Halloween 2010

Sigh... One of my favorite holidays is over for another year. We had a really good one. That is in spite of rain, one sniffly child and a mother who threw her back out hours before the trick or treating (thank heavens for muscle relaxers!) Boo! If this doesn't scare you I don't know what will! Look quickly, I probably will pull this fabulous picture of me in my Halloween garb soon! Let's blame that scary smile on the muscle relaxers!

First we were off to our favorite Halloween party at my friend Circe's house. This is one of our highlights every year. The kids going through the haunted forest.

To ghost gully to pick a balloon.

There are always the best treats along with pizza. This year they were almost too cute to eat though.

Then it is time for the candy bomb as my kids have christened it. Candy toss by huge handfuls from the deck above. Then it was back to our neighborhood for the real trick or treating. Despite rain we traipsed the whole neighborhood and came home with a literal ton of candy.

The required sorting, counting and trading has been going on all day. As Brittany said (and says every year) it was our best one ever!

Happy Halloween!

We hope you have a great time trick or treating! Love the Flapper, the Army guy and Batman!

Pumpkin carving

The pumpkins have been carved! It is really hard to get a picture of a lite pumpkin in the dark. With my little camera anyway. A good time was had as usual, there was much complaining about the pumpkin smell and slime. But in the end my porch is going to look cute. Oh, and have you seen those fake LED tea lights? I am so excited, I don't have to light my arm on fire and we have the pumpkins lite for more than one night. Thank you dollar store!

Well, this is the last hour of my 39th birthday. It has been a good day, though sort of anti-climatic. The trip William and I went on a week and a half ago was to celebrate our birthdays, my mom and sister and I went shopping and to lunch Saturday to celebrate and I celebrated with my lunch girls last week. So when it finally dawned my birthday today I sort of felt like I had already done that. I have to admit to not having the best attitude about this one, it means that ugly old 40 is just around the corner and I just don't understand how I got here. I mean really, didn't we just get married? Didn't I just have my babies? So in an effort to improve my attitude I am going to copy my friend Circe who has done a much better job enjoying our almost shared birthday (her's was yesterday). She made a list of 39 things she loves about her life. So here is mine.
1. The incredible man I am married to.
2. Really great kids.
3. Fantastic family of which the majority live pretty close.
4. Being back in Utah where I belong.
5. Having had the chance to have an adventure somewhere else for a little while.
6. The weekly lunches I have with my friends I have had since childhood.
7. The increasing number of friends I am enjoying in my neighborhood.
8. The fact that William is employed and I get to stay home with the kids.
9. Being able to raise my kids with the help of the gospel to make it all make sense.
10. My kids' great school.
11. Being able to craft away in my basement
12. The friends my kids have made since our move back and the great moms those kids have.
13. Going to late movies at the K-town theater with my friends.
14. Running away on vacation with William and remembering how much fun we have together.
15. My fantastic sister, her hubby and all of my in-laws.
16. Having my parents eight minutes away.
17. Having had a great childhood so I know what to shoot for for my kids.
18. Walks at night with William.
19. This silly little blog-if anything ever happens to me someone print it for my kids.
20. The ability I now have to say no.
21. Doing crafts with my kids.
22. The funny things Joshua says.
23. Being healthy.
24. Being able to live in a great state within a great country.
25. Eating soup for lunch now that it is cold.
26. Not being as shy as I was as a kid.
27. My house, where it is located and everything in it.
28. Not being as insecure as I was in my teens and twenties.
29. Haunting thrift stores
30. Family vacations.
31. Watching my kids play sports and perform.
32. Living when and were I do.
33. Chocolate
34. Baking
35. Staying up late with all my people in bed in my cosy house.
36. Books, reading them whenever and wherever I can.
37. Sewing projects
38. Painting furniture
39. Having more fun with my kids the older I get.
Whew! That wasn't as hard as I thought! Kind of fun really. Thanks for the idea Circ!

Pumpkin Walking

Last night was the annual pumpkin walk. We go every year and see how creative people change their pumpkins. It is cold, slightly spooky and lots of fun. The kids wore some costumes this year. Matthew's was the only one that is really his costume for the year. We came home and watched Charlie Brown and had hot chocolate. These are the things we are going to remember I hope. Let the spooky season begin!

Etsy Shop Back in Business

Anyone remember when I used to list and sell things in my little etsy shop? Probably not, it has been awhile. But Christmas time is coming and that is the most fun time of year to have an etsy shop so I have made new resolutions to put new things in there every week. Well at least through November. This is a snippet of of what is in there now.

Guess Where I Have Been?

Yep, the City by the Bay. It was an amazing four days which did not include my beloved children but did include many visits to galleries that were not child-friendly, yummy food and uninterrupted conversations. It also included a visit to Mendocino. Absolutely perfect. Now back to real life!

Soccer Kid

Well, soccer is over for another season. I have to admit this has been our most enjoyable. The weather has been lovely almost every Saturday and Matthew is really understanding and enjoying the game now.

New Flowers

These are the latest flowers I have been playing with. I really do hope to restock my poor little shop sometime soon and when I do I think some of these will be listed.

BatBoy or Why I Love Four Year Old Boys

Josh discovered his brother's box of dress-ups from when he was little last weekend. He has been Batman all week long. I love it, wish I could freeze him right here!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

It was such a beautiful day today, it seemed like Fall was really here. So we went for a walk in William's home town just down the road. We took the trail that runs behind Lagoon, the amusement park but except for the occasional scream from a roller coaster victim, seemed like the woods. We used to go for walks on Sundays with the whole extended family here and through town before his parents moved to "the country".

We even walked by the house William grew up in. So many good memories there. I sort of wish Oma and Opa still lived there.

Our dear friends the Delongs owned this lovely old house. It was actually a hotel in Pioneer times, see the plaque? It was nice to see the old houses were still being taken care of.

William explaining to Brittany that the old rock chapel he grew up attending houses the original mural depicting the organization of the children's organization in the LDS church called Primary.

Who knew there was a Civil War cannon? Well, a replica of one actually.

This was my great-grandparents home. I loved this house as a child. My sister and I would play for hours in the basement that was full of my Great-aunt Gerry's clothes as a young lady of the fifties. The dresses, hats, gloves, jewelry it was all there. My mom saved some but I sure wish I had it all! The backyard seemed like it was magic too. Funny, how houses are just buildings but they sure become part of our lives.

Friends

We had some fun visitors last weekend. One of Brittany's very most favorite people and her mom, who also happens to be one of my favorite people came up to visit us. Brittany and Emme have been friends since they were two. Kids sometimes have a hard time picking up old friendships but not these two. They spent the afternoon crafting in my messy basement. They created a whole set of cute clothespin dolls.

See, I wasn't kidding about the messy basement. But hey, it is very condusive to creativity and friendship!

Halloween Wreath

This is my new Halloween wreath. It was inspired by the wreath my friend Sarah has hanging on her door a couple of weeks ago when she hosted our girls' lunch. I couldn't stop thinking about it and knew I needed one of my own.

It started life like this. I took three stems of roses purchased from the dollar store and hot glued the to a wreath, also from the dollar store. Purchased a can of black spray paint and dug out some glitter and off we went!

I spray painted the whole thing. It was helpful to use something to hold the roses open a bit so I could make sure I got all the little crevices. To be honest too, it took at least a can and a half to cover everything nicely.

While the paint was still wet I sprinkled glitter on to the whole thing because really, you can never have enough glitter. That is it! The whole thing cost me about $5 and I really like it! In fact I actually gave this first one away and have now made a second for myself. Welcome Halloween season!

Hitty; Her First Hundred Years

Sometimes my kids knock my socks off. Brittany had a book report due last week. The book was Hitty; Her First Hundred Years. She wanted to make her own Hitty and put her in a diorama. She told me what she needed and I provided them, that was the extent of my involvement. This is the diorama. In the book Hitty, a little doll, has many adventures. One of which is being swiped by a crow and taken to its nest. Luckily fake black birds aren't hard to find this time of year. Some time with a glue gun and this is the result.

Her is a close-up. Hitty is made from sculpy clay and hinged together with wire joints. Pretty amazing if I do say so at the risk of sounding the proud mom!

BIG

Guess who got a "big boy" bed this weekend? What happened to my baby? Sniff, sniff...

Still Crafting

Wow, a whole week has gone by without my touching this poor old blog. Too busy enjoying things like crafting again I suppose. I decided that this old plaid chair was sort of boring so I made quick quilt to brighten it up.

It is small, just a TV size quilt, but it has lots of my favorite fabrics.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!