Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!! We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. We had a fairly normal morning, but our night went by in a blur. I did feel like posting about Halloween tonight before I got to bed though because tomorrow morning I'm going to be done with Halloween. :)
First off, I have to add our carving pumpkins post to this one since I haven't posted it yet. We waited until Thursday night to carve our pumpkins so that they would still look descent when Halloween came along. We carved them in our front room area while Marty watched baseball, but we had a good time. Luckily, we didn't make too big of a mess.
Here are the girls with the pumpkins.
Eliza and Brooklyn loved to help.
Here is our finished product.
Here's our little bugs. I meant to dress up as a bug catcher, but quite frankly I didn't have a net and I didn't have much motivation to find one. :)
Eliza enjoyed her first Halloween, but obviously had no idea what was going on. She ate a few suckers today and really enjoyed them.
Brooklyn LOVED Halloween this year! She wasn't afraid of anything and really got the hang of trick or treating. I wasn't too fond of the three days of celebrating. We have so much candy!! Thursday she had a preschool Halloween party and came home with enough candy there. However, I didn't stop. Friday night we went to my dad's ward trunk or treat party and got more candy. Then tonight, we really couldn't decide what to do so we called some friends in our ward with older kids than Brooklyn so she could go trick or treating with them to really enjoy the experience and also so she could learn how it all works. And boy, did she! First we went to the trunk or treat that our ward was invited to and then went down a street in our neighborhood. Brooklyn caught on fast and loved it! She was determined to get as much candy as possible! However, she was very grateful for each piece. :) This is what she came home with after three days of celebrating.
Does a 3 year old really need this much candy?!? It just makes me sick to look at. Plus, we still have some candy left over since we were out trick or treating and missed most of the kids at our house. But I guess that's Halloween for you. Hope yours was great!

Painting Pumpkins

We have lots of pumpkins this year. We bought 4 and then my mom gave us 3 since she went on vacation to see her sisters and won't be here for Halloween. That leaves us with 7 pumpkins! That is far too many to carve. Today we had nothing planned and it was freezing outside so I came up with the idea to paint two of our pumpkins. These are 2 pumpkins that my mom gave us. I've never seen such "warty" pumpkins before so I thought they would be the best to paint since carving them wouldn't be fun.The warty pumpkins. Check out those bumps!
Brooklyn wanted to paint hers white. It's her new favorite color! It worked out so we decided hers would be the ghost. And what warty pumpkin wouldn't make for a good witch, so mine became green.
Aren't they cute?! Marty helped with my witch face once he got home (she's winking). You'd have to see it in person to really enjoy it because the nose sticks out as one of the bumps. Brooklyn wanted to do her own face so we drew the circles and she colored them in. I think the lines outside of the circle add some extra spook to it! She loved it so much that it's going to be her show 'n tell for tomorrow at her preschool's Halloween Party.

Fire station

Wow, 3 posts in less than a week! :) We had a busy week.

On Thursday, I signed up to help carpool Brooklyn's preschool class on their first field trip. They visited the West Valley Fire Station. My step mom, Pat, watched Eliza so she could sleep while were were gone. Thank you.
I was really excited to join Brooklyn because I have been very curious about all the kids she talks about in her class, plus I wanted to see how she acted around them. She was really good and didn't even care that I was there. She never even came near me until it was time to get back in the car. I learned very quick that one kid likes to talk a lot and another kid is the trouble maker (there's at least one in every class). I had a good time and learned more about firefighters myself.Here's the class and the four firemen that day.
They usually get to tour inside the station, but due to the H1N1 flu scare, they didn't want the carrier monkeys (aka: kids) inside their living quarters so we were only able to visit with them in the garage. We learned about the firetruck and hoses, etc.
Then one firefighter showed us the clothes they wear. He put it on one piece at a time and one little girl still cried because she was scared. Miss Barbara wanted the kids to see them fully clothed so they wouldn't be scared of them if they ever saw them that way. Some kids went up to give him a high five.
They turned on the lights and sirens so here are the kids covering their ears. They also had the dispatch call over their radio to welcome Miss Barbara's Preschool. It was pretty cool!

The Witches

Another fun tradition for us this time of year is to visit The Witches at Gardner Village. We actually went twice this year. We went last Friday on a warm day and it was CRAZY!! There were so many people that it stressed me out. We went with my friends Holli and Jessie and there kids and completed the witch treasure hunt. We enjoyed our 25 cent cookie though it was a bit hard. It was a fun experience, but I was ready to leave. It was hard to get any good pictures that day, but here's one of the kids that were big enough to walk.
Then we went again on yesterday with my friends Kelly and Kattie. We enjoyed some stores and had more opportunities to take pictures. It was fun. I'll always like to take a picture next to this witch to see how the kids change each year. This was Eliza's first year, but she looks very much like a picture I have of Brooklyn during her first year.Can I tell you how incredibly hard it was to get both of my girls to look at me at the same time, let alone to get them both to smile. How do photographers do it?


Brooklyn really wanted her picture next to this witch. Not sure why.

Pumpkin Fun

For the past month it seems, my family has had cold symptoms on and off again. A cough and runny nose that strikes again just when you think it's gone. Has anyone else had this or are we the only lucky ones? This would explain why my blog has been fairly boring.
Well to spice it up, on Monday we went to get our pumpkins! I always love doing this. This year we tried a new place that I noticed once while driving to my friend Holli's house (thanks for getting me the number, Holli). I don't think it even has a name, but it's at about 11900 S. 3600 W. You won't miss it. There's an empty field and then a sea of orange.
Monday was a beautiful day in Salt Lake. I think the high was in the 70's. We played outside in the afternoon and it was lovely. However, when it came time to go to the pumpkin patch, the temperature dropped fast and the wind and ran began. It was fairly miserable, but still a fun experience.Family shot. We didn't get any of these pumpkins, but just wanted a picture before it got too dark. And yes, I colored and cut my hair. :)
This place had lots of tractors sitting around for those perfect Kodak moments.
Brooklyn and Eliza loving the pumpkins!
Riding in the wheelbarrow is always great!
Posing for pictures is a must.
They also had a kid's corn maze that was completely free. They said it would be boring for kids over 10, but it was perfect for this 3 year old.
We also enjoyed a tractor ride around the property that was free. What a great pumpkin patch! They don't charge by pounds, but by size. We paid $10 for 4 pumpkins and enjoyed all the other activities for free. You can't beat that! If you haven't gotten pumpkins yet, go check this place out. It's definitely a must!!

FREE Desks!

We are working on our basement and need to get rid of stuff that is taking up room. Mainly, these two desks. If anyone is in the tiniest bit interested, please just come look at them. There is no pressure to buy because they are 100% FREE. All you have to do is take it away. And I'm sure Marty would be willing to help in the moving process. :)
There is actually another attachment to this one that comes out the side, but isn't currently attached. And of course, we will remove the 'old computer stuff'.

Yum!

"Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double-beatloaf, I hate meatloaf"

One of my favorite lines from The Christmas Story. I can't help, but quote it whenever I think of meatloaf. Poor meatloaf has a negative connotation to it. I don't mind meatloaf, but I would never call it my favorite. However, as I was thinking of something to make for dinner last night, I decided upon meatloaf. I think I have only made meatloaf once in all of my life. I was up for something different. I get the Kraft Foods magazine in the mail with new recipe ideas. Most are good, but one I tried the other day was yuck. I always love it when I try something new and it's actually good. It makes my efforts that much more worth it.

I made this and it was delicious. It uses BBQ sauce instead of ketchup and it was super easy to make. I actually halved the recipe because I had no idea most meatloaf recipes call for 2 lbs of meat and I had only laid out one. I halved the recipe and it was perfect for our family and we even had enough for leftovers today. I made some potatoes to go with it and added a side of broccoli and it was yummy! I'll definitely be making this one again.

Table runner

Here is my latest craft project. Thanks to ward sewing group and my friend Kattie, I complete this project just shy of a week! Yeah!! Let me just say I was a little naive when I started this project. I went from rag quilts to this. They call it a wacky block so basically you just cut whatever into your square. But for a girl who likes things to be precise, it was a little hard for me to do.
At sewing group, all I was able to finish were the blocks and I got them all sewed together, but then I was at a loss. Kattie was incredible to come over on two different occasions and teach me the rest. Thanks Kattie! Remember, I owe you. She had to pretty much walk me through every step, but I now know how to do binding and how to do a hidden stitch (is that what it was called?). Who knows, but I did it!
I love the Halloween fabric (found at Walmart) and I love that I can enjoy this with my Halloween decorations this month. Yeah!!
front

back