Snapshots of Halloween

[This posting has a lot of photos!!! Beware. . . and enjoy]

It's all over, and so I'm taking this opportunity while all of my little goblins are sleeping to document the day. It began when my eyes popped open, but instead of waking the kids to get ready for school and snuggling back into my warm fluffy flannel sheets to snooze and wait for them to get ready for scriptures like I usually do, I saw visions of Halloween pancakes dance through my head! I jumped out of bed and flipped on the stove. I was cranking out ghosts and goblins and pumpkins (with little chocolate chip eyes and mouths) like a pancake flipping machine, in no time at all. My family wondered who this strange woman was in the kitchen, and what she did with their mother! As you can see, they were HAPPY!

Hunter and Mrs. Brown (hopefully she won't mind having her photo all over the web :)

It is fun living in a small town where you can still celebrate that old pagan holiday (or old religious holiday--you choose)--Halloween--in the schools in a non threatening and fun way. They don't have to make up names like "Fall Frivolities" or "Autumn Awareness" in order to celebrate it. It's just plain old HALLOWEEN. I don't know how long this tradition will continue before some extremest parent complains and sends the school board spinning into a PC downfall, but we shall enjoy it while we can.

The kids were able to pack their costumes in their backpacks and don them at a certain time for the party and parade, sans weapons, masks or heavy make-up. Parents were invited to come and help their child dress if it would take the child longer than 5 minutes. All parents requesting party attendance were invited and put to work! Much more conservative than other schools we've attended ;)

Connor and I headed to the school and had a lot of fun helping kiddos decorate cupcakes. Then we watched a nauseating blur of children parade by in a very short amount of time.

(Hunter is finally getting some teeth in there!)

As soon as the younger kids got home from school, we whisked them off to James' company's trick-or-treating party. Emily saw this Spanish dancer and was in awe of her costume. Of course, we had to snap a photo!

Hannah looked amazingly grown up in her Vampire attire. I had to do a double take when she came home from school. For a second, I thought she was someone else! She looked BEAUTIFUL, yet slightly evil.

Little Link. What a trooper! All day is a long time for a little guy to stomp around in boots that are too large! We went t-or-t-ing in our neighborhood. We actually got twice as far this year compared to last year before the complaints began. At the beginning of block three, the boys dropped down onto some one's yard, and began crawling, saying that they were too tired to continue, and wanted to go home. I forced them to finish block three, then we cut through the school yard and went home.

My cute little goblins.

Spanish Senorita. Thankfully not a dead Spanish Senorita as was previously planned.

This is the first year that Hunter was something scary. He actually could only stand the scary mask for a few houses before he got rid of it. Nothing could be cuter than a Hunter skeleton!

Just look at those baby bat wing ears poking out! He's still cute, even with the mask!

Hannah and her best Idaho friend, Mikaela. They altered their make-up for evening t-or-t-ing. It looks a little too KISSish.

And there it is . . . our 16th Halloween as a family. Life couldn't get much better than that!

Chiefs, and Angels, and Pocket Knives (?) OH MY

I don't know what it is about my family, but we get really "into" making costumes around here. It's a fun thing to pretend you are something that you are not for a brief moment in time. Then it's always good to get back to your old self again.

Master Chief!

Alex came across a pretty cool Master Chief costume idea on the web. It is made using pepekura. He created it in a 3-D program, printed it on regular old computer paper, and painstakingly cut and glued each section together. He then coated it with fiberglass resin (found at Home Depot). I think he enjoys paper crafting as much as I do! What he created really is amazing! He finished the helmet, and has now decided to begin sculpting the body of armor. Eventually, I hope to post his how-to video that he is creating.

James decided that he wanted to be a pocket knife for Halloween. I have no idea how he came up with this idea. He thought he was being original, until he found a commercially made costume on the web. He determined to make his much cooler. I think he accomplished it! It's a pretty nifty knife, if you ask me. It even includes a removable "tooth pick." Thankfully he was able to have a reason to complete it before Halloween. The Buska's had a fab Halloween party. Although we were 30 min late due to knife assembly, he will be on-time for his Halloween work party!

I decided to make my life easy and wear my angel costume from last year to the Buska's party. I used it to be a princess last year, and next year, I think I'll use it to be a fairy! My girls won't do anything "girly" anymore, so I have to do it myself! I spent about an hour on my hair and make-up. I sprinkled on glitter and bling. I thought I looked pretty angelic. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with my eyes very swollen and red and blotchy cheeks. Apparently my skin did not approve of the angel look! I'm not sure if I was allergic to the old eye make-up that Emily got for her birthday 2 1/2 years ago, or the face paint that I just bought this year! Maybe it was all of the scrapbooking glitter and jems I applied to my face. Oh, the cost of looking angelic! I think I'll stick to my earthly look for now!

My Baby is FIVE! (Oct 20, 2008)

. Now, isn't that the happiest little birthday boy you've ever seen!

I can't believe that my sweet little Connor is 5 years old! I keep trying to hold him on my lap and cuddle with him, but he's just getting SO big! I keep using baby shampoo, though, so he'll at least still smell like my sweet little baby--with a little stinky boy mixed in with it.

We had a fun party for Connor. The pre party was a little stressful. My friend asked me to watch her little boy for a couple of hours, which was fine, but then a million other kids came over, and I really got stressed out. Which is typical for me and pre parties. But once all the kiddies went home, I took a deep breath and did away with about half of what I was planning. I'm learning that it's okay to tone things down a little now and again ;)

We decided to invite two families who have kids who are Connor's friends over for the big birthday. We had a pumpkin carving party. My kitchen is so small! Well, the dining area, anyway, so I felt a little claustrophobic! Thankfully we have the sun room. I decked it out with black balloon bats hanging from the ceiling, and creepy silhouettes in the windows. And, of course, more black balloons in the hot tub! (Had to cut back on spider webs and other decorations due to time and stress) Emily told me I was creative. That made me feel good. It's the small things, ya know. I decided to fuse Batman and Halloween Bats. It kind of worked. As far as Connor knew, it was FANTASTIC!!! James told me I seemed to be having a great time and that I seemed relaxed. Well, if I pulled that off, and everyone had fun, then the party was a success!

Blow, don't spit, Connor. (Oh, how I love cake!) Batman was from our sprinkler that broke. I cleaned it up and slapped it on the cake--PRESTO~! (yes, more cost cutting party tips)

Connor wanted triangle eyes and nose and only TWO teeth!

Connor's favorite gift was from none other, than MOM!

We invited last minute the Kilpatric family to join us in our pumpkin carving. I got to hold baby Seth so I could get out of the carving fun! As I held him, I told Connor that he used to be that tiny. Seems strange to remember that now. It seems like he was born a toddler. His infancy went by SOOOO quickly.

And of course, we LOVE those nutty Buska's. They are so much fun to have over!

Happy Birthday my little amazing five year old!

My Mini Surgery

Today I had a type of "mini" surgery. I went in for a stomach scope. All went well. Going under anesthesia was a very strange experience! I closed my eyes in the O.R. and then opened them--but 30 minutes had somehow slipped by. I have been groggy all day. A balloon was inflated in my esophagus to enable easier swallowing. I highly recommend this procedure. Yeah! I can eat again!

A taste of things to come!

To Share, or Not to Share

I've finally decided start taking care of my physical health. I have put myself on the back burner for far too long. It is time to help myself become the best--and healthiest--person I can be! I will be going in for surgery on November 13th. I will spare all of you the details, but your prayers would be very comforting!

Winter has come to Idaho!

Good Old Idaho Snowballs in October! Now, is it really necessary to pull out the Christmas books?

We went to bed last night with about an inch of snow on the ground! The kids got so excited . . . and a little confused. Connor decided to write a letter to Santa! They put on their Christmas pajamas, and had Emily read a Christmas story to them. Silly kids!

We awoke this morning to about 2 inches! The little boys were so excited and eager to play in the snow after church. They were highly disappointed as we walked out the door and saw only green grass on the ground! This crazy Idaho weather! I'm happy to see it go! We are so happy that we got an extra week of fall this year. Last year, it snowed the weekend of General Conference. Snow is a necessity here in this arid summer region, so snow, please, leave now, but be sure and come back for Christmas!

Fun and Relaxation

The kids were out of school the last half of the week, so we decided to head back down to Lava. It was fun to get away, until everyone started screaming at each other and me and the older two were complaining that they had homework they needed to get back to. So much for making memories with the family. We did find a couple of fun hot spots on the river that we played in. I'm sure someday they'll appreciate all of the work that James and I put into their enjoyment! It will probably be when they are on a trip with their kids and they are telling them how much fun they had with their family when they were kids and their kids are complaining and not getting it! Until then, we won't give up! We'll continue to drag our children to various places across this country and force them to have fun!

I also neglected to take any pictures with the camera! I had to get these off the web.

This was the view from our condo window. Unfortunately it was closed for the season. The kids loved that one.

Today's Tip

Okay, today's tip is: For a very clean house, get rid of half you own!

My Laundry Taming Tips

I know all of you out there are in desperate need of LAUNDRY REFORM! Well, you've come to the right place. I spent countless moments pondering the great theory I have of doing laundry, and I came up with these helpful tips for all of you! Hope they help! If they do, I'll be posting more fabulous ideas to help you get your home in order. Now, if only someone could do the same for my brain!

If you have tips of your own, feel free to include them in the comments. We could all use a little help now and then! Watch out Fly Lady, here we come!

Laundry Taming Tips

1. Decide how often and when to do laundry.
A. Do one to two loads EACH Day; having everyone take their laundry to the laundry room each day and sort it into bins by color. Then, first thing in the morning, run the loads through.
OR

B. Pick two days a week to spend all day running laundry through. Choose days that you are home and not out running errands and make it the same two days each week. Have everyone take their laundry to the laundry room on specified days and sort into bins by color.

2. You can’t do it all alone! It is a privilege for your family to have their laundry done. Teach children to appreciate that their laundry is being done for them. When they grimace when you ask them to help, tell them that you worked really hard to wash and fold their laundry and that you appreciate them for putting it away, and then make sure they put it away. You can reward an empty laundry basket, if you want.

3. Set the buzzer on the washer and drier and keep up with it. Each time you hear the buzzer, run to the washer and switch loads. Keep it moving. This is the best advice for getting it done in a timely manner. If you’re heading out the door, switch loads. During the commercials, switch loads. It is very quick to switch loads. Commit to doing it when the buzzer rings!

4. Fold and hang as you go. This step makes doing laundry much EASIER! When the drier buzzer rings, immediately fold or hang the laundry as it is coming out of the drier. This is also the time to sort each person’s clothes. Set aside a basket for each person, and fill it as you go, making stacks for pants, shirts, stack underwear, and socks. Create a place to hang laundry and lay it over the kid’s full baskets.

5. Sorting Socks. Never, I repeat, NEVER create a sock pile. Instead, sort socks as you go. The best way to stay organized is to have a specific set of socks for each person. It may be a little boring, but when you have a lot of socks to sort, this makes it much easier! This works for underwear too! Hang the socks on the sides of the baskets and when you find a match, roll them together. If you end up with a sock without a mate, put it or have the kids put it in the drawer and match it when the mate comes through. You may need to periodically go through everyone’s sock drawers and mate socks. This should be quarterly.

6. Have each child put their own laundry away. Even the little ones can help push baskets of laundry around for you! Remember you’re a TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More).

7. Tidy up your laundry room and make it a nice place that you will want to visit!

8. Make sure you tell your husband and kids how much you appreciate them often, especially when they are doing only what is expected of them. Gratitude makes life more beautiful!

MY DAY!

Okay, okay, okay, it is finally my birthday, my FAVORITE day of the year! I'm not ashamed to say that I'm 38 today! Maybe in two more years, the shame factor will start creeping up on me, but for now, I'm going to embrace and celebrate! I know that I'm supposed to be humble on my birthday and quietly let it slide by--hoping that people will remember, but yet not being so bold as to remind anyone, but Today I am shameless! I shout to the world, "IT"S MY BIRTHDAY!" (It's also the birthday of two other people who live on my street).

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to crop on this computer. Hunter was so cute, he came to me with the Primary Children's Song book and asked me which song I would like sung for my birthday. I said that I wanted ALL of the birthday songs, so they spent 5 minutes--pre-cake--singing to me. It was very sweet! My family takes birthdays very seriously. They really spoiled me!

Today, I was pondering why I get so excited about birthdays. I mean, most other days, I don't really care much for myself. But on my birthday, I feel that I should be treated as a princess! There are many frivolous reasons for my excitement; #1 I can eat anything,without guilt, including as much birthday cake as I want (that will stop when I eventually have to join Weight Watchers which will sadly change my relationship with birthday cake). #2 It only comes around once every 365 days. #3 EVERYONE calls or emails and tells me how much they love me (this is important, cuz you know how I feel about calling). #4 I get to be lazy and overlook all of the dirty dishes lying around, and the dirty socks, and the dirty clothes, and the naughty children, etc. (yes, today I had all of those). #5 I get showered with lots of presents (even if they were purchased for the purchaser who used it as an excuse to get what he wanted).

These should be reasons enough, however, I wanted to delve even deeper into my shallow brain for a substantial reason. I was not disappointed! I discovered that the true reason I get so excited for my birthday--or any one's birthday--is because it is a celebration of the greatest magnitude; on our birthdays, we are celebrating fulfilling one of God's most important steps in returning to Him. We are celebrating the day when we received a mortal BODY! It is remarkable to know that I made the choice to come down to earth and take on the "world." Now, don't you think that deserves a celebration? I most certainly do! And it justifies my great feeling of self importance on this one day of the year.

On my birthday, I will always think of my good friend, Ira Sharp, who always celebrated her birthday with pizazz. She had the most amazing costume parties! She loves that day too and I will forever feel connected to her because of it!

I am living up every moment of this day, although, half of my family was ill and feeling a bit unbirthdaylike. I have a mere 6 minutes left of this wonderfully fabulous day, and I am doing what I love best; sitting in my office, creating cards, and blogging. Life doesn't get much better than this.

I am expecting another great year--until the return of this, the most fabulous day of the year! I appreciate all of YOU who constantly add to my joy and happiness!

Trojan Spirit Week

I love having a high schooler! Last week was Spirit Week and Alex thoroughly got into it. He spent countless hours and dollars in prep for each day. He forgot about it on Monday, but called home to have us send him a couple of items for Pirate day. The next day was Senior Citizen Day. This will be Alex in 50 years!

Look! It's Mr. Rogers!
Then he had Hippie Day. It was all I could do to get Alex to do his homework before he started putting his costumes together! I ended up cutting a really good pair of jeans to make these bell-bottoms, but they look so good, I think he could wear them any day of the week and look stylin'!

I might be a little biased here, but can't you see this child in the movies? He's beautiful!There was a super hero day thrown in the week somewhere, and Alex was debating between Darth Vadar and Batman. He settled on Batman, thankfully! He wore his costume from a couple of years ago.

Lastly, was Spirit Day. Alex stayed up until 3 AM and created this costume out of cardboard. It was amazing and I am so proud of his artistic ability! Of course the girls loved all of his costumes, and I think the guys respected him for being so daring. He got a lot of compliments, but his favorite was that he was the best dressed for EACH day!

We ended the week attending the Homecoming game. Alex invited Hannah and I and then ditched us as soon as we entered the gate. Ah, teenagers! I enjoyed watching him from my seat--in his Trojan gear--with his friends.

It's Getting a Little Fruity Around Here!

Fruit, Fruit, Fruit! This is the place to be if you want to can fruit! Everybody does it. For the past couple of weeks, I have been canning apples! I made a batch of very sour apple sauce that I sweetened with local honey. And Friday, I made apple pie filling. The prep work was excruciating, but the end results were magnificent! It is now SO easy to make an apple pie or an apple crisp, and it is so yummy, and the best part is that the apples are from my OWN tree! Yeah! Definitely well-worth the work.

My apple tree is dropping its apples as if it knew it was the first of fall! So, today I plan to make MORE applesauce. Then I will be able to donate the rest of the apples to others who are in need of excruciating, time consuming, yet well-worth it, work.

Last month, I was given raspberries and apricots, and I made some delicious jam. People are very generous here with all of their excess produce. It is actually a lot of fun.

I bought a case of peaches and a case of pears, and you guessed it, I'm going to be canning them too! Next week will be salsa with a case of tomatoes! Somebody STOP me! The main problem is that I keep running out of jars and I have to keep running back and forth to the store for more.

I really feel that Heavenly Father has blessed us with a very good crop this year so that we can get ourselves prepared for the future! Every little bit of added food storage helps! If you haven't done so yet, I encourage you to get going on your food storage too! It's getting tricky in this little old world, and we need to be prepared!

Best of canning to you!

Unspectacular Quirks

I was tagged last month by Connie (Girls just wanna have fun), and I finally decided to get it posted. This is a hard one--difficult to expose my quirks to all of you who think I'm perfect!

1. Post these rules.
2. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
3. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them

1. I am obsessed with watching 7th Heaven reruns right now. I didn't see them the first time around. I block out 11-1 daily to watch. It's almost to the point where I want to get tivo!

2. When I have company over, the house has to be immaculate. It usually gets immaculate, but at the expense of my poor husband and children! Working on lightening up.

3. I like routines and get grouchy when plans change.

4. I am horribly embarrassed to drive my van that is missing 3 hubcaps! But I think it's humbling for me, so I do it with a smile--or rather a grimace!

5. I work best under pressure, so I usually wait until the last minute to do things, and somehow manage to pull it off at the expense of my nerves!

6. One more--phew, this is really hard! I hate to make phone calls. It kills me to even have to call to make a hair cut appointment. I never want to inconvenience anyone.--On the flip side, I LOVE it when people call me (as long as 7th Heaven isn't on).

Okay, having to make 6 other people do this is stressing me out. So, you don't have to do it if you're busy or don't want to!

I'm going to tag Sylvia, Amber, Julie, Susanna, Audrey, Jenny. Good Luck!