Happy Halloween 09!

This year for Halloween, our ward participated in a trunk or treat. I was thrilled to have this safe place for the little one's to have fun, and all before it even got dark. For the first time in quite a few years too, the whether was amazing. I actually got hot sitting in the sun in the back of my car. :)


This was our dead zombie that helped me hand out the candy. Most of the kids were thrilled by him. Some, not so much!

Rhett was so excited to be Tigger, but unfortunately the costume was just a little too small for him and he had the never ending wedgie all night long. Didn't stiffen his excitement for the night though, little trooper. McKenna was a cute little bumble bee that had no sting in her, and Wesley and Damon were both soldiers again. It is so nice to have that costume and the ready year after year.

We couldn't find any costumes that didn't cost an arm and a leg, so I was forced to make her costume this year. I was mostly pleased with how it turned out, but I fear that making costumes for her my not work much longer. Her poor wings wilted into nothing. She sure was cute though.

After the trunk or treating, we came back home to eat some dinner and to wait for it to get dark. I don't think Wesley and Damon made it to dark before they headed out with friends, but poor Rhett and McKenna crashed. Rhett actually fell asleep with his sandwich in his hand. McKenna didn't even make it the short drive from the church to our house.

We gave them a little rest and then we took them out in our neighborhood for a little while. They both absolutely loved it, of course, and between the 4 kids, we now have enough candy at our house to stock a store. I'm so glad that they all had fun though and enjoyed their Halloween experience this year.

Murder Mystery Party!

Issac and I were both really stressed out and felt like we needed to have a party and try and let loose a little this year. We'd done a murder mystery party a few years ago and thought that Halloween was the perfect time to try again. (People are more willing to dress up this time of year). It was supposed to be all these famous people, invited to this mansion for dinner. It was really hard trying to disguise our house as a creepy old mansion, but we did our best.

We took care of most of the food, but asked a few to bring either an appetizer or dessert to share. We played the rounds between eating the appetizers, salad, steak and potatoes with green beans, and then dessert. I was so afraid that we wouldn't have enough food, but as always, had plenty and even some left overs.

There were 16 of us, do I decided to try and write names on these fun Halloween cups so that we could keep track of them and not share all the fun germs that going around right now. I used their character names though instead of their real names. :)

We had an appearance by Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Judy Garland...

Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Groucho Marx....

Bruce Lee, Patsy Cline, Lucille Ball, Selina (the black cat)...

Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, John Wayne, Janis Joplin .....

Rita Hayworth, and Pete Persimmons (our police detective). Everyone had a great time and we were so happy that we decided pretty last minute to do this. I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. We're even considering trying another one for New Year's Eve.

Leaves are falling all around!

I have been wanting to get out and take some pictures of the kids with all the amazing colors of fall around here, but things just kept getting in the way. Since we are expecting our first snow fall tonight, I figured that we had better get it done. Too bad we waited so long though. It was cold, windy and most of the color was already gone. Good thing the kids are still cute! :)

I can't believe how big they are all getting. Some days are really hard, but when I have a picture like this to look at, I can't help but be thankful for all that I have. I really am a lucky mom!

More sticky, freaky treats!

I came across this recipe while looking for something to make for our cub scout Halloween party and just couldn't resist. They were such a big hit that I'm seriously considering making them for our Adult Murder Mystery party. The boys were totally grossed out! :)

We decided to tackle the caramel apples again this year. We went a little more fancy than normal though. They tasted really good and looked pretty good, but they never really hardened and so it made it really hard to eat them. We all did our best and soldiered through it though. :)

It's Fall!!!!!!

I was so excited when the weather changed and we officially hit Fall! The boys were not thrilled that instead of our usual scary decor, I opted to do something a little nicer and that I could keep up all the way through Thanksgiving. I am happy with how it turned out and feel like it makes the inside of the house feel warmer and more cozy! :)

I attempted the glitter pumpkins this year. Way excited with how they turned out and how easy they were to do.

The kids were all very happy to decorate some cute pumpkin and leaf cookies for a family activity. Even more happy to eat them though! :)

I absolutely love this time of year. The weather turns and everything changes. The colors outside and inside. The food gets warmer and all you want to do is wrap up in a blanket and snuggle with the one's you love. It is the perfect preseason to the next one.

Not over yet!

OK, so I've always wanted to go to the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake City to spend a romantic night with my baby! After spending several hours on the Internet, I finally discover that we can use our Military status, and get this incredible discount if we stay during a Sunday to Thursday. Since Issac's birthday weekend also happened to fall on Labor Day weekend and the kids didn't have school on Monday, I thought it was perfect!I booked the room and then had weeks to make all my plans and keep my little secret from him. I enlisted a friend from the ward to come to the house Sunday night and stay with the kids. ( I couldn't risk telling the kids or they would have totally blown my surprise ). Any way, I had all these great plans for a romantic night, ( none of which I'm sure any one wants to hear about ) :). Sat. night as we are watching a movie with the kids, I start to feel really nauseous! I then spent the hole rest of the night in the bathroom with the flu! I couldn't believe that I was going to get sick right now! The rest of the family had had the flu, a week earlier! UGGGGGG!
Issac took the kids to church Sunday morning and left me feeling miserable and clutching a bowl. I knew that we were beyond our time frame for being able to cancel and not have to pay for the room anyway, so I forced myself up while they were gone and packed our little bags. When Issac got home he could tell that I wasn't doing any better and made some comment about being glad that his birthday was yesterday so that we didn't miss any of my plans! OOOOPPPPSSSS! I tried to smile and let him know that that wasn't completely true. I told him that his birthday weekend wasn't entirely over yet. ( The biggest part was still to come ).
He had no idea where we were going. I just plugged in the address to the GPS and told him to follow the directions as I held my big blue bowl on my lap and concentrated on my breathing. He was totally surprised and felt so bad for me that I was sick. I figured at least I could lay in a big bed and not have to have the constant questions from my kids all night. It was a beautiful room and we will definitely have to go back some time when we are both feeling well!





We got to stay in one of their most expensive rooms, Romeo & Juliet! It was incredible with this huge stairway going up to the bed.

The decorations they had out were so cute. The room came with sparkling cider and two pieces of cheese cake as well.

We took full advantage of this huge jacuzzi tub since it was one activity that actually made me feel a little bit better. It was really cool, the water sprinkled down from above and was almost like being in a waterfall.

I'm not sure you can really see it in this picture, but I also ordered some rose petals that they sprinkled all over the room and some chocolate dipped strawberries.

It was a fun night, just not quite as fun as I had planned. Issac ended up going out at about 8 at night to try and find us something that I could eat. He brought back some soup and crackers and 7 up. He is such an amazing husband and I am so lucky to be able to spend every day with him, not just the special one's. I love you baby! Happy Birthday.

Issac's Birthday Weekend Celebration!

I had a huge, all weekend long, surprise birthday celebration planned for Issac's birthday this year. We got to thinking, and Ireally think that this may be the first year that we have actually been together on his birthday, so I wanted to go big.

We started on Friday night and went to see GI Joe. It had been forever since we'd gone out to the movies. Then we went to a local restraunt that we hadn't tried before and were pleasantly surprised with how good it was.

Saturday morning, I got up early and made his favorite breakfast. Then the two of us took off to Park City, Utah where we went and saw the Flying Ace's. They are professional ski jumpers that are training for the Winter Olympics. They put on a fabulous show of their skills and tricks, and then we also got to just watch them practice. I have no idea how they do what they do. AMAZING!

After that we walked around down town and Issac was finally able to show me some jewelry stores that he's been talking about. Very unique pieces and when we have a couple thousand dollars just burning a hole in our pockest, I'm sure we'll come back. It was such a beautiful day and the whether was perfect. It was so nice to just walk around together. Then we grabbed some chinese food and headed home to play some games and watch a movie with the kids.

Rhett update!

OK, I've been putting it off a little because I was hoping to have some definite news before I blogged about it, but.... We took him to the specialist and he was not convinced that what he has is Hershprungs disease, so he wants to exhaust all other options first since the test is not exactly pleasant to confirm. At any rate, he put him on a VERY POWERFUL cleansing routine. We were needless to say very worried about leaving the house with him for the whole weekend. It took way longer that we think it should have ( he is only 4 years old and we were giving him four times as much as any adult would take ) but we finally had some success. I guess that we are going to just keep up this routine for a few weeks and then see if he can somehow start going normal again? I really don't understand this process, but we will try what the Dr. is asking. I just wish that it all wasn't so traumatic for Rhett. He is a trooper though. Thanks for all your prayers and concerns. We really appreciated it. I'll let you know when something more definite is finally decided on.

First day of school.

It's that time of year again. There is a hilarious commercial on TV right now that made me stop and do a double take. I wasn't paying much attention, but the TV was on in the background so I could hear it. They were playing a Christmas song. Now, I've seen the Christmas stuff up in the stores already, but I couldn't believe that they were showing the commercials already. I looked up as they sang, "It's the most wonderful time, of the year!" To my surprise, they were showing a dad, dancing around the back to school isle, filling his shopping cart with pencils and paper, while the two children in front of him stood with arms crossed, and faces drawn. It was pretty funny!

I can't believe with each passing year, just how old and big my kids keep getting. Wesley has started 6Th grade.

Damon is now in the 5Th grade. They are both still going to North Davis Preparatory Academy and we love it! The school has an emphasis on Spanish, so they each have an English speaking teacher, and one from Spain that teaches their subjects mostly in Spanish. It is such an amazing program and we are very grateful to be a part of it.