Trunk or Treat

We had two trunk-or-treats to go to this weekend. On Friday, we headed to the drive in theater with a few of our friends for the charter school trunk or treat. They had quite a few people. It probably took us a good hour to get to all the cars. Afterward, they showed Kung Fu Panda 2 for us to watch from our cars. I had never been to a drive in movie before, so that was fun. It was 40 degrees outside, so it was a little cold, but we had a good time. When the movie was almost over, my car battery died, so we had to find someone to jump it for me. Thank you to the nice man who helped us out!!

It started at 6PM so we picked up a pizza on the way. Here are my little ninja and ladybug enjoying dinner before the trunk or treat.

Two ninjas and a ladybug

My friend Melissa's kids

Lily is ready to get to some candy collecting.

She wasn't too happy about having her picture taken

My Jakey had the same costume as a lot of other boys. I kept losing track of him in the sea of the skeleton ninjas

Tyler let me take ONE photo

All of the kids in the back of my van ready to watch the movie
Candy, costumes, a movie and friends! It's a PARTY!OK, so on Saturday, we had our ward trunk or treat. Not many people usually come to that, so I don't normally dress up, but the mood was right so I gave it a go. I actually won the "scariest costume award!" (my very first Halloween costume award). My kiddos wouldn't let me take pictures of them two days in a row, so I took some of myself just for fun.

I guess I am a spider witch? I just had some fun with makeup and spiders. I tried to get Ty to take a full body shot because I wore my spiffy red and white striped stockings, but each attempt failed and he soon lost interest.

striped socks

Can't wait for actual Halloween night tomorrow!!

Jehovah Witness Haunting

I may be crazy, but when my doorbell rang this morning, I answered it. As I opened the door an old man in a black wool coat with white hair wearing a black hat stood before me. He was dressed nicely and smiled politely. He was a Jehovah's witness passing along information about the creator. Not so imposing right? Well, as he talked to me all I could think was "Man, this guy is creeping me out!" When I politely declined his efforts to teach me, he left. As soon as he left I locked the doors. It took me a minute, but I soon realized why he freaked me out. He looked eerily similar to the man who haunted my nightmares growing up. The preacher guy on poltergeist.

Yep, that guy!

Oh, just looking at the photos gives me the shivers. He terrified me as a child (and apparently as an adult too).

I love scary movies, but poltergeist was one of the only movies that truly scared me. the ring, no problem, poltergeist... creepy! That includes the little girl.
Maybe the JW was out haunting before Halloween just to mess with people. It sure worked on me!

Jack-o-lanterns

For FHE we carved pumpkins. By we, I mean Randy and I carved pumpkins while the little ones criticized our work. Jake picked a pattern from the carving set's booklet of two skulls. Tyler drew a picture of what he wanted and then I carved his looking at the picture. He was skeptical of how I was carving his, but I think all in all, I met his approval. I made up Lily's and when I was done she looked at it all wide eyed and screamed "IT'S A GIRL PUMPKIN!" in excitement. I guess I impressed her as well.

I give you three happy kids all at the same time!Jake, Ty, and Lily's jack-o-lanterns from top to bottom

I know the pictures are terrible, but I don't claim to be a photographer, so you get what you get.

Lily would not hold still for a picture.

Halloween Party!!!

We had a change of plans this year as far as the annual adult Halloween party goes. Randy and I decided to throw our own Halloween bash this year.

We invited some friends and neighbors and had a great time. the turnout wasn't what I had hoped it would be, but we had fun nonetheless. Here are some pictures of the festivities. Of course, I will start with the food. You know me, it always starts with the food.

I made mini cupcakes:

And Eyeball cake balls

As well as spiderweb cupcakes. Don't they look yummy?

I also made chocolate covered pretzels in molds that turned out cute and very Halloween. We had rats and skeletons, fingers, bones, bats, pumpkins, spiders, etc. Very cool.

I needed something else for the table so I made this floral arrangement. Candy and black roses.

We also made seven layer dip, meatballs, and yummy slushy sprite to drink. Here is the table before the guests brought more food.

I made this for our costume. Can you guess what I was? I was the old lady who swallowed a fly. I drew this onto iron on transfer paper and ironed it onto my shirt over my baby belly.

I know, I look super old and sexy right? I have swallowed everything except for the horse. If I had, I would be dead of course.that's where Randy's costume comes in. He made an excellent horse. lol. But not everyone had heard of the old lady who swallowed a fly. I was really surprised.

Our friends Melissa and Mike. Also known as Mother earth and father time. They won our costume contest. Brittney, the old lady. The best part was that she stuffed her backside so it was HUGE.

Brittney and TysonWe played fun games including "minute to win it", the "newlywed game", and "what if"-we had prizes for each game as well as the grand prize for best costume.

Melissa playing minute to win it
Brittney playing minute to win it
Randy winning the game
Jami and I putting petroleum jelly on our noses and sticking cotton balls onto another paper plate using our noses.
Kim after playing face the cookie.I wish I had gotten more pictures of people in their costumes. I suppose I was too busy playing hostess that it just didn't occur to me.

Tyler Says...

At breakfast this morning:
Tyler (reading the cereal box): " These Cheerios only have 2 grams of protein." pause,
"Wow! It has 120 calories!" pause again while he reads on.."Uh... I don't see any box tops on this box mom; It doesn't seem like this is worth buying.

Later, I'm eating a banana with some peanut butter on it. Tyler says "Mom, why are you eating peanut butter on a banana for breakfast?"
Me: "Because I need a little protein this morning"
Tyler: "Oh, well, you should probably know that peanut butter has so much sugar in it that it isn't worth eating for protein."
--thanks Ty; the crazy health freak.

Tyler is slightly weird about eating all things healthy, well, not eating all things healthy, but rather knowing whether or not they are actually healthy. He determines how healthy they are by how much protein the item has. He has decided that if it has a certain amount of protein, then it is worth eating because it will therefore give him large muscles. He rarely cares how much fat or carbs or calories food has.

The other day I was sitting down to lunch just Lily and I and she said "Mom? Dis have protein?" SERIOUSLY!!!

I Agree

Jayna Stechschulte's Photos

A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said:

'Doctor, I have a serious p...roblem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 year old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together.'

So the doctor said: 'Ok and what do you want me to do?'

She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.'

The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.'

She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.

Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of 2 babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms.'

The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child!'

'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be OK with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution.'

The doctor smiled, realizing that he had made his point.

He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that's already been born and one that's still in the womb. The crime is the same!

Together we can help save precious lives!

Love says, 'I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person.' Abortion says, 'I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself.'

By: Life is Dangerous: Let's Ban It

Just over Half Way There

I'm not a fan of pregnancy photos, mostly because I become huge. and this pregnancy is no exception, but I figure, what the heck. you can't see my chubby face anyway. :)

I'm at 23 weeks now. I am feeling better but I am still taking medication for nausea. I'm taking half the dose I was taking before, so I guess that is a good sign. I'm doing pretty good so far. My hip has been hurting on one side and I assume it is because of loose joints. I suppose that will go away soon though. I can feel my little girl move around in there all the time now.Randy and Jacob have also felt her kick so that is fun.

Here is what she is up to: "she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

So far so good!

DIY Halloween decor

I love Halloween. It is so much fun. Yesterday and today I worked on a couple of decorations for our Halloween festivities this month.

I made these apothecary jars to keep on my piano and change each season. I painted letters and filled the jars

I think they turned out pretty cute. The fit perfectly on our piano.

I also worked on my most favorite thing as far as decorating goes. I painted our windows like I do every year. you can see some past years on this link. I decided I would change things up a bit and try my hand at silhouettes this time.

I painted some witches

And I painted a tree with birds on it. (We love the tiny spider too.)

There you have it. Our little festive albeit not so scary Halloween house.

P.S. Tyler informed me that he really loved my witches, but that I shouldn't have painted a tree. Because "a tree is not very Halloween-ee." Sigh, I guess I can't please everyone. :)

Conference Crafts

It's October!! I'm so excited for Halloween. I decided to make a couple of decorations during General Conference on Saturday.

I found this snake wreath online and decided to make my own. I only had black spray paint, and I couldn't find as many snakes as the picture. It is hard to see from the picture, but the snakes look pretty cool. I also added a spider web.

I also painted this plate ad added a little spider.

Happy Halloween!