We hope everyone has a spook-tacular Halloween!! We have had a lot of fun making all of our Halloween preparations.


I was so busy in fact that I didn't get my VT done this month so we made treats.



This guy took longer than I thought he would. I saw the idea for sale in Martha's magazine and decided I could make one of my own. Cord bought me a styrofoam head at Savers and I attached it to a tomato cage. The rest took a little trial and error.

What worked the best was wrapping everything in batting first so it wasn't see through and then I used three packages of the spider web stuff (the cheap stuff you get at Walmart to put around your house.) and then the kids loaded on the spiders. I think it turned out great and the kids love it.

Here are a few pictures for our pumpkin carving...


Some of us didn't mind the "guts"

Some of us did!

Happy Halloween!!!!

A few special notes

Last night when I stumbled bleary eyed into bed I found this sweet note on my pillow from Lily.

It made me smile.

What a sweet girl she is!


This morning as I stumbled bleary eyed into the shower I found this sweet note on my bathtub from Barry.

It made me smile.

What a sweet boy he is!

Now where is that Magic Eraser?

Again!!!

(This strange view is looking down into the tub)

(At least now when he goes to kindergarten next year I can say yes, yes he can write his name.)

The Pumpkin Patch

It is suppose to snow today but yesterday was a nice fall day so we headed to the pumpkin patch...

The kids had a great time running around finding the "perfect" pumpkin. I had a great time taking pictures of them.



We have all been sick so much this month. If we hadn't been we would have gotten our pumpkins earlier. But better late than never right? Right? That's what I've been telling the kids every time they say "We STILL don't have our pumpkin yet and it's almost Halloween!"

It's so nice to live 5 minutes away from a pumpkin patch. That way we can just run over and it doesn't take too much time.

Will seriously LOVED running around this place.

We all left happy with a van loaded down with pumpkins ready to carve for Family Home Evening.

Some Halloween Fun!!

Alli & I love to play with photography. It is so much fun!!

Here are my two monsters. You can do it too -- just go here.

Fall Break

Each fall our family heads up to Idaho to rake leaves at my grandma's house. Cord and I have been going each fall since we were married and I even went each fall when I was at Ricks college. So I would definitely say it's a tradition. (make sure you are saying tradition in your best Fiddler on the Roof accent)

The kids really look forward to our trip and have a great time playing in the leaves.

But this year...

there were no leaves!!


Perhaps our fall break was a little early this year, or maybe it is the beautiful weather we have been having, but there wasn't a whole lot of raking to do this year.

We still kept ourselves busy doing whatever we could to help Grandma K.

We cleaned her house and washed the windows, flipped the mattress and helped organize her shed. We also sealed the new grout in the bathroom and kitchen and helped her shop for photo albums.


We also jumped off her rocks...


Soaked up the sun...


Played hide & seek...



Played Wiffleball, soccer and football...




And visited Shoshone Falls. Isn't the snake river beautiful?!


















Grandma and I also made a lemon cake that had 4 (yes 4) sticks of butter and 8 (yes 8) eggs in it!! Baking is something my grandmother is famous for I hope to equal her talent some day.

We had such a good time hanging out with Grandma K. I can't begin to tell you how much I love her and love the fact that my kids get to have a chance to spend time with such an amazing woman.

It's not often that kids get to know their great-grandmothers and I am so glad that we have had so many chances to create memories with her.


We are crossing our fingers that me get to see her at Christmas!!

Where Cord is tonight...

Ouch the sequel

So now I have a sprained wrist on my left hand because I was only using my left hand.

I was lifting too much with it and now alas I can't do anything.

Now you really have to feel sorry for me.

I want to kill someone -- I can't do anything for myself. Which is really frustrating!!!!

It has taken me soooo long to type up this post... really, you have no idea.

So it will be a while until I post again.

Peace out.

Ouch!!

So this is what I have...

The doctor has given me some good drugs and I am making my way to recovery. It is however taking FOREVER!!!! It has been a week already.

I cant use my arm at all.

It is horrible to be one handed -- especially when that one hand is your left & you're right handed! (come on, you feel sorry for me right?)

That is why I have been absent in my bloggingness.

We are on our way up north for fall break and will have lots to post about when we get back.

Have a great weekend!

A few crazy things

Yesterday was crazy hair day at school. This is Will just after eating lunch (before I wiped the Oreo off of his face and before I did this to his hair...

I can't believe how long his hair is! And I can't believe I got it to stay up. Can you say hairspray!!

The other wonky thing going on around here are these blocks...

Alli wants a new quilt for her bed and I have been wanting to try some of the improv blocks for a while so here is the result.

She loves them and that makes me happy -- you know how hard it can be to please teenagers. But then again it seems that all you have to do is spend some money on them and all is well in Zion.

This is Alli's favorite block.

When I finish all of the blocks I am going to separated each with a white strip (which will look much better than the ugly tan of my carpet).

It is a happy quilt and really comes together fast. I can't wait until it's finished!