Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! We had a great time at Beau & Klorissa's Halloween Bash their ward puts on every year. I took the boys out and Rick met us later since he gets off so late and has to drive from Buckeye now. Everyone looked so cute and the kids were so excited to go to a party. Klorissa's Uncle and cousins were down and came to the party with us. It was great to meet them.

When we arrived we had a fabulous dinner of chili, cornbread, salads and all kinds of desserts. When this ward has a party, they go all out! Then we did the trunk-or-treat and had lots of games too like the fish pond, mini golf and the cake walk (which Bubba won and he got an entire Boston Cream Pie out of it too!) Klorissa made the Rice-Krispy-Treat spiders as one of the prizes for the cake walk and it was one of the first items to go. How could you not resist those purple treats? Bubba and Kiki were very good at sticking together (for the most part) and they had no problem going right up and saying "trick-or-treat!". We had lots of compliments and ooh's and ahh's for Mickey and Minnie. Blakey stayed in the stroller most of the time because he was kind of grouchy and I didn't have Rick there to help me keep the kids under control. I think we would have lost Blakey for sure. Unfortunately, Rick and Kalli were both sick so they didn't get to come out for all the fun. Rick came to see the boys in their costumes but then went back to B&K's for some rest on their couch. The 24-hour flu bug is being passed around our place again. He even had to call in sick for work tomorrow- it's that bad!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and hope you had a wonderful Halloween too!

Drunk Donald Duck

Here is the video I've promised many with our drunk little Donald Duck at our ward Halloween party last Friday nite, October 26th. Hope you enjoy!

We wanted to share a video of RJ reciting his "Tow Trucks" book, hope you enjoy. Turn down the volume at the very bottom where the music playlist is. It's on the top right hand side of the music playlist. Then you can hear him talk.

An exciting and busy weekend!

Friday, October 26th

We've had a pretty busy weekend the last few days. On Friday we had our neighbors over who live directly across from us to make Halloween cookies. Perla, Alex andLeo came over and the older boys fought the whole time and Blakey cried a lot too. Leo was great. Anyhow, we made cookies and then decorated them but somehow I always forget to bring my camera out until the end. Here is Blake who snuck up on the chair and got a hold of some cookies covered with frosting.

That night we went to our ward Halloween Party which was fun. Beau, Klorissa and the girls came out for it too. We had Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Minnie and Miny Minnie. I was wishing that I had bought the costume and dressed up like Klorissa. She looked fabulous! And of course the little couples were so cute walking around and holding hands together. We had many stares and compliments and we could hear people say "oh, look how cute Mickey and Minnie are!" Someone in our ward has horses so they brought 2 for the kids to ride which was a lot of fun. We didn't even try to put Kalli up there but Blakey, when offered the chance, immediately let us know that there was no way in Arizona he was going to get on that animal. :) We played a few games and then had the trunk or treat. Klorissa took Mickey and Minnie around to fill up their punkins while Rick, Beau and Kalli passed out candy at our car. I tried to take Blakey around but he was so happy to be set free that he ran around in the middle of the street like a drunken Donald (see the video- it's worth it!). It was hilarious to see him doing ring-around-the-rosy with a big tire bottom and a duck hat on his head. It was like he was in his own little world. The kids scored lots of candy and we all had a great time.

Saturday- October 27th

This morning I went to Super Saturday for Relief Society and got some fun projects done (even a few Christmas presents are done!) While I was gone, Rick took the boys to the Zoo where they had a blast together. Some of their findings were monkeys, crocodiles, deer and goats. Rick said that Bubba would ask "where is Shere Khan"? I love how his little mind thinks. Apparently they had a petting zoo area and somehow they got separated. One of the goats stood up and put his front two legs on RJ's shoulders and scared the living daylights out of him at the same time. Blake looks like he's getting his hand eaten but he came home with 2 so we're okay. They also got to ride a choo-choo train which the boys loved, of course! They ended the afternoon with Burger King and then refused to go to sleep afterwards. Figures!

Sunday- October 28th

Today Rick and I were assigned to speak in Sacrament but we had a change of plans due to the fact that the boys were both throwing up every 15 minutes. There was no way we were going to try to make it through church like this. Instead I gave my talk and Rick stayed home to take care of the boys. Then we traded and he came back to church to play piano for Primary. We let them watch their church cartoons and curl up in front of the tv. It was a hectic day but our home teacher came over to give us all blessings. We had toast out of homemade bread and cocoa for dinner- easy and good!

Monday- October 29th

We're all feeling better today. I was doing my Monday cleaning and came out to find Bubba reading scrichpers to Blakey on the couch. He was pointing to a picture and I heard him say "look Blakey, that's Alma the Younger. He made trouble for the church but then the angel came and scared him." I then heard Blake rattle off something in Blakey language, as though he had some comment to make about it. These are the moments that warm my heart and remind me why I love being a momma to these little boys. And then a minute later I hear RJ "no! don't touch me! I'm trying to read to you. Listen. Sit still. Look at Alma the Younger! (note the exclamation point!) Are you listening to me?" Blake: "No! no! no! bcixgwrl;oiweksld;fsd . (Blakey language). It was tender and then suddenly not so tender. :):)

Making a Solar System

About 4 weeks ago RJ checked out this book at out library on the Solar System. He was really interested in the names of the 9 planets so we decided to try and make a physical representation of the planets so he could understand a little better. Like I said, this was 4 weeks ago. I finally sat down and we did a project together today. Why do things take me so long sometimes??? Anyhow, we read about the planets, their positions in relation to the sun, names, etc, etc. and then cut out the sun and the 9 planets. I got RJ some kiddie scissors and he enjoyed working and doing things himself. Then we pasted them on to a big black page to represent space. It was fun. I tried to make up a little song using the names of the planets so he could remember them easier but it didn't work. The only one he can remember and say off the top of his head is Jupiter. He thinks we live on Jupiter too. :) I just have to laugh sometimes. :)

Family Home Evening

Last Friday we made Halloween shapes out of homemade playdough at Klorissa's house (okay, Klorissa really made them.) So for FHE on Monday the 22nd we painted them together. RJ is a great painter and daddy and mommy don't do too bad either. RJ thought they were real cookies so he kept insisting on taking a bite and I kept insisting that he not. Finally we gave in and let him have a bit and that was the end of that. Rick made a face on one of his pumpkins and then we found Bubba copying him. I was pretty amazed at how little paint there was all over the table. Impressive! A fun nite together!

Saturday is a special day...

We had a great time together as a family yesterday, Saturday, October 20th. We started out the day with a yummy breakfast of waffles/pancakes prepared by daddy while mommy got to work on her blog. Rick is beginning to think I'm obsessed with this thing which frankly, I think I am too (but I won't admit that to him!). So I hope you all are reading this and looking at it frequently so I can prove to my husband that all the time I spend on it is worth it! :)

Anyhow, we then got ready and drove out to Buckeye where we are building our new home which will be ready in November. On the way out we could see some sort of hullaballoo going on at the brand new Wells Fargo in the same shopping center where Rick's new office is. We saw several white horses and the big Wells Fargo Stagecoach. We continued on out to our home and things are coming along very well. I'm so thankful we've been able to go out and check on things on a weekly basis as there have been a few mess-ups here and there (cable outlets either put in the wrong place or not in any place at all, the kitchen sink, forgetting to add a bedroom upstairs, etc, etc..) Pulte has been very good about fixing things right away though. We are still scheduled to close on the 16th of November- less than 4 weeks now! Yeah!!! Oh, while we were there, RJ found a huge rubberband on the ground. He promptly puts it on his head and says "look mama, I look just like Nephi now." I thought, 'he has been paying attention to his scriptures!'

After we spent some time at the house we decided to stop off at Rick's new office (which is slated to open this coming Wednesday, the 24th) and Wells Fargo. When we got to his office they were working on installing the chairs (which are special chairs made for lefty's) and the place looked like a shambles inside. Everything is brand spankin' new but just needs to be organized. It's a very modern office and it's huge inside! I think they have 12 chairs and an Ortho bay for future purposes. But, they say they'll be ready to go by Wednesday. Rick is really excited about starting out there all on his own. It will be called Sundance Dental Group.

Afterwards we headed to the bank and by this time they had the horses hitched up and they were giving stagecoach rides. The boys were enamored with the horses. Blake would run towards them and then get scared and turn right back and run as fast as he could back to us. They had free hotdogs and hamburgers, chips and drinks, and Bubba got to jump in one of those big castle jumpers. Plus we got a picture with what I thought were the firemen but Rick later pointed out that they were policemen. As you can see, RJ was thrilled about this, Blake was not. Oh well, we tried! It was a great day together. Needless to say, we were all more than ready for naps by the time we got home. The people are so friendly in Buckeye...and I love how it says Town of Buckeye instead of City. I think we're going to be very happy there.

Oh, I forgot to mention, on Friday the 19th, we went to Klorissa's house and made rice krispy treat spiders and Halloween shapes out of playdough for the kids. We always love going over there- her house is always so cozy and it always smells great! Thanks for having us, Klorissa! (For the recipe, see Recipes section at the top).