Saturday, October 31, 2009

Amber's 1st Halloween (with us)

Since I know you're all dying to know what our dog looked like tonight to Trick or Treat for the first time...

She wore this cute little dress! :) The girls said she was dressed as a Hollywood star (we found the dress in the $1 section at Target).

The dress won her a boyfriend - a little boy doggy followed us almost the whole way Trick or Treating tonight. When another boy dog came up to sniff, the first little boy dog chased him away. Brooke made up this dialogue: "Get away from my woman!"




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Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin Carving and final products:

















































Our quartet of finished pumpkins:

















My haunted house with ghost peeking out the door:





















Jeff's wizard:






Kara's "Boo!" Pumpkin with spooky eyes all over it:


Brooke's "Flamy Head" pumpkin:






















Halloween Parade at school

Brooke:































Kara:


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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Trunk or Treat

Last night our ward had Trunk or Treat at church. The girls have been excited to wear their costumes and get their spook on. All I know is that if it's not Halloween, they'd better not replicate this makeup!

Our two little Vampires:
















Eating Hot Dogs:
















After freezing in the parking lot walking around from trunk to trunk:



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Kara's field trip

A few weeks ago I went with Kara's class on a field trip to early Utah Pioneer homes and historic buildings in St George. The first stop: Brigham Young's winter home. Second stop: Jacob Hamblin's home. Third stop: lunch at a park in ancestor square (downtown St George). Fourth stop: the Tabernacle building. Last: driving around looking at historic sites (the field the pioneers camped in when they first came, the bluffs they picnicked in, etc.). Enjoy some pictures from our trip:

Waiting outside the Brigham Young winter home:
















Listening to some interesting facts about life back then:
















Looking at some of the trees and plants in place during that era:
















Inside the Tabernacle:


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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Kara's New Sweater

This project has kept me busy the past couple of weeks - finally done! :)

Try to ignore her bed-head...



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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Happy Birthday Brookie!!!

Happy Birthday to Brooke!!!

I can't believe my baby is 7! Brooke is a wonderful, smart, and sweet girl who loves to please her parents & teachers... she's our little comedienne and loves to make people laugh (even when it's gross). She makes friends with everyone she meets. She is a talented artist who loves to draw and paint. She is so pretty and smart we know that she'll do well in life and we're excited to watch her grow.

We love this babygirl and are so pround of her and all she accomplishes!

Some pictures of Brooke this morning before school:


New pictures by Grandpa

Thanks for our new pictures (see the sidebar)!!!



We are so lucky to have a photographer in the family savings us lots of $s. The girls picked the location and the poses. Grandpa went along with it even though the lighting was disappearing quickly.



The pictures turned out wonderful!!!



Thanks, Dad, for all you and Mom do for us!

Playing with Amber

We have a silly dog -

Amber's always curious when I bring out the camera:

















Her favorite seat in the house - on top of Jeff:

















Dragging her legs when she wants attention:


















Wearing the necklace Kara made her over the weekend:


Aunt Alisa & Uncle Alex were here

We were so excited to have Aunt Alisa & Uncle Alex come to visit - hopefully they'll come again even though our doggy is a pest...

Some fun times we had while they were here (besides Brooke's party):

Brooke at Chuck-a-Rama with her meat platter (turkey, roast beef, ham, and a chicken drumstick):

















Uncle Alex keeping the peace in the backseat while we drove around and looked at different things:


































So sad to see Alex & Alisa go home, but hope they'll come back really soon!:

Super Creepy!!!

I heard about a creepy headstone on the radio (the dj was asking for local creepy things in the spirit of Halloween)... this headstone is called the "witch's ball". You can see why the caption creeps people.... The girls loved teasing me about this - I have an aversion to walking through cemetaries anyway, but this just proves why I don't like them (and why you will NEVER catch me in this one at night!)...

This old headstone is strange anyway and it's really old (the lady was born in 1812 and died in 1884):


















Close-up of the writing (do you SEE IT?!?!? "NOT DEAD - BUT SLEEPING".... talk about CREEPY!!!!):

Brookie's Birthday Party

Here are some pictures from Brooke's 7th Birthday Party!!!

Note to self: do not have a birthday party on deer hunt weekend... out of her entire class at school, we only had 5 RSVPs and only 1 actually showed. Good thing we did something low-key (pizza and playing at the park). Thankfully Uncle Alex & Aunt Alisa were here this weekend, so it felt like there were more people there... :)


Jeff, Alex, & Kara playing at the park:
















Brooke about to blow out her 7 candle:





















Brooke loves chocolate cupcakes!:


















Opening her present:

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Halloween

Brooke is mad that I haven't decorated much for Halloween. I put out Grandpa's home-grown pumpkin on our table and wrapped it in a leafy garland, put little fake jack-o-lanterns around it, and put out a ceramic pumpkin. Brooke has painted a pumpkin patch which is on display... she wants spooky fake headstones in our front yard, fake spiderwebs everywhere, bloody door sign on the front door, basically anything she sees any other house in the neighborhood with. I tried to explain I did not want to buy, decorate with, then store any of those things. She didn't care. Oh well.

So I've redecorated the blog. Hopefully that helps things a little. And I found some old Halloween fabric I bought a few years ago I'm putting out on the table too. She was pacified a little this evening when we finished the planning stages of Halloween costumes.

Both girls plan to be vampires this year. But not gross vampires. And their costumes will be vampire/witch hybrids that they can switch between depending on how the mood strikes them for each occasion (Trunk-or-Treat at church, school costume parade, then actual Halloween). We bought a basic black witch costume (complete with hat & belt & pumpkin bucket to trick-or-treat with) from Target for $7.99. Half the work is done for me! But since I can't leave well enough alone (and because it doesn't look vampire-like), we found examples of store-bought vampire costumes that we plan to copy with some extra fabric sewn onto our basic black dresses. We are making a collar and adding fabric to the front of each of their dresses. The collar will be a neck piece either tied on or velcroed on (like a choker). The girls each picked out a different color Halloweeny spiderwebby sheer/shiny fabric we will sew onto the dress. Didn't need much, so it didn't cost much. Both costumes cost $7.99 each plus $9 from fabric store total.... two costumes done for $25. Pretty good I say. And both costumes can be switched between two different characters. Even better!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

DMV :)

Today I LOVED that there was NO LINE at the DMV. I walked in, registered the car, and walked out within 7 minutes. There wasn't even a warden like at the CA DMV telling you that you do or do not have everything you need to complete your transaction! Instead there was a machine where you push a button which corresponds with what you want to accomplish and that printed out your ticket. My number was called before I could even pull my ticket off the machine.

One car registered in Utah, one left to go (due next month). Bye-bye California plates!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Something I hate

I hate it when you shut the windows for the night because things are winding down and you find a giant, giant, giant, giant, giant spider with fangs and legs and fur and all manner of creepy things and then you can't sleep because you are still trembling and now you are dizzy and have a headache a little. And now I need to remember to breathe.

And I have a husband who was already half asleep who came to my rescue and killed it for me. Thank you, Jeff!

There is a house next door that has been vacant since before we moved here - people are getting ready to move in soon and a pest control place was out spraying the house for bugs yesterday. I should have known nastiness was going to come in our house now. Ugh. I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Canning

Jarred up some pears today and froze some peaches. Tomorrow I will finish up the pears and tackle the apples!


Friday, October 2, 2009

Videos from the Jr Cheer performance

Dance performance:


Cheer performance

Kara's performance

Kara did a great job at her performance at halftime of the Snow Canyon High School football game! Here are some pictures - video to come later...


Kara @ the game:






















All about the hair:





















Brooke & her friend Sarah:

Brooke watching the action on the field:
















Some performance shots:


The football game: