Halloween at Last...

I'm not sure how many times I've thought in the last few weeks..."I don't know if I can take seeing another blog post of someone else's kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes! Enough is enough!" Part of me had vowed I would not be another blog filled with what child wore what costume to what party this year. But somehow, I can't get myself to move on to the next happy moments of life without properly documenting our costume moments. So, please forgive me while I post these next scrapbook pages for posterity's sake.



I'm not sure how many times I've thought in the last few weeks..."I don't know if I can take seeing another blog post of someone else's kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes!" Part of me had vowed I would not be another blog filled with what child wore what costume to what party this year. But somehow, I can't get myself to move on to the next happy moments of life without properly documenting our costume moments. So, please forgive me while I post these next scrapbook pages for posterity's sake.

Another Update

This has been quite a week or two for Greg especially. Not only has he just turned 30...he's just been called to be Elder's Quorum president in the ward. Just wanted to post a few pictures of the men/families Greg will be working with. We've told our families a little about them and want them to be able to picture faces with names.

Happy Birthday Greg!

Greg had his birthday off of work for Veteran’s Day. It meant the whole day could feel like a celebration. He was woken up to two boys singing...a decorated house...and a big breakfast! We got to do some birthday shopping/returning...and then later in the day had a chance to go to the temple for Stake Temple Day. We finished off the night watching Kung Fu Panda and eating Dutch Apple Pie.

October Scrapbook Pages

Rockets--The "Real Deal"

Greg and I were remembering that early in our marriage we got a rocket kit from Wal-Mart. Evenings were spent assembling and painting the rocket(s), and then we'd blast them off at a nearby park. We have fond memories of even having my parents and grandpa along--especially for scouring in the fields trying to "recover" our rockets after launch.

Nathan has become especially interested in "outer space" things lately. After a trip to Wal-Mart, he and Greg have been busy building and prepping our latest experiment (while Joshua does play-doh at the other end of the table feeling very important in his own "creating").

We've now launched the rocket on our own and with a couple different families. It's been a fun way to spend the evenings "out" together. Although it's often been too dark to get a great picture...finally one worked! We're pretty excited that our rocket "moment" has been captured!


Chocolate milk and donuts in the trunk with our good friends, the Jamisons, after our first "launch attempt".

Three Fun with Fall Snacks

Nathan was in charge of taking the snack for preschool, and we wanted to do something that would be both a fun thing to take and fun to make together beforehand. The two snacks we did were from a favorite website of ours for holiday ideas:

www.familyfun.com

"Spider Pretzels"

Made using: Ritz crackers, stick pretzels, raisins, and peanut butter (there are allergies to nuts in Nathan's class so we used chocolate icing). Turned out to be easy and quite cute.


"Cheese Fingers"

Made using: string cheese, green peppers, and cream cheese.
(When Greg heard the instructions for these included wearing rubber gloves or baggies on your hands to "keep the cheese smudge-free"...and that each finger required at least five carefully little carved knuckles...this was the ultimate test of a good man's patience! These were significantly more tedious than the spiders--but still ended up being a lot of fun to make.)



Halloween Cut-out Cookies:

I found a new recipe I quite liked this go around. It's from a blog I've tried several things on and liked: Kidman's Kitchen. Click under cookies on her sidebar. Although we initially really liked the softness of these...they haven't disappeared as fast as I'd expected. If anyone else has a great recipe that is soft...but sturdy enough for little hands...I'm interested!

We went cookie delivering (the ding and run kind) with our boys for the first time. I'd forgotten what an adventure it can be--especially for a 4 year-old boy!

My Husband's New Blog

I got surprised today when my husband told me he's decided to start his own blog! But, I'm really excited for him and his idea! Please check out the following link. (He'd love to add to his "followers" collection.) You can expect...and hopefully contribute to...good stuff to come.

living-lds.blogspot.com

(You can also find the link under "Greg" on my "Family".)

"Super" Cool!

In Nathan's preschool, each child gets a turn to bring home "Dudley" the dog for a day. They're job is to give him "experiences" and then write them in a little "journal" notebook that then gets read in class. (Thanks to my sister, Carol, who's children have done something similar before, we had a vision for something a little more exciting to add than one more "trip to the park" for Dudley.) We decided to make him a Halloween costume to facilitate his future "trick-or-treating" experiences--and Nathan one to match!

Does it get more lovable or manly than this "Super Dudley" and "Super Nathan"?!!

Exciting News!

Playing Catch-Up

It feels like it's been a while since I last posted! Here are a few random updates...

While Greg was chaperoning at a youth stake dance recently, I was getting Nathan and Joshua ready for bed and got the feeling something wasn't right. I got up to lock the doors, and saw several emergency vehicles outside our front door. There turned out to be a fire in the apartments/town homes that are directly across the street from us...part of our complex! What started out to be one fire truck and a couple police cars turned into many fire trucks, a blocked off road, and a major undertaking! We watched them go from spraying with one hose into a first floor fire...clear to cutting a hole in the second-story roof and spraying water in from the extended ladder of a fire truck. It was quite something to watch it unfold with front-row seats on our doorstep. That night as it was happening, I guessed maybe 2 or 3 apartments were severely damaged. We read in the newspaper the next morning that 8 apartments were severely damaged and 16 total with varying degrees of damage. We feel so blessed to be safe an "unaffected"...but it surely has made us reevaluate and focus again on our level of emergency preparedness! (We obviously don't feel like the pictures do it justice!)


Just had to include a post of my flowers to show my mom! We've started pulling out some of our plants as the freeze-warnings here begin. It's just been so fun to have planted four little tiny "impatiens" plants and have them turn into this abundance. (Especially when I've tried them in Utah and ended up with just some little shrivels.) I think next year I'm going to plant these everywhere!