I love Fall!

Don't these photo make you feel the complete definition of "Fall". I love it. I love that Jake was out there doing this chore without being asked, then let the kids play and he even played with them. I love this man.

Compute this!

Have you ever seen your computer die? I have. It isn't pretty. I was told that I lost everything! I haven't backed up my photos sense June! I bawled!! It was awful. I lost all my ABBA music! The world was going to end. But then one of our wonderful friends came over and did dome fancy stuff and was able to retrieve all my data off the dead computer and saved it to Jake's laptop. What a wonderful blessing! Today I will be backing up EVERYTHING! I will not have to learn this lesson again.

Are you a Good Witch?

Or a bad Witch? I finally am getting around to posting the finale picture from Halloween! I finished all the costumes!! I had to get creative with Jake's but it worked. People were stopping us in the street to take pictures of us. I couldn't believe it. I felt ridiculous in my costume, but I think it was worth it for the family.

Frustration!

Let me tell you what I find frustrating: I think it is staying up 'till one in the morning working on the last of the Halloween costumes, to wake up just a few hours later to a barfing, sick son! I feel pretty bad that Kimball is sick. He hasn't been sick in so long and it is right before Halloween. He was just as excited as Phoebe was for her Halloween party. Phoebe was crushed that I couldn't go. I felt horrible! I was able to find some great moms to fill in for the part that I was suppose to do at her party, thank goodness! He seemed to be feeling better by this evening, so here is to hoping our scarecrow is back on his feet tomorrow!

Pumpkin Patch

This year because of sickness we didn't get to go on a hay ride to a pumpkin patch. I was really sad. I love this tradition that we have been doing for years, so I came up with a next best thing. My mom and I bought about a bunch of pumpkins and placed them all over our yard, kinda like an Easter Egg hunt. Then we let the kids go out and find their pumpkins! Phoebe saw all the pumpkins and exclaimed, "The Pumpkin Patch walked to our house!" That kid cracks me up! Here are some of the photos!

Crayon making

How to make homemade crayons:




1. Find all the broken, random pieces of crayon you have all over your house. Find a willing child that will peel all the labels off and then chop them into hunks.



2. Fill a small cake pan full of a mix of crayons. If you really want to get creative (i.e. you don't have a two year old trying to help) do themed ones. Red and green mixes for Christmas or black and orange for Halloween. It's really fun! (I only had a Christmas tree pan so that is the only shape they get!)

3. Once they are all filled, place in a pre-heated oven at 170 degrees. I think I cooked mine for about 20 minutes. You will be able to tell once they are all melted together. Let them cool for a few hours on the counter or if your have impatient kids, a few minutes in the freezer!

TA DA! Happy kids who want to color all day long! Enjoy!

Trunk or Treat

Last night was our ward's annual Trunk or Treat night. They had to move it early because of some conflict with the Base. It put a rush on me to finish every costume. Which I didn't . Mine is half done and Jake's isn't even started. I am hoping to get them done before Friday. I know I shouldn't push my self, but I really want this done. The kids are so excited about it. Anyways, here they are, in all there glory....
Phoebe as Dorothy, Mama Puppy as Toto

Kimball as the Scarecrow

Warren as the Cowardly Lion
and my mom as The Wicked Witch of the West!
Kimball really got into his part! He would quote lines from the move, sing songs and even fall like the scarecrow. He was eatin' it up! My mom scared the pants off some kids. It was riot to see how they would react. I think a few kids left think my mom really was green. Some kids made their time at church purposely trying to stay as far away from her as possible! Phoebe was feeling sorta sick and was very quite. She was happy with all the attention she got, but was the first one that wanted to go home. Warren really got in to the trunk or treating. As soon as he picked up that if you go up to all these weird looking people and hold out your pumpkin bucket they would give you candy, he took off running! He probably went around three times! He got twice as much candy as Phoebe and Kimball. We had to take him to the car screaming, "CANDY!" (Which I find totally weird because we don't eat candy that much in our house!) I am really glad we went.