Happy Halloween in pictures

These pictures were taken at the Trunk or Treat. In some years past Richard and I have dressed up, but this year we were party poopers, I guess.

Brady, Daniel and Savannah- the BYU crew

Kyler, Landon and Matt

Shiloh, Emma, Kate and Savannah

He had his heart set on being a kissing booth. I gave him a bag of Hershey Kisses to hand out if anyone requested a kiss because I didn't want him freely handing out real kisses. He is a cute boy!

I had no idea how I was going to pull off the Cosmo request from Daniel, but TA-DA!! I did! :)

A close up of the mask. I did this all with paper mache. I know, I know. I'm crazy. Or am I awesome? Or am I both? Who cares! It turned out great and he loved it and it cost about $1 to make and even though it was a lot of work, it was actually pretty fun!

This day she was Sleeping Beauty. This morning at the school parade she was a ballerina. Tonight at Grandpas she was Cinderella. This is the only picture I took!

This was a hit! I got the idea from Family Fun and it was so fun and cheap to make. Not very durable, but so dang cute!!

After the Trunk or Treat on Saturday we carved our pumpkins. I am always amazed at how messy this gets!

Emma's stands for "Emma loves (Grandma) Judy" and Kate's is the smiling one

I made a love pumpkin for Richard and me and Landon did the angry bird.

Daniel did the wolf and the "D". The D fell apart and caused many tears and much pouting, but a little wooden skewer fixed it up real nice and all was good....and then he burned his finger.

All the lights were off for this, but notice Daniels upset, teary face and the frozen peas on his burnt finger. After all, what would a pumpkin carving night be without a little drama!

Katelyn's 3rd Birthday!

How did this happen? When did my baby grow up? She is such a little girl now...the only baby thing left is her binky...maybe that's why I can't give it up! She is such a joy to our family. She makes us all laugh and she has so much personality. I love this little girl more than I can explain. She's been looking forward to her birthday for so long and every single thing she sees at the store she asks if she can have it for her birthday and happily puts it back after I say, "Okay, we'll see!" I hope now that her birthday is over she will still be okay with that strategy! She had a fun birthday today and here are the highlights.

First thing in the morning, loving the present ritual!

Her new Sleeping Beauty dress. This is also her Halloween costume!

Eating her breakfast like a good little birthday princess!

Grandpa Kevin came and took her (us) to Target to buy a present and she immediately found this and we were done! Easiest shopping trip ever! Then we went to lunch with Grandpa and came back and put the scooter together.

She loves her Grandpa Kevin and was so excited to have him come be part of her day!

She loved helping me make pink cake balls with rainbow cake and rainbow frosting insides! She didn't even want ice cream to go with them...all she wanted were these beauties!

No day for Kate would be complete without a little time spent at the piano making up songs and singing the whole time.

Her "party" meant that we all wore Dora party hats at dinner. She was completely satisfied with that!

All day long she said, "Today is Happy Birthday to me!!" I think she had a great day!

Much needed

I just spent the most fabulous weekend in Seattle with my very best friends. I love these girls so much and am so blessed to have the most amazing friends. The trip was full of laughter, silliness, food, primping, relaxing, shopping and just being together. I will do a big post with lots of pictures soon. But right now I'm wishing we could have spent a little bit more time together because now I'm back to reality and trying to make Halloween costumes and do laundry. I LOVE THESE GIRLS!

Erin, Julianne and Denae

Jenny, Heather and Mindy

Sing, my angel of music!

This little girl just cracks me up. I love her energy and passion! Just thought I'd post these two little videos. The singing one is obviously from Phantom of the Opera and I love how you can tell she is just hearing every note in her head....oh, and putting on lip gloss at the same time, of course. Please watch the whole thing because the funniest part is at about 41 seconds in! At first, I thought the hopscotch was just SO loud, but then I realized how cute it was and pulled out my camera.

Fun fall decorating

I kind of skipped over my summer decorating. The only thing I decorate for is patriotic and I don't have much stuff anyway. I did, however, do a little front room change up, which I will post about soon. For now, I just wanted to share my Halloween decor and ideas since I've been doing that all year for holidays. Now that I've decorated I'd better get started on my kids Halloween costumes. Daniel and Landon have some crazy ideas and I don't know how I'm going to pull it off. But I will! BTW- Sorry about all the side pictures, and sorry that the quality isn't better. I think a better camera might show off how these things look in real life, because it's much better than the pictures. We do what we can, but you get the idea!

Cute little school projects the kids have done. I think they are always honored that I keep and display things like this!

This is a favorite decoration of mine. I got this at Rodworks a few years ago

These pictures didn't turn like I asked them to. I wrapped the candles with a strip of scrapbook paper and a piece of twine and I think they make a fun little difference. The little hanging pictures are just cardstock and stickers. I made those the first year we were married and just store them in a book each year. They've held up great and were cheap and easy!

Just a little close-up of one of the cards- the writing was just done with a silver metallic pen.

This picture should be by the entry way table picture, but these are some fun patterns I created and stitched.

I just thought this was a cute Halloween pillow- found it at IKEA for $2.99

This is the other side of it- so fun!

There are really cute Halloween frames to make or buy (I got this one at Kohl's) to display fun memories of past years.

My entry way table

Another fun picture- Halloween 2001. The little bird and the candelabra are from the dollar store (it's much more glittery in person) I painted the glass in the white frame with chalkboard paint. Now I can use it year round and just change the sayings!

D.I. candle stick, dollar store pumpkins and dollar store ribbon!

Sorry about all the side pics! I added this wreath to the wall and I love it there! Usually I hang it on my front door, but this is way better.

Just a simple fall garland and more pumpkins. The window pane is new to this wall, but is a great way to use an old window pane! I LOVE this!

Daniel's pumpkin for the contest at school. Isn't it cute?

I made this to put at my Mom's grave. It was fun to make- I just used black paint and free handed it. You could use stickers and mod podge...the options are endless.

Just another view of this cute pumpkin. I think it would look cute with just the letter too.

Another idea...I used glitter glue to give new life to my old decorations. Here I painted the little orange beads to "pop" a little. It actually made a big difference and looks much better.

Two years

Today marks the two year anniversary of my Mom's passing. October 7, 2009 was the most beautiful fall day I can remember. Today is cold, dark and dreary and I hate seeing the snow in the mountains already. We just skipped from summer to winter and I really need fall! One of my favorite memories of that day was after we (no children) had all arrived at the house that morning and cried and prayed together, we all went in the kitchen and sat around the table. My sister-in-laws sisters had brought Del Taco breakfast burritos, fruit and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. We sat around the table and talked and laughed. It was in that moment that I knew somehow we'd all be okay. Somedays it sure doesn't feel like it, but that experience is such a special memory to me. I can feel every emotion of that breakfast. I can see the way the light poured into the windows. I can feel the sting in my eyes from the tears. And through it all, ultimately it is okay. What I wouldn't give to see her again right now though! I miss her every day. I mourn the things she was supposed to still do in this life, but am grateful for the life she lived. Thank you, Jessica for this beautiful poem.

In a perfect world,

everything would always go right.

There would be no disappointment or trials,

and life would be filled with only

sweet, warm, and fuzzy feelings.

But how would we know

if things were good if we had no comparison?

Would we recognize the blessings in our lives

without having their opposites to compare them to?

Without the darkness,

would we appreciate the light?

Seems to me if we want rainbows,

we gotta have rain.

The trick is to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps

and go out and look for puddles to play in;

recognize the tempest for what it is

and train ourselves to look for the good

in every situation.

By overcoming our adversity,

we find the joy in everything.

So go on, go play in the rain!

Loading sheep

The boys willingly missed school on Friday to go load sheep. They were happy to get up at 5:00 a.m. and get nice and dirty. Here are some pictures and a few videos of their morning.

This picture reminds me of pictures I've seen of Richard when he was a boy out on the sheep ranch. I'm so glad they can go and share these experiences together.

Landon, Cole, Ky and Daniel

Ky, Cole, Landon and Daniel

They love chasing and trying to rope the sheep

Pre- buck. Watch the video below and see what I mean

Beautiful!

I love how Landon's buddy Ky just laughs at him as he gets bucked off. He was truly worried about his boy parts. That sheep had horns and he was not in a very good position!

This shows the ewes being let back out after the lambs have been loaded. I love how Richard yells at the boys at the end. For some reason it makes me laugh.

I'm so glad that my boys have a Dad that shares these times with them. He's awesome. Now if only I could get them all to do their own "sheep laundry".