Happy Halloween!

It seems strange to say "Happy Halloween" to me, because it doesn't seem like the jolliest of holidays with all the creepy and dark and gruesome. Plus, kids eat a whole bunch of sugar and get all cranky... but happy Halloween!

And if someone is referred to as a Grinch if they hate Christmas, than shouldn't I be referred to as an angel since I'm (ah-hem) not very fond of Halloween? Just makes sense.  And, since this may be the only day out of the year that I can be referred to as an ANGEL, I'm all over this thought!:)

The kids have been off to school for half a day now, I just dropped Abram off for preschool, and put Pace down for a nap.  Time to upload pictures:

I get grouchy spending money on Halloween costumes unless I am making one that I am excited about.  I didn't get grouchy this year, because we didn't buy any costumes - although I bought some fabric to make boots and a cape for this little cutie.  Get ready, this is really cute!!:

(I couldn't get him to hold still to take his picture until I put him on top of a counter at the school Halloween carnival last night.) He already had the t-shirt and pants, and we already had some red girl's tights - which became his super hero underwear- so that was the costume I decided to go with:) Dressing up a kid this age for Halloween almost makes me like October 31st because they are so irresistible in their costumes!

Superman trying to make an escape from his sister

Shawn made a wand for Isabelle because she wanted to be Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. (Which worked out great, because she could use the robe Caden used when he was her age, and dressed up as Harry Potter.) The little boys thought the wand was neat, so he made two more for them, all completely different so they can tell them apart.

THEN, Nolan decided to be Captain America again, like he was last year, but his shield, which I had made him out of cardboard, was all broken up, so Shawn made him a new one.  Shawn was having fun!

A closer look:

What a great dad for doing all of this - I'm positive that it's the best shield in the school today. (I'm also positive that Captain America will come home with even bigger muscles from hefting it around:)

Last week we noticed a clothing sale in a warehouse in town where everything was $5.00 or under.  We couldn't pass up these pants for Maddie.  I was thinking of a costume; Kami bet me that Maddie would want to wear them year-around.  Guess who was right?

Suh-weet!  They are shiny blue and stretchy, and Mads can't wait to wear Marvel t-shirts with them. For today, I stitched an emblem on a red shirt, she added a sparky gold belt that she already had, and also that head band that was kicking around from some other costume.

Caden is another angel in this house.  He didn't dress up.

Kami decided to dress up as a 50's woman, or "her grandma!" It would have been nice if she had some horn-rimmed glasses, but we thought we did pretty good on the hair considering that hers is so long!

Best part?  We actually found this dress in her Grandma Shirley's house.  Either her grandma Gee sewed it, or one of her Grandma's sisters.  I actually LOVE this dress - it has the greatest pleats and stuff.  I think I will have to have Caden take pictures of everything later, (so details show up better) and then switch out pictures when I catch up to his camera:)

Plans for tonight?  We MAY attend a first-time-in-12-years- trunk or treat.  I say "may" because I don't like the idea of trunk or treats.  Kids get way too much candy way too fast, for one thing. For another thing, we just feel like the old-fashioned method of trick-or-treating builds such a sense of community!  There are so many elderly people and couples that want trick-or-treaters and don't get any one coming by anymore because of this trunk junk.

So why might we go? Well...Shawn's parents have to work at the Temple Visitor's Center 45 minutes away, and we thought that we would try to go visit them.  It's a Halloween tradition to end at their house, and we'll be out too late if we do both! (Although we WILL make some stops to our regulars:)

Thinking about Halloween

This year thinking about Halloween makes me feel tired.  It's coming right up and I'm not even entirely sure what all of the kids will wear for costumes!

Some years, I am energized by Halloween because I think of costume ideas that I am so excited about!  We've had some that I have posted about in the past, but here are some that I was just thinking about; a couple that I have never posted:)  Something about Maddie's curly strawberry blond hair has always inspired me to think up costumes for her.  Here she is as Shirley Temple when she was 2 or 3:

Shawn as Napoleon Dynamite - I still can't believe that my handsome husband can look like that! He is such a good actor and completely pulled it off- he grew out his naturally curly hair just for the occasion. (That was such a fun costume and Halloween!!!):

Kami as Cruella Devil:) I only had to spray the black side of her hair - I can't believe her hair used to be this blonde!!!

Maddie as Syndrome:

+Maddie as Lucille Ball:

 She could be the girl from Brave with her curly long hair and if we made it a little more red...

four things

It seems that, as I look at the pictures on my phone, I have some catching up to do!  It's hard to find time to blog lately. Here goes:

1. Kami kept the younger kids entertained during General Conference by drawing faces over the tape that they had stuck to their faces and mouths:

More pictures of kids listening quietly, and then going wild towards the end:)  Or maybe it was the end.  All I can say, is that it's a good thing we can read the talks later, because little boys are pretty distracting!

2. This Saturday fall soccer finally ended!  It was a crazy day with Shawn trying to finish up an order at work, and Kami and Caden were taking the ACT.  There were three soccer games and a long primary practice, and kids that wanted to go to both.  That left a full day of driving back and forth, back and forth.  Now THAT is NOT my favorite part of being a mother!!!

Isabelle's team:

We had three or four soccer games every Saturday, and Shawn usually went to Nolan's because it was so early, and I would go to Belle's, so I got more pictures of her.  Plus it was her first year playing. (Maddie's games were usually somewhere in between or later):

I liked watching her run, which might sound silly, but she is a good runner!

Madeline's (undefeated!!-remember they lost every game last season) team giving a cheer after their last game:

She is getting so tall!

3. Abe reading his picture scriptures and waiting patiently while I got ready one morning:

4. Crazy busy boy:

A thoughtful moment:

He's really into CLIMBING I've never before had a climber) - he gets several new bruises every day because he falls off of something that he has climbed.

spooked

Yesterday Abram kept mentioning that he would like to do some scary things to "give the kids the creeps." We decided to make a spook house downstairs in the storage room:)  He wanted something "really scary", but when I mentioned using the werewolf and witch mask that we have, he told me that would scare HIM too badly.  No, he wanted to make "Hagrid, and a murdered person, and spiders and poisoned food!" Things that were scary to him, but not TOO scary:) We got busy and  I dutifully followed all of his instructions to the T. It was interesting to see what thoughts go through that little head!

First we made Hagrid:

Then we made the dead person:

Complete with "fangs" and stone eye balls:

And that was all that we had time to do before the kids came home.  Abram and I decided to keep it a secret until it was all finished up, but later I told Shawn about it, and he said, "Is that what that was? Yeah...  I had the older kids help me carry bags of salt for the water softener downstairs earlier and we saw it.  We all thought it was pretty creepy." I asked him if they had wondered why it was all there, and he said that they all just thought I was pretty excited for Halloween this year. HA! My family should know by now that I never get excited about Halloween unless I have made some costumes that I'm excited about.

I don't go in for creepy/spooky decorations.  I like cute and old-fashioned Halloween.

Today we finished up with some (no doubt) poisonous food:

For some reason this dangling candle was creepy (Caden's favorite part). Shawn and the kids said that Abe would shine his flashlight at it, and, in a scary voice say, "The candle!!!":

All of us loved this sign that he instructed me to make for the door:

Especially the "Hagrid" part:)

Abram gave one tour through, in the dark for the first time, and made it all sound so scary that he got scared himself!  He could hardly get himself to give the next two tours, but they were a screaming success, so everyone wanted to go through again!  He agreed to do it IF the lights were on:)

I think he has had his fix of thrilling creepiness. It's funny how all of this came out of his own head, but his own imagination is scaring him to death. He just told me, "I HATE our spook house!!! Especially Hagrid.  It's SO SCARY!!!" I started out doing this with him and thinking that I was being such a good, fun mom.  Now I am thinking, "what sort of a mother am I?!?!" I think he'll have a hard time falling asleep for awhile.

And I think we will take it down tomorrow.  When he said prayers for family prayer, he made everyone come back after he had already said "amen" because he said that he had forgotten something "very important".  He then prayed that we wouldn't have any bad nightmares, and when he finished he glanced towards the door.  Dum-da-dum-dum....

Too much excitement

I came home the other day to some excited kids.  They had been playing in the front yard and were "charged by a moose but Jack got it away from us!" We always have a lot of moose that visit the yard in the fall and spring; they usually come into sight in the early mornings or in the evening. No matter how often we see them, it's always exciting (and everyone always comes running) when someone says, "there's a moose in the yard!" Sometimes there are as many as three.  This huge old guy has been coming around a lot lately and is the one that caused the stir:

He's super big, but has a really small rack: my hunting BIL tells us that as they get older their  racks actually get small. We had one in the yard about a month ago that had a gigantic rack, and that was cool, too!

Sometimes I REALLY don't want a dog, but one thing that Jack is definitely useful for is warning the kids about moose when they're around, and chasing them off and/or keeping the moose preoccupied so they aren't focused on the kids.  When the kids want to go exploring in the woods, I always have them take Jack along.

shoes

I started a fun, new project this week.  I love creating things and having something to work on, and my SIL, Kristi having her baby last week was the perfect excuse to make these!

Some Mary Jane's for Hazel Jane:)

And some reversible boots:

So fun and so cute!  Why oh why can't Pace wear things like this?!?! It's killing me.

I can't believe all of the free patterns on-line.  If you are interested, I found all of mine at: http://www.babble.com/baby/make-your-own-baby-shoes-32-free-diy-tutorials/

Anyway, having a project has taken it's toll - Abram told me this morning that he was ready for me to be DONE with those shoes so we could do something fun!!!  I have spent the day catching up on house cleaning. I let Pace do pretty much anything that entertained him while I worked on the shoes, and that meant complete chaos for the house as he is a natural climber/destroyer:)

More family!!

We had such a nice evening yesterday.  One of those that feels like fall - so cozy and happy with the family gathered all around.

So I made baked potato soup with BLT salad, and Caden made pumpkin pie Ice cream and we played Outburst, and The Name Game.

 My cousin - second cousin? - Talbie is here going to college and we are enjoying it so much!  I really, really love having family close- and so do my kids!  They ask several times throughout the week, and many times on Sunday, if Talbie is coming over.

Talbie and her roommate Sarah

The things they say volume 7

A few nights ago at dinner we had a conversation starter that said, "Tell everyone what your personality is like."  During Shawn's turn, one of the things that he said was that he is compassionate.  Some of the younger kids asked what that was, and we explained that it was when you could understand how people were feeling, and that you can feel badly for them in their circumstances, etc.

When it got to be Isabelle's turn she said, "I am compassionate because when Nolan hits me back I know what he feels like!!"  Then she broke into peals of laughter because she knew she was being silly. (And we were all laughing too!)

Abram is quite the story teller!  We have been working with him on whether or not things that he says have happened or if they were just in his imagination.  One morning he ran a whole bunch of errands with his dad.  Shawn said that the whole way he was telling one incredible whopper after another.  Finally, mostly in jest, Shawn said, "Hey Abram...do you know what the scriptures say about liars?"

Without thinking about it, and WE HAVE NO IDEA WHERE HE HEARD THIS?!  He said, "Yeah, they say that liars will be crushed down to hell!"

I have a bath tub in our master bathroom that I often bathe my little boys in because it's handy to keep an eye on them while I get ready in the mornings.  Not too long ago we had a pest control guy come spray at the house.  Before we left, Abram was carrying his bath toys out of my bathroom.  I asked him what he was doing, and he said, "Mom, I didn't want that man to think that you were playing with these toys!!"

Yep.  That would be pretty mortifying and I'm glad he spared me from that!!

Last trip

The kids are all out of school for "Spud Harvest Vacation".  I love living in Idaho!!! Anyways, Shawn was going to be making his very last trip over to Boise for his old job and we decided that it would be a great opportunity for us to go TOGETHER.  And celebrate!!! No more will he have to leave the family once per week.  No longer will I have to be a single parent!  It is the greatest thing!!!

So... the older kids babysat and we took off for a quick trip over and back.  I'm still not too comfortable leaving Pace for TOO long.  We left Tuesday morning and got back Wednesday evening.

On the way, we stopped at this hot springs that was just off of the road before Carey, Idaho. You can't see it from the road, but it's really close:

It was SO fun to try out this hot springs....but a little scary changing into and out of our swim suits -in our car - right beside the road- in between cars going by:) Yes indeedy - it was very exciting!

When we got to Boise we headed straight to the temple to finish up some names that I have been working on for a YEAR.  I have been needing to get the sealings done, but have wanted Shawn to come with me!  We have mostly gone at separate times for the entire time that he has had this job.  He goes when he's away from the family, and I go when he is gone, too, so that when we are all home we can all be HOME. It was so great to go together!! And to do sealings in the temple where we got married:

We ate at good restaurants, and stayed up late watching new-to-us episodes of Perry Mason. (We like old shows like that). Shawn closed up his job with his old boss the next day, and then we headed home.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time together; it was great to talk non-stop without interruptions...but our trip was plenty long enough, because we always start to miss the kids. It seemed like we had been gone forever!  When we walked in the door, Pace melted my heart by calling me "mama" for the first time in his little life. (He's had "dada" down for several weeks now).  The kids said that he roamed the house from time-to-time calling for me while I was gone:)

A "welcome home" from Isabelle

It was fun to be the parent that was gone and missed instead of the spouse left behind, missing her husband!!