Happy Halloween!!!

We love Halloween ... at least we love seeing the kids get very excited for Halloween. :) This year the boys had their Halloween parade early at school, so they get to dress up twice. Of course, this means Shayla also gets to dress up twice as well since she likes to do what her brothers do.

Tyler's costume was a lot of fun. He wanted to be a robot and had very big ideas for his costume. I was thinking, "Score! We spray-paint a box silver and we're good to go." Then he started asking for things like wheels so he wouldn't have to actually walk. Uh-oh ... hopefully he's not disappointed with his costume ...

He wanted to create a motherboard to include, but I informed him that his Daddy had a real motherboard he could use. Who knew they were so big? (Especially from old computers ...) So, Paul convinced him that two video cards would be just as cool as one motherboard. Phew!

Fortunately in cleaning out the garage last weekend we found a pipe from the stove (replaced to meet code during the addition) and he found some Styrofoam Tyler thought looked just like jet packs. (Who knew Styrofoam is a brand name that needs to be capitalized. Just like Dumpster. Sorry, but I just found this out and am fascinated!)

Anyway, we also came up with a cool helmet/hat with glow sticks. Once we added the dryer vents, he was VERY excited about this cool costume:


Of course, what I didn't think about was how difficult this would be to wear all day at school. No, I didn't think about that until we were already 15 minutes late leaving that morning (I was supposed to be early to help with the book fair), and then Tyler couldn't even get into the car. Oops! Then I realized he wouldn't be able to wear a seatbelt. Ugh! So, I made him kneel down on the floor. (Don't turn me in -- I'm actually VERY strict about this and it almost killed me to do!) Anyway, when we got to school I opened the side door and it caught on his jet packs and started to strangle him. This day was not starting out well! Fortunately as soon as he recovered and started walking into school all the other kids started saying, "Cool -- he's a robot!" and "Look at that robot!" and "Tyler -- you're a robot!" He was so proud. Of course, he couldn't sit down in his desk all day with the costume (and therefore took it off during class), but he was a proud robot.

Zachary was thinking he'd be a mummy, and I was going to be cheap and just wrap him up in a roll of toilet paper. However, when we pulled out the Halloween bin we found several costumes we had that I had completely forgotten about. I have no idea who gave them to us or when, but thank you if it was you! Needless to say, this costume is getting a little small (and I thought uncomfortable-looking) on Zachary, but he was excited about it anyway.


I am thinking for tonight we'll add a few black marks around his mouth and line around the outside of the white on his face so it looks more skeleton-like.

And of course Shayla had to dress up in her costume because her brothers were. She, of course, decided to be Pinkalicious. I posted a while back about how this is her favorite book and she is convinced it is her on the cover. She even convinced me to make pink cupcakes to complete the costume. (The little girl in the book eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink.)


Shayla asked me if she could have another cupcake after eating two, and I said no. She said, "But I'm not pink yet!" I wonder if I'll need to go get her pink make-up so she doesn't really think the cupcakes will turn her pink. :)

Yesterday we also carved pumpkins. The kids were out of school, so I did it while Paul was gone to work (since Becca had plans Thursday and Friday nights). That is the last time I'll carve w/o him! When 3 of the 4 kids need help, carving pumpkins is a bit of work. :)

Tyler wanted to do a bat, and we found a stencil online for an up-side-down bat:


Zachary wanted a cat. I think he did that another year. I can't say it turned out as great as I'd like, but as long as he's happy that's all that's all I care about. I'm thinking it will look cool when we put a candle in it, because the whiskers are just cut lines (but not cut all the way through):


Shayla was happy to do whatever I wanted, and I saw a cute mummy pumpkin I thought I'd follow. This way she could also cut wherever she wanted to and it wouldn't mess up the design:


And I've saved the best for last. Becca created her own design by drawing it on paper first. She obviously took the longest to cut hers, but look at how cool it turned out:


Hope you all have a wonderful Halloween! We're just hoping we don't freeze our motherboards off! :)

We have a Bobcat

Last night Tyler earned his Bobcat in Cub Scouting. He has been so excited to start the program that he earned it within his first week. :)

Here he is getting his star on the forehead before receiving the award:


He was most excited about the skit his den had planned. He's the red-eyed tree frog below.


Of course, he was most excited about that because he didn't know what was coming up next: Exotic animals! We had a guy bring several different cool animals. The first was a bearded dragon:


If you saw the movies "Holes" then this will make you very nervous:


Turns out they're not poisonous at all, so no worries. That didn't appease Tyler at all, who wouldn't even touch it. I do have to learn one of these days to get my hand out of the way of the flash when I turn the camera sideways!


He also had a yellow-bellied marmoset. It's kinda like a beaver, but with a much smaller tail. At first he made it sound very dangerous, but after getting it out he didn't ever put it back in -- just let it wander around the rest of pack night with all the kids and everything:


The one I thought was the coolest was this:


Yes, that's what it looked like when he pulled it out. It's a pygmy hedgehog that also happens to be albino. In any case, once he put it on the floor it unrolled and wandered around a little:


Afterward he let everyone come up and touch the animals, and this hedgehog was JUMPY! I even jumped when I touched it and it jumped. It was hilarious to watch all the kids touch it and then be scared when the hedgehog jumped.

Lastly he pulled out the smelliest animal yet. Seriously, I could smell it as he started to pull it out and did NOT like it. It was a tortoise:


In any case, it was a really cool pack night. Unfortunately Zachary missed the whole thing because he threw up right before we left. (No, he's not sick -- but three glasses of chocolate milk before dinner is NOT a good idea. Oh, and I owe a HUGE thanks to Hilary who cleaned it up because I was gagging on the smell and couldn't. THAT is a true friend!!!)

On to the Wolf Badge ...

Fall Family Pictures

I realized recently that we still hadn't gotten around to family pictures this year. I decided I didn't want to deal w/the hassle of making sure people's clothes matched or trying to get everyone to smile at once. So, I decided that we'd just take individual shots and use the best for each for Christmas cards. Then we can keep our big canvas (I won it free last year) with our BYU shirts on the wall for now ...

Here are some of my favorites. I LOVE how the fall colors turned out w/the sun behind the trees. I have always wanted pics with fall colors, and now I'm glad we went since it's SNOWING today!

Becca:



Tyler:



Zachary:




Shayla (looking old!):



After too much smiling:


Paul:



Me:



We decided to take a few group shots, and for the first one asked the kids if they wanted to pose themselves. Don't you love Shayla?




We had Becca take a few of us:


And then we had the tripod and timer to take a family picture. If you have to click on it to see Shayla's smile, do it! We couldn't get her to smile and look at us while we were coaxing her to take her picture alone, but when we WEREN'T even near the camera but said to look at it and smile we got the best smile from her yet:


In any case, it was so cold, and we're glad it's done. It's always a relief to be done with family pictures! :) But I'm also glad we got lots of individual shots we love.

Visit to St. George Palmers ...

We went down for a quick visit to see my little bro Ryan and his family. We don't get to see them nearly enough -- especially those cute girls of theirs. :) Anyway, while we were there the kids had a blast! Here are a few pics from our visit.

Paul got this cute one of Ellie:


Ellie and Shayla love this sans-snow sledding (Thanks Uncle Ryan!):


We went to a farm and the kids loved all the activities there. This one is for you, mom:


Did you see it? Redneck Trampoline. The trampoline was actually a mattress! And actually it was really bouncy. Tyler got to where he could jump from one bale of hay onto the mattress and up onto the other bale of hay without any hands. I don't think our mattress would work for that. Good thing we're not rednecks? ;)

Here's a cute one of Becca, who wasn't quite as entertained at the farm, but I think she had fun anyway:


All the kids got to ride a horse, too. Good thing this horse was a great horse, otherwise the constant flashing from my camera could have caused some really good bucking pictures.

Zachary got a little nervous since the horse kept shaking its head:


Tyler's loving it and giving a thumbs-up sign:


Shayla LOVED it, as you can tell from her smile:


Katie loved it, although when she saw I was going to take a picture she tried to look bored. Silly:


And Ellie was good with it as soon as Daddy joined her:


They also had tire horses, which the kids loved! They actually got moving really fast (four of them were going in a circle like a horse-trainer thing.) Look at this cute pic:


And then they all went on a "train" ride pulled by a four-wheeler. The guy took off so fast that it made us parents nervous -- especially considering it was already dark and we figured he wouldn't notice if he lost a kid. Fortunately they all made it back safely:


On Saturday we wanted to take our kids to the temple, so we all went together. Here is a picture of all of us:


And just the kids. (I think Katie must have been feeling a connection with the South Carolina Palmers -- isn't she making a face like they do sometimes in pics?)


And here is one I took from right outside the fence of the temple. I really think it's cool:


Thanks, St. George Palmers, for being gracious as we invaded once again. :)