Halloween!

Every year we have done a "theme" as a family for our costumes. We have done, spiders, firefighter, The Wizard of Oz, Toy Story 2, and Batman. This year in the name of being frugal we did "reruns" so everyone wore something that had been worn before.

Brock was our Dino boy (bought super cheep used on ebay)

Ethan borrowed this Luke Skywalker one from the Bevan's

Hayden was the penguin last year with our Batman theme.

I bought this Care bear costume last year on ebay before we had decided to do Batman. So I talked Amelia into wearing it this year. She really wanted to be a princess but I knew this was getting to small so consented to wear it this year and be a princess next year.
Hayden loved getting all the candy! It was a fun dry Halloween!

Family Time

For those of you who don't know my grandma died last Tuesday. She was my mom's mom. She was in a car accident so this was a surprise to us all! She was the last of my living grandparents so it is kind of hard for me to realize that I no longer have a grandma or grandpa on this earth. She was pretty healthy for being a member of our family! It was a shock to us all and kind of hard. But at times like these I am so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that Families are Forever. My mom and her mom are the only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later day Saints in their family. Even though it wasn't for happy reasons it was so nice to see some of my family that I really hardly ever get to see! My Uncle Steve I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen him in my life but I had such a nice time with him, his wife Elaine, and their daughter Megan. I got to visit shortly with My uncle Kent, and a few of my cousins that actually only live 20 minutes from me but I only see once every 10 years or so. It is nice to get together and make each other laugh and have fun together, then we can all cry together. I love my grandma. She was a wonderful example of service, kindness, and finding the good in everyone!

This is a picture of my mom and her family from Left to right; Aunt Elaine (Steve's wife), behind her Steve (my mom's brother) My mom (Mo), My dad (Curt), Behind him Kent (my mom's brother), My mom's aunt, My mom's Aunt Paddy (married to my mom's Uncle) I am so sorry I knew their names a day ago but they aren't coming to my mind now. I will post them when I remember!

Here is a picture of most of the grand kids (my mom's that is) Hayden, Amelia, Ethan, Johnnie, Hyrum, (Angela) Brock, and Brigham

This is my sister Emily and Cousin Megan.
I didn't know Emily was going to be able to come because she lives in Las Vegas and is going to school, and working there. But my really nice brothers made sure she was there and paid for a flight for her to be there. We don't get to see her a lot either since she lives in Vegas. Usually about once a year maybe 2. So it was nice to have all my siblings together.

My Uncle Steve is going to make a great Grandpa when the time comes! He loved spoiling the kids by giving them junk right before dinner even though mom or dad said no! He loved tickling the kids, and here is a little clip of the kids flocking to him. They all just loved him and teasing him, or being teased by him! Even Hayden (my most reluctant child) warmed right up to Steve, Elaine, and Megan. It was so sweet!

Pumpkin Patch!

Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch that the Gatherums told us about. I love the fact that every pumpkin was $1! You can't beat that! I let each of the kids pick 2! So now we have 8 great pumpkins and a pile of those really funky gourds piled on our front steps! It was so much fun!

I wanted to put a lot more pictures on there because so many of them were cute! (I love fall colors!!!) But I couldn't figure out how to post the slide show I did on Picasa and I figured posting like 20 pictures would be to much! So here is a glimpse of our afternoon.

Halloween projects!

Amelia and I love to do crafts on our "off day" of preschool. I have been wanting to do Halloween crafts with her and came across these in a book we have yesterday so we thought we would make them today. We had to make 4 of each because she is obsessed with the number 4 (because that is how old she is. I wonder if in Feb her favorite number will magically be 5?) Anyway we are going to hang these "lanterns" in the front window, or around the house. These are the only Halloween decorations we have other then our fake spider on our back door. We will have more this weekend after we go to the pumpkin patch! I think we will make a few other things I have found too. I just love doing crafts with my kids!

I love Halloween day and all the fun stuff I get to do with my kids like dressing them up, making a big deal out of the meals. For those of you who requested I do this a head of time I will tell you what we do for Halloween. For breakfast I make pancakes and dye them orange with food coloring. Or if you are fancy I bet you could make them with pumpkin or something like that. Maybe I will try that this year but at least they will be orange.... maybe chocolate chips to make a jack-o-lantern face... You never know how crazy I will get! Lunch I will cut my boys sandwiches out in the shape of a pumpkin or other cookie cutter that I have that is Halloween shaped. (Although I think they have that day off school so they could end up with orange colored "Ramen noodles" Then for dinner we will have our traditional Stuffed peppers. I buy the orange and yellow ones (the yellow turn orange when you cook them anyway). Only I cut them to look like Jack-O-Lanterns and stuff them with Spaghetti (this looks like worms crawling out!) they love this!!!! It is always fun! So I love Halloween I just don't decorate for it. But I do go a little crazy for Christmas decor though! I even wrap all my pictures on my wall so they look like hanging presents (really cheep decorations I use supper fancy bows and ribbon on them!) Anyway There are my Halloween ideas. After I posted my Valentine and St. Patrick's day dinners last year a few of you asked me to tell you in advanced when I do stuff like that so you could do them too if you wanted to. Good luck!

Frog!

Every once in a while my husband comes home with a frog. My kids love this because they get to play with them for a few minutes then we always take them to our neighbors pond and let them go. This is the first time Hayden has ever been big enough to "enjoy" this. I say "enjoy" because she thought the frog was sooooo funny, as long as it did NOT get close to her. If it got close enough to touch her she would cry! So no pictures of her holding the frog. This one was pretty big too!

Amelia with her "Frog Prince" I tried to get her to kiss it for the camera but I probably would have gagged if she had!

Close up of FROG!

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!

ery Wednesday I take my girls to story time at the library. The lady who does it does an fabulous job! IT is always very well attended! Some times a little to well! But we love it regardless! Anyway I love watching my children develop in this setting (since I have taken all my kids since Ethan was 18 months old!) Hayden has gotten to the participate phase just recently and I love watching here. There is always a movement part to story time where we do Ring around the Rosie, Head shoulders knees and toes, and other moving kinds of things. She also has songs in between all the books. This really helps kids stay focused! Anyway Hayden just today I noticed she started doing head shoulders knees and toes only all she ever touches is knees and toes but I love it! Her other favorite part is ring around the Rosie and she has loved that part for quite a while! She has started doing hokey poky too! But I just had to get her on video doing head shoulders knees and toes. Oh and I don't think it shows up in the video but after story time we were headed out to the car and Hayden and Amelia always race me down the side walk to the car and Hayden was running and tried to stop at the curb and her feet stopped faster then her face.... she has some nice pink road rash on her nose, forehead. It was soooo sad. It happened in slow motion and I couldn't stop it. She cried like it was awful but there wasn't to much blood.... I think she will live. Here is the clip! Sorry you have to listen to me sing. You may want to turn your volume down!

Cookies, Conference, and More

I have been pretty lazy about posting lately. Partly because I have been BUSY! Now that one major primary duty is done we are working on our Primary program for church. This is always a big thing for me, I shouldn't stress over it so much but for some reason I do, then I seem to crash as soon as it is over. So in a week from Sunday I will be feeling a lot better! Anyway on to things that are happening now!
Last weekend was our Church's world wide conference where we spend 2 days listening to our leaders. They give us direction, inspire us, and so much more. I have found with 4 kids it is just to much for them to go to the church and listen. We have been listening for the past few years at home from our Internet. Because we do this I try to have special things for my kids to do to help them listen to parts and then when they are to noisy I send them away so I can listen. I also make tons of cookies the day before so that they have something yummy to snack on and I don't have to think of what there is, can they have more. I just make so many they can eat as many as they want. One of my dear friends and I have made it a tradition to scrapbook together while we listen. (I actually listen better if my hands are busy.) She was on her way home from Disneyland this year so I was on my own :( Conference was so amazing. I felt like so many of the talks were written for me to hear. My heart felt so full I didn't want it to end. You would think that after 8 hours of listing to talks anyone would be done but I could have done it for another 2 sessions easy! The spirit was so strong, and I can't say enough about the primary choir! I doubt I was the only one in tears each time they sang. I felt kind of funny sitting at my scrap table with tears running down my face but it truly was beautiful and it sounded like a choir of angels! I don't ever remember there being a primary choir before but I loved it and I hope they do it again! Last week there was a conference just for the women and I went to that and came home and told my husband that Presiden t Ukdorf (sp?) told me that I needed to scrapbook more. Or at least that was what I heard him telling me. He talked about women having the need to create, and make beautiful things, and make unorganized matter into organized matter and make beautiful things for the world to see. I have a closet full of unorganized matter just waiting to be made into beautiful things for the world to see! (My friend Denise told me she thought this meant we were suppose to have more babies but I told her I didn't hear that part and she should not tell my husband that!:) Anyway I got so much done while listening!!!! I was so excited I finished 20 layouts!!! (To be honest 9 of these were done and I got them from a swap all I did was put pictures on them and added a title if it needed one, maybe journaling...) But 11 of them I did from scratch!!! Yeah me! I felt like I accomplished so much. I didn't really want to put my table away I felt like I was on a roll. But My house had suffered enough. But then I realized I have a month to finish a quilt for Hayden! (I always make a quilt for my kids when they turn 2. Because when they turn 2 we move them from crib to big kid bed. I don't know that I want to with Hayden because she is confined and there isn't a baby on the way to take over the crib so I think I am not ready. But I am going to do the quilt anyway and if the big girl bed is a problem it will wait. I had bought the fabric a month ago thinking I better get busy... Well now is the time. So Monday I started cutting and by Monday night I had all 30 12x12 squares pieced together! (Don't be to impressed I only sew strips of fabric together I never follow a pattern!) But I think it is cute! So today I cut the sashing and got all the squares put together and now have the top all the way done! I picked up a frame from my friend this afternoon and hope to have it all on the rack tonight before I go to bed. I would have it on already but someone had to fold laundry! I hate house work when I have other things I would rather be working on. (Oh wait I always hate house work! JK Not always I like a clean house I just let other things be more important sometimes!) Anyway We got the clothes folded so maybe I can get it on the rack tonight and start quilting. This is one of my favorite steps. Mostly because it doesn't involve my sewing machine that comes untreated, gets jammed, and I sew kind of crooked.... And I don't have to measure, or even think much I thread the needle and go to town! I have and excuse to have the tv on. (Not that there is anything to watch during the day anyway!) But I like it none the less. My sweat friend who I borrowed the quilt rack from offered to help me with the binding! This is my least favorite part! I am just not great at getting the angle cut right and getting the huge thing sew together very well. Once I have it together getting in on the quilt is my other favorite part. More hand stitching. This is funny because I don't ever hand stitch anything else like needle point or anything (it involves a pattern!) I am not much of a pattern person. Like with the quilt top I just do some basic geometry and make up my own thing. I like that part better then trying to figure out a pattern. Maybe I am just bad at following directions. I don't know what it is but I enjoy it more this way and it works for me! Anyway I am excited about the quilt. The colors are the same as Amelia's only different fabrics. I wanted them to go together since they will share a room and it is purple also!