. You can barely see them in the background on the piano.  Thank you Amber for the inspiration.  She did the same thing at Ruby Shoes Studio.  I took everything I learned from her and added a little Tausha flavor and keep using it.

 Here is my first class enjoying their treats after class.

 I also read them this Halloween Story called We're Off to Find the Witches House.  I got it at the library. Andrea loves this book. I think we will have to buy it, because she loves it so much. It really was a fantastic book.

 We had three Rapunzels in my second class. Andrea had to wear the Rapunzel dress instead of Snow White.  I found it for her at Good Will (A Thrift Store) while shopping for my Halloween Costume to go with my mask.  I had to sew a few things and make it fit better, but it was only $4.  I bought it so she could have another dress up dress, but of course as soon as I bought she put it on and hasn't taken it off for days.  Truthfully she wore this every day for two weeks. She only took it off to go to sleep.

 We had a dog for the weekend.  Steve got in a car accident. He was making a U-turn and the person behind him smashed right into him behind the driver's door.  So, he got to stay home.  In the afternoon we went out for a walk and this dog followed us home. We tried to find its home, but couldn't.  So, we had a dog for the weekend.  Steve took pictures and posted fliers right away, but we didn't hear back immediately.  It slept in Andrea's chair like this.  It looks so uncomfortable, but she loved it.

 Our neighbor got us tickets to Disney on Ice. It was fantastic!  We also had great seats which made it even better. Even Rachel loved it! Here are the princesses and their princes.

 Yes, of course, she wore her Rapunzel dress.She fit in with all the other girls who dressed up in their princess dresses.  I think mom loved it the very most. I had never seen ice skaters in person. It was so neat.

 Our Ward Halloween Party. The San Jose 16th Ward Monster Mash Chili Bash 2012. It was absolutely Fantastic!!!! Carol and Heidi know how to throw a party.  Andrea and Hailey were so adorable. They danced the entire time like this. :-) They are really best friends those two. They are so cute to watch in person.

 Katie Morgan and Sarah Leifson took our girls trunk or treating around to the cars. Lots of fun.

 What a cute little lion going Trunk or Treating!

 Sarah and Andrea. Sarah was in an Ariel dress.

 Two lions.  The Bassett girls whole family dressed up as the Wizard of Oz characters.

 Halloween 2012. So cute.

 Andrea and Hailey. These two are inseparable. This house was pretty awesome.

 Waiting their turn to play musical chairs.

 More pictures of the beautiful Andrea and the doggy.

 I love when Andrea laughs her big gut laugh like this.

 Rachel had a love hate relationship with the dog.  She wanted to be by it every second and wanted to touch it, but the second the dog touched her she cried and cried. So, needless to say, I was holding her the whole weekend.  I think it would be fun to have a dog some day, but now that I am in the moms shoes instead of the child we will definitely be waiting a while. It was tough having two babies and having to potty train all over again. :-)

 I love this picture!

 We went a new park and made a new friend named Daniel. He taught Andrea how to go down the slide upside down.

 Carving Pumpkins. Andrea carved her own pumpkin. Daddy carved his and Rachel's pumpkin.

 Our whole family with our pumpkins.

Halloween Day. We went to the library for story time and a Halloween Craft. Andrea loves crafts!  It is amazing with scissors and pretty good at coloring too.

Below are pictures from our Halloween Photo Shoot at the Pumpkin Patch. I fell in love the pumpkin patch, so I had to take the girls back for more pictures before they closed it.

 Little Miss Snow White with the American Flag.

 My two adorable, yet frozen girls.

 Peek-a-boo!

 I love this picture. I am so lucky to have two girls that really do love each other. Yes, they have their moments when they tease each other, but most of the time they play great together and have to be together all the time. They are so sad when the other one is taking a nap or something and they don't get to play together.

My two beautiful girls!

 I love this picture!!! Look at her beautiful eyes!

 One last pose!

We went trick or treating with three other families in the ward that have young kids like us.  It was a blast.  These are the 4 girls who are all about the same age. Andrea, Hailey, Tayla, and Gabby. They were so cute!

 This picture captures perfectly Andrea's excitement that night. She had a blast!!!!

 This dragon was pretty awesome. The arms swung open and closed so we had to try to make it through the opening without getting captured.

Here is a picture of all of us. The Curtis famil y with Ben, Cami, Brooklyn, Jacob, Hailey, and Makenzie. Bentz family, Greenhaulgh family with Zack, Kira, and Gabby, and the Rambow family with Janet, Bo, Chase, and Tayla and Janet is just about to have their third child. It was a fun night. Andrea absolutely LOVED it!!!!!